Cultural Tourism Funding Opportunities
AIANTA collects funding opportunities that may be of interest to Indigenous or Native American tourism & hospitality enterprises looking to grow their tourism, culture, heritage, arts, agritourism or other culture and heritage programming.
Special Notice
Open Funding Opportunities
Contests & Awards
Successful Cultural Tourism Funding
For examples of Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian tourism, arts and cultural heritage programs that have received funding, please view our Successful Cultural Tourism Awards document now.
More Cultural Tourism Funding Resources
The following list of resources may provide funding support for cultural heritage tourism programming. The list includes federal grants, which are highly competitive and can often take several weeks, months and even years to build a strong proposal and compile the necessary information to apply.
Grants.gov
Grants.gov provides a unified site for interaction between grant applicants and the U.S. federal agencies that manage grant funds. The site allows applicants to search for funds by agency.
Federal Agencies
U.S. Department of Interior
- Bureau of Indian Affairs
- National Park Service
- Fish and Wildlife Service
- Bureau of Land Management
- Bureau of Reclamation
Bureau of Indian Affairs (U.S. Department of Interior)
- Bureau of Indian Affairs
- Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development
- Division of Transportation
- Division of Economic Development
National Park Service (Department of Interior)
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
www.hud.gov/program_offices/public_indian_housing/ih
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- Administration for Native Americans (ANA)
- Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS)
- Sustainable Employment and Economic Development Strategies (SEEDS)
- Native Youth Initiative for Leadership, Empowerment, and Development (I-LEAD)
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
- Business & Industry Loan Guarantees
- Community Connect Grants
- Rural Business Investment Program
- Rural Economic Development Loan & Grant Program
- Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program
- Socially-Disadvantaged Groups Grant
- Strategic Economic and Community Development
- Value-Added Producer Grants
- U.S. Forest Service (trail construction, archaeology)
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
- Our Town ($25,000 – $200,000)
- Challenge America ($10,000 underserved populations)
- Art Works ($10,000 – $100,000)
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
- Division of Preservation and Access
- Documenting Endangered Languages
- Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
- Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions
- Office of Challenge Programs
Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS)
- Native American Library Services: Basic Grants
- Native American Library Services: Enhancement Grants
- Native Hawaiian Library Services Grants
- Museums for America
- Inspire! Grants for Small Museums
- Museums Empowered
- National Leadership Grants for Museums
- Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program
- Museum Assessment Program
- Accelerating Promising Practices for Small Libraries
U.S. Department of Transportation
www.transportation.gov/grants
- Office of Infrastructure Finance and Innovation
- National Scenic Byways Program
- Office of Tribal Transportation
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
State Tourism, Arts & Economic Development Agencies
Arts.gov State and Regional Arts Councils
arts.gov/partners/state-regional
California Arts Council
arts.ca.gov/grants
California Governor’s Office of Business & Economic Development
business.ca.gov
Montana Tourism Office
marketmt.com
- Indian Country Region/Tribal
- Tourism Tribal Business Planning Grant
- Indian Equity Fund
New Mexico Tourism Office
newmexico.org/industry/work-together/grants/
- Tourism Development Grant Program
- Clean & Beautiful Cooperative
- Marketing Grant Program
Additional Resources
Community Foundations
www.cof.org/community-foundation-locator
The Council on Foundations, founded in 1949, is a nonprofit leadership association of grantmaking foundations and corporations. Use their search tool to find local funding resources.
The Grantsmanship Center
www.tgci.com
The Grantsmanship Center offers training, publications and consulting to help organizations find funding. The Center provides free access to its Funding State-by-State database listing each state’s top grantmaking foundations, community foundations, corporate giving programs and State website homepages.
Candid (formerly the Foundation Center and GuideStar)
candid.org/
Candid is an online source for grants available through private foundations, corporate foundations, and other nonprofits that accept grant proposals. It also provides research on nonprofits and guides, like the 990 Finder.
A Warm Thank You to Our Partners
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Native American Agriculture Fund
Bureau of Land Management
National Park Service
Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail
Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail
NativeAmerica.Travel
Education & Training
Technical assistance and training is the heartbeat of our work at AIANTA. We provide general and tailored technical assistance, training and education in a variety of ways.
International Outreach
AIANTA plays a critical role in supporting the National Travel and Tourism Strategy to bring more visitors to the United States, especially in our participation at trade shows internationally and domestically, to promote tourism in Indian Country.
Membership
Through AIANTA membership, tribes, the tourism industry and other partners form a dynamic network of shared experiences, resources and support.
