Cultural, Heritage, Rural and Nature Marketing Grant Program Guidelines

VISIT FLORIDA administers the Cultural, Heritage, Rural and Nature Marketing Grant program (CHRN-Marketing) to publicize the tourism advantages of Florida’s cultural, heritage, rural, and nature tourism products. The CHRN-Marketing Grant program is a reimbursement grant program. The application period for this grant begins on December 17, 2015 and ends on February 8, 2016.

Allocation

Each grant awarded under the program shall be limited to no more than $5,000 and must be matched by non-state dollars. This is a dollar for dollar matching grant. However, the matching requirement for counties with no local tourist option tax is reduced to 50% match by non-state dollars for those rural counties. VISIT FLORIDA will award funds once proof of expenditure and performance has been provided for the project/program. All project/program expenditures must be completed during the period of July 1, 2016 through June 15, 2017. VISIT FLORIDA will not reimburse any expenditure prior to July 1, 2016.

Eligibility

To receive an award under the CHRN-Marketing Grant program, the applicant must be and provide proof that they are either a public entity governed by a county, municipality, school district, community college, college, university or an agency of state government, or a not-for-profit, (501(C)3 or 501(C)6) tax exempt Florida corporation. The applicant must be a current VISIT FLORIDA Partner.  

For-profit companies are ineligible to be the lead applicant for the Cultural Heritage, Rural and Nature Marketing Grants program.

Applicants should consider involving at least one or more counties or VISIT FLORIDA partners.

Grant funds should be used for marketing purposes to promote tourism advantages of the State of Florida cultural, heritage, rural, and nature tourism products through advertising (print, broadcast, digital, social media or out of home), direct mail, brochure production, website development, as well as other related projects. Marketing efforts cannot include VISIT FLORIDA opportunities, i.e. Welcome Center brochure distribution or VISIT FLORIDA produced publications. All marketing efforts must include the VISIT FLORIDA Grant Logo in compliance with the brand guidelines. The VISIT FLORIDA Grant Logo Guidelines can be found at www.VISITFLORIDA.org/grants in the Grants Toolkit.

No applicant may be considered for or receive more than one CHRN-Marketing Grant per year.

No applicant may use any other VISIT FLORIDA grant funds, for the same project or as matching funds.  Dollar-for-dollar match and/or in-kind goods or services must be demonstrated. Staff salaries are not eligible towards matching funds. In-kind goods or services must be provided by third party entities.

 Should you have any questions, please contact us at grants@VISITFLORIDA.org.  

Grant applications will be evaluated by a Review Committee comprised of tourism professionals and approved by VISIT FLORIDA’s CEO and reported to the VISIT FLORIDA CHRN Committee and VISIT FLORIDA Board of Directors.

 Grantees awarded grant funds will receive a Letter of Agreement, which must be signed and returned to VISIT FLORIDA before the grant is activated.

For additional information, please go to the Grants Category to the link next to the CHRN-Marketing drop down selection.