From the Research Team

CARES Act Funding Reporting Tips

A new NASAA resource, State Arts Agency and Regional Arts Organization CARES Act Funding: Reporting and Record-Keeping Tips, is intended to help with questions surrounding tracking and maintaining Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act grant records.

No new or additional reporting requirements are associated with CARES Act funds. However, regular Partnership Agreement reporting is applicable to state arts agency (SAA) and regional arts organization (RAO) grants that include CARES Act funds. NASAA members have expressed a need for tips pertaining to:

reporting CARES Act awards within your Final Descriptive Reports (FDRs);
collecting data outside of the FDR to tell the story of CARES Act success.

Developed in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, this resource provides what we hope will be useful tips while maintaining the autonomy of SAAs and RAOs in developing their own data management and reporting structures.

Certainly, policymakers and the public alike will need confidence that these dollars made a difference and that relief funds were wisely spent on the arts. SAAs, RAOs, NASAA, the Arts Endowment and others will want to report on the effectiveness of CARES Act efforts. In developing and maintaining your own reporting structures, Section 2 of this guide can help you think through how to collect relevant information to tell the story of CARES Act funds in your state and region.

We are sure that questions will evolve as you move from collecting applications and selecting grantees to allocating funds and collecting final reports. Hopefully these tips come at a time that is helpful in preparing your systems for collecting relevant data. Feel free to reach out to me or to NASAA Grants Data Associate Kelly Liu with any questions.