New Grants Application and Reporting Portal

We are excited to announce that our new Grants Application and Reporting portal is now live! Applicants for New England States Touring (NEST) and National Dance Project Production grants will be the first to use the new portal to apply. 

What’s new? 

• The new Grants Application and Reporting portal features an improved design and user experience, allowing applicants and grantees to apply, check on decision status, and report on grants more intuitively. 
• Applications and reports in our new system are more screen-reader friendly and boast better contrast and visibility. 

What do I need to know as an applicant? 

• You need to create a new account to apply to any NEFA grants, regardless of whether you have applied for a grant in the past. You will be able to create a new account from the login page of the new portal when you click Apply Now on an open opportunity. 
• All NEFA grants with open applications moving forward will be transitioned to our new portal. 
• Continue visiting NEFA’s Find A Grant page for open opportunities. When you select Apply Now or Resume My Application on an open opportunity, you will be sent to the correct portal. 
• For more information about how the new portal works, see this video walkthrough or read our Frequently Asked Questions one-pager. 

What do I need to know as an active grantee or previous applicant? 

• Active grants and applications prior to 2025 will still live in our current portal until summer 2025.  
• If you need to report on a grant received prior to 2025, log into our prior grants portal to do so. 
• If you need to view historical grant applications, log into our prior grants portal to do so. 
• Active grants will move into NEFA’s new portal in summer 2025. At that time, all active grantees will receive email communications from NEFA with  information about how to access and report on these grants. Grantees will continue to receive notifications from NEFA when Grantee Reports are upcoming or overdue. 

New Grants Portal Video Walkthrough

Watch the video, above, or read the transcript, below.

Read the Transcript of the New Grants Portal Video

Welcome to the New England Foundation for the Arts’ Grantee Portal! This portal is used for applying for, managing, and reporting on grants. 

This portal is brand new as of January 2025. That means that if you are coming to the portal to apply for a grant, you will need to create a new account, regardless of whether you have previously applied for or received NEFA grants. To create a new account, click New user? 

The first decision to make is whether you will be applying primarily as an individual, or a representative of an organization/group. 

If you are applying as a legally registered entity in any capacity, be it 501 c 3 or LLC, then select Organization. If you are applying as an individual, select individual. If you are not sure, perhaps the following information about what will be collected for each option may help you determine which category to select.   

At the time of account creation, organizations will be required to enter the following information:   

• Organization Legal and Public Name 
• Organization EIN or Federal Employer ID (Tax ID) Number. ONLY legally registered entities will have this. If you are an LLC, you may have to enter 00- followed by 7 more 0’s. Please do not EVER enter your personal social security information into this field.  
• Unique Entity ID or UEI: Again, legally registered entities will have a UEI. To get your UEI, please visit (SAM.gov). If you do not yet have one, you may enter 12 0’s into this field for the time being.  
• Institution Type, Legal Status, and Artist Discipline – please select the option that best represents your organization   
• Organization website  
• CreativeGround Profile: only New England Based organizations will have a CreativeGround Profile. You may skip this if you do not have one.  
• Contact Information: please enter the information for the person that grant staff should reach out to regarding questions about or issues with your application.  
  • Please note: the email you enter in this section WILL become your Username. Please remember which email address you enter!   
• Organization Address 
• How did you hear about NEFA? (Select all that apply. To select multiple options, hold CTRL on your keyboard when you add a new option to your selection.)  

Now we will review the information that is required if you register as an Individual.

At the time of account creation, individuals will be required to enter the following information:   

• Your Contact Information 
• Your Mailing Address 
• How did you hear about NEFA? (Select all that apply. To select multiple options, hold CTRL on your keyboard when you add a new option to your selection.)  

When you have completed the registration steps, press Submit. You will then receive an email to the email address you entered in the Contact Information section. 

Click the link in the email you receive to set a password 

After you set your password, you may be automatically logged in to the portal, or you may need to log in using the email and password you just set.

Now, let’s check out the Dashboard! Here you will find your applications and grantee reports. There are three areas where you can find information: 

My Active Applications: here, you will see any applications you have begun which are either still in progress, or awaiting an award decision by NEFA. 

My Awarded Grants: here you will find any grants that have been awarded by NEFA, along with any Grantee Reports requested from you by NEFA. 

My Historical Applications: here you will see any applications that you filled out in the past which were either not awarded, or not completed. 

Note that as of January 2025, historical applications and awarded grants before 2025 will not be available in this portal. We expect that those will be available some time in summer 2025. 

The Notifications panel will show an alert when you have an open application or Grantee Report with an upcoming deadline. 

Now, let’s look at managing Active Applications.

This page allows you to take action and manage applications that are in progress and awaiting a decision.  

If you have any applications which you have already submitted, but which are awaiting a decision from NEFA, you will see them here. You can view a full summary of the application you submitted by clicking View Request.

To download your application, use the Download button. 

If you have any applications in progress, they will display here with the basic details including the application deadline date. You will be able to Resume the Application by clicking Resume Application. Now, let’s look at how you create a new application.

You can review open opportunities by going to the NEFA website (www.nefa.org) and clicking Find A Grant. On the opportunity you’d like to pursue, select Apply Now. If you already have an application in progress, you can instead click on Resume My Application. Either way, you will be sent to the main login screen and use your account information to log in to the portal. 

Please note that the page may take a moment to load.  

The application form will guide you through the required and optional questions that will help our grant reviewers make a decision on whether your application will receive a grant. Please read the instructions in the right-hand panel carefully before you begin. 

Make sure you have checked the eligibility and funding criteria of the grant to which you are applying before completing the application. 

Notice that some information from your registration is automatically prefilled in the application. You can overwrite this if you’d like, or leave it if it is correct. 

You are welcome to scroll through the application before completing all questions, but we recommend that before you do anything else, you enter a Project or Application Name, and Save. This will ensure that you are able to return to the application at a later date.  

Note that Saving the application may take two steps – Select Save my progress and resume later, and then press Save.  

You will be shown a confirm screen when the application has saved. To return to the application, click My Active Applications, find the in progress application you just saved, and select Resume Application. 

The form can now be continued. Use the page guidance at the top or the next page button at the bottom of each page to move through the application sections. 

Some questions are long-form, or narrative, questions. We recommend that you work on these in an external platform, like a Word document, before copying and pasting into the application. This allows you to work on refining your answers without worrying about the application timing out. Be aware that the fields have character limits, and when copying and pasting, you may encounter differences in how the characters are counted. 

Some pages are only available if your application answers meet certain criteria. Do not worry if a page is not available to you, it simply means that section is not relevant to you, and has no bearing on your eligibility or likelihood to receive the grant. 

Once you have completed the application to your satisfaction, save a final time, then return to the application and navigate to the last page. There, press Submit. 

You may be taken to a final review page, where you can review or print your answers, or you may simply receive a confirmation of your submission. If you are directed to the review page, you MUST make sure to hit Confirm at the bottom of the page, or your application will not be submitted.  

Either way, you will receive an email confirming your submission. Once a decision has been made on your application, you will receive another email informing you of the decision, and your application will move either to the My Awarded Grants or My Historical Applications section. 

That’s it! If you have any further questions, or experience any issues, please contact your program staff and/or email tech@nefa.org.

Additional Questions? 

Contact NEFA’s Technology and Data team