If You Have an Open NEA Grant, Collect It Now Before It’s Too Late
In an email sent out on Friday, January 31, Film Festival Alliance‘s Executive Director, Barbara Twist, offered guidance to member organizations and others on how they should respond to the Trump Administration‘s freezing and possible purging of federal funding throughout multiple sectors of government. As a recipient of an NEA grant itself and concerned over a potential pause in funding, FFA made the decision to close out their account back in December 2024 and is now advising all fellow NEA grantees do the same.
“I encourage all of our member organizations and others with open NEA grants to close them out early if you have incurred reimbursable expenses,” Twist wrote. “For those who are in the middle of a grant cycle, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with how you may be able to reduce or adjust your scope of activities so that your grant obligations can be fulfilled sooner. The NEA has historically allowed grantees to make changes to their projects and scope of activities. You can do this through the grant portal.”
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These sentiments were later echoed by Art House Collective in an email sent to its supporters. Twist pointed to a recent article published by Science.org that detailed the Trump Administration’s new vetting process in regard to funds already awarded through the National Science Foundation as a reason to take action before it’s too late. During its review of grants awarded, the NSF blocked grantees from accessing funds.
Speaking in a recent conversation with IndieWire, Twist shared that she was preparing for the same to happen with the NEA. This comes following a slate of executive orders handed down by President Trump upon his inauguration freezing federal funding for what he believes to be “woke gender ideology;” diversity, equity, and inclusion; foreign aid; the green new deal; and support for nongovernmental organizations that — as he and his administration claim — undermine the national interest.
Twist described the government possibly going back on its funding commitments as a “breaking of trust” that would have a negative trickle-down effect on the overall economy. For instance, if organizations can no longer afford to host festivals as a result of grants being pulled, that’s money being taken away from cities that see a financial boost from these gatherings. This includes events in Ann Arbor, MI, Austin, TX, New York, NY, and Smyrna, GA, all of which received NEA grants in 2025’s first round of funding announced on January 14.
105 Film & Media Arts grants were unveiled at that time, cumulatively amounting to $2,835,000 in spending, with the next round traditionally coming in May. Based on the NSF’s actions, as well as Trump’s dissolution of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities previously revived by the Biden Administration, Twist urged the film community to be proactive.
“Attention is the new currency. Use it,” her email said. “The more we can share our stories, our impact, and our value, across all channels, platforms, and outlets, we can engage the American people in standing up for their right to access art of all kinds, not just the art approved by some.”
The National Endowment of the Arts was formed as an act of Congress that was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. It serves as the largest funder of art and arts education in communities throughout America. Twist estimated its grants often provide as much as 30% of the budgets for nonprofit arts organizations, public arts agencies and organizations, arts programs at colleges and universities, as well as federally recognized tribal communities or tribes, and individual writers and translators, while only constituting .003% of federal spending.
In 1981, President Reagan went on a crusade to abolish the NEA, with multiple plans to break it apart, ranging from an immediate halt to halving its budget. As his special task force on arts and humanities went about this work, however, it quickly realized federal support was vital to this sector. Ironically enough, under Reagan, the NEA’s budget eventually rose to its highest levels up to that point.
Another effort to defund the endowment led by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich during the 1990s also failed, as well as an attempt made by Donald Trump during his first term as President. Trump’s first outlined budget, made in March 2017, eliminated funding entirely, but Congress refused to allow this. His 2018 budget also held back spending on the NEA, but Congress retained it for another year. Perhaps possible future initiatives will be doomed to fail as well, but for now, better to be prepared for anything.
Read Twist’s entire email to Film Festival Alliance below.
Dear FFA Members and Film Community,
The past few weeks have been filled with rapid change and great tragedy. We at FFA are focused deeply on the independent film community and our member festivals. As part of our advocacy work, we are also tracking the recent Executive Orders and actions of the current Administration to understand how they will impact our film festivals, filmmakers, and film workers.
I do not write with the intention of alarm, only with a word of extreme caution.
With this in mind, I write today with concern about arts funding for our sector, and in particular, with regards to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Back in December, Film Festival Alliance was concerned about the possible pause of funds disbursement for our own NEA grant and because we had already incurred adequate expenses and raised matching funds, we made the decision to close out our grant early.
I encourage all of our member organizations and others with open NEA grants to close them out early if you have incurred reimbursable expenses. For those who are in the middle of a grant cycle, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with how you may be able to reduce or adjust your scope of activities so that your grant obligations can be fulfilled sooner. The NEA has historically allowed grantees to make changes to their projects and scope of activities. You can do this through the grant portal.
Other Things to Note:
Please remember that your project budget only needs to show the grant amount and match, i.e. your grant award is $25,000, therefore your expenses need only equal $50,000.
For your final report narrative, I have found it to be very helpful to take our grant application as a template, and move through that to provide final updates in the same format. For those of you who may not have access to a grant writer, I encourage you to consider that approach.
I would also encourage those with grants spanning multiple years to consider how you may be able to fulfill your grant obligations early in order to close them out.
I am encouraging all of the above for those who have received grant awards with start dates as late as June 1, 2024. I strongly recommend that you apply as quickly as possible for your final disbursement. We’ve seen the speed of the current government and its actions – please consider that as you work to close out those grants.
Why is Film Festival Alliance making this recommendation?
I would encourage all of you to review this Science.org article regarding the vetting process currently ongoing at the NSF. I suspect the NEA grant process is run very similarly to the NSF, so we should assume what is taking place at the NSF may be taking place at the NEA.
For the most up to date language being issued by the Administration, I strongly encourage you to read through the Executive Orders here. We should assume that what is emerging in these Executive Orders will be filtered down to grant funding requirements and review processes.
I don’t have a grant, what can I do about it?
Those without active NEA grants can assist in many ways:
Spread the word. Reach out to organizations you know have NEA grants and make sure they are aware of the opportunities they have to close their grants early.
Reach out to your local, state, and federal representatives. Communicate with them often about your organization, the cultural and economic value of your work, and the impact on your workforce.
Talk to your community. Engage your members, ticketbuyers, and donors in this work. Make sure they understand the cultural and economic value of your work, and provide them with facts and figures to support it. We encourage you to reference our Economic Impact report here from earlier in 2024, along with Americans for the Arts and any state or regional level impact reports produced by tourism or film commission offices.
As the indie film community, we are used to working with limited resources to make tremendous change. While we deserve expansive resources for our incredible work, we must take this moment to leverage our unique resilience into collective action.
Attention is the new currency. Use it. The more we can share our stories, our impact, and our value, across all channels, platforms, and outlets, we can engage the American people in standing up for their right to access art of all kinds, not just the art approved by some.
FFA will host a webinar soon to further discuss this topic — details forthcoming.
With hope and strength,
Barbara
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