HAA Funding

This page is an overview of our publicly and privately funded programs.

What are our sources of funding?

Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) is a local arts and culture organization whose principal work is to implement the City of Houston’s vision, values, and goals for its arts grantmaking and civic art investments.

HAA is powered by public and private funding.

Private funding from organizations and individual donors fuels special projects. 

This includes disaster preparation, arts education equity for Houston students, research on the state of the arts in Houston, and temporary public art projects that energize neighborhoods. 

Public funding from the City of Houston fuels grant programs and civic art investments. 

The specific source of funds for City-funded competitive grants is the Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT). Hotel room bookings in Houston generate HOT revenue. A portion of HOT revenue is dedicated to promoting arts and cultural tourism to the city. 

The City funds HAA's Civic Art investments through separate, non-HOT sources.

All of HAA’s public work is conducted through contracts with the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (MOCA).

How do we allocate HOT revenue?

Each year, HOT funds are divided and allocated for three purposes:

  • 74.5 percent goes to competitive grants for individual artists and art organizations. Those funds are then divided into the following grant categories:

  • 36 percent goes to organizations with operating expenses over $10 million 

  • 36 percent goes to organizations with operating expenses under $10 million and individual artists and creatives (i.e. SACI, LCH, Festivals) 

  • 2.5 percent goes to City’s Initiative

  • 16.5 percent goes to Miller Outdoor Theater. This percentage is contractually set by the City.  

  • 9 percent goes to administrative costs for HAA’s staffing and operations

What grants are funded by HOT revenue?

HAA administers five grant programs known as Support for Organizations (SO), Support for Artists and Creative Individuals (SACI), Festivals (FG),  Let Creativity Happen! (LCH) and City’s Initiative (CI). These HOT-funded grants are awarded to individual artists and art organizations through a competitive application process. 

The number of grants awarded, as well as the amount of funds each grantee receives, is calculated based on HOT revenue projections for the following year. This is known as a projected funding model, which is used to award HAA’s SO grants.

Select grants, including SACI, Festival, LCH, and City’s Initiative, are funded by cash-in-hand, not projected income.

Applicants who are selected to be grant recipients are informed of their projected grant amounts - and of the possibility that those amounts may change depending on realized HOT revenue - prior to signing their grant contracts with HAA. 

How did HAA respond to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on HOT revenue? 

2020 grants were reduced to half of their projected amounts due to the pandemic’s impact on HOT revenue. In response, HAA worked closely with the arts community and MOCA to create a one-time change to the 2021 grant process to address the financial, professional, and social effects this global event had on 2020 grantees.

2021 Grantmaking Process Change

Each year, 74.5 percent of HOT revenue is dedicated to competitive grants. Exclusively in 2021, those funds were available to both 2020 grantees and new 2021 grantees, and divided as follows:

  • 63 percent of that revenue was allocated to 2020 grantees through an optional contract extension.

  • 37 percent of that revenue was allocated to a competitive grants process that was open to members of the arts community who didn’t, or wouldn’t in 2021, have an existing grant contract with HAA. 2020 grantees who opted to extend their contracts were not eligible for 2021 competitive grant opportunities.

Prior to 2021, SACI, SO, and Festival grants were funded based on projections.

Additionally, to introduce more predictability and stability to grants funding: 

  • SACI and Festival grants became funded with cash-in-hand instead of projections

  • LCH and City’s Initiative grants continue to be funded with cash-in-hand, as they are currently 

  • SO grants continue to be funded based on projections

These funding model changes affect the competitive grants cycles moving forward.

How do grantees get paid?

  1. HOT tax revenues are collected quarterly by Houston First Corporation on behalf of the City of Houston.

  2. Upon receipt by the City of Houston, the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs promptly distributes payments to HAA.

  3. Grantees are in receipt of payments within two weeks.

Because HOT revenues are projected when grant agreements are made, each grant contract and each grantee orientation session include language and instruction about the projection and timing of payments.

HOT in Real-Time

HAA’s work is made possible through contracts with the City of Houston, overseen by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. MOCA develops policies and initiatives that foster an environment for art and culture to flourish, for the benefit of all residents and visitors. This interactive table presents the latest HOT revenue actuals and forecast for each quarter. This year’s 2022 HOT allocation is illustrated below.