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Festivals & Special Events Funding
THE fy24 RFP for FESTIVAL AND SPECIAL EVENT PROCESS Opens July 12!
Background on Festivals and Special Events Request for Proposals (RFP)
The City of Durham recognizes that festivals, parades, and other celebrations play an important role in fostering community well-being, creating local identity, and in contributing to an improved quality of life of Durham residents and visitors. Community-based festivals and events reflect the vibrant, distinct and diverse character of Durham and its residents while offering opportunities to create economic, social, health and community benefits. The City of Durham is seeking proposals from qualified entities to support virtual and/or in-person events for FY24 year for new or existing cultural and arts festivals and special events occurring between July 1, 2023 to December 31, 2024.
The goals of the FY24 Festival and Special Events Funding are to support organizations and events that:
- Encourage awareness of art, history and/or culture,
- Create vibrancy for Durham’s communities,
- Promote equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility,
- Benefit Durham’s economy and communities, and
- Demonstrate organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
The City may support festivals, events, parades, and other celebrations in the circumstances where economic and social benefits are provided for the community and the eligibility criteria are met. The level of support by the City of Durham is determined by:
- Available funding and other demands on the City’s annual budget,
- Economic and Social benefits of the Festival or Special Event to the community,
- Durham community’s support of the Festival or Special Event,
- Level of Community support of previous Festival or Special Events held in the proposed location or organized by the same organization, and
- Expressions of interest received by the City of Durham in providing other festivals/events.
PROPOSAL ATTACHMENTS 1 - 7
The following attachments are required as part of the online proposal portal on Submittable. Attachments 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 are required and Attachment 5 is optional.
Attachment 1: Letter of Determination from the IRS stating nonprofit status
Required. For more information on nonprofit status from the IRS is available here: https://www.irs.gov/charities-and-nonprofits. Preferred format: PDF document(s)
Attachment 2: Charitable Solicitation License
Required. Not-for-profit organizations are required to complete a Charitable Solicitation License from the North Carolina Secretary of State, unless they are determined to be exempt. "Any organization or person that intends to directly solicit contributions in North Carolina, or intends to hire a person or business to solicit contributions in North Carolina, must first obtain a license from the Charities Division. Organizations must renew their licenses each year to maintain licensed status." More information on Charitable Solicitation Licensing can be found on the North Carolina Secretary of State’s website, here: https://www.sosnc.gov/divisions/charities or https://www.sosnc.gov/divisions/charities/licensing. Preferred format: PDF document(s)
Attachment 3: One-page Budget of Festival/Event including the income & expenses
Required. The Budget attachment must be one-page. The applicant must outline requested City expenses and outline the income and expenses related to the proposed festival and/or special event. The budget should be provided as an e-file. Example of formatting can be found in the RFP document. Preferred format: PDF document(s)
Attachment 4: Report on Organization’s Board and Staff Demographics
Required. Based on the recommendation of the Durham Cultural Advisory Board to address goal 3 of the RFP (promotes equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility), the respondents shall provide aggregated data (percentages) of the not-for-profit board member and festival staff demographic information. Click on icon below for form.
Attachment 5: Support Materials
Optional. Maximum of 5 files; no more than 10 pages per file. For example, respondents may include photographs, images, media, news articles, videos, marketing campaigns, etc. to convey the past and future festival and special event activities. Preferred format: PDF document(s)
Attachment 6: Contractor Workforce Diversity Questionnaire
Required. The Diversity Questionnaire will not be used as a factor in determining a recommendation for award; however, the completed Diversity Questionnaire will be required of the Contractor before any contract will be authorized for execution. It is recommended that the Diversity Questionnaire be submitted at the same time as the Proposal in order to facilitate the processing of the Contractor’s information. This form is not included as part of any submittal page maximum. Click on icon below for the form.
Attachment 7: Non-Collusion Affidavit
Required. The Non-Collusion Affidavit must be included in the RFP submission, as a signed, notarized document. Click on icon below for the form.
WORKSHOPS & OFFICE HOURS
City staff hosts RFP Overview Workshops and Office Hours virtually on Zoom for interested applicants to review the RFP process and proposal form. Registration is required. The presentation from the workshop is available here and below.
Service request:
Click or call 919-560-1200