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Applying


The Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is pleased to launch the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) Cultural Development Fund (CDF) application for New York City not-for-profit arts and cultural organizations.  

The FY26 CDF application is open. The submission deadline is Thursday, May 8, 2025, 5PM ET, no exceptions.

 The FY26 application will cover activities taking place between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026. All organizations that wish to be considered for CDF funding in FY26 must submit a complete and eligible CDF application by the deadline.

Note: The May 8, 2025 deadline does not apply to organizations with multi-year awards for FY26; those organizations will submit their FY26 CDF renewal application later this summer. If you are not sure whether your organization received a multi-year award, please refer to your FY25 CDF award letter and/or contact your program officer.

Please also make certain your organizational account in the grant portal is current. Instructions on how to access your account information as well as how to add new users to your account are available in the CDF registration help guide: CDF registration help guide. 


Eligibility Requirements

New applicants should review the Eligibility Requirements on this page. You may also complete our CDF Eligibility Quiz. The quiz is a first step for new applicants to assist in determining if they’re eligible to apply. Please note that it is not a substitute for a thorough review of our CDF application Guidelines and is not a final determination of eligibility.

 DCLA will consider proposals in every cultural discipline, and from every area of New York City, for services that take place within the five boroughs and within the City’s Fiscal Year 2026 (July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026). 

All proposals must offer to provide a cultural activity of recognized quality that is accessible to the public during Fiscal Year 2026. Funded services can be as different as the organizations providing them, but they will all have a common commitment to cultural public service and public participation in the arts.

An eligible organization must: 

  • Be either (a) a nonprofit arts or cultural organization, or (b) a nonprofit organization that has an arts or culture component in its broader mission.
  • Demonstrate successful delivery of arts and cultural services in New York City for the last two consecutive years.
  • Be based in New York City and able to demonstrate administrative and programmatic operations within any of the five boroughs of New York City. Your administrative address is primarily determined by the address listed on your IRS 990 for the fiscal year ending in 2023, with the organization’s 501(c)(3) letter, and other publicly available information also taken into consideration.
  • Possess a unique Federal Employee Identification Number (EIN).
  • Be certified as tax exempt under Internal Revenue Service Code Section 501(c)(3); or be an incorporated nonprofit that uses a DCLA pre-approved, New York State incorporated tax-exempt fiscal sponsor. Only nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply, regardless of whether they use a fiscal sponsor. Limited Liability Companies, Benefit corporations, Limited Partnerships, S corporations, individual artists, and unincorporated artist collectives are not eligible to apply. 
  • Be incorporated in New York State as a not-for-profit organization no later than the organization’s fiscal year 2023.

The following entities are not eligible to receive CDF funds:

  • Individual artists or unincorporated artist collectives.
  • Limited Liability Companies, Benefit Corporations, Limited Partnerships, S Corporations, or Unincorporated Organizations.
  • Parent Teacher associations or organizations.
  • Nonprofit organizations without IRS 501(c)3 tax exempt status that do not utilize an eligible fiscal sponsor.
  • Nonprofit organizations with chapters, offices, branches, or general activity in New York City but that are administratively based outside of New York City.
  • Members of DCLA’s Cultural Institutions Group.
  • Programs of City, State or Federal agencies, including Component Units of the City of New York.
  • Programs of, or branches of, the New York Public Library system, the Brooklyn Public Library system, and the Queens Public Library system.
  • Degree-granting institutions, including schools, colleges, and universities; organizations that are affiliated with such institutions should contact DCLA prior to applying to determine eligibility.
  • Organizations without a history of providing services in arts and culture as well as related income and expenses in the last two years in New York City.
  • Organizations that have previously received CDF funds but have failed to comply with DCLA’s grant reporting requirements at any time in the past five fiscal years.

To receive funds, grantees must be compliant with annual State and Federal filing requirements for nonprofit organizations, including New York State Charities Bureau filings as a non-profit organization.


Application Resources


Application Templates

Download and complete the templates below if our Guidelines indicate that you’re required to upload them to your online application.


Application Worksheets

We’ve created an editable application worksheet and budget worksheet to help you prepare your application submission offline. The application worksheet includes all questions on the application as well as an indicator of the character count allowed for each narrative question. These worksheets are optional tools. You are not required to use them, and they are not a replacement for the online application. You must submit your CDF application and supplementary materials through our online portal.   


Support and Questions

For questions about the CDF guidelines, instructions or application content, contact your organization’s program officer directly via email.  New applicants, and those who do not have a program officer, may contact the Department of Cultural Affairs’ Program Services Help Desk at cdfhelpdesk@culture.nyc.gov. New applicants will be assigned a program officer after the application period closes

If you are experiencing technical issues with the application portal, submit the IT support form.  

 

Application Webinars

After reviewing the resources provided above, we strongly encourage all applicants to attend a CDF application webinar. These tutorials give applicants the opportunity to ask questions of DCLA staff and prepare a competitive CDF application. 

Each webinar features the same presentation, and is expected to last approximately 90 minutes including Q&A.  

Please send no more than two representatives from your organization; each webinar has a limit of 500 attendees. Each attendee must register separately.

If you are unable to attend a live webinar, the first webinar was recorded, captioned, and available online now: FY26 Cultural Development Fund Application Webinar

 

Office Hours 

Office Hours are meant for applicants who have already reviewed the FY26 CDF application materials, attended/viewed the FY26 CDF webinar and still have questions related to the CDF application process.   

When registering, you will be asked to submit your question in advance. In order to give DCLA staff time to prepare, we ask that you register no less than 24 hours before the office hour session you wish to attend.   

Office hour sessions will be 60 minutes long and program officers will be present for the entire hour. Participants may come and go as is convenient for them.  

 

Accessibility

For questions regarding accessibility or requests for an accommodation, please DCLA’s Disability Service Facilitator, Claire Hart, at disabilityfacilitator@culture.nyc.gov.


CDF Panelists

DCLA is currently seeking panelists to serve for the FY26 CDF review period. To learn more, please click here.


Register or Log in to an Account


 FY 25 CDF Grantees

Notification of the outcome of last year’s FY25 CDF application process has been sent to all applicants. Please log in to the CDF web portal and click “View/Download” section of your FY25 CDF Grant Tile, accessible via the Dashboard in the DCLA portal, to access your FY25 CDF notification documents.

Please review the Fiscal 2025 funding requirements for all CDF grantees; download this PDF for instructions on returning your grant agreement, and other compliance requirements. Please log in to your account via the CDF web portal and upload all documents via the “Payment Checklist” section of your FY25 CDF Grant Tile.  All required FY25 CDF Grant Materials must be submitted as soon as possible.

To assist grantees with navigating the CDF funding requirements, we have prepared this video (https://youtu.be/fjBtWNm_mic). We encourage FY25 CDF grantees to view the recording for helpful details on submitting the required CDF grant paperwork and other compliance items necessary to receive an initial payment.