What big-deal donor wants naming rights for subsidizing the salary of a part-time marketing assistant, or for covering the utility bill?

But the 220 recipients of $2.1 million in city Cultural Fund grants announced last night will be receiving money to pay for precisely those kinds of things: The Cultural Fund grants are unrestricted, which means they can be used for whatever an organization needs.

For the 19 first-time Cultural Fund grantees - the largest first-time group ever, according to arts officials - such funding is particularly sweet.

Not only can it pay that part-time salary, but the fact of the award itself also validates an organization's health and achievement, making other grants that much more possible.

"It's significant, highly significant," said Elba Hevia y Vaca, founder and director of Pasión y Arte, an innovative flamenco company that seeks to marry traditional dance of southern Spain with individual stories of women.

"It means I can continue to pay the company manager to continue to do all the administrative work," Hevia y Vaca said. "I can't do it all, and in order to get to the next level, I need someone in the office."

Pasión y Arte, which operates out of studios in Overbrook and Chinatown, has a small annual budget of about $65,000. Its $9,034 grant will provide substantial support for Hevia y Vaca to, as she says, "get to the next level." Some of the funds may go for marketing and similar bread-and-butter necessities.

"It's a gateway," she said of the grant, "an amazing opportunity, and it leaves me free to create and work and rehearse."

Temple University's Music Preparatory and Enrichment Program received the largest grant among first-time winners, $11,654.

"I'm just really thrilled," said Mark Huxsoll, director of the program. Huxsoll said the money "will be used to run the organization."

The Music Prep program receives 25 percent to 30 percent of its roughly $900,000 annual operating budget from Temple. The rest comes from tuition, gifts and grants. Music Prep provides music instruction for people of all ages, as well as a gifted-musician program for students in the Philadelphia School District, and other music and dance programs.

"A lot of great organizations go through this [Cultural Fund] process and there is a lot of scrutiny of how an organization is run, especially this year," Huxsoll said. "It just makes me really proud" to have passed that test.

Christine Cox, cofounder with Matthew Neenan of BalletX, another first-time award winner, said the group's $10,399 grant represented "a huge opportunity for us" and came at a time when funding was getting tight.

BalletX was founded about three years ago and is the resident dance company at the Wilma Theater on the Avenue of the Arts. The Cultural Fund money probably will be used to help market August performances, Cox said. Funds may also help pay part-time staffers and free up time for actual creative work.

"I'm thrilled and surprised and extremely grateful," Cox said. "It's a crucial time for us and we really need to expand our infrastructure."