Festival & Event Restart Fund

The Restart Fund includes two grant programs focused on reactivating events and festivals in the region. Larger festivals and events with operating budgets over $250,000 will receive grants of up to $50,000, with the average award anticipated to be around $25,000. Smaller festivals and events with operating budgets of less than $250,000 per year will receive award amounts of up to $10,000. 

Arts & Culture Organization Support

Local arts and culture organizations will receive $20 million in grant funding. Funding will be divided into different application pools, including arts, culture, and heritage organizations with a pre-COVID 19 annual budget of over $1 million, science organizations, independent live music venues, and independent movie theaters. 

4Culture COVID-19 Response

4Culture Recovery Fund awards will be made to King County cultural organizations with pre-pandemic annual revenue of $1 million or below that can demonstrate reductions in revenue from 2019 to 2020 due to COVID-19. 4Culture will also be awarding grants to eligible individual cultural producers who can demonstrate a reduction in income from 2019 to 2020 due to COVID-19 and have started or seek to restart cultural production. 

Regional Sports Tourism Support

King County will award a grant to an organization whose mission is to enhance the greater Seattle region's economy and quality of life through sports by attracting and hosting sporting events, serving as a support system to event organizers and communities and serving as a one-stop resource to sports teams, university athletic departments, sports venues, and youth sports organization.

King County - Play Equity Coalition Grants

Grants will be issued to qualifying organizations to increase physical activity opportunities for youth, which have declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Youth and Amateur Sports Competitive Grants Program

Grants will be issued to eligible public entities and nonprofit organizations to support youth or amateur sports facilities, activities, and increased access. More information about the program can be found here.

Senior Center Grants, including Senior Center Facilities

This grant program will focus on senior centers in response to the increase in demand for services, programming and facilities' needs, and business interruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Up to $3,000,000 will be awarded to a number of qualifying senior centers.

Intergenerational Programs within Senior Centers

Grants between $250,000-$900,000 will be awarded to up to four qualifying senior centers for intergenerational programs.

Childcare Services and Grant Program

King County has contracted with Child Care Resources to distribute $7 million in subsidies on behalf of eligible families directly to childcare providers. For more information, including the full flyer in 10 languages, please visit the Child Care Resources website.

Food Security Assistance Program Grants

United Way of King County is partnering with King County to support the distribution of culturally appropriate food to economically disadvantaged communities. The Food Security Assistance Program will award $4.4 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to community-based organizations, meals programs, food banks, and coalitions. Approximately 20 to 25 organizations will be awarded funding, with awards ranging from $150,000 to $250,000. United Way also expects to award funding to up to three coalitions, with a maximum award amount for coalitions of $500,000. Agencies awarded funding are expected to spend a majority of funds (75%) on food costs. Purchases of gift cards, food vouchers, and/or equipment (refrigerators, vehicles, etc.) are not allowable under this program. 

Farmers Market Grant Program

The county is developing two grant programs to support farmers markets totaling $500,000. The first program will support the expansion of online sales capabilities for farmers market vendors and support food banks to purchase wholesale quantities of food from local farmers. The second program will support food banks to purchase wholesale quantities of food from local farmers/farmers markets.

Local Food System Facilities

A grant will be awarded to help establish a multipurpose food processing and distribution facility in King County to serve as co-packing space to support local food security infrastructure.

Digital Equity Grants

King County is providing $2 million in grants to provide funding to organizations that promote digital equity, providing services to communities that face barriers to accessing digital services such as tech devices, internet connection and digital literacy, and have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Grant sizes are estimated to be $30,000 to $60,000, up to $100,000. More information is available here.

King County Office of Equity and Social Justice Grants

Grants will be awarded in various portfolios including: Strategic Communications, Coalition Against Hate and Bias, and Technical Proficiency & Equipment.

Behavioral Health Apprenticeship Pathways

The SEIU Healthcare 1199 NW Multi-Employer Training Fund will administer the $4M award on behalf of King County. The funds will be used for implementation of the Behavioral Health Apprenticeship program, primarily to Behavioral Health employers for the cost of hiring, mentoring, supervising, and training apprentices, as well as supporting the Immigrant Health Access Project (IHAP) to bring apprentices into the program.

Equitable Economic Recovery

Grants/contracts and investments will be awarded to entities and groups based on community-identified priorities that address root causes of systemic racism and negative impacts of COVID-19, through design and planning facilitated by the forthcoming Racism is a Public Health Crisis community oversight committee. (Examples of entities may include small businesses, community-based organizations and coalitions, existing county programs, etc.)

Unincorporated King County Small Business Support

The King County Council has dedicated $4.9 million to help small businesses in the unincorporated area. This program is part of King County’s economic relief and recovery efforts to counter the adverse impacts of COVID-19 on the local economy and small businesses.

Programs that are in development include an Economic Relief and Recovery Program for Unincorporated King County and grants for individual Council Districts.

Federally funded contracts require a variety of documentation. The requirements below highlight some of the documentation and record keeping required for most COVID relief grants and contracts.  Each RFP/RFA will outline the required documentation to meet federal requirements.

Accounting Methods

Expenditures must be recorded and documented using the cash or accrual basis of accounting using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

System for Award Management Registration

Organizations receiving federal funds must maintain active registration with the System for Award Management (SAM) for aggregate federal award amounts exceeding $50,000. All award recipients must be verified using the Exclusions section of SAM.gov as being not suspended or debarred.

Monthly Documentation and Verification Paperwork

• General ledger/expenditure detail reports for the payment period
• Hourly timesheets for employees charged to the contract, including those who are salaried
• Client proof of program eligibility, such as self-certification of COVID impact form
• Agency and client attestation forms certifying nonduplication of benefits
• Detailed proof of expenses and payment, such as receipts, cash value card tracking form, payroll items (payroll reports, paystubs, hourly timesheets) and justification of expense
• Proof of activities/events, such as sign-in sheets, meeting agendas, etc.

Demographic and Outcome Data Collection Reporting

King County is required to provide regular performance reporting and may ask organizations to provide information to support the following requirements:

• Output measurement for programs in certain expenditure categories.
• Annual performance reporting for major programs including output and outcome measures. The federal government encourages programs to provide data broken down by age, race, ethnicity, gender identity, and possibly other demographic information.

Subrecipient Monitoring & Management and Audit Requirements

Each contract with King County will denote Subrecipient “Yes or No”. Organizations that are determined to be a “Subrecipient - Yes” have additional federal requirements:

• Training: New subrecipients will be required to attend a mandatory training.
• Monitoring: All requirements imposed by the County must be passed on to any subaward and subcontract.
• Single Audit: Organizations expending $750,000 or more of federal funds in their fiscal year are required to have a single audit conducted. This same threshold applies to subawards passed thru by the organization.
• Closeout: Within 90 days of the end of the agreed upon period of performance, an organization receiving federal funds must supply copies of all financial and performance reports related to programs using federal funds.
• Record Retention: Organizations receiving federal funds must provide electronic copies of all the documentation discussed above as well as any other supporting documentation to the County and retain originals until December 31, 2032. (See 2CFR200 Unform Guidance).

The following links provide examples of the documents King County uses in their agreements with subrecipients. For more information on the use of these documents, please reach out to your King County awarding agency

• SAMPLE:  Subrecipient vs. Contractor Checklist for Classification
• SAMPLE:  Subrecipient Pre-Award Risk Assessment Questionnaire
• SAMPLE:  Risk Assessment Scoring Template
• SAMPLE:  Subrecipient Monitoring Plan
• SAMPLE:  CLFR FAIN Table

King County provides training to its subrecipients prior to award. The training materials can be accessed through the links below.

• Subrecipient Training Deck, Part 1
  
• Subrecipient Training Deck, Part 2
  

King County offers a number of online trainings to support organizations interested in contracting with us. Attend a free orientation online.