New York gives 59 arts nonprofits $1.76 million to build cash reserves, in the second round of its Reserve Fund grants
The New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts awarded grants of $15,000 to $50,000, with a year of coaching on managing a reserve. This round was open only to groups with budgets of $150,000 to $3 million.
New York. Fifty-nine nonprofit arts organizations across New York State will share $1,760,000 to start or add to a cash reserve, in the second year of the NYSCA Reserve Fund Grants program run by the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts, a nonprofit that administers it.
Recipients published the program's announcement this month. Grants range from $15,000 to $50,000, set by the size of each organization's operating budget. According to the announcement, the 59 were chosen from 771 eligible applications, 59 percent are outside New York City, and 80 percent will be setting up a reserve for the first time.
Who could apply
The round was open to New York nonprofit arts organizations that had received direct funding from the council in the last three years and had operating budgets between $150,000 and $3 million. Besides the money, each recipient gets a year of help from Advance Collaborative: a virtual workshop on reserve funds and long-term sustainability, an hourlong one-on-one consulting session and monthly office hours.
The program's first round, announced in the fall of 2025, also gave out $1,760,000, to 60 organizations chosen from 1,255 eligible applications. That round was open to groups with budgets under $3 million and paid $5,000 to $50,000; 85 percent of those recipients were starting a reserve for the first time.
“NYSCA knows that organizations must be able to pivot when necessary, prepare for the unexpected, and dream for their futures.”
Some of the recipients
The full list is posted by the New York Foundation for the Arts. Among the recipients that have announced their grants, Hallockville Museum Farm in Riverhead, on Long Island's North Fork, received $15,000, and Roxbury Arts Group, which serves the Western Catskills, received $30,000, The Daily Star of Oneonta reported.
Five of the recipients are in Western New York, The Buffalo News reported, among them CEPA Gallery and the Western New York Book Arts Center in Buffalo. The paper said a corner of the building that houses the Book Arts Center started coming down when two steel columns corroded at the base.
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