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Award Administration

Prohibition on Supplanting Non-Federal Funds

Partnership Agreement awards must be used to supplement and not supplant non-federal funds. For the purposes of these guidelines, the term “supplant non-federal funds” is defined as using federal dollars to replace non-federal dollars, with the intention or effect of reducing financial support for a SAA or RAO.

Crediting Requirement

The Arts Endowment should be recognized for the activities that it helps to support through its state and regional partners. State arts agencies and regional arts organizations must clearly acknowledge support from the National Endowment for the Arts in their programs and related promotional material including publications and Web sites. Acknowledgments should include the National Endowment for the Arts logo wherever possible. SAAs and RAOs also should encourage their grantees to give appropriate credit to the Arts Endowment.

Award Notices

Official grant award notification (i.e., the grant award letter that is signed by the Arts Endowment Chairman) is the only legal and valid confirmation of award. This can take several months to reach you depending on several factors such as the number of awards to be processed, whether the agency has its appropriation from Congress, etc.

General Terms & Conditions

Federal and agency requirements that relate to grants awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts are highlighted in our General Terms & Conditions. Included is information on reporting requirements and lobbying prohibitions.

Legal Requirements

By law, the National Endowment for the Arts may support only those organizations that:

  • Are tax-exempt. Organizations qualifying for this status must meet the following criteria:

    1. No part of net earnings may benefit a private stockholder or individual.

    2. Donations to the organization must be allowable as a charitable contribution under Section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended. For further information, go to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Web site at www.irs.gov; write the IRS TE/GE Division, Customer Service, P.O. Box 2508, Cincinnati, OH 45201; or call the IRS office listed in your area.

  • Compensate all professional performers and related or supporting professional personnel on Arts Endowment-supported projects at no less than the prevailing minimum compensation. [This requirement is in accordance with regulations that have been issued by the Secretary of Labor in part 505 of Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Part 505 does not provide information on specific compensation levels.]

  • Assure that no part of any Arts Endowment-supported project will be performed or engaged in under working conditions which are unsanitary or hazardous or dangerous to the health and safety of the employees involved.

  • Comply with the federal requirements that are outlined in the "Assurance of Compliance" below.

In addition, State Arts Agencies must meet the requirements in Section 5(g)(2) of the Arts Endowment's authorizing legislation which state:

"In order to receive assistance under this subsection in any fiscal year, a State shall submit an application for such grants at such time as shall be specified by the Chairperson and accompany such applications with a plan which the Chairperson finds --

  1. designates or provides for the establishment of a State agency (hereinafter in this section referred to as the "State agency") as the sole agency for the administration of the State plan;

  2. provides that funds paid to the State under this subsection will be expended solely on projects and productions approved by the State agency which carry out one or more of the objectives of subsection (c) of this section;

  3. provides that the State agency will make such reports, in such form and containing such information, as the Chairperson may from time to time require, including a description of the progress made toward achieving the goals of the State plan;

  4. provides --

    1. assurances that the State agency has held, after reasonable notice, public meetings in the State to allow all groups of artists, interested organizations, and the public to present views and make recommendations regarding the State plan; and

    2. a summary of such recommendations and the State agency's response to such recommendations; and

  5. contains --
    1. a description of the level of participation during the most recent preceding year for which information is available by artists, artists' organizations, and arts organizations in projects and productions for which financial assistance is provided under this subsection;
    2. for the most recent preceding year for which information is available, a description of the extent to which projects and productions receiving financial assistance from the state arts agency are available to all people and communities in the State; and
    3. a description of projects and productions receiving financial assistance under this subsection that exist or are being developed to secure wider participation of artists, artists' organizations, and arts organizations identified under clause (i) of this subparagraph or that address the availability of the arts to all people or communities identified under clause (ii) of this subparagraph.

No application may be approved unless the accompanying plan satisfies the requirements specified in this subsection."

Assurance of Compliance

By signing the application form, the Applicant certifies that it is in compliance with the statutes outlined below and all related Arts Endowment regulations and will maintain records and submit the reports that are necessary to determine compliance. The Applicant further certifies that it will obtain assurances of compliance from all subrecipients and will require all subrecipients of Arts Endowment funds to comply with these requirements. The Arts Endowment may conduct a review of your organization to ensure that it is in compliance. If the Arts Endowment determines that a grantee has failed to comply with these statutes, it may suspend, terminate, and/or recover funds. This assurance is subject to judicial enforcement.

  1. Nondiscrimination Statutes

    The Applicant certifies that it does not discriminate:

    For further information and copies of the nondiscrimination regulations identified above, contact the Arts Endowment's Office of Civil Rights at 202/682-5454 or 202/682-5695 Voice/T.T.Y. For inquiries about limited English proficiency, please go to the FOIA Reading Room on the website or contact the Office of General Counsel at ogc@arts.endow.gov 0r 202/682-5418.

  2. Regulations relating to Debarment and Suspension (45 C.F.R. pt. 1154) in which the Applicant certifies that neither it nor its principals is presently debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment, declared ineligible, or voluntarily excluded from participation in covered transactions by any federal department or agency, nor

    3. Has, within the three years preceding the submission of this application, been convicted of or had a civil judgment rendered against them for commission of fraud or a criminal offense in connection with a public (federal, state, or local) transaction or a contract under a public transaction; for violation of federal or state antitrust statutes; for commission of embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery, falsification or destruction of records, making false statements, or receiving stolen property; had any public transactions terminated for cause or default; or is presently indicted for or otherwise criminally or civilly charged by a governmental entity with any of the preceding offenses.

  3. Federal Debt Status (OMB Circular A-129). The applicant certifies that it is not delinquent in the repayment of any federal debt. Examples of relevant debt include delinquent payroll or other taxes, audit disallowances, and benefit overpayments.

  4. Labor Standards (29 C.F.R. pt. 505). The applicant certifies that, if awarded a grant, it will comply with the labor standards set out in Labor Standards on Projects or Productions Assisted by Grants from the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities.

  5. The Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988 (41 U.S.C. 701 et seq. and 45 C.F.R. pt. 1154) requires grantee organizations, within 30 days of receiving a grant, to make a continuing, good faith effort to maintain a drug-free workplace through implementation of the following:

    • Publish a statement notifying employees that the unlawful manufacture, distribution, dispensing, possession, or use of a controlled substance is prohibited in the grantee's workplace, and specifying the actions that will be taken against employees for violation of the prohibition. (For the purposes of this Act, alcohol is not considered a controlled substance.) The grantee shall give a copy of the statement to each employee who will be involved in grant-supported activities and notify those employees that they are expected to abide by the statement. For the purposes of this law, "employees" include consultants and temporary personnel (but not volunteers), who are directly engaged in work under the grant and who are on the grantee's payroll. The grantee should maintain on file the address of each site where work is performed under the grant.

    • Establish a drug-free awareness program that will inform employees about the dangers of drug abuse in the workplace, the grantee's policy of maintaining a drug-free workplace, any available drug counseling, rehabilitation, and employee assistance programs, and the penalties that might be imposed for workplace drug abuse violations. Employees should be informed that any conviction for a violation of a criminal drug statute that occurs in the workplace must be reported to the employer, in writing, no later than five calendar days after such a conviction. The grantee, in turn, must notify the Arts Endowment's Grants & Contracts Officer, in writing, within ten calendar days of receiving such notice from its employee. The grantee's notice to the Arts Endowment must include the convicted individual's position title and the number(s) of each affected grant.

    • Within 30 calendar days of receiving notice of an employee's criminal drug conviction a grantee should take appropriate personnel action against the convicted employee, up to and including termination, consistent with the requirements of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended; or require the employee to participate satisfactorily in a drug abuse assistance or rehabilitation program that has been approved for such purposes by a federal, state, or local health, law enforcement, or other appropriate agency.

  1. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq.) which applies to any organization which controls or possesses Native American human remains and associated funerary objects, and which receives federal funding, even for a purpose unrelated to the Act.

  1. Regulations Relating to Lobbying for organizations applying for more than $100,000 (31 U.S.C. 1352)

    2. The Applicant certifies that:

    (a) It has not and will not use federal appropriated funds to pay any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a member of an Arts Endowment advisory panel or the National Council on the Arts, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with the awarding of or modification to any federal grant or contract.

    (b) If it has used or will use any funds other than federal appropriated funds to pay any person for influencing or attempting to influence any of the individuals specified above, the Applicant:

    1. Is not required to disclose that activity if that person is regularly employed by the Applicant. (Regularly employed means working for at least 130 days within the year immediately preceding the submission of this application.)

    2. Will complete and submit Standard Form-LLL, “Disclosure of Lobbying Activities,” if that person is not regularly employed by the Applicant.

    (c) It will require that the language of this certification be included in the award documents for all subawards of more than $100,000 and that all subrecipients shall certify and disclose accordingly.

Other

If your Partnership Agreement, including the planning stage, has environmental implications (e.g., an arts festival in a park or the commissioning and installation of an outdoor sculpture), you may be requested to provide information to the Arts Endowment in response to specific questions in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.

If your Partnership Agreement includes the planning for major renovation of any structure that is eligible for or on the National Register of Historic Places you may be requested to provide additional information on your project to ensure compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act. This law also applies to planning for new construction that would affect historic properties. If a structure for your proposed project is more than fifty years old, contact your state historic preservation office for more information.


  
     
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