Hello Cultural Sector!

We are thrilled that so many of you will be receiving Working Washington 5 (WW5) funds. Simply extraordinary! Advocating for that $45 million has been a nearly two-year campaign for Inspire Washington and our state-wide partners (ArtsWA, Humanities, WA, ArtsFund, WA Filmworks, WAMA, and others). The work has been deeply challenging with both ups and downs, but seeing valuable organizations like yours receive the support you deserve makes our hard work worthwhile. This is your win too. It is the victory of the entire state's cultural sector and all our invested partners for providing Inspire Washington with the financial resources to champion this historic support. We are honored to share this victory with you!

The next legislative session begins in January. The wheels are already in motion for a new request of $50 million to be distributed over two years. Like your businesses, Inspire WA has struggled due to the pandemic. Since our work is political, we haven't been eligible for many of the relief grants. We spent most of our savings to secure WW5 funding and our coffers are nearly empty. We have worked tirelessly to represent your cultural programs and secure financial support, but there's still so much left to do. Inspire Washington must remain visionary, ambitious, collaborative, and aggressive for the cultural sector. Please consider investing in our advocacy objectives by joining as an invested cultural partner. We exist because of the growing list of partners that pledge dues every year. Like you, it's been a hard year for us, so we implore you to seriously consider joining our circle. Click here to learn more. 

Thank you for all that you do. Please reach out if you have any questions!

Warmly,

Manny, Jessi, and Madeline

We understand that not receiving funding is disappointing—especially if you believe your application was correct and complete. Because this is a public process using public dollars, you can share concerns, get feedback about the decision, and request information or support from the state.

If you were not recommended for a Working Washington Round 5 grant but believe you meet eligibility requirements, and submitted a complete application with required documentation, please email your concerns to the support team at commercegrants@submittable.com by Tuesday, November 15. In the email, include your concerns, questions, and request for review. The Submittable team will review your application and provide feedback on your application within 15 business days.

There are several businesses that are eligible for WW5 but cannot claim their grant because they don't have their UEI yet. If this is you, the deadline to submit your UEI to ensure you get funding is November 30th!

If you have not yet received your UEI number, please reference the resources below:

The best place to go for direct assistance with your UEI registration is sam.gov. As a WA State agency, Commerce is unable provide direct assistance with your UEI registration. Because the federal government issues these numbers, they are the entity that can provide direct UEI assistance through https://sam.gov.

Washington PTAC has UEI registration resources for state grant applicants: UEI for State Grant applicants - PTAC - Washington State Procurement Technical Assistance Center (washingtonptac.org)

Our partners at ArtsWA provide UEI registration resources, including step-by-step UEI video tutorials:

• https://www.arts.wa.gov/wwr5/
• How to register for a UEI (video)
• Checking the status of your UEI request (video)
• How to upload your UEI to your application (video)

If you are having technical issues uploading your UEI number to your application, please contact the support team by emailing commercegrants@submittable.com and they will be happy to help you.

COVID Safety Support for Large Organizations offers one-time grants to large arts, culture, heritage, or science non-profit organizations in Washington State. Eligible applicants must have costs associated with COVID-19 testing and safety monitoring required by either state and local governments, union contracts, or both. All eligible applicants will have reported annual gross receipts of greater than $5,000,000 in calendar year 2019. The grant application deadline is December 8 at 5pm.

For more info and to apply, click here.