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.
Open Funding Opportunities
Deadline: Sep 30, 2024
Tourism Tip: Implementation practices that provide measurable increases in carbon sequestration and storage.
Deadline: Sep 30, 2024
Tourism Tip: Develop strategies to access markets that will help address the climate crisis, support Indigenous Knowledge and strengthen local economies.
Northern Border Regional Commission Timber for Transit Program
Deadline: Sep 6, 2024
Tourism Tip: Feasibility or implementation of transportation infrastructure projects in ME, NH, NY and VT that use wood products to address climate-adaptive transportation improvements.
NPS Historic Preservation Fund- Annual Tribal Historic Preservation Office Grants
Deadline: July 31, 2024
Tourism Tip: Preserve historic properties and cultural traditions through the designation of Tribal Historic Preservation Offices.
ConocoPhillips SPIRIT of Conservation 2024 Request for Proposals
Deadline: July 31, 2024
Tourism Tip: Support birdwatching. Use funds to advance bird species and habitat conservation.
Deadline: July 31, 2024
Tourism Tip: Use to complete their documentary project. A person of color living with a disability must be a part of the team or a key contributor to the project.
O’Reilly Automotive Foundation Inc.
Deadline: July 31, 2024
Tourism Tip: In communities with O’Reilly Auto Parts companies, create a project that addresses economic stability in your tourism programs.
Deadline: August 1, 2024
Tourism Tip: Develop a placemaking project that integrates arts, culture, and design activities to strengthen communities over the long term.
Small Business Administration Office of Native American Affairs 2024 Natep
Deadline: August 1, 2024
Tourism Tip: Provide management and technical assistance, entrepreneurial education and training in business development to Native American business communities across the country.
PEN/Phyllis Naylor Grant for Children’s and Young Adult Novelists
Deadline: August 1, 2024
Tourism Tip: Creating vibrant arts communities that are attractive to visitors. Use funds to complete and publish a children’s book.
Access Fund’s Climbing Conservation Grant Program
Deadline: August 1, 2024
Tourism Tip: Encourage access or enhance opportunities for climbing. Open climbing areas or mitigate climbing impacts.
EPA Community Change Grants (CCG) Program
Deadline: August 9, 2024
Tourism Tip: Address environmental and climate justice challenges through projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience and build community capacity.
NEH Public Humanities Projects
Deadline: August 14, 2024
Tourism Tip: Use humanities scholarship to analyze themes in disciplines such as history, literature, ethics and art history and present the findings to the public.
Deadline: August 14, 2024
Tourism Tip: Use funds to develop, produce and distribute radio programs, podcasts, documentary films and documentary film series that engage general audiences with humanities.
USDA Broadband Technical Assistance
Deadline: August 20, 2024
Tourism Tip: Develop broadband for your community by using technical assistance in project planning and community engagement, financial sustainability, environmental compliance and/or construction planning and engineering.
Deadline: September 1, 2024
Tourism Tip: Use funding for off-road trail development and maintenance, safety and education initiatives and projects to increase and maintain land trail access.
NEH Climate Smart Humanities Organizations
Deadline: September 18, 2024
Tourism Tip: Use to develop a comprehensive organizational assessment that leads to strategic climate action and adaptation plans for your humanities organization, such as museums, libraries, archives, historic sites, colleges and universities.
T-Mobile Hometown Grants Program
Deadline: September 30, 2024
Tourism Tip: Use this funding to build, rebuild or refresh community spaces that foster local connections in small towns.
DOT Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program
Deadline: September 30, 2024
Tourism Tip: Use to plan activities or support construction projects that enhance community connectivity, such as access to cultural centers and visitor information locations.
America Walks: Community Change Grants
Deadline: October 17, 2024
Tourism Tip: Use funds to create change and walking opportunities within your community.
BIA Tribal Climate Resilience Annual Awards Program
Deadline: October 18, 2024
Tourism Tip: Address climate change impacts on Tribal Treaty and Trust resources, economies, regenerative agriculture and food sovereignty, conservation practices and infrastructure.
NDN Collective Community Action Fund
Deadline: October 31, 2024
Tourism Tip: Support climate disaster response efforts to climate disasters such as flooding, fires and earthquakes.
Western SARE Professional Development Program
Deadline: November 1, 2024
Tourism Tip: Engage professionals to conduct educational programs and activities that incorporate environmental, economic and social dimensions of agriculture.
Western SARE Local Education and Demonstration (LED)
Deadline: November 6, 2024
Tourism Tip: Use funds to demonstrate a project for further development in a tourism-based business.
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Guides & Publications
USDA Resource Guide for American Indians and Alaska Natives
The USDA recently published a Resource Guide for American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) to provide tribal leaders and tribal citizens, 1994 Land-Grant Tribal Colleges and Universities, AI/AN businesses and non-governmental organizations serving AI/AN communities with a tool for navigating USDA resources. This guide provides readers with a comprehensive summary of USDA Programs.
Recreation Economy at USDA Economic Development Resources for Rural Communities
USDA’s Forest Service (FS), Rural Development (RD) and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) developed this resource guide for rural communities to identify resources that develop the recreation economy. The report forecasts that interest in outdoor recreation will continue over the next 30 years.
Resources for Rural Entrepreneurs: A Guide to Planning, Adapting, and Growing Your Business
In 2022, in collaboration with a network of federal partners, the USDA Resources for Rural Entrepreneurs guide provides resources for start-ups and already-established rural businesses. RD offers more than 40 loan, grant, and technical assistance programs to help improve the economy and quality of life in rural America. Many of these programs can also support community-based entrepreneurial planning and growth. USDA partners with community leaders and developers, local, state and Tribal governments, cooperatives, nonprofits, private organizations and a nationwide network of participating lenders skilled at building local economies.
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration (EDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development (USDA RD) published Stronger Together a joint planning resource guide to help community organizations access USDA and EDA resources to build strategies to boost economic development in rural America. The guide is separated into four key focus areas: Planning and technical assistance, Infrastructure and broadband expansion, Entrepreneurship and business assistance and Workforce development and livability.
Federal Resources for Native Arts & Cultural Activities
In 2020, the National Endowment for the Arts published the Federal Resources for Native Arts & Cultural Activities, a guide providing information to connect Native communities to resources that can sustain and invigorate arts and cultural heritage initiatives. It is a consolidation of opportunities offered by federal agencies for organizations looking for funding and other resources to support Native arts and culture activities.
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
Nevada Arts Council: Folklife Community Grant
nvartscouncil.org/grants
New Mexico Tourism Office
newmexico.org/industry/work-together/grants
Oregon Tourrism
traveloregon.com/grants
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.
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail
Native American Agriculture Fund
Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail
Bureau of Land Management
National Endowment of the Arts
National Park Service
United States Forest Service
