MS Delta NHA Grant Application Portal
Festival & Event grants available for Spring 2025
Application Now Open
Application Closes at 11:59 PM CST on Friday, December 20, 2024
Click the button above to access the MS Delta NHA Grants Program Application Portal.
The 2024-2025 Festival/Event Grant Application Cycle is open through December 20th, 2024. What can you do to get started?
First time applicants can create their account now.
Applicants that have previously applied for an MS Delta NHA grant can sign in with their existing account.
Use “Forgot Your Password?” if you do not remember your sign in credentials.
Applicants that do not already have a Unique Entity ID can register their organization at SAM.gov and apply for one. A Unique Entity ID and an Active Registration status are required to apply for our grants.
Start your application!
If you have questions about the Festival/Event grant, please email us at grants@msdeltaheritage.com.
Explore our Grant Application Resources
Click on a subject below to go to that section of our festival/events webpage:
What is the Festival/Event Grant?
Are my Organization and Project Eligible?
About the Application.
Using the Online Portal.
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What is the Festival/Event Grant?
The Festival/Event Grant is a $5,000 reimbursement grant award for organizations planning a community festival or event that stimulates tourism in the Mississippi Delta and connects to one of our five cultural heritage themes. The $5,000 award requires at least a 2:1 nonfederal cash or in-kind match commitment (see more below.)
In order to be eligible for this program, a festival/event and all related grant activities must take place between February 8, 2025 - April 30th, 2025.
What is an event? - An event is defined as a remarkable or noteworthy gathering, showcase, celebration, or commemoration.
What is a festival? - A festival is defined as a recurring event that commemorates shared heritage and community, usually with a distinctive cultural heritage theme.
Grant funded festival/event activities must be free and open to the public.
The Festival/Event Grant and the Cultural Heritage Grant
The Festival/Event Grant is NOT the same program as the Cultural Heritage Grant. If you have a project idea that needs more than $5,000 in funding, or that doesn’t fit the definitions of event or festival, we encourage you to check out the Cultural Heritage Grant, which offers greater funding. Applications for that grant will open in Summer 2025.
Eligibility
Is My Organization Eligible?
An organization is eligible to apply if:
It is located in or directly serves at least one of the 18 counties within the MS Delta NHA service area.
It is a unit of local government (including schools and quasi-governmental entities), a public or private institution of higher learning, an institute or research center at such institutions, a nonprofit organization, or a federally-recognized Native American tribe.
If the organization is a nonprofit, it must have current tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code, and be in compliance with the MS Secretary of State’s registration and reporting requirements. This also applies to applicants outside the state of Mississippi. Status and compliance will be verified by your EIN and a W-9 submitted with your application.
All applicants must have an active Unique Entity ID (UEI) and Active Registration status in Sam.gov. The UEI is FREE. Learn more at Sam.gov.
Is My Project Eligible?
A project is eligible for the Festival/Event Grant program if
It fits the following definition of a festival or event
What is an event? - An event is defined as a remarkable or noteworthy gathering, showcase, celebration, or commemoration.
What is a festival? - A festival is defined as a recurring event that commemorates shared heritage and community, usually with a distinctive cultural heritage theme.
All grant activities, including expenditure of funds, occurs between February 1, 2024 and April 30, 2024.
All grant activities occur within the 18 county Mississippi Delta service area.
Grant funded festival/event activities are free and open to the public.
About the Application
Your Festival/Event grant application will be scored on three major sections:
Address MS Delta NHA Themes
Plan of Work and Festival/Event Design
Budget and Budget Narrative
The resources below will guide you through each section.
Address MS Delta NHA Themes (8 points)
The degree to which the festival/event addresses/furthers one or more of MS Delta NHA’s themes (8 points)
All funded projects must further at least one of the MS Delta NHA’s 5 cultural heritage themes.
The themes are:
The Mississippi River and the Land it Embraces
The Culture of the Blues and the Birth of an American Sound
Moving Towards Freedom: The Struggle for Rights
Growing More than Cotton: The Delta as a Wellspring of Creativity
The Delta Divide: Creating the Delta’s Diverse Communities
Plan of Work and Festival/Event Design (11 points)
Festival/Event Goals: Clear statement of goal(s) and objective(s) that can be achieved and have measurable impact (4 points)
What goals do you plan to achieve with your festival or event?
What are some specific, concrete objectives that will lead to achieving your goals?
How will you measure the success of your project in achieving those stated goals?
How do your goals link to the cultural heritage theme(s) you state your festival/event will further?
Stimulating Tourism: The festival/event demonstrates a plan to stimulate tourism to the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area (4 points)
U.S. Travel Association uses this definition as a rule of thumb for measuring tourism impacts: “Person-trip defined as one person on a trip away from home overnight in paid accommodations or on a day or overnight trip to places 50 miles or more [one-way] away from home.”
Outside of your local community, what other audiences are you targeting with your festival or event?
How does stimulating tourism complement other goals of your festival/event and vice versa?
Organizational Capacity & Collaboration: Applicant has the capacity and experience to adequately manage all aspects of project implementation, evaluation, reporting, and complete this project in a timely manner (3 points)
How will you use your staff or volunteers to successfully execute this festival/event?
What similar projects has your organization successfully executed? Is this an established festival/event that you have a history of hosting successfully?
What partner institutions/organizations are you collaborating with? How will they help the festival/event succeed?
Who is Project Manager leading this grant project? What is their experience with prior comparable projects?
Budget and Budget Narrative (6 Points)
Budget Narrative: The budget narrative clearly explains all required costs and the use(s) of requested funds (3 points)
The budget template includes 4 sections.
Budget Form - A basic table divide by major line items. Tell us what you will spend MS Delta NHA funds on and where matching cash funds or in-kind contributions are coming from.
Identification of Matching Funds - Use this table to tell us the sources of your in-kind and cash matching contributions coming from OTHER organizations.
Matching Cash Revenues Supporting this Project - Use this table to tell us about cash matching contributions coming from YOUR organization.
Budget Narrative Outline - Use this section to elaborate on the line item totals provided in the Budget Form.
Matching Funds: The required matching funds are in place (or clearly pledged) and clearly documented. (3 points)
The budget forms provide guidance on what can be counted as Cash or In-Kind match.
Click here to download the Budget Template forms. (These forms are also available for download in the Budget section of the application.)
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The below clause is included in all contracts signed by grant recipients. Before applying for an MS Delta NHA grant, please ensure that your agency will be able to abide by this requirement.
Conflict of Interest. Subcontractor hereby certifies that it is in compliance with applicable federal and state Conflict of Interest Regulations.
Subcontractor certifies that this Subcontract will not result in pecuniary benefit to any employee of MDNHAP or employee of Fiscal Agent involved with the administration or the decision to award this contract (“Employee”), will not result in pecuniary benefit to Employee’s relatives, and will not result in pecuniary benefit to any business with which Employee is associated.
Please contact our office if you have questions about the conflict of interest clause at grants@msdeltaheritage.com.
Using the Online Portal
Grants Portal Resources
These videos provide instructions on how to use the MS Delta NHA Grants Application Portal. If you have further questions, please contact us at grants@msdeltaheritage.com.
Your Applicant Dashboard
Applying for Funding