Read on for step-by-step guidance and practical tips approaching NEA. While federal funding is not the primary source of money for cultural organizations in the United States, there is no doubt that receiving a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is seen as a badge of honor in our field. For many groups, adding the NEA on their website can mean a level of respect and trust from their community, donors, and other funding institutions.
Many groups who come to Benvenuti Arts looking for institutional fundraising support assume that they would not qualify for the NEA because of their size. To the contrary, we have found that even smaller organizations can achieve this milestone if they are prepared, thoughtful, and able to thoroughly plan ahead with their programming. Often, what is most important when approaching the NEA is not your budget size, but the level of detail that you can provide in your application as well as thorough preparation and planning long before the grant is due.
In this post, we are going to discuss the nuts and bolts of applying to the NEA. Like any funder, you want to be thorough and thoughtful in the written application itself, but you can find advice for that in many other places including on the NEA’s website itself.
Most important to remember is this practical tip: if you are thinking about applying to the NEA, you need to be planning about a year ahead. Before you can even apply, you need to go through the below step-by-step guidance registration process:
- Register for the government platforms Login.gov, SAM.gov and Grants.gov (watch our Approaching NEA Reel walking you through those steps!).
- Speak with your NEA program officer to learn more about your specific program area, and
- Ensure you can commit to a project within the timeline of the NEA deadline under which you are applying.
SAM.gov is the US federal government’s vendor management system, and all entities receiving any money from the United States government – including grants – must be registered. This can be a stressful process to start, and could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to complete and get approved. Additionally, you will see a couple other sites pop up in this process. Login.gov is where you will create a log in that is used across all NEA platforms. Grants.gov is where you register for NEA grants once they are open. If you are awarded a grant, the NEA then manages grants in their REACH system. All of these use Login.gov. And you can’t get to any of the others until you register in SAM.gov.

If all of this seems confusing, it’s because it is!
But at BA, we have extensive experience with this process and have led numerous groups through it, so we can help provide some clarity on the steps to take.
First things first: create an account at Login.gov if you do not have one already. This first step is your “skeleton key” for all the platforms noted above. Take note of your Login.gov credentials.
Then, to register your organization on SAM.gov, start by logging in using your Login.gov credentials. From there, navigate to your SAM.gov workspace and select “Get started” under “Register Your Entity” line. Be ready to provide essential details about your organization, including:

- its legal name,
- physical address,
- date and state of incorporation,
- the end date of your fiscal year,
- Taxpayer Identification Number,
- taxpayer name and address, and
- CAGE code if you already have it (most groups do not. You will know if you do!)
SAM.gov will ask you if you’d like to register for “Financial Assistance Awards Only” or “All Awards.” “Financial Assistance Awards Only” is sufficient for the NEA grant.
As part of the process, you’ll receive a Unique Entity ID – make sure to save this, as it will be required in the future. Double-check the accuracy of the Points of Contact (POC) information. It’s crucial to use the same email for the EBiz Point of Contact (POC) that you’ll use for your Grants.gov account. Once you hit “Submit”, it may take a few weeks for SAM.gov to review and approve your registration. Check the status of your entity registration regularly in case any changes need to be made.
A special note here: once you are registered in SAM, you may get emails from vendors trying to get you to pay them to upkeep your SAM. Ignore these. SAM.gov is always free, and any emails coming from them will come from a .gov email address. We have unfortunately see groups pay $500 towards these scams, so be on alert!
Once SAM is registered and approved, you can then work on preparing to apply. The NEA has multiple grant programs, but most groups apply under the Grants for Arts Projects (GAP) program, which has deadlines in February and July each year. You should read about the different programs and deadlines, then find the program officer for your discipline on the NEA’s website. Here’s another important NEA step – email this person, including in that message:
- Your organization name;
- Your geographic location;
- Your discipline; and
- A request to schedule a call to discuss how an organization like yours might best apply.
This is not a pitch meeting! When you speak, you want to figure out which funding opportunity (GAP, Challenge America, etc.) is best for your organization and under what art form you should apply. The second part of that can be harder than it seems: we have two different groups who both provide arts training for young people, and one applies under Theater and the other under Arts Education. The Program Officers can help you figure out where your program fits.
When you have this call, you should be prepared to discuss two to three ideas for projects. Again, this is not a pitch! This will give the Program Officer a fuller understanding of your programming and where you fit. When considering these programs, look closely at the guidelines and timeline. For example, NEA grants are awarded almost a full year in advance. So, if you apply in February, 2025, your program can start no earlier than January 1, 2026. Additionally, you may be able to apply for a phase of a project – development, public workshop, premiere – instead of the full thing. Also, something to note: NEA does not fund an entire “season” of work! Think of finite “projects” as the grant name suggests. Last, the minimum NEA grant is $10,000 and they require a one-to-one match, so your project’s budget must be at least $20,000. Please think through all of this before emailing the Program Officers.
Once you have been approved in SAM and have had a guiding discussion with a program officer, it’s time to prepare to apply.

Each deadline has two parts, and we advice following this registration parts step-by-step. Part 1 is a simple registration form in grants.gov. There are clear instructions for this on the NEA website. Another NEA practical tip, this does not require a narrative and is not judged as part of your grant application. Many people delay this part, thinking it’s going to be labor intensive, when it truly takes 10 minutes to complete. They even provide a “step-by-step” guide on exactly what to answer in each field, as shown here in the Theater discipline’s FY25 guidelines, pages 3-7.) We recommend having this guide up as you fill out Part 1 to expedite the process.
Once you submit that, you will receive a series of emails from grants.gov which will contain information that you’ll use on Part 2 of the NEA application (aka, the “actual” application with all the narrative questions etc.). Save these emails from grants.gov! Within the emails, you will be assigned with a “Grants.gov Number” and an “Agency Tracking Number.” Your User Name is your Grants.gov Number (example: GRANT82543621) and your Password is your Agency Tracking Number/NEA Application Number (example: 1536247). Save this information because it’ll be your login info for yet another platform: NEA Go. This is where you will enter and submit your application when the time comes.
NEA Go only opens for about a week each round. You simply cannot wait until this platform opens to start writing! On the NEA website are pdf’s that list all of the sections of the application for each discipline (scroll down to “PART 1 & 2 INSTRUCTIONS AND APPLICATION QUESTIONS”).
You can begin writing as early as you’d like (they publish the 2025 deadline in mid-December 2024, so you could start writing now for the July 2025 deadline if you wanted!) and we do suggest you start early, following these NEA practical tips! While the sections are not long, there are many of them, so you want to give yourself time to storyboard, budget, collect supplementals, and, ideally, get a colleague to read it for you before you submit.
Is your head spinning? I know this is a lot, but we have laid it out here step-by-step for you. We suggest copying and pasting this text into a document and crossing out each step as you go.
And, as always, if you need help, just give us a shout!