Local Cultural Council Program

Application Process

Mass Cultural Council funds and manages a network of 329 Local Cultural Councils (LCCs) across the state, representing every city and town in the Commonwealth. Each LCC awards money based on individual community cultural needs, assessed and set by LCC members. Applicants apply directly to local councils.

How to Apply

Questions about the LCC Program in general or application requirements for LCCs? Contact us.

 

Please note: grants from most LCCs are reimbursement-based. (The applicant expends their own money, and if approved for a grant, then submits paperwork for reimbursement.)

Already received a grant?

• Here’s what you should know

About the LCC Program

Mass Cultural Council distributes funds to local and regional cultural councils, who then regrant funds to arts, humanities, and science projects in their own communities. Currently, there are 329 local and regional councils that represent all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. The program is administered by 2,500 municipally appointed volunteers serving statewide.

A hallmark of the LCC Program is the emphasis on local autonomy and decision making. LCCs are free to make funding decisions that best meet the particular needs and priorities of their community within the parameters of the broad state guidelines. Each LCC determines its own local eligibility requirements based on a community input process and these are incorporated into their local priorities and published to their Council Profile.

The LCC application process can be quite competitive. Because of the large number of requests and the limited funds available for regranting, many LCCs receive far more applications than they can fully, or even partially, fund. LCC grants vary by council and are determined by each LCC. Mass Cultural Council strongly encourages LCCs make awards of no less than a minimum of $250 to each approved application. Average grants tend to be modest ($500-$750) and are either reimbursement-based, meaning the applicant expends their own money, and if approved for a grant, then submits paperwork for reimbursement or directly-granted, meaning funding is provided up front to approved applicants and requires the applicant submit a W-9, grant agreement, and final report. Each LCC stipulates whether they provide reimbursement or direct grants on their Council Profile.

Applicants complete their applications online and submit them directly to the LCC to whom they are applying through the online system by the October 15 deadline.

While all LCCs use the same basic application form, some may require supplemental materials from their applicants. These can be uploaded and attached to your online application. Before submitting an application, applicants should read the LCC’s local guidelines and priorities for additional instructions.

Unless a Local Cultural Council prohibits the practice, it may be possible to submit more than one application to an LCC. However, because the demand for LCC funds far exceeds the supply, applicants should first contact their LCC to discuss whether or not it makes sense to submit more than one application or to prioritize the applications.

If an applicant feels that a program will provide public benefit to more than one community, they may submit an application to more than one LCC.

Guidelines Overview

In order to apply for an LCC grant, applicants must meet all eligibility and criteria requirements of the LCC Program. LCCs make funding decisions that best meet the particular needs and priorities of their community within the parameters of the state guidelines and local priorities. Key aspects of the eligibility requirements for LCC grants and criteria for funding are discussed below, as well as the few restrictions that Mass Cultural Council imposes on state funds. For more detailed information, please refer to the full LCC Program guidelines (PDF).

ELIGIBILITY

Application deadline: All applicants must submit completed applications by the statewide deadline. This year the deadline is October 15, 2026. Late applications cannot be accepted.

Mass Cultural Council’s grants management system can experience delays and service interruptions on deadline day, when many users are in the system at the same time. Failure to submit on time due to system delays on deadline day will not be grounds for a deadline extension. You are encouraged to complete your application well before the deadline. Applicants still working on their application in the final hours will likely face delays and interruptions and miss the deadline.

Applicants must reside or be located in Massachusetts. LCCs can prioritize eligible applicant types or limit which types of applicants they fund; if they do so, they must publish these details in their local guidelines before the LCC application opens. All applicants must show that a public benefit results from their project. LCCs may accept applications from anyone included in the following list.

• Individuals: Individual applicants, including sole proprietors.
• Nonprofit Organizations
• Unincorporated Groups: A group of individuals coming together for a common purpose (e.g., local community band, theater group) that do not have a formal legal status.
• For-Profit Organizations
• Tribal, Federal, State, and Municipal Government Organizations: This includes any governmental entity such as public schools, libraries, other municipal agencies, and LCCs.
• Religious Organizations: LCCs cannot fund activities that are “inherently religious” such as religious worship, instruction, and proselytization. Religious organizations or groups with a religious affiliation are eligible to apply for funding for a project or program that:
  • is available to the general public.
  • has the purpose of benefiting the public, not the religious organization.

What LCCs Can Fund: LCCs may approve grants for a broad range of projects and programs including but not limited to operating support, ticket subsidies, field trips, artist residencies, public art, fellowships, community events/programs, site specific projects, and other activities, based on local priorities. Each LCC determines its own local eligibility requirements based on the community engagement process.

Grantee Project/Program Timeline: Applicants may apply for grants for projects and programs that take place during an 18-month window from July 1 (before the application deadline in October) through December 31 of the following year. This means that applicants may apply for projects that have already happened or which happen prior to grant announcements of the current fiscal year cycle, with the knowledge that funding is not guaranteed. LCCs can establish a smaller window of eligibility; if they do so, they must publish these details in their local guidelines before the LCC application opens.

Grant Amounts: Grant sizes vary and are determined by each LCC. The Agency strongly encourages granting no less than a minimum of $250 to each approved application. To get a sense of typical award amounts, applicants should review the LCC’s funding list.

For more information read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

CRITERIA

Local Cultural Councils use the first three rules listed below in the review of all funding decisions. All three rules are equally important. Additionally, LCCs have the option of developing local review criteria and may decide how to weigh their importance:

1. Arts, Humanities, and Sciences
2. Public Benefit
3. Non-Discrimination
4. Local Criteria

Arts, Humanities, and Sciences
LCC funds may only be used to support programs in the arts, humanities, and sciences in Massachusetts. This definition includes the study, pursuit, performance, exhibition, and appreciation of cultural activities in the broadest sense.

How does Mass Cultural Council define the arts, humanities, and sciences?

• Arts refer to the creation of work in the crafts and performing, visual, media, folk, design, literary, and inter-disciplinary arts. In addition, they also include the presentation and preservation of, and education about works in these disciplines.
• Humanities are types of learning that deal with human values and aspirations, human thought and culture, language, and creativity. Examples include, but are not limited to, history, social studies, philosophy, criticism, and literature.
• Sciences are limited to its cultural, interpretive, and educational expression and refers to types of learning that deal with nature, science, and technology in ways that explain how they relate to people’s lives. Some organizations that conduct this type of activity include aquariums, botanical gardens, nature centers, natural history museums, planetariums, and science centers.

Public Benefit
LCC funds must support activities that contribute to the cultural vitality of the community rather than benefiting any private individual or group. However, this does not mean that a large crowd of people needs to participate to satisfy the public benefit requirement. Whenever possible, activities funded by LCCs should be available to the public or community by exhibit, performance, demonstration, reading, or other means. An important component of public benefit is advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and access. Programs do not need to be in-person to provide public benefit. Virtual and remote programming are also effective ways to make programming available to the public.

In looking at the requirement of applicants to offer public benefit to a community, LCCs should look towards responses from their community input process to better inform their local priorities.

Non-Discrimination
In accordance with state law, LCCs may not discriminate against applicants on the basis of race, gender, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, disability, sexual orientation or age, nor may they fund projects that discriminate on the basis of these attributes.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that persons with disabilities have access to public programs or services on an equal basis with the rest of the general public. Furthermore, federal law mandates that any programs or service that receives federal or state funding must be accessible to persons with disabilities and there must be reasonable accommodation made to provide an accessible environment. Therefore, all events and programs funded by the LCCs must consider access for persons with disabilities, including the facility or event location as well as the content of the program. To ensure equitable access, an applicant’s first step is a candid assessment and identification of barriers (physical, virtual, cultural, communication) followed by a bold and innovative plan for improvement.

If an applicant puts forward a proposal for a project with strong potential for public benefit, but the Local Cultural Council has concerns about access for persons with disabilities, the LCC may choose to award a conditional approval. This would allow the applicant the opportunity address the concerns and improve access as a condition of receiving the grant.

Local Criteria
Each year LCCs develop and post Local Guidelines & Priorities that are informed by their community’s needs and the types of applications received in the last cycle. LCCs are strongly encouraged to create their own local criteria (based on community input). These details must be published to the Council Profile on Mass Cultural Council’s web site to be used as criteria for granting decisions. If local criteria are not created, LCCs must exclusively follow the Agency’s guidelines for decision making.

• Guidelines clearly communicate any local application instructions or restrictions.
• Priorities help LCCs to support projects that best meet the needs of their community.

Local priorities will be posted on this web site by noon on September 1, 2026.

While Mass Cultural Council can encourage LCCs and provide guidance, LCCs have the authority to determine their own local priorities and criteria each year.

RESTRICTIONS

Grant funds received from an LCC may not be used to purchase alcoholic beverages of any kind per Mass General Laws governing municipal finance.

RECONSIDERATION

An applicant may request reconsideration of an LCC decision on his or her application if the applicant can demonstrate that the LCC failed to follow published state guidelines and local priorities. Dissatisfaction with the denial of an application or with the amount of an award does not constitute grounds for reconsideration.

Denial notifications are sent automatically through the grants management system once the LCC marks the application as denied in the system. The notice will provide a clear reason for the denial based on state guidelines or local priorities. “Insufficient funds” does not provide applicants with adequate rationale for the denial decision. LCCs cannot decline an application for the sole reason that an applicant was unable to attend an interview.

Reconsideration requests should be made via email. The request must be sent to Mass Cultural Council at our email address ([email protected]) within 15 days of the notification date on the disapproval letter (timestamp on email). Business days, weekends, and holidays count toward the 15-day limit. The applicant should also send a copy of the request to the LCC. The request should include:

• The LCC’s disapproval notification to the applicant.
• The applicant’s reason for requesting reconsideration stating how the LCC failed to follow published state guidelines or local criteria.

Within 15 days of receiving a reconsideration request, Mass Cultural Council will determine if the applicant has grounds for reconsideration and will notify both the applicant and LCC of its decision via email.

If Mass Cultural Council determines that the applicant has grounds for reconsideration, the LCC must convene a quorum of members and review the application, as if for the first time. Following all published state guidelines and local priorities, the LCC must decide whether to approve or deny the grant request and must notify the applicant of the final determination in writing.

Grant Payment

LCCs choose and must post whether they make Reimbursement or Direct payments on their Council Profile before the opening of the grant cycle.

• Reimbursement: This process reimburses the grantee for funds they have expended. Once the project is complete, the grantee submits a reimbursement request form.
• Direct Grant: This process authorizes municipalities to make grant money available in full and up front to grant recipients once the grantee submits their grant agreement form.

Payments may be made either directly to the grantee or to third party vendors who have provided goods, materials, or services to the applicant. All grant recipients have one year from the date of their approval notification to request reimbursement (or submit a completed grant contract). Late requests, made outside the valid payment period, risk loss of funds as LCCs are required to regrant unspent funds each year.

Read more about the Reimbursement & Direct Grant payment processes in the full LCC Program Guidelines (PDF).

Tax implications to grantees. LCCs and grantees should be advised that grant payments can be considered taxable income depending on a variety of factors. Most recipients of grant payments will be required to complete a W-9. Recipients should discuss the impact of any grant payment on their tax filings with a tax professional. Individuals who are the recipient of income-based benefits should not receive payment without first contacting the agency or agencies providing the benefits as one-time payments can disrupt benefits.

Grant Extensions and Modifications: Grant recipients also have one year from the date of their approval notification to request a grant extension or modification. These requests must be made in writing (email or hard copy) and responded to in the same manner. Grant recipients need the LCC’s written permission (email or hard copy) to make changes to their projects. At their discretion, LCCs can approve reasonable project extensions and modifications, although these requests should not significantly alter the original purpose of the approved application.

FY27 Timeline

September

• Grant application opens September 1.
• By noon on September 1, LCC funding priorities and additional requirements will appear on their Council Profiles. Applicants should visit the profile of the LCC to which they are applying to learn of any priorities or required supplemental materials, such as a support letter, to be submitted with their application.

October

• Grant applications must be submitted to the LCC through the grants management system by the deadline, October 15, 2026 at 11:59pm (ET).

November – December

• LCCs hold voting meetings to make decisions on applications, send denial letters, and address reconsideration requests.

January – March

• LCCs submit their Grant Decisions Report on January 15, 2027.
• LCCs send approval notifications and publicize grant awards.
• LCCs begin processing reimbursement requests or direct grants.

Ongoing

• LCCs process reimbursement requests with their municipality. The time it takes LCCs and cities/towns to process reimbursements varies but can take up to 4-8 weeks.
• Grantees carry out their programs, submit reimbursement or Direct Grant materials, and acknowledge the funding they’ve received through Mass Cultural Council/LCC.

Grants Management System

All applicants should submit their applications through the Agency’s online system.

To access Mass Cultural Council’s grants management system, a user account using a unique email address (your username) with a secure password is required. Each user also completes a personal profile (“My Profile”).

If you are an LCC applicant and have not applied to any other Mass Cultural Council programs, or are applying for an LCC grant for the first time, you do not have a record in the new system. Click “Register” to create a new user account/password and then select a profile type (individual or organization) to register.

• Register as an Individual if you are applying for a grant for yourself or a project you are leading. In this case you will be considered the applicant and grantee.
• Register as an Organization if you are applying for a grant on behalf of an organization, school, town, or other group. In this case the organization is the applicant and grant recipient, and you are the primary contact for the application.​

Start typing your organization’s name, select your organization from the list, and then complete your contact information. If your organization is not listed, follow the directions to add your organization information and your contact information to register your organization manually.

Applicants who have previously applied for LCC grants AND other Mass Cultural Council grants are likely to have a record in the new grants management system.

To see if you already have a record, go to the grants management system and click “Forgot password?” Enter your email address. If the email you entered matches the one in our system, you will be sent an email from “[email protected]” with instructions for resetting your password.

Proceed to the Online Application