LMDA Update about NEA Grant Funding
As many of you may have heard, over the past few days the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has rescinded already awarded grant funding to many organizations after the Trump Administration put forward a proposed budget that seeks to cut the federal agency.
LMDA did not have a grant in the affected cycle. However, we do have an application under review that we normally would have been notified about several weeks ago. While we have not heard any official word about the status of our application, at this point we must proceed under the assumption that we will not receive these funds—money that would have accounted for approximately 15% of our annual budget.
NEA funds provide support to our annual conference and allow us to offer the resources and advocacy critical to the professions of literary management and dramaturgy across North America. Without NEA funding, we will be relying on other sources of income, including conference registration fees and donations, to support the ongoing work of the organization.
What does this mean for LMDA now? It means we need your support more than ever.
How can you help? If you plan on joining us for our annual conference in San Diego and Tijuana but have not yet registered, please do so as soon as you’re able. You can register here or renew your membership here.
If you’re not traveling to the conference but are in a financial place to donate to LMDA, we would be grateful for a financial gift of any amount.
Regardless of what happens next, we are committed to keeping our members updated. And, if your organization or work has been impacted by these recent grant terminations, please let us know. We want to hear from you, as members and the broader LMDA community.
The precarity that surrounds us in the United States, and by extension to our communities in Canada and Mexico, is overwhelming. It feels, at times, paralyzing. But, in the face of continued uncertainty, we at LMDA will always center the principles on which the organization was founded: community, collaboration, and care.
May 5, 2025