A calendar of grants, resources, and funding opportunities listed by application or inquiry due date and tagged in various categories. For more information about grant, foundation, and other resources contact Laura Hennighausen at lhennighausen@purposepossible.com.
The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP)
The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) aims to empower economically poor, oppressed, and disadvantaged people who are seeking to change the structures that perpetuate poverty, oppression, and injustice. Support is available to groups in the United States that are oppressed by poverty and social systems, want to take charge of their own lives, have organized or are organizing to do something about their own conditions, and have decided that what they are going to do will produce long-term changes for their lives or communities. Projects must utilize some combination of the SDOP core strategies to promote justice, build solidarity, advance human dignity, and advocate for economic equity. In addition, projects must be presented, owned, and controlled by the group of economically poor people who will directly benefit. (Internationally, applications are accepted from Panama, and work is done in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Nigeria through intermediary partners.)
There are no deadlines.
The Americana Foundation’s Early American Art and Heritage Projects
The Americana Foundation’s American Heritage program area supports projects and programs throughout the United States that seek to broaden the inclusivity of early American art and the early American historical narrative to “tell the full story of” the American experience. The Foundation seeks to support organizations and projects that elevate those whose perspectives have been traditionally underrepresented, especially people of color, Indigenous people, and women. Examples of eligible projects include interpretation or reinterpretation of art, decorative arts, or other objects of early American material culture (“Americana”) and their placement on public display for the appreciation and understanding of present and future generations; internships, fellowships, apprenticeships, and other career development opportunities for people interested in the curation, conservation, preservation, or restoration of Americana; and exhibits, visual media, interactive experiences, and other educational programs that contribute to better understanding or “tell the full story” of the American experience.
Grant amount: Typically $10,000 to $25,000
Concept letters and grant applications are accepted on a rolling basis and reviewed quarterly.
Wilhelm Family Foundation
Geographic scope: National, but with emphasis on California
The Wilhelm Family Foundation supports nonprofit arts organizations with the goal of helping improve the quality of life of artists and creative communities nationwide. While applications are welcome from across the U.S., the majority of grants support organizations in California. The Foundation’s mission is to help expand artists’ access to resources by supporting organizations working to make creative expression, experimentation, public programming, and discourse accessible to all people, artists and non-artists alike. Grantmaking focuses on nonprofit arts organizations of all types and sizes, with an interest in organizations and programming that prioritize diversity, inclusiveness, community, and freedom of speech. Organizations that utilize art and programming to engage diverse, marginalized, at-risk, or underserved communities of all kinds are of particular interest. Generally, the Foundation’s grants are given to small nonprofit organizations that use their staff, programming, and resources to further dialog around creativity, cultural issues, and environmental and social justice issues, towards the benefit of artists as well as the communities in which they operate.
NEXT for AUTISM
NEXT for AUTISM is committed to enhancing the lives of adults with autism throughout the United States. NEXT for AUTISM’s 2024 grant cycle will support both autistic-led and community-based organizations and initiatives. Grants fund programs supporting the transition from school into adulthood for individuals with autism in the following three areas: home, addressing the need to design or develop and maintain high-quality living environments for adults with autism; work, addressing the need for autistic adults to gain and retain paid employment; and social, including supporting autistic adults to make connections, build relationships, and establish friendships. Nonprofit organizations working in the United States that have an interest in building or starting innovative programs, services, or models of service delivery with measurable impact or outcomes are eligible. Preference is given to low-income and limited-resource communities.
Womens Sports Foundation: Sports4Life
The Women’s Sports Foundation advances the lives of women and girls in the United States through sports and physical activity. The Foundation’s Sports 4 Life program seeks to increase the participation and retention of girls of color in sports. Funded programs must serve predominantly Black, African American, Hispanic, and Native American girls (representing more than 70% of the enrolled program participants) and deliver structured, developmental sports programming to girls ages 11 to 18 through experienced and committed leadership. In general, applicants should be nonprofit schools, parks and recreation departments, nonprofit organizations, or amateur sports leagues. Funding can be used for coaching, curriculum, equipment, uniforms, transportation, facility rental, tournaments, and team-building activities.
Grant amount: $10,000
Dept. Of Justice: The Second Chance Act Community-Based Reentry Program
The Second Chance Act Community-Based Reentry Program seeks to help community-based nonprofit organizations and federally recognized tribal governments to enhance or implement evidence-based responses to improve reentry, reduce recidivism, and support successful transitional planning for individuals who are currently, or were formerly, involved in the criminal justice system. Supports and services can include, but are not limited to, service coordination and tracking; gender-specific and trauma-informed programming and services; individual or group mentoring; peer support; educational, literacy, and vocational services; substance use and mental health disorder treatment and recovery services; connections to physical healthcare; services to support family reunification and restoration; assistance in providing or making referrals for safe and affordable housing; civil legal services; and staff training.
Grants.gov deadline: April 29, 2024
JustGrants deadline: May 6, 2024
RRF Foundation for Aging Accepting LOIs
RRF Foundation for Aging focuses on improving the quality of life for older people. Priority areas are (1) caregiving, (2) economic security later in life, (3) housing, and (4) social and intergenerational connectedness. Next LOI deadline is 5/1. Grants tend to be $50k to $500k+ but no specified range.
Care Quest: Veteran Oral Health, Expanding Access and Equity
Through the Veteran Oral Health: Expanding Access and Equity Request for Proposals (Veteran Oral Health RFP), CareQuest Institute is seeking to fund projects and partner with organizations that are working to address system-level barriers to oral health for veterans. CareQuest Institute prioritizes proposals that reflect the applicant’s authentic commitment to meaningfully and consistently engage members of the veteran community in the planning phase and throughout their proposed project. Compelling and aligned projects should be driven by, or collaborate with, individuals and/or organization partners representative of rather than “on behalf of” people involved in the veteran community.
CareQuest Institute will fund 10 projects for up to $125,000 each.
Doris Duke Foundation
The Performing Arts Technologies Lab is both a grant and a support system designed to expand access to and nurture new methods for creating, sharing and experiencing the performing arts. The Doris Duke Foundation (DDF) is looking for innovative ideas in jazz, contemporary dance and theater that make use of new digital tools and production methods.
Selected projects will proceed through a series of development phases, beginning with the articulation of a basic concept and culminating, for some proposals, in a fully funded implementation. Support will combine financial resources with technical assistance. Participants will be expected to participate in a series of virtual and in-person meetings that will be programmed to facilitate shared learning and exchange.
For more information and before submitting an application, please closely review the request for applications document.
Race Forward and Americans for the Arts are seeking proposals for: Cultural Week of Action on Race and Democracy (CWA)
The first annual Cultural Week of Action on Race and Democracy (CWA) will take place September 27 to October 5, 2024. Race Forward and Americans for the Art are excited to sponsor select projects to encourage deep, bold, and long-term change. Through a competitive process, 12-15 local communities that represent the diversity of our country will receive $25,000-$40,000 for cultural organizers and community partners to design and implement projects that align with the theme of Building the Bigger We. This is an opportunity to deepen commitments to racial justice and inclusive democracy through cultural activities.
Participation in the CWA will also be encouraged and open to organizations not requesting funding.
WES Mariam Assefa Fund: Elevating Migrant Leadership Funding Opportunity
The WES Mariam Assefa Fund, the philanthropic arm of World Education Services, is committed to building an inclusive economy that works for immigrants and refugees. The Fund’s Elevating Migrant Leadership: Building Inclusive Futures Funding Opportunity seeks proposals from organizations in the United States that are elevating the voices and leadership of immigrants and refugees. Support will be provided to organizations that work with immigrants and refugees who are seeking to develop civic leadership and advocacy skills so they can more effectively influence the development of programs and policies that affect them and their communities.
Seven selected awardees will receive $100,000.
The Families and Workers Fund: Powering Climate and Infrastructure Careers Challenge
Grant amount: $150,000 to $1.5 million in direct funding or technical assistance over one to three years
The Powering Climate and Infrastructure Careers Challenge, an initiative of the Families and Workers Fund, is a collaborative philanthropic effort to help create at least one million good jobs in the clean energy and infrastructure industries. Through grants and technical assistance to nonprofits, state and local governments, training and education providers, and private sector employer groups, the Challenge aims to tackle the workforce implementation challenges facing the United States on its path toward a net-zero economy and 21st-century infrastructure.
Funding will be provided in two tracks: the Training and Career Pathways track, focused on scaling models to train, place, support, and retain a diverse workforce that meets the growing labor demand in clean energy, infrastructure, and related industries, and the Government Planning and Implementation track, focused on supporting government agencies and their community partners to plan for and implement good jobs and effective, inclusive workforce development.
Applicants must be using, applying for, or otherwise leveraging climate, infrastructure, or other related public or private funding and must be committed to advancing career opportunities and improving economic mobility, especially for underinvested communities.
NewSchools Venture Fund: Innovative Public Schools
Grant amount: One-year grants of $215,000 support teams’ planning year. Teams are also eligible to apply for additional funding to support the school’s first three years of operation.
NewSchools Venture Fund is a venture philanthropy that seeks to build a better education system in the United States by connecting people, resources, and ideas. The Fund’s Innovative Public Schools funding opportunity is currently accepting applications from educators who are designing new, innovative public schools launching in Fall 2025. Support is provided to early-stage charter organizations launching their first or second school in a new network and to district schools developing and implementing innovative designs for new schools.
Applicants must enroll students within the pre-K-12 grade span on a full-time basis and be eligible to receive public funding. While a variety of approaches are supported, all funded schools are committed to a student-centered vision and the three design principles of an expanded definition of student success, equity, and innovation. NewSchools especially seeks to invest in more Latino and Indigenous leaders who are underrepresented in education innovation and school leadership roles.
COPIC Medical Foundation
Grant amount: Up to a total of $750,000 will be awarded in 2024.
The COPIC Medical Foundation aims to improve the quality of healthcare delivery in the United States by reducing adverse outcomes and supporting innovation. Grant funding is provided for programs and initiatives that improve patient safety and quality of care through systems changes and improvements, pilot programs that are designed to reduce medical errors, and development and implementation of checklists and other tools to improve disease management and transitions in care.
For 2024, the focus is on the issue of reducing fragmentation across care settings. Nonprofit organizations with an approach or program that has demonstrated potential for uptake or replication by the healthcare community are eligible to apply.
National Science Foundation
The Advancing Informal STEM Learning Program seeks to fund research and practice, with a focus on investigating a range of informal STEM learning experiences and environments that make lifelong learning a reality.
The current solicitation encourages proposals from institutions and organizations that serve public audiences and specifically focus on public engagement with and understanding of STEM, including community STEM, public participation in scientific research, science communication, intergenerational STEM engagement, and STEM media. Five types of projects will be supported: synthesis, conferences, partnership development and planning, integrating research and practice, and research in support of wide-reaching public engagement with STEM.
New York Life Foundation: Aim High
Grant amount: 20 one-year grants of $15,000 and 20 two-year grants of either $25,000 or $50,000 per year will be provided.
The Aim High grant program, funded by the New York Life Foundation and administered by the Afterschool Alliance, provides support nationwide for out-of-school time programs serving middle school youth. The aim is to support local community-based after-school and summer learning programs in providing the foundational skills and guidance that middle school students need to be prepared for the transition into high school.
For 2024, twenty one-year grants of $15,000 each will be awarded: ten for programs’ efforts around racial equity and social justice and ten for programs’ efforts around youth entrepreneurship. Twenty two-year grants of either $25,000 per year or $50,000 per year will support programs in enhancing direct service activities, technical assistance, capacity building, and their efforts in continuing to serve youth while facing the challenges of the pandemic and beyond. Funded programs must serve a high percentage—at least 75 percent—of low-income youth.
Peace Development Fund: Community Organizing Grants Program
Geographic scope: United States, including U.S. territories, Haiti, and Mexico
Grant amount: Grants average $5,000.
The Peace Development Fund believes that the change in values needed to establish a more just and peaceful world can come about only if it is strongly rooted in local communities that value the importance of building movements to create systemic social change. The Fund’s Community Organizing Grants support community-based organizations in the U.S., Haiti, and Mexico that are working for social justice.
Funding is provided in the following areas: organizing to shift power, working to build a movement, dismantling oppression, and creating new structures. Nonprofit organizations with budgets under $250,000 that are directly engaged in community organizing are eligible to apply.
Park Foundation
Application deadline: Letters of inquiry are accepted year-round. (Invited proposals are reviewed quarterly.)
Geographic scope: Nationally throughout the U.S., as well as New York and Tompkins County, NY
The Park Foundation is dedicated to advancing a more just, equitable, and sustainable society and environment, both nationally and in the Foundation’s local Ithaca, NY, community. The Foundation’s national grantmaking focuses on the following program areas: democracy, including a broad array of initiatives intended to strengthen the foundations of democracy and good governance; civic participation, with priority on state-based organizations that are educating and mobilizing voters, national and state groups protecting voters' rights and election integrity, and groups thwarting attempts to suppress participation in the democratic process; media, with a focus on public interest media that raises awareness of critical environmental, political, and social issues; the environment, with a focus on drinking water; and animal welfare, with a focus on nationally significant efforts to advance the protection and conservation of wildlife.
(Additional areas of interest target New York state and Tompkins County, NY.)
Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's Corporate Giving Program
Geographic scope: United States and Canada, with a focus on projects of national scope, projects near the company’s retail locations, and the Missouri Ozarks region.
Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's corporate giving program aims to positively shape the future of the outdoors in the United States and Canada. Support is provided for projects and events with a national scope; near a retail Bass Pro Shop, Cabela's, or Tracker Boat Center; and in the Missouri Ozarks region. Areas of interest include conserving wildlife and habitat, connecting new audiences to the outdoors, advocating for access and sportsmen’s rights, supporting military and veterans, and strengthening communities in the Missouri Ozarks.
MAP Fund
MAP Fund's 2024 application is open. The grant program’s purpose is to support the creation of new, live performance projects that will be experienced by communities throughout what is now known as the United States, including its territories and Indigenous tribal nations within.
Department of Housing and Urban Development
The Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP) seeks to facilitate and encourage innovative homeownership opportunities on a national, geographically diverse basis. SHOP units must be decent, safe, and sanitary non-luxury dwellings that comply with state and local codes, ordinances, and zoning requirements.
The SHOP units must be sold to homebuyers at prices below the prevailing market price. Homebuyers must be low-income and must contribute a significant amount of sweat equity towards the development of the SHOP units. Funds must be used for land acquisition, infrastructure improvements, and reasonable and necessary planning and administration costs.
Actors’ Equity Foundation: Theatre Grants
The mission of the Actors’ Equity Foundation is to support the professional theatre community, from emerging artists to seasoned vets, while promoting and investing in the theatre and the performing arts.
The Foundation’s Theatre Grants are awarded to theatres in the United States that have a current 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, an established artistic and administrative track record, a history of fiscal responsibility, and have worked to improve the state of the theatre.
The Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries
The Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries provides funds to the nation’s neediest schools so that they can extend, update, and diversify the book and print collections in their libraries with the goal of encouraging students to develop a love of reading and learning. Funds may be used for the purchase of print or Braille volumes, audio-books, e-books, or magazine/serial/e-magazine subscriptions.
Eligible applicants include public schools, neighborhood schools, charter schools, and magnet schools that are Title 1 eligible, as well as private and parochial schools in which at least 50% of the student population qualify for financial aid. Schools must have a library or designated space on campus where books are accessible to all students to check out. Visit the George W. Bush Institute’s website to access the online application.
American Association of University Women: Community Action Grants
Geographic scope: United States, including U.S. territories
Grant amount: $3,000 to $10,000
The American Association of University Women's Community Action Grants provide funding for programs that promote education and equity for women and girls in the United States. Project support is available to nonprofit organizations and universities, AAUW branches or AAUW state organizations, and individuals.
General operating support is available to nonprofit organizations. Supported organizations and proposed activities must promote education and equity for women and girls.
VIA Art Fund: Artistic Production Grants
Application deadlines: November 9, 2023, and May 16, 2024, for letters of inquiry
Geographic scope: United States and internationally
Grant amount: $25,000 – $100,000
Emphasizing direct engagement with contemporary visual art, VIA Art Fund supports projects that exemplify the core values of artistic production, thought leadership, and public engagement. The Fund’s Artistic Production Grants are awarded twice annually to artists, nonprofit organizations, cultural institutions, art production platforms, and biennials or festivals working in the field of contemporary art in the United States and internationally. Support is provided for new artistic commissions that take place outside museum or gallery walls, within the public realm, or in non-traditional exhibition environments.
America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative: Partnerships Program
Grant amount: Up to a total of $30,000,000 is available. Grants to applicants will range from $200,000 to $3,000,000 depending on the type of activities proposed.
America’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI), a program administered by Reinvestment Fund on behalf of USDA Rural Development, works to improve access to fresh, healthy foods in underserved rural and urban areas. HFFI’s new Local and Regional Healthy Food Financing Partnerships Program will support public-private partnerships to establish and grow local, regional, or state food financing programs that provide financial and technical assistance to healthy food retailers (grocery and other markets) and food enterprises (food retail supply chain businesses).
Grants will provide support for operating expenses (capacity building activities) and to help deploy loans and other financial assistance (credit enhancement activities). Eligible applicants include regional, state, or local public-private partnerships of two or more entities that are organized to improve access to fresh, healthy foods and provide financial and technical assistance to eligible projects.
William Talbott Hillman Foundation
Application deadline: The Foundation has a year-round, rolling application process. The last day to submit an application to be considered for the current year is November 1.
The William Talbott Hillman Foundation strives for a future where creativity is nurtured, democracy is upheld, and gun violence is no more. The William Talbott Hillman Foundation supports Pittsburgh- and New York City-based visual arts institutions, as well as national efforts around strengthening gun laws, preventing gun-related suicides, and driving voter and civic engagement, particularly among young people and BIPOC communities.
Council on Library and Information Resources: Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives
Geographic scope: United States, Canada, and U.S. and Canadian territories
Grant amount: $50,000 to $300,000
The Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives program, administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources, provides support to digitize rare and unique content stewarded by collecting organizations in the U.S. and Canada.
The focus of the 2023-24 call for proposals, Amplifying Unheard Voices, is to support efforts to digitize rare and unique historical and cultural materials in a variety of formats that deepen public understanding of the histories of people of color and other communities and populations whose work, experiences, and perspectives have been insufficiently recognized or unattended. Nonprofit, academic, independent, and community-based organizations, as well as government entities, in the U.S. and Canada that collect, preserve, and share rare and unique materials with the general public are eligible to apply.
Ms. Foundation for Women: Birth Justice Initiative
Geographic scope: U.S. South, Midwest, Southwest, Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories
Grant amount: $50,000 to $100,000, distributed over two years
The Ms. Foundation for Women’s Birth Justice Initiative aims to advance equitable birth outcomes and experiences, strengthen grassroots BIPOC-led birth justice organizations, and expand the frame of birth justice to support intersectional movements and strategies that recognize the full spectrum of experiences and identities in birthing, parenting, and family building.
Through the current call for proposals, the Initiative will provide two-year grants to birth justice organizations led by and for Black, Indigenous, and other women of color. Support will be provided for organizations that are serving the U.S. South, Midwest, Southwest, Alaska, Hawaii, or U.S. territories and working for change at a local or state level. Organizations must be implementing birth justice strategies that are rooted in movement building and organizing, and connected to the broader reproductive justice movement.
Sphinx Venture Fund
Grant amount: Grants average $50,000 to $100,000.
The Sphinx Organization is a social justice organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. The Sphinx Venture Fund provides grants for initiatives designed to solve a challenge or an issue related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the sphere of the performing arts, with a strong emphasis on classical music.
Applicants should present a plan to address a clear issue or challenge, focus on transformative outcomes that further cultural diversity, and propose ventures that will have field-wide impact, typically beyond a single geographic area and involving more than one partner. Eligible projects should be executed in collaboration with or on behalf of an existing 501(c)(3) organization.
A.J. Muste Memorial Institute: Social Justice Fund
Grant amount: Up to $5,000
The A.J. Muste Memorial Institute’s Social Justice Fund provides grants for grassroots activist projects in the U.S., giving priority to those with small budgets and little access to more mainstream funding sources.
The Fund is especially interested in supporting efforts to end the violence of borders and the criminalization of immigrants; abolish prisons and dismantle and redefine systems of policing and criminal justice; confront institutionalized violence against racial, ethnic, gender-based, and LGBTQ communities; put an end to economic exploitation, class stratification, and systemic poverty; and stop the war machine, end state sponsored terrorism, and expose the dangers of nuclear power.
Priority is given to direct grassroots activism and organizing and groups with diverse, representative, and democratic leadership structures.
SunPower Foundation
Geographic scope: United States (including the U.S. territories) and the Philippines
The SunPower Foundation aims to increase environmental and economic equity for all, regardless of socioeconomic status. Support is provided to U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations working in the United States (including the U.S. territories) and the Philippines for projects improving access to affordable solar energy and participation in solar economic opportunities.
Funding focuses on 1) solar accessibility, affordability, and resiliency, including projects that support the deployment of affordable or free-of-cost solar solutions to communities that have been historically underserved or impacted by climate disasters; 2) workforce development, including projects increasing access to all solar careers; and 3) solar economic opportunities, including support for nonprofits delivering technical assistance, coaching, or business accelerator services to minority and women-owned business enterprises in the solar industry.