Applying

The Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is pleased to announce the Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) Cultural Development Fund (CDF) application for New York City not-for-profit arts and cultural organizations.

The application will launch at the end of February and the deadline will be in early April. All organizations that wish to be considered for CDF funding in FY27 must submit a complete and eligible CDF application by the deadline.

Note: The early April deadline does not apply to organizations with multi-year awards for FY27; those organizations will submit their FY27 CDF renewal application in June 2026. If you are not sure whether your organization received a multi-year award, please refer to your FY26 CDF award letter and/or contact your program officer. 

Please also make certain your organizational account in the grant portal is current. Instructions on how to access your account information as well as how to add new users to your account are available in the CDF registration help guide. 

 

CDF Panelists

DCLA is currently seeking panelists to serve for the FY27 CDF review period. Find out more information. 

 

Eligibility Requirements

New applicants should review the Eligibility Requirements on this page. You may also complete our CDF Eligibility Quiz. The quiz is a first step for new applicants to assist in determining if they’re eligible to apply. Please note that it is not a substitute for a thorough review of our CDF application Guidelines and is not a final determination of eligibility.  
 
DCLA will consider proposals in every cultural discipline, and from every area of New York City, for services that 
take place within the five boroughs and within the City’s Fiscal Year 2027 (July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027).   

All proposals must offer to provide a cultural activity of recognized quality that is accessible to the public during Fiscal Year 2027. Funded services can be as different as the organizations providing them, but they will all have a common commitment to cultural public service and public participation in the arts.

An eligible organization must:

• Be either (a) a nonprofit arts or cultural organization, or (b) a nonprofit organization that has an arts or culture component in its broader mission.
• Demonstrate successful delivery of arts and cultural services in New York City for the last two consecutive years.
• Be based in New York City and able to demonstrate administrative and programmatic operations within any of the five boroughs of New York City. Your administrative address is primarily determined by the address listed on your IRS 990 for the fiscal year ending in 2024, with the organization’s 501(c)(3) letter, and other publicly available information also taken into consideration.
• Possess a unique Federal Employee Identification Number (EIN).
• Be certified as tax exempt under Internal Revenue Service Code Section 501(c)(3); or be an incorporated nonprofit that uses a DCLA pre-approved, New York State incorporated tax-exempt fiscal sponsor. Only nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply, regardless of whether they use a fiscal sponsor. Limited Liability Companies, Benefit corporations, Limited Partnerships, S corporations, individual artists, and unincorporated artist collectives are not eligible to apply. 
• Be incorporated in New York State as a not-for-profit organization no later than the organization’s fiscal year 2024.

The following entities are not eligible to receive CDF funds:

• Individual artists or unincorporated artist collectives.
• Limited Liability Companies, Benefit Corporations, Limited Partnerships, S Corporations, or Unincorporated Organizations.
• Parent Teacher associations or organizations.
• Nonprofit organizations without IRS 501(c)3 tax exempt status that do not utilize an eligible fiscal sponsor.
• Nonprofit organizations with chapters, offices, branches, or general activity in New York City but that are administratively based outside of New York City.
• Members of DCLA’s Cultural Institutions Group.
• Programs of City, State or Federal agencies, including Component Units of the City of New York.
• Programs of, or branches of, the New York Public Library system, the Brooklyn Public Library system, and the Queens Public Library system.
• Colleges, or universities-- organizations that are affiliated with such institutions should contact DCLA prior to applying to determine eligibility.
• Public, private, and charter schools, including pre-k through grade 12 secondary schools. 
• Organizations without a history of providing services in arts and culture as well as related income and expenses in the last two years in New York City.
• Organizations that have previously received CDF funds but have failed to comply with DCLA’s grant reporting requirements at any time in the past five fiscal years.

To receive funds, grantees must be compliant with annual State and Federal filing requirements for nonprofit organizations, including New York State Charities Bureau filings as a non-profit organization.

Application Resources

• FY27 Guidelines
• Registration Guide

Review the FY26 CDF materials below for reference. These will be updated for FY26 after the application is released: 

• CDF Application - Panelist View (sample of how your application will be reviewed by panelists 
• CDF FAQ Document

Application Templates  

Download and complete the templates below if our Guidelines indicate that you’re required to upload them to your online application.  

• Treasurer’s Statement (if your FY24 operating budget is under $50,000) 
• Organizational Budget Template (if your primary mission is beyond arts and culture)  
• Conflict of Interest Disclosure form (For all grantees) 

Application Worksheets

We’ve created an editable application worksheet and budget worksheet to help you prepare your application submission offline. The application worksheet includes all questions on the application as well as an indicator of the character count allowed for each narrative question. These worksheets are optional tools. You are not required to use them, and they are not a replacement for the online application. You must submit your CDF application and supplementary materials through our online portal.    

• FY27 Application Worksheet 
• FY27 Budget Worksheet 

Support and Questions

For questions about the CDF guidelines, instructions, or applicant content, contact your organization’s program officer directly via email.  Prospective new applicants, and those who do not have a program officer, may contact the Department of Cultural Affairs’ Program Services Help Desk at cdfhelpdesk@culture.nyc.gov. New applicants will be assigned a program officer after the application period closes.

If you are experiencing technical issues with the application portal, submit the IT support form.  

 

Application Webinars

After reviewing the resources provided above, we strongly encourage all applicants to attend a CDF application webinar.  These tutorials give applicants the opportunity to ask questions of DCLA staff and prepare a competitive CDF application. 

There will be four webinars offered, and the schedule and registration links will be made available when the application launches. Each webinar features the same presentation, and is expected to last approximately 90 minutes including Q&A.  

If you are unable to attend a live webinar, the first webinar will be recorded, captioned, and made available on this website. 

Office Hours   

Office Hours are meant for applicants who have already reviewed the FY27 CDF application materials, attended/viewed the FY27 CDF webinar and still have questions related to the CDF application process.    

When registering, you will be asked to submit your question in advance. In order to give DCLA staff time to prepare, we ask that you register no less than 24 hours before the office hour session you wish to attend.    

Office hour sessions will be 60 minutes long and program officers will be present for the entire hour. Participants may come and go as is convenient for them.   

The Office Hours schedule and registration link will be made available when the application launches. 

Accessibility

For questions regarding accessibility or requests for an accommodation, please DCLA’s Disability Service Facilitator, Claire Hart, at disabilityfacilitator@culture.nyc.gov.

Register or Log in to an Account

FY26 CDF Grantees

Notification of the outcome of last year’s FY26 CDF application process has been sent to all applicants. Please log in to the CDF web portal and click “View/Download” section of your FY26 CDF Grant Tile, accessible via the Dashboard in the DCLA portal, to access your FY26 CDF notification documents.

Please visit the link to the Fiscal 2026 funding requirements for all CDF grantees; download this PDF for instructions on returning your grant agreement, and other compliance requirements. Please log in to your account via the CDF web portal and upload all documents via the “Payment Checklist” section of your FY26 CDF Grant Tile.  All required FY26 CDF Grant Materials must be submitted as soon as possible.

To assist grantees with navigating the CDF funding requirements, we have prepared this video. We encourage FY26 CDF grantees to view the recording for helpful details on submitting the required CDF grant paperwork and other compliance items necessary to receive an initial payment.