Building for Equity: Anchoring Community

Building for Equity: Anchoring Community is sponsored by 4Culture (King County, WA). Supports cultural building projects and aims to create a pathway to racial equity in facilities funding, fostering equitable development for organizations buying, building, or renovating buildings and specialized spaces that make cultural experiences possible.

Building for Equity: Anchoring Community - 4Culture Building for Equity: Anchoring Community A Grant and Cohort program that funds and fosters equitable development for organizations and Tribes buying, building, or renovating buildings and specialized spaces that make cultural experiences possible. Organizations and Tribes with project budgets over $10 million are invited to apply.

This grant and cohort program is available to King County-based, federally recognized nonprofit arts, cultural, heritage, historic preservation, science and technology organizations; Tribal governments, public corporations, and public agencies; or eligible organizations that are fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)(3) partner. Applicants must have submitted a Letter of Interest and are invited to apply.

Organizations or Tribes must have a two-year operating history, demonstrated long-term site control, a proposed project that is shovel-ready within 1-year and is willing to commit to a 3-year cohort program and cultural space partnership. Submitting a Letter of Interest is the first step to an invitation to apply for funding and participate in the cohort program.

The call for Letters of Interest will open on June 4, 2026 and close on July 30, 2026. Invitations to apply for funding in this cycle and/or participate in the cohort program will be sent on August 27, 2026. An invitation to apply for funding is valid for 3 total grant cycles.

Application for funding opens on September 3 and closes November 5, 2026, 5:00 pm PDT. A private link to the application will be sent to those invited to apply on September 3, 2026. See Application Guidelines for details: PDF These guidelines reflect information for last year’s grant cycle and will be updated ahead of applications opening for the next cycle.

Please contact 4Culture staff with any questions. We look forward to learning more about your project and supporting your equitable development practices. Maya Santos, Building for Equity Program Manager Liz Reyes, Building for Equity Support Specialist Anchoring Community is a means for 4Culture to be more collaborative with grantees.

Through a 3-year commitment, 4Culture will support organizations in incorporating equitable efforts throughout the life of their facility projects. We invite project teams to join us in the field where we can learn, share, and address community needs through the built environment. - Brian J.

Carter, 4Culture Executive Director Supporting Your Equitable Practice Supporting Your Equitable Practice Cohorts of awardees from each year will focus on equitable development practices. Cohort goals are to implement, measure, and evaluate equitable development practices throughout the project in a peer learning setting.

Facilitated by 4Culture, cohorts will meet regularly for a duration of 3-years and participate in an annual Community of Practice, a convening of King County equitable development practitioners and advocates.

Cultural Space Partnerships Cultural Space Partnerships are models of equitable development aimed to form new collaborations that center resource-sharing and support for organizations that have historically faced barriers to property ownership in King County. Awardees will participate in a Cultural Space Partnership for a duration of 3-years and will convene in an annual Community of Practice to further relationships of mutual aid.

What Makes this Program Unique What Makes this Program Unique Aimed at cultivating a community of equitable development practitioners in King County, this program prioritizes participatory processes, measurable outcomes, and evaluation efforts that advance social equity, centering those disproportionately impacted by systemic racism.

Foundational to this grant is King County’s Building for Equity initiative to support cultural building projects and create a pathway to racial equity and geographic access in cultural facilities funding. The Building for Equity program provides a combination of funding, technical support, and strategic partnerships geared toward dismantling racism in cultural facilities funding and fostering equitable development throughout the county.

For more resources on equitable development visit our Building for Equity Field Resources page. No matter where you are in your process, we are here to help. Visit our Building for Equity: Field Resources page for an ongoing list of resources including upcoming Communities of Practice events and recordings, and 4Culture’s Network of Support Consultants available to help you achieve your facilities project goals.

Please contact us if you are interested in this new program. We look forward to getting to know your facilities project.

Maya Santos, Building for Equity Program Manager Lauren Miles, Building for Equity Support Specialist Current Cultural Space Partnerships Current Cultural Space Partnerships 4Culture Blog July 11, 2023 Stronger Together –Strategic partnerships create a more equitable cultural sector In 2019, the King County Council approved Building for Equity, an initiative to support cultural building projects and create a pathway for us to evolve our funding practices toward more equitable outcomes.

This gave us the unique opportunity to re-envision a facilities grant that increases the economic viability of BIPOC-led arts and cultural organizations.

International Examiner August 9, 2023 Seattle Opera and Tasveer enter partnership under 4Culture grant For four years, 4Culture and King County have administered a partnership to provide Cultural Facilities grants to remedy systematic racial inequity, and the current model for this program is called Building for Equity.

The program provides funding, technical support, and strategic partnerships between specially-paired organizations such as Seattle Opera and Tasveer, and between the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience and the Korean American Historical Society.