Agritourism Grant Program

The Agritourism Grant Program is administered by the Montana Department of Commerce through Commerce's Destination MT Division. The program operates within the state's tourism and marketing activities and is connected to lodging facility use tax revenue, commonly known as the bed tax. In 2025, Senate Bill 409 revised laws concerning the Department of Commerce and the lodging facility use tax and updated provisions established under Senate Bill 540, which passed in 2023. The legislation addresses the allocation of bed tax revenue and specifies how Commerce may use those funds for purposes including tourism promotion and grants. Commerce states that Destination MT will administer Agritourism Grants in accordance with the program guidelines. The purpose of the Agritourism Grant Program is to assist Montana's rural and tribal agricultural businesses and communities and to promote diversification and support in Montana. The source therefore establishes a Montana-specific program focused on agriculture-related businesses and communities in rural and tribal settings. The provided program page does not state specific eligible project expenses, prohibited costs, reimbursement requirements, indirect cost limitations, award tiers, minimum or maximum grant amounts, total available program funding, or a required matching contribution. Applicants should consult the linked Agritourism Grants Guidelines for additional program requirements because the webpage specifically directs applicants to those guidelines to learn about the program. The source identifies rural and tribal agricultural businesses and communities in Montana as the intended beneficiaries of the program. This supports eligibility for agricultural businesses, including for-profit and small business applicants where applicable, as well as Native American tribal organizations associated with eligible tribal agricultural activities. The webpage itself does not provide a complete legal-entity eligibility list or specify whether state agencies, counties, cities, school districts, higher education institutions, nonprofits generally, individuals, or other governmental entities are independently eligible. It also does not state business size thresholds, required years of operation, fiscal sponsorship rules, or other organizational capacity requirements. Eligibility should therefore be evaluated against the official program guidelines rather than expanded beyond the categories supported by the supplied source. The 2027 Agritourism Grants Program cycle is scheduled to open September 24, 2026, and close October 22, 2026. Applications must be completed and submitted through the State of Montana ServiceNow portal. The webpage provides a reference copy of the Agritourism Grants Program Application so prospective applicants can review the application questions, but it explicitly states that the reference application is not the submission mechanism. The Agritourism Grants Program Budget Template is required to be uploaded with the application for consideration of funding. Applicants are also directed to the official program guidelines, FAQ, webinar, and other agritourism resources. Destination MT provides a separate Attachment A containing the Agritourism Grants Program Application Scoring Criteria, establishing that applications are evaluated according to published scoring criteria. Because the supplied webpage does not reproduce those criteria, individual scoring factors, weights, point totals, thresholds, or ranking procedures cannot be stated from this source alone. The presence of the application preview, required budget template, and separate scoring criteria document indicates that applicants should review the application questions and scoring framework before completing their ServiceNow submission. No letter of intent, concept paper, pre-proposal, notice of intent, or other pre-application gating requirement is identified on the supplied webpage. The application window for the upcoming cycle runs from September 24, 2026, through October 22, 2026. The source does not provide an application deadline time or time zone, award notification date, anticipated award date, project start date, period of performance, or project completion deadline. It references funded 2026 Agritourism Grant projects and identifies the upcoming 2027 program cycle, but it does not expressly state an annual or other recurring schedule, so recurrence is not assumed for data entry. No individual program contact, program-specific email address, or program-specific telephone number is supplied. The Montana Department of Commerce general contact information shown on the page is 301 S Park Ave, Helena, MT 59620, telephone 406-841-2700, with Montana Relay 711 also listed.

Prioritize projects in rural, tribal, or under-visited areas for scoring advantage. Ensure completeness of the application and alignment with program priorities like diversification and tourism impact.