Apply for ZAP Funds

Salt Lake County non-profit organizations that meet ZAP's eligibility requirements may be eligible to apply for ZAP grant funding through our competitive annual application process.

ZAP funds come from a small portion of sales tax collected in Salt Lake County. Every 10 years since 1997, Salt Lake County residents have voted to allow one penny of every $10 of county-collected sales tax to support arts, cultural, and recreational offerings, which ZAP then disburses through an annual grant cycle.

Grant Applications & Eligibility

ZAP primarily offers three categories of grant funding to art, cultural, and botanical organizations:

• Tier I
• Tier II
• Zoological (reviewed by the Tier I board)

Each application is reviewed by its applicable ZAP Advisory Board, made up of qualified volunteer community members who dedicate hundreds of hours to the process of reviewing each application submitted. Each application is reviewed according to a specific set of scoring criteria that is publicly available on that category's information page.

Broadly, all organizations must meet these basic ZAP eligibility requirements:

• Must be a 501(c)3
• Only activities held within Salt Lake County may be funded
• Only activities open to the public may be funded
• Must be arts, cultural, or botanical in focus
• Must fall within one of the established ZAP disciplines (see below)

Grants are competitive and not guaranteed year-to-year. Each category may have its own additional eligibility requirements. These can be found on each individual funding category page.

There are also certain things ZAP cannot be used for, which can be found on our ZAP Funding Restrictions page.

Wondering if your organization may be eligible for funding?

Take our eligibility quiz to see if you fall under the main eligibility guidelines! Please note that this quiz is intended to give you a sense of whether your organization MAY be eligible for ZAP funding and to help you learn more about ZAP funding eligibility. This quiz is not a confirmation of eligibility. 

ZAP Funding Eligibility Quiz

ZAP Disciplines

List of Disciplines Eligible for ZAP Funding

All organizations must also fall under the definition of one of the predetermined ZAP disciplines in order to be eligible to apply for funding. Please review the above list for discipline definitions. 

ZAP is also dedicated to the advancement of Local Arts Agencies and Recreation projects in Salt Lake County.

Funding Timeline

ZAP applications are submitted and reviewed, and funding is distributed on an annual basis. Please note that due to the nature of ZAP funding, organizations will have at least a year from application submission to the time they receive their first award disbursement, if funded. Generally, the categories can anticipate the following timelines for a single year of funding applications, however please note that on occasion these times will shift to accommodate program needs, so consider this a general guideline.

Tier II

• January- Application opens
• March- Application closes (this closing date/time is a hard deadline; late applications are not accepted)
• April-July- Applications are reviewed by the Advisory Board
• August-September- Board recommendations are taken to County Council for approval
• September-October- Funded organizations sign and return funding contracts 
• November-December- Contracts are processed internally at the County
• January of the following year- 60% of award sent to funded organizations
• April of the following year- Final 40% of award send to funded organizations

Note that January of that next year, the next application will open and the timeline begins again.

Tier I + Zoo

• March- Application opens
• May- Application closes (this closing date/time is a hard deadline; late applications are not accepted)
• June-November- Advisory Board members perform site visits to applicants and gather additional information, and applications are then reviewed by the Advisory Board.
• December- Board recommendations are taken to County Council for approval
• January-February- Funded organizations sign and return funding contracts 
• March-April- Contracts are processed internally at the County
• May through April of the following year (two years after application is submitted)- Funded organizations receive pro-rated payments of their total award on a monthly basis, skipping March.

Distribution of ZAP Funds

The distribution of annual ZAP funding is established by State statute. 1.5% of the annual revenue collected through the ZAP tax is designated for the administration of the program.

After the administrative cost is removed, the remaining funding is distributed as follows:  30% of the revenue collected goes directly towards supporting county recreational facilities. From there, the remaining funding is distributed through a competitive granting process and is divided among Tier I organizations (45% of funding), Zoological organizations (16% of funding), and Tier II organizations (9% of funding). More information regarding this statute can be found on our ZAP Policy & Statute page.

Questions regarding active recreation projects funded by ZAP Recreation funds should be directed to Salt Lake County Parks & Recreation. The timeline and review process for these funds have some unique qualities from the Tier I, Tier II, and Zoological categories. You can review information about the Recreation review process here.