GrantStation Insider: September 3, 2020

COVID-19 | National | Regional | Federal | Partner Depot | PathFinder | Online Education | Announcements | Subscribe

COVID-19 Related Funding
Opportunities Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic

FACE Foundation: Transitioning to Virtual Exchange
The Transitioning to Virtual Exchange program, administered by the FACE Foundation, will support institutions that are creatively maintaining French-American collaboration by integrating virtual exchange or other types of global learning into their curricula. Projects need to be implemented collaboratively by at least one U.S. and one French institution of higher learning or international education provider and demonstrate why they have the potential to boost study abroad after the pandemic. The application deadline is October 30, 2020.

Sisters of St. Joseph Healthcare Foundation Emergency Response Fund
The Sisters of St. Joseph Healthcare Foundation Emergency Response Fund seeks to support community-based organizations in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, Humboldt County, and Southern California who serve vulnerable and marginalized communities most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Targeted communities include children, seniors, the homeless, people living in poverty, immigrants, etc. Additional information is available on the Foundation's website.

Bread & Roses: Solidarity Fund for COVID-19 Organizing
The Solidarity Fund for COVID-19 Organizing is providing emergency grants of up to $10,000 to grassroots community organizing groups in the Philadelphia, PA, region, including Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties in Pennsylvania and Camden County in New Jersey. Priority will be given to new or existing groups that are launching organizing campaigns around issues directly related to the COVID-19 crisis as well as established grassroots community organizing groups that need funding to be able to keep organizing, need resources to organize virtually, or need to replace lost revenue due to the COVID-19 crisis. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

For more grant opportunities, visit our COVID-19 Related Funding page.

National Funding
Opportunities Throughout the U.S.

Support for Projects to Help People Living With Paralysis
Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation: Direct Effect Quality of Life Grants
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research, and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis through grants, information, and advocacy. The Foundation's Direct Effect Quality of Life Grants of up to $25,000 are currently being offered for specific budget items to support a wide range of projects that will impact individuals living with paralysis and their families. Examples of funded projects include sports wheelchairs for a wheelchair basketball team, kayaks for a rowing program, accessible lockers in a gym, wheelchair accessible picnic tables at a county fairground, subsidized lessons for a therapeutic horseback riding program, accessible student transportation costs for an inclusive after-school program, and stipends for support group leaders. Nonprofit organizations, municipal and state governments, school districts, recognized tribal entities, and other institutions such as community or veterans' hospitals are eligible to apply. Applications may be submitted from September 9 through October 22, 2020. (Note: High Impact Priority Quality of Life grants of $30,000 to $50,000 are also being offered.) Visit the Foundation's website (https://www.christopherreeve.org) to review the funding guidelines for both programs.

Nonprofit Theatre and Dance Companies Funded
The Shubert Foundation
The Shubert Foundation is dedicated to sustaining and advancing the live performing arts in the United States, with a particular emphasis on theatre and a secondary focus on dance. The Foundation provides general operating support to nonprofit, professional resident theatre and dance companies that have an established artistic and administrative track record, as well as a history of fiscal responsibility. A limited number of grants are also made to arts-related organizations that help support the development of theatre and dance, as well as graduate drama departments of private universities. Applications for theatre grants are due December 2, 2020. All other grant applications must be submitted by October 15, 2020. Visit the Foundation's website to learn more about the funding guidelines and application instructions.

Grants Aid Efforts to Improve the Health of People Who Use Drugs
Comer Family Foundation: Syringe Service Program
The Comer Family Foundation is dedicated to seeding ideas and supporting innovative programs that make a lasting and positive impact on the lives of individuals and their communities. The Foundation's Syringe Service Program seeks to support comprehensive harm reduction programs that improve the health and wellness of people who use drugs. Grants ranging from $2,500 to $20,000 are provided to programs that provide free sterile syringes, education, and community wraparound services to reduce opioid overdose and the transmission of HIV and viral hepatitis. The upcoming application deadline is November 1, 2020. Details about the Syringe Service Program are available on the Foundation's website.

K-12 School Edible Gardens Supported
Annie's Grants for Gardens
Annie's Grants for Gardens are provided to K-12 school gardens nationwide to help children start thinking more holistically about their food, their communities, and the planet. Grants may be used to purchase any supplies for an edible garden, such as plants, seeds, raised beds, fencing, wheelbarrows, greenhouses, and drip irrigation systems. New applicants may apply for grants of $3,000; returning applicants are eligible for one of three $5,000 grants. Public, charter, and private schools, as well as school districts and nonprofit organizations supporting a school garden, are eligible to apply. Online applications must be submitted by November 2, 2020. Visit the company's website to review the grant guidelines.

Regional Funding
Opportunities for Specific Areas

Funds for Efforts to Challenge Anti-Blackness in New England Schools
Nellie Mae Education Foundation: Educators for Black Lives
The mission of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation is to champion efforts that prioritize community goals that challenge racial inequities and advance excellent, student-centered public education for all New England youth. The Foundation's Educators for Black Lives request for proposals will support educators who have been at the forefront of facilitating conversations and practices centered on eradicating anti-Blackness in their virtual classrooms, schools, and communities across New England. This grant opportunity focuses on projects that are rooted in challenging anti-Blackness and centering the voices, perspectives, and experiences of Black people. Grants will be provided to educator or educator-serving organizations for a range of activities including organizing; classroom, educator, or community conversations; culturally responsive trainings for schools or districts; community healing intended to center Black youth and families; training or conference attendance, etc. Grants will range up to $30,000, with most grants between $5,000 and $15,000. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the pool of resources is exhausted or October 22, 2020, whichever comes first. The request for proposals may be downloaded from the Foundation's website.

Grants Enhance Rural Communities in Targeted States
Laura Jane Musser Fund: Rural Initiative Program
The Laura Jane Musser Fund encourages collaborative and participatory efforts among citizens in communities in Colorado, Hawaii, Minnesota, and Wyoming, as well as Delaware, Greene, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan, and Ulster counties in New York and the Rio Grande Valley, Deep East Texas, and the Brazos Valley regions of Texas. Through the Rural Initiative Program, the Fund supports efforts that will help to strengthen individual rural towns in the targeted states in a number of civic areas, including, but not limited to, economic development, business preservation, arts and humanities, public space improvements, and education. The applicant community must have a population of 10,000 or fewer and must be able to demonstrate the rural characteristics of their location and support from a diverse cross-section of community members and institutions. Planning grants of up to $5,000 and implementation grants of up to $25,000 are provided. Online applications must be submitted by October 1, 2020. Specific grant guidelines and application procedures are available on the Fund's website.

Support for Natural Resources Workforce Training in Alaska
The Alaska Community Foundation: Vocational Fund for Alaska's Future
The Alaska Community Foundation envisions an Alaska where communities come together and have resources to thrive. The Foundation's Vocational Fund for Alaska's Future supports projects that sharpen vocational skills and contribute to the competitiveness of Alaska's natural resource and overall economy. Proposed projects should focus on efforts to build a skilled workforce in Alaska's natural resource development industries, with a preference for the oil, gas, and mining industries. Projects that build and refine skills that cut across a variety of vocational industries and sectors will be especially competitive, as will projects that build career awareness and employability skills, and promote cross-sector skill acquisition. Preference will be given to projects that are located in rural Alaska or programs that reach rural communities in Alaska. Grants typically range from $10,000 to $50,000. Nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, local government agencies, and tribes are eligible to apply. Applications will be accepted from September 7 through October 15, 2020. Visit the Community Foundation's website after September 7 to review the 2020 guidelines for the Vocational Fund for Alaska's Future.

Youth Organizations in Company Communities in the U.S. and Canada Funded
Nordstrom Corporate Giving Program
The Nordstrom Corporate Giving Program supports nonprofit organizations in the communities where company stores are located, including locations in the U.S. and Canada. The focus is on programs and organizations that care for kids and empower youth. Support is also provided for other efforts that will have a significant impact on company communities. Grants are provided to support programs and services that are not readily available elsewhere. Online applications must be submitted by October 1, 2020. Visit the company's website to access the giving guidelines.

Federal Funding
Opportunities from the U.S. Government

Program Supports Marine Fisheries
Department of Commerce
The Marine Fisheries Initiative (MARFIN) supports research and development projects that optimize the use of fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and off the south Atlantic states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Projects should involve the U.S. fishing industry (recreational and commercial) and focus on areas such as fishery biology, resources assessment, socio-economic assessment, management and conservation, selected harvesting methods, and fish handling and processing. The application deadline is October 23, 2020.

Funds Available to Help Brownfields
Environmental Protection Agency
The Brownfields Program provides funds to empower states, communities, tribes, and nonprofit organizations to prevent, inventory, assess, clean up, and reuse brownfield sites. A brownfield site is defined as real property where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants, controlled substances, or petroleum or petroleum products, or that has been scarred by mining. The application deadline is October 28, 2020.

Partner Depot

Should your nonprofit enlist outside grant writing support?
Every nonprofit with a grants program has to decide how to staff it—and we know it's not an easy decision to make! On 9/17, Elevate is bringing back our popular free webinar, When Does Outside Grant Writing Help Make Sense for Nonprofits? We'll share what we've learned from speaking and working with hundreds of organizations across the sector to help you make the best choice for your nonprofit. We'll review different staffing models, the pros and cons of each, what to ask before hiring a grant writer or firm, and more.

Save your seat and get your questions answered!

PathFinder: Featured Resource
A library of quality resources designed to help you develop your career path as a grants professional.

Clairification Blog
Are you interested in expanding your knowledge of the fundraising world? If so, the Clairification Blog may be just what you are seeking. This blog, written by Claire Axelrad, features articles on theory, practice, tools, and tips related to fundraising. Examples of topics covered include annual giving, donor retention, major and legacy gifts, online fundraising, and more. New readers can access the first five articles for free.

Upcoming Online Education Trainings
Live Webinars

Unless otherwise noted, all Online Education Trainings are webinars,
are 90 minutes in duration, and are scheduled to begin at 2 PM Eastern Time.

FREE Tour of the GrantStation Website
Join Jeremy Smith, Communications and Technology Director, and Kerry Glauser, Research Specialist, for a quick tour of the GrantStation website. This tour will cover all of the features in GrantStation.com, including navigation, search interfaces, and charitable database search criteria. This tour will provide tips on the most effective way to use all of the valuable resources the website offers, including the extensive funder databases that can help you identify the grantmakers most likely to fund your programs or projects. By using GrantStation's databases and resource tools, you can begin to develop a successful grantseeking strategy for the next 12 to 18 months. The webinar will be held on Thursday, September 10, 2020.

Partnership RX: What's Slowing Your Collaboration Down? (NEW)
By now we all really understand that thinking and working collaboratively "pays" in many ways for our organizations and the community as a whole. But that doesn't mean creating and sustaining a meaningful partnership is trouble-free—have you noticed? Take these three scenarios: 1) Your community collaboration seems to have stalled out. Your team is losing steam and you can't figure out why, much less what to do about it. 2) Yikes! You all were sailing along beautifully and suddenly an issue you thought your team had sorted out a long time ago is rearing its ugly head and jamming the works . . . again. 3) Conflict! All right, we're not talking open arguments here, but some really strong differences of opinion have surfaced and you're all spinning around in circles and never really getting anything resolved. Sound familiar? Good news—you're not alone. All these "problems" aren’t really problems at all, but symptoms of common and predictable partnership challenges. And every one is fixable and even preventable. In this lively webinar Maryn Boess, Founder of GrantsMagic U, will explore three powerful, simple tools for understanding what's going on when your collaboration seems to be going wrong, and what to do about it. You'll learn what to expect during a typical collaboration lifecycle, how to head off predictable problems, and what to do if they crop up anyway. You'll learn how to use GrantsMagic U's exclusive "Bottom-Up Logic Model" to diagnose troublesome gaps, overlaps, and misalignments in your internal and external partnerships. You'll see how our "Collaboration Assessment Checklist" can help you identify where your collaboration is healthy and well—and where it could use a strong dose of tough love and attention. The webinar will be held on Thursday, September 17, 2020.

FREE Webinar: Ten Ways to Learn Online With GrantStation (NEW)
In this 30-minute free webinar, Sage Adams, GrantStation's Chief Technology Officer and Senior Instructional Designer, will guide you through ten ways to learn online with GrantStation. You can use this knowledge to increase your expertise in grant research, proposal writing, grant management, and strategic planning, no matter your level of expertise or role in your organization. We'll go over the various tools and resources you can use—some free and some paid—to help you advance your knowledge and understanding and stay current with trends in the industry. Overall you'll learn how to use the GrantStation tools to meet your nonprofit learning needs and come away with a more thorough understanding of the various learning tools GrantStation offers and how to access and make best use of them. The webinar will be held on Tuesday, September 22, 2020.

GrantStation Announcements
The latest updates from GrantStation.

Free Online Learning Courses

Building a Grantwriting Framework for Success, Tuesday, September 15
Successful proposals need careful and deliberate planning. Join Alice Ruhnke to learn how to develop the common sections of a grant application and connect the pieces to tell a consistent and compelling story.

Ten Ways to Learn Online with GrantStation, Tuesday, September 22
Learn how to use GrantStation's tools to increase your expertise in grant research, proposal writing, grant management, and strategic planning, no matter your level of expertise or role in your organization.

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

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Editor: Julie Kaufman
Copy Editor: Ashlyn Simmons
Contributing Writer: Kevin Peters