Organizations looking to apply for the city’s event grant program are now required to be 501(c)(3) non-profits and present a financing match, among other new requirements announced by the city manager’s office Monday. 

The grant program, created in 2023 and re-upped by the City Council as part of this year’s budget process, is a $150,000 discretionary fund that City Manager Tom Aspell can award to local events such as festivals and community programs. Last year, an internal committee determined who received money, and there were no set requirements, according to the city’s Public Information Officer Stefanie Breton.

To be eligible for grants, the events must now also be “arts-focused;” demonstrate that they provide a “public benefit and community engagement;” have “artistic, cultural or economic benefit and quality;” include “accessibility, equity and sustainability;” fulfill “a need in the community;” and be put on by organizers with the “experience and ability to successfully produce the event.” The release also noted a $50,000 cap to each award and no cut-off deadline to apply.

When the fund, drawn from city economic development reserve accounts, was reincorporated into the budget after a proposal by Mayor Byron Champlin, multiple city councilors in favor urged the city to both set and publish clearer parameters around eligibility for the funding, noting that organizations who had been interested in it were confused about whether or not there were requirements to apply.

All the events that received awards in the first year of the grant program were coming to Concord for the first time and had some free component — though several also included ticketed programming. The new requirements don’t necessarily prevent repeat applications, though they do leave several of the city’s largest events ineligible. 

Recipients in the fund’s first year were Intown Concord’s First Fridays, the New Hampshire Book Festival, the Northeast Coffee Festival, the Capital Center for the Arts’ Sound and Color arts and music festival, and the CommUNITY program — a free youth club, now renamed SPARC, that is affiliated with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. Grants were as small as $10,500 to Intown Concord and as large as $50,000 to Sound and Color, which runs Oct. 18 and 19 in downtown Concord. 

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com