GrantStation Insider: September 7, 2023

Application deadline: November 3, 2023
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.
Description: 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.

Application deadline: October 23, 2023
Grant amount: Grants average $50,000 to $100,000.
Description: 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.

Application deadline: Pre-applications are due November 1, 2023.
Grant amount: $25,000 to $75,000
Description: The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) is the domestic anti-poverty program of the U.S. Catholic Bishops. CCHD works to break the cycle of poverty by helping low-income people participate in decisions that affect their lives, families, and communities. CCHD’s Community Development Grant Program supports organizations that are led by people living in poverty and work to address the root causes of poverty by nurturing solidarity between the poor and non-poor and facilitating the participation of people living in poverty in decisions that perpetuate poverty in their lives. The Economic Development Grant Program supports economic development initiatives that significantly include the voice of the poor and marginalized in developing new businesses that offer good jobs or develop assets that will be owned and enjoyed by local communities. (Applicant organizations must not promote activities that work against Catholic values.)

Application deadline: November 30, 2023
Description: The Cornell Douglas Foundation seeks to advocate for environmental health and justice, encourage stewardship of the environment, and further respect for sustainability of resources. The Foundation provides grants to organizations in the United States that focus on environmental health and justice, land conservation, mountaintop removal mining, sustainability of resources, and watershed protection. 

Application deadline: None
Geographic scope: Company communities in DE, IL, MD, NJ, PA, and DC
Description: The Exelon Corporate Contributions Program provides grants to nonprofit organizations in the communities Exelon serves, including in Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC. Support focuses on the following areas: 1) Building Exelon’s Future Workforce, including programs that encourage students to stay in school, promote math and science, improve workforce skills, and encourage personal development through scholarships, mentoring, and internships; 2) Energy Empowerment, including programs that improve the quality of the environment, promote environmental education and conservation, develop cleaner sources of energy,  protect endangered species, and beautify neighborhoods; 3) Equal Access to Arts and Culture, including cultural institutions with broad public exposure and programs designed to make arts and culture more accessible to a wider and more diverse audience; and 4) Enrichment Through Local Vitality, including support for a wide range of nonprofit organizations that support individuals and families most in need.

Application deadline: April 15 and October 15, annually
Geographic scope: Utah
Description: The Utah Medical Association Foundation provides grants to nonprofit organizations for health-related projects in Utah. Support is provided for projects benefiting the citizens of Utah, including public health projects that serve to mitigate or prevent disease, projects that improve or support education of physicians, and projects that improve facilities and treatment options.

Application deadline: None
Geographic scope: Texas, with some emphasis on the Dallas-Fort Worth area
Description: The Meadows Foundation seeks to improve the quality and circumstances of life for the people of Texas now and in the future. The Foundation provides grants throughout Texas, with up to 50% of giving focused on the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Program areas include arts and culture, civic and public affairs, education, environment, health, and human services. Support is also provided through the Foundation’s initiatives, which focus on post-secondary completion, educator preparation, water conservation, depression, and homelessness. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations and public entities serving the people of Texas are eligible to apply.

Application deadline: There are three annual deadlines. The upcoming deadline for concept papers is October 23, 2023.
Geographic scope: Michigan
Grant amount: Up to $25,000 per year for two years.
Description: The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation supports evidence-based and community-inspired solutions that improve the health of Michigan residents. Grants focus on the following health areas: health disparities, physical health, behavioral health, substance use disorder, mental health, maternal-infant health, health inequities, and social determinants of health. The Foundation’s Community Health Matching Grant Program provides matching grants to Michigan nonprofit community organizations testing or validating new approaches that address community health problems. The aim is to develop population-led, community-inspired programs or implement evidence-based programs to address community-identified needs, and evaluate measurable programmatic and health outcomes.

Optional draft deadline: November 13, 2023
Application deadline: January 11, 2024
Description: The Digital Humanities Advancement Grants program (DHAG) supports innovative, experimental, or computationally challenging digital projects, leading to work that can scale to enhance scholarly research, teaching, and public programming in the humanities. The DHAG program supports projects at different phases of their life cycles that respond to one or more of these programmatic priorities: research and refinement of innovative, experimental, or computationally challenging methods and techniques; enhancement or design of digital infrastructure that contributes to and supports the humanities, such as open-source code, tools, or platforms; and evaluative studies that investigate the practices and the impact of digital scholarship on research, pedagogy, scholarly communication, and public engagement. 

Application deadline: October 19, 2023
Description: The John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program, administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, provides assistance to eligible members of the National Marine Mammal Stranding Network and collaborators to provide for: A) the recovery, care, or treatment of sick, injured, or entangled marine mammals; B) responses to marine mammal stranding events that require emergency assistance; C) the collection of data and samples from living or dead stranded marine mammals for scientific research or assessments regarding marine mammal health; D) facility operating costs that are directly related to activities described in (A), (B), or (C); and E) development of stranding network capacity, including training for emergency response, where facilities do not exist or are sparse.

Please join us for the 52nd Annual ARNOVA Conference in Orlando, FL, from November 16 to 18. We have put together an exciting program around our conference theme. Check out sessions and events and register here by September 13 to benefit from our early bird rates!

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.

Are you a nonprofit board member looking to learn more about fundraising? The book Nonprofit Hero: Five Easy Steps to Successful Board Fundraising by Valerie M. Jones may help you to demystify this process. This book contains stories, tools, and exercises aimed at helping board members engage in fundraising. It helps readers form an in-depth description of their asking personality, and also includes a toolkit of practical samples and templates, such as sample giving dos and don’ts, asking scripts, and fundraising plans.

Webinar date: September 11, 2023, 2:00 to 2:45 PM Eastern Time
Description: The approach section in your grant proposals must be clear, specific, and realistic. It should also be aligned with the needs you previously identified, your proposed outcomes, your budget, and the funder’s requirements. With so many factors to consider, it's easy to make mistakes and write an approach that has insufficient detail or is misaligned with other portions of your proposal. During this TargetED, Alice Ruhnke will show you how to build an approach that inspires confidence in your program and shows it is well-planned, feasible, and builds on community assets.

Webinar date: September 13, 2023, 2:00 to 3:30 PM Eastern Time
Description: Are you thinking about jumping into federal grants? There are two essential ingredients of every successful federal grant proposal: preparation and early planning. During this webinar, Alice Ruhnke will show you how to research federal funding opportunities and develop the initial strategies needed to craft competitive federal grant applications.

Webinar date: September 20, 2023, 2:00 to 3:30 PM Eastern Time
Description: If you feel stuck in the number and size of your foundation partnerships, a major-grants mindset can change the way you work. During this webinar, Susan Schaefer of Resource Partners will show you how to leverage the key differences between competing for your nonprofit’s annual foundation awards and your largest private grants. Whether your organization is immediately ready to apply for major grants or you’re on your way, learn tangible steps to ready yourself and your colleagues for the next stage in significant foundation partnerships. 

Brought to you by GrantStation and The Grant Professionals Association
We received over 180 excellent entries that had already won a grant award. They reflected grant proposals with compelling narratives, succinct and engaging executive summaries, strong and workable plans, and well-defined budgets. We are appreciative of the work and efforts of each entrant. A complete list of winners and many of the prize-winning grant proposals are available on the GrantStation website.

GrantStation shares database profiles of local, national, Canadian, and international grantmakers with upcoming deadlines each week. Check out the current Funding Spotlights for more grant opportunities!