County cultural council recommends $2.57 million split for 2025–26 SCFD grants; public hearing set for July 22

Arapahoe County’s cultural council recommended that the county allocate $2,572,863.94 in Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) funds for the 2025–26 grant year and asked the Board of County Commissioners to schedule a July 22 public hearing to adopt the recommendations.

"We put a whole lot of effort in being neutral and unbiased and approaching each application that we read individually," said Stephanie Spriggs, chair of the Arapahoe County cultural council, summarizing the council’s review and allocation process. The council reviewed approximately 93 applications and volunteered roughly 918 hours on the process, Spriggs said.

Why it matters: SCFD is a voter-approved regional sales-tax district that funnels dedicated revenue to arts, culture and science organizations across the Denver metro region. County-distributed SCFD dollars support operating and project grants for nonprofits that serve county residents; commissioners will consider final ratification at the SCFD board meeting in September after the county’s local adoption.

How the council allocated funds - Total recommended county allocation: $2,572,863.94. - Total requested: about $3.4 million; no applicant received full funding. The council used application scores (on a 0–100 scale; the council said the average score was about 75) to compute a base allocation equal to the score percentage of the request and then applied a multiplier to distribute any surplus proportionally across eligible applicants. - Applications reviewed: 93 requests for general operating support and project grants; councils evaluate eligibility and the county verifies applicants before awards are finalized.

Procedure and next steps Tim Murphy, the county’s program officer for SCFD-related grants, outlined the statutory and administrative process: organizations complete an eligibility review, apply each March, county cultural councils score applications and recommend local allocations, and the SCFD board ratifies awards in September. Spriggs said county council staff will present the recommended funding plan at a public hearing; the board agreed by consensus to move that hearing to July 22.

Commissioners asked for clarity on methodology and eligibility. Spriggs and staff described the scoring rubric (five evaluation areas) and said the council had calibrated scores across reviewers to avoid outliers. "We wanted to rely on data at that point and formulas and math rather than how we felt that Thursday," Spriggs said of the final allocation meeting.

Context and caveats Council members said the group deliberately avoided redirecting funds from one organization to give extra support to festival-style projects after initial allocations; instead, any leftover funds were distributed proportionally. Council members also noted that SCFD eligibility requires organizations to show that at least 51% of attendees are county residents for county-only awards and that general operating support awards are capped at 25% of previous year revenues or expenses.

The board gave preliminary approval to put the recommendations on the July 22 public hearing agenda; final ratification will follow the SCFD board review in September and the county’s awards-recognition event expected in the fall.