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Grant scoring changes shift event funding; board readies sponsorships for 2025 events
Summary
Staff described a new scoring system for event grants and reported awards and sponsorship reallocations for 2025; board members discussed the role of grants as seed funding and the need to prioritize new events.
Kane County staff told the Tourism Tax Advisory Board that the board's revised grant-scoring process narrowed and clarified awards for 2025 and reallocated some funding to sponsorships.
Megan, who manages grants and visitor-center functions for the Kane County Office of Tourism, said the office received 26 grant applications for 2025. The office used an eight-person scoring committee, discarded the highest and lowest two scores, and averaged the remaining six to reduce outliers. Under the updated rubric, nine applicants scored below the threshold for grant awards and moved into a sponsorship category that provides smaller, marketing-only reimbursements.
Megan said the program approved a set of single/multi-day grants totaling $37,500 (representing the program's awarding decisions under the new rubric) and allocated just under $17,000 to sports grants; an additional $6,000 was moved into sponsorships for smaller reimbursements (up to $1,500 each). She said the program's policy is to use grants as seed funding to help events establish themselves for three to five years; staff have noted some events that have relied on county grants for more than a decade and said those arrangements will be reconsidered.
Board members discussed how to assist legacy events that have received support for many years while freeing limited grant funds to seed new events. Megan said the sponsorship option reduces reporting burdens for smaller organizers while preserving some marketing support.
Megan also summarized new and returning events that received awards or sponsorships, mentioning in particular: a multi-day cycling event (Utah 115) modeled on the existing Grande to Grand route, Desert Starlight (a returning event being retooled to reach a broader demographic), and other community festivals and sports tournaments. Staff said the county requires grant recipients to provide promotional materials for county calendars and webpages as part of the award terms.
Provenance: Grants presentation and Q&A, Jan. 20, 2025 meeting (transcript segment where Megan explained scoring, awards and sponsorships).
