Flexible Support

Eligible organizations/groups must meet the following requirements:

• Maintain a primary address in one of the seven metro area counties: Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, or Washington.
• Be a arts, cultural, or non-arts/non-cultural 501(c)(3) nonprofit, a community education unit of a school district, a public entity (such as a unit of state, local, or tribal government), or apply with a fiscal sponsor.
• Meet eligibility rules for annual expenses limits and leadership.

If your group doesn’t have federally tax-exempt status, you can apply for Flexible Support with an eligible fiscal sponsor.

It is the group’s responsibility to research potential fiscal sponsors and secure the sponsorship. We strongly recommend reaching out to potential sponsors and reaching a sponsorship agreement before starting your Flexible Support application.

You can find out more about this process on our Fiscal Sponsorship page.

For operations and/or organizational capacity, examples of eligible requests include: paying rent or utilities for a space, software subscriptions, website updates, salaries or benefits for staff, insurance.

For capital expenses, including facility improvements and/or equipment purchases, examples include: new chairs for theater audience members, specialized printing equipment, ADA accessibility improvements. Note: there are restrictions on capital expense eligibility.

For arts programming or the purchase of art supplies, examples include: theater production, series of music concerts, arts day for kids, paint and paintbrushes for arts day.

This is not an exhaustive list. If you have questions about expense eligibility, please reach out to flexiblesupport@mrac.org.