GrantStation Insider: August 3, 2023

Application deadline: Applications are reviewed on a quarterly basis; the upcoming deadline is September 30, 2023.
Grant amount: Up to $50,000
Description: The T-Mobile Hometown Grants Program is providing up to $25 million over five years, through 2026, to fund community projects in small towns across the United States. Each quarter, 25 grants of up to $50,000 are provided for shovel-ready projects to build, rebuild, or refresh community spaces that help foster local connections in small towns. Examples of eligible projects include, but are not limited to, adaptive uses of older and historic buildings into community gathering spaces, improvements to outdoor parks or trails, and technology projects for public libraries. Applications are accepted from elected officials, town managers or employees, tribal leaders, or nonprofit community leaders from small towns with populations of less than 50,000.

Application deadline: The fall deadline is September 15, 2023.
Geographic scope: U.S. and internationally
Grant amount: Generally $1,000 to $7,500
Description: The Amphion Foundation aims to encourage the performance of contemporary concert music, particularly by American composers, through support to performing, presenting, and music service organizations. The fall application cycle is open to presenters and music service organizations, including music service/advocacy organizations, professional development/training programs, artist residency programs, libraries and archives, radio and TV, presenters, and festivals. (The Foundation’s spring grant cycle supports performing organizations.) General operating support is available for organizations with a history of substantial commitment to contemporary American concert music and plans to continue that commitment, while project support is available for exceptionally important activities relating to contemporary concert music that are out of the scope of an organization’s regular programming. Applicants must have 501(c)(3) nonprofit status (or the foreign equivalent) or have a fiscal sponsorship, and have two or more years of performance or program history as an organization.

Application deadline: October 23, 2023
Grant amount: Up to $5,000
Description: 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.

Application deadline: Applications are reviewed quarterly; the upcoming application deadline is October 1, 2023.
Grant amount: $250 to $1,000
Description: Karma for Cara Foundation seeks to support young people throughout the U.S. in their efforts to contribute to society and help repair the world through volunteerism and community service. The Foundation's Microgrant Program provides students, age 18 and under, with grants of between $250 and $1,000 to complete service projects in their communities. Examples of funded projects include turning a vacant lot into a community garden, rebuilding a school playground, helping senior citizens get their homes ready for winter, etc.

Application deadline: The upcoming application deadline is September 14, 2023.
Geographic scope: Company communities in the ten states served by Food Lion
Description: The Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation provides support to organizations based in or providing support in the ten states in which Food Lion operates, including locations within a 20-mile radius of a Food Lion store in Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Grants support children at risk of hunger by providing funds to feeding agencies to increase their "fresh" capacity so families can put nutritious meals on their tables. Foundation grants can only be used for the purchase of food in support of an organization's hunger-relief effort.

Application deadline: August 24, 2023
Geographic scope: Minnesota, specifically communities outside the seven-county Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metro area
Grant amount: $50,000 to $70,000 over two and a half years
Description: Propel Nonprofits is providing support through the Seeding Cultural Treasures program to nourish and cultivate the landscape of emerging arts and culture organizations run by and for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. The current request for proposals will provide unrestricted general operating grants and technical assistance support and learning opportunities through 2025 for emerging BIPOC-led-and-serving arts and culture organizations based in and serving Greater Minnesota communities (outside of the seven-county Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metro geographic area). Arts and culture organizations that have 501(c)(3) status, are fiscally sponsored, or are units of tribal government in Minnesota or the 11 tribal nations within its borders are eligible to apply.

Application deadline: None
Geographic scope: Northeast United States
Description: The Leonard-Litz Foundation’s mission is to fund organizations that advance the interests and well-being of the LGBTQ+ community through advocacy, programs, and services that meet the needs of LGBTQ+ people. Preference is given to organizations in the northeast United States. The Foundation’s LGBTQ+ Community Grants provide support in the following focus areas: health and wellness, crisis intervention, racial justice, advocacy and community engagement, and social assistance and programming. Special consideration will be given to partners serving communities of color and transgender or gender-nonconforming people. In addition, the Foundation’s LGBTQ+ Advocacy Fund supports specific projects rooted in pivotal progress for LGBTQ+ people on a broad scale.

Application deadline: Requests are reviewed quarterly; the upcoming deadline is October 2, 2023.
Geographic scope: Hawaii
Description: The Atherton Family Foundation makes grants for programs that benefit the people of Hawaii. Funding areas of interest include arts, culture, and humanities; community development; education; environment; health; human services; spiritual development; and youth development. The Foundation supports organizations working collaboratively to address systems change. Applicants must have 501(c)(3) public charity status or must apply with a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor. Program support will be considered at the upcoming deadline. (Capital requests are considered at the Foundation’s July deadline.)

Optional draft deadline: September 22, 2023
Application deadline: November 29, 2023
Description: The Scholarly Editions and Scholarly Translations program provides grants to organizations to support collaborative teams who are editing, annotating, and translating foundational humanities texts that are vital to scholarship but are currently inaccessible or only available in inadequate editions or translations. Typically, the texts are significant literary, philosophical, and historical materials, but works in other humanities fields may also be the subject of an edition.

Application deadline: September 28, 2023
Description: The Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program provides grants to assist economically disadvantaged or underserved communities for planning and construction activities. The Program supports planning, capital construction, and regional partnership activities that aim to restore community connectivity through the removal, retrofit, mitigation, or replacement of highways, roadways, or other infrastructure facilities that create barriers to mobility, access, or economic development. The goals of the Program include prioritizing disadvantaged communities; aiming to improve access to daily needs such as jobs, education, healthcare, food, and recreation; fostering equitable development and restoration; and reconnecting communities by removing, retrofitting, or mitigating highways or other transportation facilities that create barriers to community connectivity, including to mobility, access, or economic development.

Are you curious as to how you can utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance your nonprofit’s operations? If so, you may want to read the article “Harnessing AI for Good: Streamlining Nonprofit Operations.” This article discusses how nonprofits can use AI tools, including AI agents and large language models, to streamline operations in areas such as data management and analysis, volunteer coordination, and donor management and engagement.

Webinar date: August 8 and 9, 2023, 2:00 to 4:00 PM Eastern Time
Description: Do you want to help your nonprofit use QuickBooks to its fullest potential? If so, QuickBooks Made Easy for Nonprofits and GrantStation are presenting a special event for nonprofit organizations and the accounting firms that serve them. Join Gregg Bossen, CPA PC, for this two-day workshop (120 minutes each day) as he addresses special topics, including advanced budgeting, tracking restricted grants, and reports/board reporting. (This workshop is for users of QuickBooks online.)

Webinar date: August 10, 2023, 2:00 to 3:30 PM Eastern Time
Description: A well-designed strategic plan provides a clear direction for your nonprofit to grow, which can lead to long-term sustainability. This webinar will provide a step-by-step guide on how you can develop a strategic plan for your organization. You’ll review key concepts such as external/internal vision, mission, and core values and discover how those concepts set the foundation for identifying your activities for the next three to five years.

Webinar date: August 14, 2023, 2:00 to 2:45 PM Eastern Time
Description: Funders want to address real problems in their giving areas, which means your proposal must demonstrate why your program is necessary and important to your community. However, too many proposals present a need that is vague, not supported by data, or misaligned with other sections of a grant application. Any of these issues make it easy for reviewers to overlook your proposal. This webinar will show you how to craft a compelling statement of need that highlights the importance of your project in your community.

Great Grant Seeking is a podcast hosted by Lauren Steiner, grantseeking and fundraising expert and founder of a leading grants consulting firm, Grants Plus. On Great Grant Seeking, Lauren shares her own and others’ expert advice on how to make a good grantseeking program a great one through strategic and leading-edge approaches to institutional fundraising. In Episode Six, Lauren engages in a conversation with Ellen Mowrer and Alice Ruhnke of GrantStation, focusing on The 2023 State of Grantseeking Report™, an indispensable resource for nonprofit organizations. This report serves as an insightful analytic tool, allowing organizations to benchmark their grantseeking efforts, evaluate performance, and strategize for future endeavors. You can listen to it or watch it here: Apple Podcasts, Spotify , Amazon, and YouTube.

We have made some changes to our funder profiles around grant history. For grantmakers in the U.S. who file an IRS Form 990, we are linking directly to that funder's profile on ProPublica, a news resource that publishes 990 information that is even more current than the IRS website search section. You can learn more about this and grant history on our funder profiles.

Don’t forget to check out the additional Funding Spotlights on our homepage—you don't want to miss them!