Moody Fund for the Arts
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Application Deadline
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Opportunity Type
Grant
Scope
Texas
Fee to Apply
Free
Organized by
Arts Fort Worth
Description
The Moody Fund for the Arts (MFA) was created in 2017 as a permanent endowment that would help fund the work and projects of small and emerging arts organizations supported by the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture (OAC). MFA aspires to be a transformative fund that will raise the scope of engagement with the arts throughout the Dallas community. Through flexible grant-making, MFA will encourage enterprising and diverse cultural offerings and help sustain the mission of Moody Performance Hall to provide a stage in the Dallas Arts District for small and mid-sized groups. MFA grants are made possible through a generous $10 million gift from The Moody Foundation, based in Galveston, TX. In 2018, its first year of grant-making, MFA awarded $150,000 in grants through an online application and multi-level peer review process. In 2025, its eighth year, MFA distributed $445,000 in grants to 66 Dallas arts organizations, reaching a total of $2,825,000 with 428 grants, touching 106 unique organizations.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
To qualify for submission, the applicant organization must: Be based, or have a permanent office, in the city of Dallas MFA is not able to award grants to individual artists nor to “fiscal sponsors” Have 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, and be specifically classified as a Public Charity in the Internal Revenue Code Supported by the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture: Approved for OAC funding in the City's current fiscal year up to the MFA filing deadline (Oct. 1, 2025 - Feb. 17, 2026) - or Successfully executed an OAC-funded program in the City's last fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2024 - Sept. 30, 2025) including meeting OAC reporting requirements Have an annual operating budget of less than $1 million Be sustainable and demonstrate effectiveness and credibility Organization should have a three-year history of providing relevant work and services (this does not mean the group has to have been a 501(c)(3) or OAC-supported for three years) The limit for the individual grant awards for 2025 was $12,000 and the total distributed was $445,000. The grant award limit for 2026 is $15,000. A multi-year request is acceptable, but the amount to be awarded in 2026 may not exceed the yearly limit Each group may submit only one request per annual award cycle Previous MFA grant recipients are not eligible to file a new application if outcome reporting on the previous grant was not completed in a timely manner