NEFA plays a leadership role in contemporary dance through grantmaking and other programs that support and sustain a vibrant national ecology for dancemakers and presenters.

Residencies are awarded competitively, at no cost, to national and international artists in the disciplines of choreography, literature, music composition, visual arts, media arts, and science.

The National Dance Project (NDP) encourages the creation of new work in dance that would be shared with audiences in communities throughout the United States by providing grants for creating and touring new projects.

The Princess Grace Awards is a national program dedicated to identifying and assisting emerging theater, dance, and film artists who are at the outset of their careers or at early stages of professional development.

The Rudolf Nureyev Foundation is concerned with the promotion of ballet, whether through the support of individual dancers who are recommended by their ballet schools or companies and performances of first class artistic niveau.