GrantStation Insider: August 24, 2023

Application deadline: September 22, 2023
Grant amount: Up to 25 pilot grants between $100,000 and $250,000 will be awarded.
Description: The Catalyze Challenge is open to innovators across the United States working to reimagine the connections between K-12 education, higher education, and careers for learners ages 11-22. Grants support novel approaches and exploratory work aligned with one of two career-connected learning themes: 1) career exploration for young adolescents, focused on innovations that develop self-efficacy towards educational and career goals, and 2) activating employer partnerships, focused on innovations that enable employers to engage in experiences that help students attain practical skills, credentials, and improved employment outcomes. Proposals must benefit learners ages 11-22, with a particular focus on innovations that serve historically underserved groups. Nonprofit organizations and for-profit entities located in the U.S. are eligible.

Application deadline: The upcoming deadline is September 30, 2023.
Grant amount: Most grants are between $6,000 and $8,000; the maximum grant is $15,000.
Description: The Unitarian Universalist Association’s Fund for a Just Society provides grants to non-Unitarian Universalist groups in the U.S. and Canada that have an active community organizing campaign that focuses on a specific systemic change for justice. Grants support organizations that use community organizing to bring about systemic change leading to a more just society; mobilize those who have been disenfranchised and excluded from resources, power, and the right to self-determination; and have an active, focused campaign to create systemic change. Priority is given to active, specific campaigns to create change in the economic, social, and political structures that affect lives. Projects are welcomed that are less likely to receive conventional funding because of the innovative or challenging nature of the work, the economic and social status of the constituency, or the geographic location of the work. Applicant organizations must have an annual operating budget under $500,000.

Application deadline: Pre-application surveys are due September 5, 2023.
Geographic scope: United States and U.S. territories
Grant amount: $10,000 to $40,000
Description: AIDS United’s Harm Reduction Futures Fund is currently accepting pre-applications for the next round of harm reduction funding. The Fund will provide grants of $10,000 to $40,000 to 12 to 19 organizations that are serving people who use drugs. Funding supports three kinds of projects: syringe services programs providing direct service; harm reduction organizations supporting multiple syringe services programs providing direct service; and harm reduction organizations conducting community advocacy activities focused on legalizing or strengthening syringe services programs and other health interventions for people who use drugs at the local, state, or federal level. Applicants must be 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations with an annual budget less than $1.5 million. In addition, the majority of an applicant organization’s leadership and the people it serves must be people of color and the organization must operate in areas of high needs and low resources.

Application deadline: Letters of inquiry are accepted on a rolling basis; invited applications are due April 30 and October 15, annually.
Geographic scope: U.S. and internationally
Grant amount: Averages $2,500
Description: The D’Addario Foundation provides grants to nonprofit music education organizations in the United States and internationally. The focus is on organizations trusted by the communities they serve that are executing immersive and enduring music education and youth development programs. Support is provided to U.S. nonprofit organizations (or the international equivalent) that offer free or affordable instrument instruction, address a need in the communities served, and provide frequent instruction where students participate multiple times per week throughout the year and for as many years as possible throughout their primary and secondary education. The Foundation prefers not to provide funding for the purpose of purchasing equipment or instruments, though in-kind donations in the form of product accessories may be provided.

Application deadline: Applications for the upcoming cycle will be accepted from September 1 to September 30, 2023.
Geographic scope: Colorado
Description: The Animal Assistance Foundation provides support for projects or programs in Colorado that enhance the five freedoms for companion animals: freedom from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury, and disease; freedom to express normal behavior; and freedom from fear and distress. Funding is provided for shelter operations, community outreach, cruelty prevention, education, innovation, overpopulation solutions, and capital projects. Nonprofit organizations, organizations with a nonprofit fiscal sponsor, and government entities providing services in Colorado are eligible to apply.

Application deadline: None for initial inquiries
Geographic scope: Arkansas
Description: The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation funds movement building, narrative change, policy and advocacy, innovation, and systems change strategies that advance equity for all Arkansans. Support is provided in the program areas of economic equity, educational equity, and social, ethnic, and racial equality. Priority is given to requests that have an explicit strategy to disrupt the status quo, address the root causes of inequity, and eliminate policies and practices that perpetuate barriers to equity; prioritize community-led initiatives, movement building, public policy and advocacy, innovation, and systems disruption as the strategies for change; and prioritize and engage people most impacted to lead the process of defining root causes of inequity and developing innovative solutions.

Application deadline: October 6, 2023, for letters of intent
Geographic scope: Arizona
Grant amount: Up to $175,000 over three years
Description: Vitalyst Health Foundation’s mission is to connect, support, and inform efforts to improve the health of individuals and communities in Arizona. The Foundation’s Systems Change Grants invest in efforts that positively address complex community health challenges and reduce structural and systemic gaps in health outcomes or opportunities. Projects must include two or more partners working collaboratively, with the lead organization being an Arizona-based nonprofit serving Arizonans. Supported efforts must clearly identify policy, systems, or environmental change and specific health outcomes to be improved, and be framed with a health equity lens benefiting an identified population. (In addition to Systems Change Grants, one-year Spark Grants ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 are provided to support collaborations in their journey to address systemic change by funding planning time for partners to figure out solutions. Spark Grants have quarterly deadlines.)

Application deadline: Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis.
Geographic scope: NBA markets
Description: The mission of the NBA Foundation is to drive economic opportunity in the Black community through employment and career development by funding programs that generate successful transitions from school to meaningful employment for Black youth. The Foundation provides support to nonprofit organizations operating in NBA markets that promote school-to-career employment opportunities for Black youth, ages 14 to 24, including job readiness, skill training, job placement, and career advancement. Applicant organizations must serve Black youth within an NBA market; be a registered 501(c)(3) tax organization, or a T3010 if operating in Canada; and serve a minimum of 25 youth annually.

Grants.gov deadline: September 28, 2023
JustGrants deadline: October 10, 2023
Description: The Building Local Continuums of Care to Support Youth Success program seeks applications for funding to assist jurisdictions in planning and assessing promising and evidence-based prevention and intervention services that will inform the development of a community-based continuum of care for youth at risk of becoming or already involved in the juvenile justice system. The long-term goal of this effort is to support sustainable, research-based, and data-informed recidivism reduction policies, practices, and programming, and the strategic reinvestment of cost savings into effective prevention and intervention programs.

Application deadline: October 10, 2023
Description: The Racial Equity in STEM Education program supports bold, groundbreaking, and potentially transformative projects that contribute to advancing racial equity in STEM education and workforce development through practice or fundamental or applied research. The program seeks to achieve excellence in U.S. STEM education at all levels and in all settings (both formal and informal) in order to support the development of a diverse and well-prepared workforce of scientists, technicians, engineers, mathematicians, and educators and a well-informed citizenry that have access to the ideas and tools of science and engineering.

Applications are now open for TD Bank Group's TD Ready Challenge for $10 million in grants to U.S. or Canadian nonprofit organizations focused on innovative solutions that address systemic barriers to affordable housing. TD is looking to work alongside organizations that help to increase access to permanent and stable housing throughout the transitional process. The TD Ready Challenge, now in its sixth year, is a key component of the Bank’s corporate citizenship platform, the TD Ready Commitment, through which it is dedicating $750 million to drive positive change, nurture progress, and help make the communities TD serves stronger and more inclusive.

Sometimes, a strong leader’s assets can become organizational liabilities, leading to what is known as founder syndrome. If you are interested in learning more about the dynamics at play when this happens, and how to prevent it, you may want to read the article “Strong Boards: An Antidote to Founder Syndrome.” This article examines five practical strategies a board can and should employ to move to a board that partners with a founder.

Webinar date: August 28, 2023, 2:00 to 2:45 PM Eastern Time
Description: When writing your proposals, do you clearly demonstrate the impact of your work? Providing the number of classes held or participants served is useful information, but it isn’t enough to satisfy most funders because funders want to know… "So what?" What difference will your program make? How will it change people's lives? And how will you measure those changes? During this TargetED, Alice Ruhnke will show you how to use outcomes and indicators so you can answer a funder’s “So what?” question confidently.

Webinar date: August 29, 2023, 2:00 to 3:00 PM Eastern Time
Description: Finding the right team members can help your organization in numerous ways. However, recruiting employees and volunteers presents unique challenges. During this webinar, Autumn Joyce of Cultivate Advisors will show you how to brand your recruitment efforts properly. By actively considering your brand, mission, vision, and values when recruiting, you can help your organization attract top talent and increase its impact.

Webinar date: September 6, 2023, 2:00 to 3:30 PM Eastern Time
Description: How do you keep appeals “short and sweet,” while still making sure they are complete? This micro-course focuses on the skills needed to break down a large proposal and effectively communicate key information in the form of an executive summary or letter of inquiry. Join Marie Palacios to learn what donors are looking for in these “compact proposal” narratives and what should be reserved for the full proposal or in-person dialogue.

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.

Interested in GrantStation's funder profiles? View the weekly Funding Spotlights to see profiles of grantmakers currently accepting applications.