Stability and Equity in Arts Grantmaking Amendment Act of 2025

OFFICE OF CHAIRMAN PHIL MENDELSON
COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Statement of Introduction

“Stability and Equity in Arts Grantmaking Amendment Act of 2025”

Today I am introducing the Stability and Equity in Arts Grantmaking Amendment Act of
2025. This bill would create statutory stability in grantmaking at the Commission on the Arts and
Humanities in its General Operation Support (GOS) grant program. Between the Fiscal Year 2024
and Fiscal Year 2025 General Operation Support grant cycles, 108 out of 166 GOS grantees saw
a reduction in the award amount – 16 of which saw a reduction of 60% each – despite the overall
GOS budget staying nearly identical between the two cycles. Several of the grantees not only
received a cut, but the cut is contrary to the guidance provided by the Arts Commission last year
which stated that its policy is to ensure that grantees will not experience more than a $10,000
fluctuation in their award amount, and that certain funding ranges would be tied to organizations
with certain annual expenses. The Commission ignoring its own policies, which are not in law,
can cause tremendous instability, especially for mid-size and smaller organizations.

To address this, the Stability and Equity in Arts Grantmaking Amendment Act of 2025
would establish that GOS award amounts should be proportionally tied to organizational expenses
– a policy already used in practice by the Arts Commission. However, the bill does this in an
equitable manner whereby base award amounts are based on an organization’s proportional annual
expenses. Since larger, more well -funded organizations have an outsized share of expenses as
compared to smaller organizations, the legislation places a cap on the maximum award amount s,
regardless of an organization’s proportional share. Moreover, the bill places a floor on grant
awards for organizations to ensure adequate funding to support small and mid-sized organizations.

The bill also places new guardrails on what organizations are eligible for grants to ensure
that incredibly large national arts institutions with budgets in excess of $100 million aren’t being
awarded grants that are better targeted to our locally anchored arts organizations. This bill would
also clarify that awardees must have an active Board of Directors, have more than half of their
activities and programs occur within the District, and have a primary mission of focusing on the
arts, arts education, or the humanities. Moreover, the bill would set clear criteria for consideration
of supplemental GOS award funding including the quality of the organization’s programming or
services, the charitable or philanthropic work of organizations in lifting up other artists and
organizations, and encouraging diversity in organizational governance and administration.

Enshrining many of the equity goals built into the current Commission policies will ensure
that future grants are awarded on an equitable basis. Moreover, given the uncertain future of
revenue dedicated to the Arts Commission , it is more important now than ever to ensure that
guardrails are built into the law to ensure stability and equity to support our arts organizations.
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_________________________ 1
Chairman Phil Mendelson 2
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A BILL 5
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IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 9
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To amend the Commission on the Arts and Humanities Act to provide for stability and equity in 13
the awarding of General Operating Support grants to arts organizations, and to remove 14
obsolete provisions of law. 15
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BE IT ENACTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this 17
act may be cited as the “Stability and Equity in Arts Grantmaking Amendment Act of 2025”. 18
Sec 2. The Commission on the Arts and Humanities Act, effective October 21, 1975 19
(D.C. Law 1-22; D.C. Official Code § 39-201 et seq.), is amended as follows: 20
(a) Section 4 (D.C. Official Code § 39-203) is amended as follows: 21
(1) Subsection (a-1) is amended to read as follows: 22
“(a-1)(1) The Commission shall consist of 12 members appointed by the Mayor, with the 23
advice and consent of the Council, in accordance with section 2(e)(32) of the Confirmation Act 24
of 1978, effective March 3, 1979 (D.C. Law 2-142; D.C. Official Code § 1-523.01(e)(32)). 25
“(2) Each member appointed to the Commission shall be a District resident who 26
has displayed an interest or an ability in the arts or humanities or has been active in the 27
furtherance of the arts or humanities in the District of Columbia. 28
“(3) When appointing members to the Commission, the Mayor shall give due 29
consideration to recommendations made by representative civic, educational, and professional 30
groups concerned with the arts, humanities, and culture, and shall maintain reasonable 31
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representation of all the various geographic areas and neighborhoods within the District of 32
Columbia.”. 33
(2) Subsection (b) is amended to read as follows: 34
“(b) All members of the Commission shall be appointed to 3-year terms that shall 35
commence on July 1 in the year of appointment and expire on June 30 of the 3rd year.”. 36
(3) Subsection (b-1) is repealed. 37
(b) Section 6(c-1) (D.C. Official Code § 39-205(c-1)) is amended to read as follows: 38
“(c-1) The Commission shall allocate the annual budget as follows: 39
“(1) Not more than 20% of the annual budget shall be allocated for administrative 40
costs. 41
“(2) The funds remaining after the allocation described in paragraph (1) of this 42
subsection shall be allocated for grants for the following purposes: 43
“(A) 12.0% for grants to fund capital projects in support of eligible arts 44
and humanities organizations; 45
“(B) 50.0% for General Operating Support grants to eligible arts and 46
humanities organizations to be administered pursuant to section 6e; 47
“(C ) 22.0% for other art grant programs established by the Commission; 48
and 49
“(D) 4.0% the for the Humanities Grant Program administered by 50
HumanitiesDC. 51
“(E) 12.0% for a large capital grant program to be administered pursuant 52
to section 6d.” 53
(c) Section 6c (D.C. Official Code § 39-205.03) is repealed. 54
(d) A new Section 6e is added to read as follows: 55
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“Sec. 6e. General operating support grants program. 56
“(a) There is established within the Commission a General Operating Support Grants 57
program to provide subgrants to eligible organizations for offsetting the operating expenses of 58
eligible organizations. 59
“(b) For purposes of this section, the term “organization average expenses” shall mean 60
the organization’s expenses averaged from its two most recent Annual Form 990 filings 61
“(c) Eligibility for a general operating support grant shall be limited to organizations that: 62
“(1) Are incorporated as a nonprofit with a federally designated tax-exempt status 63
under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code and have a 64
principal business office address within in the District of Columbia, not including a Post Office 65
Box, as evidenced by the organization’s most recent Internal Revenue Service Annual Form 990 66
filing; 67
“(2) Have provided the organization’s two most recent Internal Revenue Service 68
Annual Form 990 filings with its grant application; 69
“(3) Have less than $100 million in organization average expenses; 70
“(4) Have a primary mission focusing on the arts or humanities disciplines such 71
that the majority the organization’s activities are related to the arts, arts education, or the 72
humanities; 73
“(5) Have an active Board of Directors ; and 74
“(6) Have at least 51% of its activities or programs occur within the District of 75
Columbia. 76
“(d)(1) The base general operating funding amount for each eligible organization shall be 77
calculated as follows: 78
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“(A) Determining the aggregate sum of all eligible organization average 79
expenses; 80
“(B) Dividing each individual organization’s average expenses by the sum 81
determined in subparagraph (A); and 82
“(C) Multiplying the amount calculated in subparagraph (B) by 2. 83
“(2) If the base general operating funding amount calculated under paragraph (1) 84
for an organization is more than one percent (1.0%) of the annual amount budgeted pursuant to 85
Section 6(c-1)(2)(B) of this act, the base funding amount for such organization shall be equal to 86
such one percent (1.0%) amount and such organization shall not be allocated additional funds 87
pursuant to subsection (e). 88
“(3) If the base general operating funding amount calculated under paragraph (1) 89
for an organization is less than three-quarters of one-tenth percent (0.075%) of the annual 90
amount budgeted pursuant to Section 6(c-1)(2)(B) of this act, the base general operating funding 91
amount for such organization shall be equal to such three-quarters of one-tenth percent (0.075%), 92
provided that for an organization where the base general operating funding amount calculated 93
pursuant to this paragraph exceeds 50% of the organization average expenses, such organization 94
shall be awarded a base general operating funding amount equal to 50% of the organization 95
average expenses and such organization shall not be allocated additional funds pursuant to 96
subsection (e) of this section. 97
“(e)(1) Funds budgeted pursuant to Section 6(c-1)(2)(B) of this act remaining after 98
allocating base funds pursuant to subsection (d) of this section shall be awarded as supplemental 99
general operating funding amounts. 100
“(2) Supplemental general operating funding amounts shall be competitive, and 101
each application of an eligible organization shall be reviewed in cohorts of similar budget size, 102
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and with award amounts tiered in relation to the grantee’s budget size. In awarding supplemental 103
operating funding amounts, the Commission shall take into account: 104
“(A) The quality of the organization’s programming or services; 105
“(B) Charitable and philanthropic activities of the organization that make a 106
positive impact on the District, residents, or artists; 107
“(C) Diversity in governance, management, and administration of the 108
organization; 109
“(D) Economic impact on the District ; and 110
“(E) Other factors as determined by the Commission.”. 111
(e) Section 7 (D.C. Official Code § 39-206) is repealed. 112
Sec. 3. Fiscal impact statement. 113
The Council adopts the fiscal impact statement in the committee report as the fiscal 114
impact statement required by section 602(c)(3) of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, 115
approved December 24, 1973 (87 Stat. 813; D.C. Official Code § 1-206.02(c)(3)). 116
Sec. 4. Effective date. 117
This act shall take effect following approval by the Mayor (or in the event of veto by the 118
Mayor, action by the Council to override the veto) and a 30-day period of congressional review 119
as provided in section 602(c)(2) of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, approved December 120
24, 1973 (87 Stat. 788; D.C. Official Code § 1-206.02(c)(2)). 121