GrantStation Insider - November 30, 2017

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National Funding
Opportunities Throughout the U.S.

Support for Wireless Technology to Tackle Social Issues
Vodafone Americas Foundation: Wireless Innovation Project
The Vodafone Americas Foundation’s Wireless Innovation Project seeks to identify and fund the best innovations using wireless-related technology to address critical social issues around the world. Funded projects must demonstrate a multi-disciplinary approach to tackling a social issue in the areas of education, health, access to communication, environment, or economic development. The technology should demonstrate a significant advancement in wireless-related technology, and have the potential for replication and large-scale impact. The Wireless Innovation Project will provide support for projects from universities and nonprofit organizations based in the United States. (Although organizations must be based in the U.S., projects may operate and help people outside of the U.S.) Winners will be selected for awards of $100,000, $200,000, and $300,000, which will be paid in equal installments over three years. The application deadline is March 5, 2018. Visit the Vodafone Americas Foundation website to take the required Eligibility Questionnaire and submit an online application. 

Progressive Justice Initiatives in the U.S., Haiti, and Mexico Funded
Peace Development Fund: Community Organizing Grants
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 provide support to community-based organizations in the United States, Haiti, and Mexico that are working for social justice. The funding priorities include organizing to shift power, working to build a movement, dismantling oppression, and creating new structures. Priority is given to new or emerging organizations, efforts that have difficulty securing funds from other sources, community organizations working on climate change issues at the local policy level, groups that have a genesis in Occupy or Movement for Black Lives, collaborative peace initiatives led by women, or issues that are not yet recognized by progressive funders. Grants range from $2,500 to $10,000, with an average of $5,000. Applying organizations must have an annual budget of $250,000 or less. The application form will be available December 1, 2017, and the application deadline is January 12, 2018. Visit the Fund’s website to download the grant guidelines for the Community Organizing Grants program.

Grants Promote Youth-Led Environmental Education Projects
Captain Planet Foundation: ecoSolution Grants
The Captain Planet Foundation supports educational programs that enable youth to understand and appreciate our world by getting involved in hands-on projects to improve the environment. The Foundation provides ecoSolution Grants to educators working with youth in the United States to help fund solution-oriented, youth-led projects that result in real environmental outcomes. K-12 schools and nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply for grants of $500 to $2,500. Priority is given to projects with matching funds or in-kind support. The first application deadline for 2018 is January 15. Online application guidelines are available on the Foundation’s website.

Award Strengthens Solutions to Systemic Criminalization
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee: Human Rights Innovation Fellowship
The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) has selected “Resisting Criminalization” for the topic of the 2018 Human Rights Innovation Fellowship. Nonprofit organizations and individuals throughout the United States that have an innovative idea for combating the systemic criminalization of immigrant communities, communities of color, Muslims, LGBTQI communities, or those at the intersections are invited to apply for an award of up to $25,000. Innovations may be legal strategies, methods of mobilization, methods of community outreach, technological or financial products or apps, path breaking applied research, advances in corporate accountability, or other new approaches. The application deadline is January 17, 2018. Visit the UUSC website to submit an online application.

Regional Funding
Opportunities for Specific Areas

Opioid Misuse Programs in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia Supported
Cardinal Health Foundation: Generation Rx
The Cardinal Health Foundation is committed to helping communities address prescription drug misuse. The Foundation’s Generation Rx program has issued three new Generation Rx requests for proposals (RFPs), targeting four of the states that have been especially hard hit by the opioid epidemic. The following two RFPs will support nonprofit organizations, including educational institutions and healthcare providers, in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia: Prevention Education for Youth, and Best Practices in Pain Medication Use and Patient Engagement. The Community-Level Response to the Opioid Crisis RFP will support only nonprofit organizations in Ohio. Online applications for all three RFPs are due January 12, 2018. Visit the Foundation’s website to download the application materials for each RFP.

Funds for Youth Programs in Oklahoma and Surrounding States
The Kerr Foundation
The Kerr Foundation primarily provides support to nonprofit organizations in Oklahoma; however, the Foundation also considers requests from organizations in the surrounding states of Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, and Texas, as well as organizations located in Washington, DC. The Foundation offers grants to organizations that provide new or enhanced opportunities, particularly for youth, which address the following areas of interest: education, health, arts and culture, and human services. Grants generally range from $1,000 to $50,000. The upcoming application deadline is January 12, 2018. Visit the Foundation’s website to review the application guidelines and submit an online application.

Planning Grants for New England Programs to Boost High School Graduation
Barr Foundation Education Program
The Barr Foundation’s Education Program is dedicated to increasing the number of youth in the New England region who connect to secondary and post-secondary success. The current Request for Proposals is seeking to support innovative public high schools and programs across New England that are designed to support students who are off track to graduate. The Foundation anticipates supporting a cohort of up to eight grantees who seek to seed or grow pioneering whole-school models that can effectively boost graduation rates and college readiness for students who have not found the support they need through traditional education models. This RFP is intended to support only wholly integrated, full-time models, not discrete programs or stand-alone interventions. Applicants are invited to submit proposals for up to $150,000 for one year of planning. Subsequently, Barr will invite a select group of planning awardees to apply for a two-year implementation grant of up to $750,000. Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and nonprofit organizations that can support a school or program, or that are in partnership with a LEA, are eligible to apply. Planning phase proposals are due January 22, 2018. Visit the Foundation’s website to download the Request for Proposals.

Capital Support for Local Basketball Courts in Six Urban Areas
LISC/ESPN Home Court Program
The LISC/ESPN Home Court Program, a collaboration between ESPN and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), provides nonprofit neighborhood-based organizations, middle schools, and high schools with financing and technical assistance to improve the quality, safety, and accessibility of local basketball courts in Los Angeles, CA; Atlanta, GA; Philadelphia, PA; Memphis, TN; Houston, TX; and Milwaukee, WI. The program provides grants of up to $25,000 for capital improvement projects to basketball courts that serve a neighborhood consisting primarily of low- and moderate-income families and individuals. The application deadline is January 31, 2018. Visit the LISC website to download the request for proposals.

Federal Funding
Opportunities from the U.S. Government

Program Funds Technology for Historic Preservation
National Park Service
The Preservation Technology and Training Grants program provides support to create better tools, materials, and approaches to conserving buildings, landscapes, sites, and collections. The application deadline is January 4, 2018. 

Transportation Service Learning Supported
Department of Transportation
The Youth Service and Conservation Corps Workforce Development program provides support to youth service or conservation corps to perform projects eligible under the Federal-aid highway program, and to expand youth workforce development opportunities while strengthening transportation career pathways. The application deadline is January 8, 2018.

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

10-Step Budgeting Checklist
As the year end approaches, you may be thinking about your organization’s budget for the coming year. But what exactly does a nonprofit budget consist of and how can you go about creating one? According to Propel Nonprofits, a budget is “a planning tool that reflects an organization’s programs, mission, and strategic plan.” Their 10-Step Budgeting Checklist helps guide nonprofit organizations through the budgeting process in ten easy steps, which are further broken down into manageable tasks.

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.

How to Track Restricted Grants in QuickBooks
Wouldn't it be great if at any point during a grant's life cycle you could simply push a button and see exactly how much and to which categories the grant dollars have been spent? Considered the country's foremost expert in using QuickBooks for nonprofits, Gregg S. Bossen, CPA, will demonstrate how to easily and accurately track restricted grants in QuickBooks. Participants will learn how to set up a restricted grant, enter the grant budget, mark checks and bills as being paid out of the grant, point payroll to the grant, and finally create a memorized report to see how the dollars have been spent and compare the results to the grant budget. Gregg will be working in QuickBooks throughout the webinar. No power point slides here! There will also be plenty of time for questions. And one more thing: Gregg is really entertaining! This webinar will be held on Thursday, December 14, 2017.

Tracking In-Kind Contributions & Volunteers in QuickBooks (NEW)
Want to learn the ins and outs of in-kind contributions? Not sure what counts as in-kind and what doesn't? Join Gregg Bossen and David Webb for a QuickBooks Made Easy training on how to enter and track in-kind contributions and volunteer hours in QuickBooks. Topics covered include:

• What is an in-kind contribution
• Why in-kind contributions are important
• Which in-kind contributions should be included in your financial statements and tax returns
• How to value in-kind contributions
• What your responsibilities are for donor reporting
• How to customize fields for tracking your volunteers in QuickBooks
• How to enter time for your volunteers based on type of work.

There will be plenty of time for questions. This webinar will be held on Wednesday, January 17, 2018.

Is Your Organization Grant Ready? (NEW)
Almost all nonprofit organizations answer that question with a resounding, "Yes—we are ready to get grant money to support the important work of our organization!" However, while most organizations are ready to reap the benefits of grant awards, many have not developed the infrastructure necessary to be competitive in the application process.

During this 90-minute webinar, Alice Ruhnke, founder and owner of The Grant Advantage, will guide you through a process so you will be able to:

• assess your organization's grant readiness through a comprehensive assessment tool that includes organizational structure, programs, finances, partnerships, evaluation, leadership, and more;
• develop strategies to enhance areas of weakness; and,
• use your enhanced capacity to write competitive grants.

There will be plenty of time for questions. This webinar will be held on Thursday, January 25, 2018.

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