GrantStation Insider - May 18, 2017

National | Regional | Federal | Partner Depot | Online Education | Announcements

National Funding
Opportunities Throughout the U.S.

Support for Youth-Led Service Projects
Youth Service America: Disney Summer of Service Organization Grants
Youth Service America (YSA) supports a global culture of engaged children and youth committed to a lifetime of meaningful service, learning, and leadership. Through Disney Summer of Service Organization Grants, YSA will provide awards of $2,000 each to 26 organizations to incorporate youth-led service projects into summer activities. (The organization that submits the best application will receive a $5,000 award.) These awards are intended to encourage kids to act as stewards of change in their community and create a brighter tomorrow. Eligible organizations include nonprofit organizations, K-12 schools, and colleges and universities that are hosting summer activities for youth ages 5 to 18. The application deadline is June 4, 2017. Visit the YSA website to learn more about the funding guidelines and application procedure.

Competition Recognizes Organizations Tackling Domestic Violence
Allstate Foundation: Purple Purse Challenge
The Allstate Foundation is inviting U.S. nonprofit organizations that address domestic violence to join the annual Purple Purse Challenge. This competition gives nonprofits that offer financial empowerment services to domestic violence survivors a chance to compete for a total of $700,000 in incentive funding. This year, the Foundation will partner with up to 250 national, state, and local nonprofit organizations. These organizations will be divided into two divisions of roughly equal size based on organizational budget. Each selected Community Partner will have its own “Team Page” where it can raise funds through the Challenge from October 2 through October 31, 2017. At the end of the Challenge, the Foundation will award grand prize grants ranging from $5,000 to $100,000 to the top seven organizations in each division. The deadline to apply to be a Community Partner is August 1, 2017. (Organizations are encouraged to apply early to take advantage of training and support leading up to the competition in October.) Visit the Foundation’s website to learn more about the Challenge.

Groups Assisting Wildlife Refuges Funded
National Wildlife Refuge Friends Grant Program
The National Wildlife Refuge Friends Grant Program, an initiative of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, funds projects that assist organizations in being effective co-stewards of important natural resources within the National Wildlife Refuge System. The program's goals are to help Refuge Friends organizations develop and execute projects, expand their capacity and skills, gain community support, build long-term relationships, increase overall capacity, and encourage the sharing of expertise within the Friends networks. Grants ranging from $1,500 to $15,000 are provided for capacity building, project support, and Friends peer-to-peer coaching. Proposals must be submitted by July 11, 2017. Visit the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s website to review the Request for Proposals.

Grants Aid Local Improvement Projects
Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation: Community Partners
The Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in the communities where Lowe's operates stores and distribution centers throughout the United States. The Foundation’s Community Partners grant program supports nonprofit organizations and local municipalities undertaking high-need projects such as building renovations and upgrades, grounds improvements, technology upgrades, and safety improvements. Grants range from $2,001 to $100,000. Applications for the fall funding cycle will be accepted from July 3 to August 25, 2017. Visit the company’s website to review the giving guidelines and to take the eligibility quiz.

Regional Funding
Opportunities for Specific Areas

Environmental Initiatives in the Northeast and Southeast Supported
Merck Family Fund
One of the Merck Family Fund’s goals is to restore and protect the natural environment and ensure a healthy planet for generations to come. The Fund provides grants to nonprofit organizations that address one of the following four program areas: The Reducing CO2 Emissions Through Energy Efficiency and Carbon Pricing program supports the development of political and economic drivers at the federal and state level in the Northeast and Southeast to establish or expand carbon pricing mechanisms. The Conserving Ecologically Valuable Land program provides grants for land conservation efforts in the Southeast. The Urban Farming and Youth Leadership program supports initiatives in low-income urban areas in the Northeast that help young people to create urban farms and local markets. The Making Paper Production Sustainable program seeks to increase the rates of recycled paper in large paper sectors, reduce sourcing from endangered forests, and maximize clean production nationwide. The final deadline for letters of inquiry this year is July 17, 2017; invited full proposals are due July 31, 2017. Visit the Fund’s website to learn more about the program areas.

Funds for Legal Aid Organizations in Kansas
Kansas Bar Foundation: Community Redevelopment and Homeowners’ Assistance Fund Grant Program
The Community Redevelopment and Homeowners’ Assistance Fund Grant Program, administered by the Kansas Bar Foundation, supports legal aid organizations throughout the state of Kansas. The Community Redevelopment Legal Assistance category focuses on organizations that promote economic development by providing legal services to programs that revitalize low- and moderate-income communities through affordable housing or job creation. The Foreclosure Prevention Legal Assistance category focuses on a broad range of options from advice and counsel, representation, mediation programs, or policy and impact work. Grants generally range up to $50,000. The application deadline is June 30, 2017. Visit the Foundation’s website to download the application packet.

Grants Promote Traditional Arts in California
Alliance for California Traditional Arts
The Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) promotes ways for cultural traditions to thrive now and into the future by offering advocacy, resources, and connections for folk and traditional artists. ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program seeks to strengthen folk and traditional arts throughout the state by providing grants of up to $5,000 to California-based nonprofit organizations or organizations who apply through a California-based fiscal sponsor. The focus is on pathways to nurture, sustain, and engage participation in traditional arts. A wide range of projects will be supported, including public presentations, workshops and classes, equipment and materials, etc. The Alliance also offers the Apprenticeship Program, which provides contracts of $3,000 to master artists so they can offer intensive training to qualified apprentices. Applications for both programs must be postmarked by July 17, 2017. Visit the ACTA website to download the application guidelines in both English and Spanish.

Oral Health Programs in Three New England States Supported
Northeast Delta Dental Foundation
The mission of the Northeast Delta Dental Foundation is to improve the access to, and the quality of, oral healthcare and education for the public and the dental communities in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Grants are provided for charitable programs to extend the benefits of dentistry to indigents and groups found to be dentally deprived, educational programs for the advancement of dentistry and oral health, programs designed to promote the oral health of the public, and dental research projects promising to improve the quality of dental care delivered. Grant requests of up to $1,000 are considered throughout the year; the upcoming application deadline for grants of $1,000 to $5,000 is July 28, 2017. Visit the Delta Dental website to review the online application guidelines.

Federal Funding
Opportunities from the U.S. Government

Program Helps Low-Income Taxpayers
Department of the Treasury
The Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic program provides support to represent low-income taxpayers in disputes with the IRS and to educate persons who speak English as a second language about their rights and responsibilities as U.S. taxpayers. The application deadline is June 20, 2017. 

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Funded
Department of Commerce
The Regional Innovation Strategies Program supports capacity building programs that provide proof-of-concept and commercialization assistance to innovators and entrepreneurs, as well as operational support for organizations that provide essential early-stage funding to startups. The application deadline is June 23, 2017.

Partner Depot
GrantStation Proudly Endorses These Special Offers

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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.

Online Workshop: DashBoard Design from Start to Finish with MS Excel
Have you ever been tasked with reporting on key metrics? Do you need tips for presenting data effectively in dashboards? In this workshop, Ann Emery will spend the first 30 minutes explaining the step-by-step dashboard design process, which involves customizing dashboards for your audience, sketching graphs on paper and within a grid system, adding the right amount of white space, and establishing a visual hierarchy. The remaining 60 minutes will be spent creating two dashboards from scratch with Microsoft Excel. You'll learn to insert spark lines, data bars, and conditional formatting, and to adjust the dashboard so that it can be printed or saved as a PDF neatly on one page. Ann will provide datasets so that we are all working from the same file. This hands-on workshop will be held on Thursday, May 25, 2017 at 2pm EDT.

Now Is the Time - Mobilize Your Board to Raise Funds
In today's highly competitive grantseeking economy, nonprofit organizations that fail to attract outside funding most often are those with boards who are unable or unwilling to engage in efforts aimed at contributing to their agency's financial security. Stated quite simply, nonprofit board members no longer have the option of saying "I don't raise funds." In this webinar, Judith Margolin addresses the change in perspective necessary to turn weak boards into powerful fundraising entities, beginning with a new and much broader definition of "fundraising". Topics covered include: who should and should not be on your board, how to address your board member's reluctance to raise funds, and what specific roles board members can and should play vis a vis your prospects and funders. The webinar concludes with advice on developing an action plan to more fully engage your board in fundraising. This presentation will be held on Thursday, June 8, 2017 at 2 pm EDT.

Grantwriting 101
If you are new to grantwriting, this webinar is for you! During this 90-minute webinar, Alice Ruhnke, founder and owner of the Grant Advantage, will teach you how to use a Program Planning Framework to plan through grant applications so they tell a strong, consistent story. As we go through the Framework, each section of a typical grant application will be highlighted with information on what funders are looking for and tips on how to write that section. By the time the webinar is over, you will (1) understand what funders are looking for in grant applications; (2) be able to decipher confusing grant-related terminology; (3) have a usable system to connect all the pieces of an application together; and (4) have strategies to infuse your organization's strengths in your proposal to make it strong and competitive. This webinar will be held on Thursday, June 15, 2017 at 2 pm EDT.

Announcements
What's New at GrantStation?

The Spring 2017 State of Grantseeking Report

Whether you manage a nonprofit organization, an educational institution, or a government agency, there is one truth that is self-evident: there is never enough money to do the good work you feel you need to do. So, we all ask ourselves these questions:

• Who will fund my organization?
• What is a reasonable level of funding to expect for my organization?
• Does my budget, location, or mission affect my organization's ability to be awarded grants?

The free State of Grantseeking™ Report can serve as a valuable benchmark for organizations to review their grantseeking efforts, and will provide leading-edge information months earlier than other annual surveys.

Download your free copy of the State of Grantseeking Report today!

Information contained in the GrantStation Insider may not be posted, reprinted, redistributed, or sold without permission.

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