Herndon Accepting Grant Proposals For Arts Projects

HERNDON, VA -- Are you a local nonprofit seeking to fund an arts project in Fiscal Year 2021? The Town of Herndon might be able to give you a helping hand. The Town is accepting grant proposals of up to $4,500 through the Virginia Commission for the Arts (VCA) Creative Communities Partnership Grant.

Nonprofit arts groups incorporated in the Town that meet general policy guidelines as published by the VCA can apply for grant money to fund a wide variety of projects.

"There has been funding for children's shows. There has been funding for a literary festival. Those are two that come to the top of my brain," said Holly Popple, performing arts special events supervisor for the Herndon Parks and Recreation Department.

The deadline for submitting grant funding proposals to Popple's office is 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 18. Proposals can be mailed to Herndon Parks and Recreation Department, 777 Lynn St., Herndon, VA 20170, or dropped off at Herndon Community Center, 814 Ferndale Ave., Herndon, VA, 20170. Proposals can also be emailed to: parksandrec@herndon-va.gov. Applicants can check with the office prior to the deadline to confirm receipt.

Each year, a group of Town of Herndon citizens are selected randomly to review the grant proposals.

"They read the grants and they recommend how much they think should be awarded to each recipient," Popple said. "They don't have to split it. The can split it or they can give it to one recipient."

Popple then takes the recommendations from the review group and assembles the paperwork to be submitted to the Town Council to vote on.

"The Town Council then gives it the, 'Yes, we're behind this,'" she said. "It's a matching fund grant, so the Council has to say, 'Yes, we're going to appropriate funds for the arts in our budgets.' They usually go beyond matching that amount of money."

Once the Town Council has approved the matching funds, the proposals are submitted to VCA, who has final say on which municipalities receive arts funding.

"People should look at their website to get the details on this," Popple said.

Applicants can review the 2021 Guidelines for Funding for more information about this program and other grant opportunities.