Search Through Community and School Garden Grants in the U.S.

Foundation Background

The Alleghany Foundation is a private foundation that came about as a result of the sale of a community non-profit hospital to a for-profit hospital. The Alleghany Foundation is a Virginia nonstock corporation exempt from income taxation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. It is managed by a Board of Directors, all the members of which are residents of the community. The Foundation’s ongoing purpose is to provide financial support that primarily benefits worthy activities in the Alleghany Highlands of Virginia.

Purpose

The Foundation seeks applications in key focus areas with the goal of building upon the region’s wonderful assets to provide dynamic opportunities for all its residents. Proposals should contribute to the Foundation’s strategic areas of focus for grant, including the VISION 2025 Initiative.

Strategic Funding Areas of Interest

The Foundation’s priority is to support proposals from organizations that contribute to the following outcomes:

• Economic Transformation – Harness our region’s strengths to develop a vibrant, diverse and higher-wage economy that can compete in the global marketplace.
• Educational Excellence – Seeks to invest with institutions, such as our local public schools and community college to move our school systems forward from “Good to Great.”
• Health and Wellness – Help the residents of the Alleghany Highlands lead healthier lives and access the comprehensive health care they need.
• Community Capacity – Grow local institutions and organizations with the vision, will, wisdom, and skills to work together to build a more prosperous, equitable, just and sustainable community.
• Leadership and Civic Vitality – Develop broad-based inclusive leadership that can sustain a forward-looking agenda for the community.
• VISION 2025 Initiative – A multi-pronged community-led effort for economic revitalization of the Alleghany Highlands of Virginia that is supported in partnerships with The Alleghany Highlands Chamber of Commerce & Tourism, The Alleghany Highlands Economic Development Corporation, and Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, and made up of the following working groups:
  • Real Estate, Utility Development and Marketing to Expand Industry Base
  • Alleghany Highlands Web Store and Small Business Support
  • Corridor Curb Appeal, Gateway and Main Street Enhancement
  • Community Landscaping and Destination Gardens
  • Alleghany Highlands Industrial Heritage and Technology Discovery Center

Community Seed Donations

Seed Savers Exchange donates seeds to schools, community gardens, seed libraries, and nonprofits who freely give the donated seeds and resulting produce. We also have a disaster relief seed donation program. To learn more, and to apply, click the links below.

Those who have not completed the application process will not receive a seed donation.

Herman's Garden

The financial support of Herman Warsh and Maryanne Mott helped to establish our headquarters in Decorah, Iowa: Heritage Farm. To honor their support, we donate seeds to nonprofit, educational, and community organizations and gardens in need through our Herman's Garden Seed Donation Program.

Disaster Relief Inquiries

If your garden or farm has been impacted by recent hurricanes or natural disasters, we'd like to extend a hand. 

Mission

The DanPaul Foundation will use its resources to help train teachers and parents in early childhood development, protect children from abuse and neglect, stimulate children's personal social responsibilities, and offer them opportunities for enrichment and growth.

The Foundation will also encourage children to be concerned and informed about the environment and the underprivileged, particularly with regard to clean air and water, and adequate housing and nutrition for all.

Beliefs

The DanPaul Foundation believes that children should have ample opportunities for enrichment in their lives, and thus strives to provide many different ways to enrich and expand children's minds through direct programs and monetary support to organizations doing similar work.

We have provided or currently provide grants related to the following program areas:

• Workshops, Conferences, + Seminars: We strive to offer educational workshops, conferences, and seminars for parents and teachers on topics related to early childhood development.
• Student Scholarships: We aim to help students attending post-secondary education institutions by providing need-based and academic scholarships.
• Scientific Endeavors: We desire to advance scientific endeavors which seek to improve the quality of life for everyone in the world.
• Clean Air + Water: We hope to pass on knowledge and practical life skills to youth regarding their personal responsibility to the environment, teaching them about issues surrounding clean air and water.
• Child Advocacy: We believe in protecting children from abuse and neglect and particularly love to support programs that provide education and assistance to children as well as organizations advocating or caring for vulnerable children.
• Homelessness: We want to encourage young people to take a personal interest in seeing that adequate housing and proper nutrition, especially for the underprivileged and homeless, are available.
• Poverty + Neglect: We seek to help those in poverty as well as educate youth about their responsibility to consider the underprivileged and take care of those most in need of life's basic essentials like adequate housing and proper nutrition.
• Refugee Enrichment: We wish to help refugee youth by supporting programs that provide them enrichment and help them transition to life in a new country.

The DanPaul Foundation provides grants to 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit organizations as defined by the IRS. The Foundation is interested in providing funding to programs that directly serve the health, education, development, and welfare of the world's youth.

Grants range from a few hundred dollars up to $15,000 per calendar year.

Fruit Trees For Your Community

The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) is an award-winning international nonprofit charity dedicated to planting fruitful trees and plants to alleviate world hunger, combat global warming, strengthen communities, and improve the surrounding air, soil, and water.

FTPF programs strategically donate orchards where the harvest will best serve communities for generations, at places such as community gardens, public schools, city/state parks, low-income neighborhoods, Native American reservations, international hunger relief sites, and animal sanctuaries.

What FTPF Provides

Our orchard donations are available for recipients who pledge to care for their trees and utilize them for a charitable purpose. If selected for an orchard donation, FTPF provides high-quality fruit trees and shrubs, equipment, on-site orchard design expertise and oversight, horticultural workshops, and aftercare training and manuals. We subsidize deer fencing and drip irrigation as needed, and incorporate these installations into the event day.

FTPF also helps coordinate all aspects of the planting, and offers an inspirational, educational experience for volunteers interested in learning more about trees. Free arboricultural workshops are available throughout the day of the planting and, for schools, a fun, age-appropriate curriculum, with our educators, emphasizing the importance of trees for the environment and fruit in the diet is available. 

The Idaho Botanical Garden

We grow our community by  connecting people, plants and nature. Our vision is to be our region’s preferred space to gather and experience nature and to encourage advocacy in environmental stewardship.

In 1984, The Idaho Botanical Garden was established on a 42-acre site of old prison grounds leased from the Idaho State Historical Society and the State of Idaho. Local botanist, Dr. Christopher Davidson, assembles the first board of directors comprised of 17 civic leaders and professionals. The Garden founders and board built an irrigation system, nature trails, and planted two acres, including the Meditation, Rose and Herb Gardens.

We commit to being a force for positive, actionable change to protect and co-exist within nature knowing the role we play will have a long-lasting impact on future generations.

Donation Requests

We love our community! IBG supports local organizations, nonprofits, and Treasure Valley schools through redeemable event vouchers and Garden memberships. We prioritize requests from organizations that serve our region through: 

• Education and/or clubs that directly affect students 
• Cultural arts 
• Support for military families and first responders  
• Environmental stewardship 
• Events that are open to and stimulate public participation

We receive a large number of requests every year and donations are limited. If making a request, please fill out the form here. Please, no phone calls or physical mail requests.

Michael & Susan Dell Foundation Grants

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation only accepts unsolicited proposals for specific areas within the education, family economic stability and childhood health sectors in select countries where we work, namely the United States, India and South Africa.

As a guideline, the foundation does not fund more than 25% of a project’s budget or more than 10% of an organization’s total annual operating expenses.

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation has always recognized the power of providing grants to partner organizations that we knew were already working hard to improve the lives of urban children living in poverty. By aligning with organizations that are already making a difference, we continue to make an immediate impact on the lives of thousands of children.

Foundation priorities:

We fund social enterprises that directly serve or impact children or youth from urban low-income communities in the areas of education, health, and family economic stability (including livelihoods and financial inclusion). These social enterprises may be structured as for-profit or nonprofit entities.

Partnerships

We collaborate with a range of organizations focused on creating opportunities for children and families living in urban poverty, with a deep emphasis on measuring impact. Our funding advances projects already making an impact in education, health, and family economic stability. Through these enduring and long-standing partnerships, we create lasting change together.

Rise for Education Grant Program

Hydroponic Classroom Gardens for STEM Education & Nutrition

Bring real-world learning into your classroom with a hydroponic garden that sparks curiosity, strengthens STEM and nutrition education, and makes hands-on science simple, engaging, and accessible—all year long.

• Integration STEM/STEAM: Use garden-based lessons to enhance STEM, arts, and creativity.
• NGSS Alignment: Incorporate NGSS lessons for practical science and engineering.
• Learn Hard Skills: Develop practical skills with hands-on gardening.
• Entrepreneurship: Build business skills with projects like Farmer's Markets and product sales.
• Community Building: Foster community and collaboration through shared gardening responsibilities and projects.
• Enhaced Student Engagement: Boost student involvement and performance with engaging learning.

Philanthropy is our commitment to communities in which we operate and broader society. We focus our resources on a limited number of key projects that can deliver valuable benefits from our contributions and those of our partners. We give priority to innovative, high-quality projects that meet the following criteria:

• promote sustainable development
• offer an opportunity for Roche to use its expertise and logistics capabilities
• involve Roche actively at an early stage with local authorities and established partners
• engage Roche employees in cultural (focus on contemporary arts), educational and social activities
• managed by an accredited charity

Our four focus areas

Humanitarian and Social

We direct the majority of our philanthropic donations to humanitarian and social development projects.

Science and education

We are dedicated to programmes that promote scientific interest and provide educational opportunities for young people around the world.

Community and Environment

We are committed to building stronger communities and responding to natural disasters sustainably.

Arts and Culture

We support groundbreaking contemporary art, cultural projects and activities that explore the parallels between innovation in art and in science. 

Wells Fargo and the Wells Fargo Foundation collaborate with a wide range of nonprofit organizations that align with our strategic funding priorities. We prioritize our funding to activities and programs that have a broad reach and support the needs of underserved communities. We aspire to have a positive impact on the communities we serve by using our financial and volunteer resources and business expertise in collaboration with community organizations to help solve complex societal problems.

• Financial health
• Housing affordability
• Small business growth
• Sustainability

We may also support other local needs in eligible communities such as disaster relief, arts and culture, civic engagement, education, human and social services, and workforce development. However, opportunities are limited as our intent is to direct the majority of our giving within our major focus areas.

The Garden Club of Houston, organized in 1924 and a member of the Garden Club of America since 1932, strives to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening in the community and to restore, improve, and protect the quality of the environment through programs and action in the fields of conservation, civic improvement, and education.

The Community Contributions Committee of The Garden Club of Houston is responsible for receiving, searching out, researching, and considering proposals for awarding Club funds to worthwhile civic and community projects whose purposes are within our spectrum of interests and for making funding recommendations to the Board of Directors and General Membership of the Club. Examples of past projects include funding to implement the creation and preservation of landscapes (public gardens and parks, school and teaching gardens, arboreta, and nature centers), educational publications and events, scholarships, and contributions to library collections.

Our Vision

Sustainability involves economic viability, environmental sensitivity, and social responsiveness, with emphasis on working with and preserving nature. Innovation involves creativity and new ideas that make this world a better place to live.

The foundation seeks to foster environmental restoration, preservation and education with emphasis on seed moneys that lead to establishing demonstration projects that link rural and urban settings. Projects could orient toward use of resources in sustainable ways, integration of food production, technology, economics, and community development in harmonious ways with the natural world, preservation of wildlife habitat as well as the diversity of wild and domestic plants and animals, and conservation of wilderness and open space. Of interest might be projects designed to restore and maintain biological diversity of flora and fauna or establishment of seed banks, sustainable land use, or appropriate technology for alternative energy resources. Efforts to find space in tight urban areas, bring the countryside to the city in the form of gardens, landscaping, and space are encouraged. Likewise, efforts to provide space and alternative living to urban people in a rural area are welcome.

A particular concern is with sustaining agriculture through organic, biodynamic, permacultural and other processes, training young people to be farmers, and linking farms to communities through community supported agriculture. Another area of need would be support for small alternative presses and periodicals that focus on issues and problems and their resolution and desire to impact broadly on society with their creativity and new ideas.

The foundation sponsors Laguna Wilderness Press that publishes books featuring the work of concerned artists, photographers, and environmentalists. Its books move in two directions: (1) to depict nature and pristine wilderness areas through photography and essay; (2) to focus on changing landscape and the impact of urban growth, technology, and development on natural beauty and resources.

With its interest in LWP and its home base in southern California, the foundation desires to direct attention to environmental groups and concerns in Laguna Beach, especially preservation and restoration of areas under conservation in the open space known as the Laguna Greenbelt or Wilderness and including the Laguna Bluebelt; projects that expand open space in the inner greenbelt, promote community gardening, including in its schools, restore wherever possible the canyon creeks to their natural setting, and help to establish the legacy of a unique place and its traditions of village diverse planning and vision, plein air painting, and historic homes and sites.

Project Types

Projects could orient toward use of resources in sustainable ways, preservation of wildlife habitats, conservation of wilderness, integration of food production, technology, economics, and community development in harmonious ways with the natural world. Also, another area of interest is support for small alternative presses and periodicals that show creativity and new ideas, and focus on issues and problems.

Plant America Community Project Grants

Plant America Community Project Grants help enhance and beautify our public areas and community gardens. Project grants to NGC member clubs help educate adults and children about the joys of gardening and create a pride throughout the community. Grants may be used for physical landscaping or environmental projects, or for horticultural or educational opportunities for the community.

Grants have been awarded to NGC member clubs since 2017. More than 250 grants have been awarded, totaling more than $225,000. Grants are awarded in amounts up to $2,000. 

Through Plant America Grants, up to $2,000.00 is made available to be used for direct expenses of projects. Projects submitted for receiving a grant may be a joint venture with another organization/s.

The scope of these projects in communities may include:

• Beautification and/or restoration
• Community gardens
• School gardens/classrooms
• Landscaping for Habitat for Humanity Homes
• Landscaping of Blue Star or Gold Star Memorial Markers
• Implementation of environmental practices
• A horticulture or environmental educational event for the public

The Lawrence Foundation is a private family foundation focused on making grants to support environmental, human services and other causes.

The Lawrence Foundation was established in mid-2000. We make both program and operating grants and do not have any geographical restrictions on our grants. Nonprofit organizations that qualify for public charity status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or other similar organizations are eligible for grants from The Lawrence Foundation.  

Grant Amount and Types

Grants typically range between $5,000 - $10,000. In some limited cases we may make larger grants, but that is typically after we have gotten to know your organization over a period of time. We also generally don’t make multi-year grants, although we may fund the same organization on a year by year basis over a period of years.

General operating or program/project grant requests within our areas of interests are accepted. In general, regardless of whether a grant request is for general operating or program/project expenses, all of our grants will be issued as unrestricted grants.

Our Beginnings

SeedMoney is a Maine-based 501c nonprofit helping US and global food garden projects to thrive through grants, crowdfunding assistance and free garden planning software.

SeedMoney is the new name for what was formerly called Kitchen Gardeners International (KGI), a nonprofit founded in 2003. Over the past three years, our emphasis has gradually shifted from helping home gardeners towards offering financial and technical support to a wide variety of public food garden projects. These include community gardens, school gardens, food bank gardens, homeless shelter gardens and senior gardens, to name just a few.

Mission

SeedMoney improves the health of people, local communities and the planet by empowering public food gardens and farms to start up and thrive. We work with a variety of local partners including school gardens, community gardens, food bank gardens, community farms, as well as other nonprofits. We offer our partners training in online outreach, access to custom-built user-friendly online crowdfunding technology, cutting-edge garden planning software and grants ranging from $100 to $1000. In doing so, we enable communities and projects in need to become more self-reliant in terms of their food and their funding.

SeedMoney Challenge

The SeedMoney Challenge is a group crowdfunding competition open to any public food garden project located anywhere in the world.  Each year, we offer challenge grants to diverse food garden projects through a 30-day crowdfunding challenge.  Participating projects include youth gardens, community gardens, community farms and food bank gardens. Participants keep 100% of what they raise and compete for challenge grants of $100 to $1000. The more funds a project raises, the larger the grant it qualifies to receive. 

The grants we offer are on a sliding scale. The size of a grant a project can receive depends on how much it is able to raise over the 30-day period compared to other projects participating in the challenge. This year, we will be offering a total of 432 grants ranging from $100 to $1000.

Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education (SFE) Fund

Since 1977, Wild Ones members have been working with schools and nature centers to grow natural landscapes at these centers of learning. Annual grants from the Wild Ones Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education (SFE) Fund are one way we foster such projects. Lorrie Otto, the inspirational leader for Wild Ones, is widely acknowledged as the heart of the natural landscape movement.

Eligible Projects

Project goals should focus on developing an appreciation for nature using native plants and natural landscapes. Projects must emphasize involvement by students and volunteers in all phases of development and must increase the site's educational value. Creativity in design is encouraged and must show complete and thoughtful planning. Use of, and teaching about, native plants and the native plant community is mandatory, and native plants selected must be appropriate to the local ecoregion and site conditions (soil, water, sunlight).

The USDA Plant Database helps to verify if particular native species have been recorded for your county.

Examples of appropriate projects include:

• pollinator gardens,
• rain gardens to improve water quality,
• tallgrass prairies,
• native plant monarch waystations featuring citizen science activities
• sensory and natural playgrounds.

Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes

Mission

Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes promotes environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration and establishment of native plant communities.

Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Grant Program

The Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education grant program (SFE) advances Wild Ones’ mission to spread awareness of the benefits of using native plants by providing funding for native plants and native seeds for projects that engage youth (preschool to high school) directly in planning, planting and caring for native plant gardens. 

Our Mission

Our mission is to continue and further the philanthropic legacy of Gardner Cowles, Jr. and the Cowles family, which includes promotion of education, social justice, health, and the arts.

The Founder

The Cowles Charitable Trust was first established in 1948 by Gardner “Mike” Cowles, Jr. (1903-1985). Born into the Cowles publishing family of Des Moines, Iowa, Mike was the youngest of Gardner Cowles and Florence Call Cowles’ six children. A newspaper editor and publisher by trade, he was committed to his family’s traditions of responsible, public-spirited, and innovative journalism as well as philanthropy. 

The Cowles Charitable Trust supports the arts, education, the advancement of ethical journalism, medical and climate research.

What We Do

Gardening improves kids’ lives, their communities, and the planet.

Since 1982, we have been supporting a community of educators and caregivers to bring the life-changing benefits of gardening to kids through our grant programs, contests, curriculum, and educational activities.

KidsGardening’s Flagship Garden Grant Program

As the leaves change colors from green to red, orange, and yellow, youth garden programs are preparing their gardens for the coming winter. Some in the south are planting another round of annuals, whereas, in the north, programs are planting cold hardy plants, seeding cover crops, or covering their growing spaces with mulch.

Fall is also our favorite time of year at KidsGardening because it marks the launch of our annual Youth Garden Grant award program! Since 1982, the grant has supported school and youth educational garden projects that enhance the quality of life for youth and their communities.

The gardening supply package includes ten wildflower seed packs, fifteen vegetable seed packs, ten pairs of youth gloves, one pruner, one looper, one Big Bag Bed, two packages of peat seedling trays, one plant support kit, one hose nozzle, one mushroom growing kit, two Tubtrugs, and two curriculum books.

In addition, five programs will receive a Container Garden Specialty Award from our friends at Crescent Garden, and five programs will receive a Vertical Garden Specialty Award from our friends at Garden Tower Project.

Applicants interested in either of the specialty award packages will have the opportunity to share why their program would like the specialty award package, how it would alleviate the challenges the garden program faces, what benefits they anticipate, and how the youth would use the materials.  Please read Award Packages for complete informations.

Funding Priorities

The selection of winners is prioritized based on demonstrated need and program impact. KidsGardening considers a variety of factors when determining needs, including:

Socioeconomic & Sociodemographic Factors:

• Does the program exist within or engage a community that has systematically been denied resources, whether physical assets and money or representative leadership and community services?

Program Funding and Support

• Does a program have access to consistent, substantial monetary support or prior grant funding? Are pre-existing resources (financial or otherwise) limited? Programs experiencing the latter are considered higher need.

Impact

• Will grant funding dramatically expand learning opportunities for program participants? Does the intended impact reflect the actual needs of the community?

GroMoreGood Grassroots GrantThe GroMoreGood Grassroots Grant, brought to you by The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation and KidsGardening, is designed to bring the life-enhancing benefits of gardens to communities across the United States. The Grassroots Grants support The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company’s commitment to GroMoreGood by bringing the life-enhancing benefits of gardens and greenspaces to children across the country.Funding PrioritiesThe selection of winners is prioritized based on demonstrated need and program impact. KidsGardening considers a variety of factors when determining needs, including:Socioeconomic & Sociodemographic Factors

• How does the program exist within or engage a community that has been systematically denied resources, whether physical assets and money or representative leadership and community services?
• Organizations affected by multiple socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors are given priority.

Program Funding and Support

• Does an organization have access to consistent, substantial monetary support or prior grant funding?
• Or are pre-existing resources (financial or otherwise) limited? Organizations experiencing the latter are given priority.

Impact

• Will grant funding dramatically expand learning opportunities for program participants?
• Does the intended impact reflect the needs of the community?
• Organizations working with greater than 50 youth will be given priority.

GroMoreGood Grassroots Grant Award Packages

In 2025, 170 programs will be awarded $500 to start or expand their youth garden or greenspace. Programs will also have the opportunity to apply for additional funding through the following specialty award categories:

Plus Specialty Award

• Designed to fund new and existing garden programs that have greater funding needs due to, but not limited to, financial, environmental, safety, health, and regulation challenges. The award will provide five programs an additional $1,000, for a total of $1,500 in funding.

Pride Specialty Award

• Designed to fund new and existing garden programs that serve a majority of LGBTQ+ youth. The award will provide five programs an additional $1,000, for a total of $1,500 in funding.

Equity Specialty Award

• Designed to fund new and existing garden programs led by people of color that serve a majority of youth of color. The award will provide five programs an additional $1,000, for a total of $1,500 in funding.

Descendant and Family Stewardship Initiative Grant

Across the country, descendant communities and families are engaged in exciting and groundbreaking efforts to reclaim, rescue, and share overlooked stories and places of resilience, achievement, and perseverance. The impact of these efforts deserves admiration, resources, and partnership. Grants from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund's Descendant and Family Stewardship Initiative will empower and equip descendant-led and family-led organizations and projects to preserve, activate, and manage historic places. This initiative is a testament to our belief in the capacity of descendant communities and families to be full partners and leaders in the physical preservation, interpretative programming, management, and governance of historic places.

The Descendant and Family Stewardship Initiative is not just another grant funding opportunity. It's a unique, multi-year partnership and investment opportunity with one grant funding category – Stewardship Project. Powered by the Mellon Foundation's Humanities in Place, the Action Fund will award five grants and invest $200,000 per grantee, providing specialized consultation and best practices support for a period of two years.

Descendant and Family Stewardship Grants support project management, capacity-building, grantmaking, and convenings for place-based organizations. In collaboration and consultation with the Action Fund, the selected grantees will engage in the following activities during the two-year grant period as we work together to preserve American history and model new approaches in historic preservation:

• Completing a Stewardship Project needs assessment to inform the scope of work, the use of the grant funds, and define project milestones and deliverables.
• Receiving $200,000 in grant funds to develop a Stewardship Plan and launch the implementation of its recommendations.
• Promoting the partnership, process, and lessons learned for other stewarding organizations to replicate.
• Participating in convenings with initiative stakeholders to share best practices, build community, and advance the field.

The Stewardship Project's scope of work, for example, can include architectural and design services, strategic and fundraising planning, interpretation and program development, community engagement and audience development, staff support, limited capital and restoration, and other priorities established through the assessment process.

The Action Fund provides consultation to meet our grantees’ organizational needs and priorities. Our role as the grantor is to work hand in hand with our grantee partners through a collaborative process focused on asset management of heritage resources and holistic stewardship visioning and planning. Project partners will work as a team to achieve the grantee's short-term and long-term stewardship goals.

Help Define Descendant in Historic Preservation

Today, the preservation field has varying views on defining "descendant," though it is often used in connection to heritage sites associated with slavery, such as a plantation, burial ground, or jail. The Descendant and Family Stewardship Initiative is a collaborative effort that values the input of all stakeholders. Our work with grantees includes strategic collaboration across the historic preservation field to define “descendant” and establish more broadly-adopted language. For example, descendant communities can include a direct blood lineage or historical affiliation to a site of enslavement, like Virginia's Sharswood Plantation, or social movements in education and civil rights, such as Washington-Rosenwald Schools, Birmingham Foot Soldiers, and the Tulsa Race Massacre.

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is committed to understanding the different perspectives of descendant-led organizations and projects and seeks your help. Therefore, applicants for this grant can define “descendant” for themselves and make the case that their organization and project are descendant-led and family-led on the Letter of Intent (LOI) form. We deeply respect and value the unique perspectives and experiences that each organization brings to the table.

In addition to descendant-led, family-led describes organizations where family members with direct ties to a historic place help steward the site, such as a granddaughter advocating for Virginia's Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum, siblings volunteering at Philadelphia's John Coltrane Home, or a family saving a legacy farm. It may also include property owners of a historic residence or venue associated with Black history, actively supporting its preservation, public access, and interpretation.

Youth as Solutions

Youth as Solutions (YaS) is creating a generation of citizens who are passionate about making a positive impact in their schools and communities, addressing community health, educational equity, and environmental justice issues. Leadership teams of young people in grades 6-12, along with an adult mentor, apply to be part of one of the Youth as Solutions cohorts, where they will participate in a self-paced, active learning experience, identifying and taking action on an issue in their community. Students gain leadership skills while adult mentors receive quality service-learning instruction and resources. Youth-adult teams connect with peers in cohorts working on similar subtopics such as teen driving safety, health promotion in Latino communities, and so much more!

Focus Areas

• Education equity - is the belief that everyone deserves a quality education, regardless of their race, gender, identity, socioeconomic status, or any other trait.
  • Teams in the Education in Action cohort engage K-12 youth and educators (in school and afterschool programs) to increase educational equity in their school or community. Through the Investigation phase of service-learning, students discover needs and define the actions that will make significant change. From education, awareness, policy review and change, environmental and cultural supports and more, they have a voice in their educational experience and generating change in their schools and communities.
• Community health - empowers youth to save lives through youth-led campaigns that make measurable differences in their schools, communities, and beyond.
  • The Project Ignition Cohort is founded on a service-learning strategy that embeds the topic of teen-driver safety more deeply within a school/afterschool program and makes connections to academic goals. Car crashes remain a leading cause of death for adolescents. Project Ignition students address this fact by working in teams, investigating the issues facing their community, plan & prepare to take action, and engage community partners. They bring people together — and they’re saving lives!
• Environmental justice - challenges young people to address climate needs on a local level, impacting our planet now and for future generations.
  • Fulfilling our mission to create sustainability, youth teams in the Environmental Justice cohort work on improving critical climate needs. Whether planting a community garden, mapping safe bike routes, or securing solar panels to light a community sign, there are many local entry points for impassioned young people to create lasting change through service-learning. Connect to learning goals such as STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) or personal development goals such as leadership or civic engagement, these experiences provide a powerful learning opportunity.

• Civics And Democracy - Civics and democracy empowers young people to forge pathways to active citizenship, fostering leadership and driving positive change in their communities. Some Leadership Teams are engaged in serivce-learning experiences that promote unity and peacemaking to commemorate the events of September 11, 2001. Other Leadership Teams are expanding voting rights to those in Minnesota affected by recent legislative changes, serving as election judges in polling places, and acting as interpreters on election day. No matter the initiative, each endeavor reflects a commitment to civic engagement and the fundamental principles of democracy.

Hershey Heartwarming Young Heroes GYSD Grant

In partnership with The Hershey Company and Hershey’s Heartwarming Project, YSA will award Hershey Heartwarming Young Heroes Youth Grants for Youth Service Month & Global Youth Service Day projects. Youth changemakers—aged 5 to 25—in the U.S. and Canada are eligible to apply for these grants to lead and engage their peers in awareness, service, advocacy, and philanthropy projects in their communities.

This year, youth may apply for grants of either $250 or $500 depending on the number of youth who will be participating as volunteers (project planners, project leaders, and day-of volunteers). $250 grantees will be required to engage at least 25 other youth as volunteers while $500 grantees have a 50-youth volunteer minimum requirement. A total of $50,000 in grants will be awarded.

Projects may address any issue or community need that is important to the youth project leaders and their peers. All proposed projects should engage a diverse group of youth volunteers from different social backgrounds and provide opportunities for those youth volunteers to create meaningful connections with their peers, caring adults, and community partners, while developing social awareness and relationship skills.

The strongest applications will have a partnership with community organizations that work on the issue being addressed and/or start or expand an ongoing service program. They will also include opportunities for relationship-building among participants and the community both during the project as well as once it has been completed. 

True Inspiration Awards

The True Inspiration Awards® program was created in 2015 to honor the legacy of Chick-fil-A® founder S. Truett Cathy. Through these annual grants, it is our pleasure to celebrate and support nonprofit organizations making an impact in their local communities.

S. Truett Cathy Honoree

One organization will be selected as the S. Truett Cathy Honoree. The S. Truett Cathy Honoree embodies the generous, innovative spirit of Chick-fil-A’s late founder — pioneering new ways to solve problems and serve others.

Category winners

In 2025 we will continue to support nonprofits with a total commitment of $6 million in grants ranging from $30,000-$350,000.

Sixteen organizations will be awarded for their work in these areas.

Caring for People (four winners): Programs or projects supporting educational initiatives, including fostering character and leadership development, academic excellence and community involvement in underserved youth.

Caring through Food (four winners): Programs or projects focused on addressing hunger and food insecurity facing children and their families.

Community (four winners): Programs or projects focused on providing housing and other direct services to support young people and their families.

Caring for our Planet (four winners): Programs or projects that show care for our environment and our planet, or that demonstrate environmental stewardship through initiatives directly related to our other True Inspiration Awards categories of food, community and people (i.e., community beautification, education opportunities, community gardens, outdoor classrooms, etc.) 

Lots of Compassion Grant

Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day and KidsGardening share a belief that the garden has the power to do more than grow flowers and herbs, it can grow people, communities, and even kindness, too. Together, we’re announcing our new Lots of Compassion grant program, designed to support local leaders looking to transform vacant lots into gardens to help grow compassion in their community.

About 15% of land in urban cities is deemed vacant or abandoned which can lead to many negative outcomes for surrounding neighborhoods, including decreases in physical & mental health and diminished feelings of safety & security. Lots of Compassion aims to provide resources to those seeking to transform vacant lots in their neighborhood into gardens for community growth.

Funding Priorities

The selection of winners is prioritized based on demonstrated need and program impact. KidsGardening considers a variety of factors when determining need, including:

• Socioeconomic & Sociodemographic Factors:
  • Does the program exist within or engage a community that has been systematically denied resources, whether physical assets and money or representative leadership and community services?
  • Under-resourced organizations are given priority.
• Program Funding and Support:
  • Does a program have access to consistent, substantial monetary support or prior grant funding?
  • Or are pre-existing resources (financial or otherwise) limited?
  • Organizations experiencing the latter are considered higher need.
  • Organizations experiencing the latter are given priority.
• Impact:
  • Will grant funding dramatically expand learning opportunities for program participants?
  • Does the intended impact reflect the actual needs of the community?
  • Organizations working with greater than 50 people will be given priority.

Funding

In this cycle, 10 grantees will receive $20,000 each to transform a vacant lot into a garden. 

National Garden Bureau promotes the health and healing powers of human interaction with plants through a yearly grant program for therapeutic gardens. Sakata Seed America is a leader in breeding vegetable and ornamental seed and vegetative cuttings. They are committed to supporting organizations throughout North America to help people live productive, healthy, and enriched lives. American Meadows says “We Do Good Through Gardening.” Their primary focus is to be great at providing home gardeners with the products and knowledge they need to succeed. They seek to be a trusted gardening partner for creative gardeners —those who are willing to combine new ideas and products with classic favorites. At Ball Horticultural Company, the motto Color The World is not just coloring the world with flowers and plants, but also ensuring that the industry and communities are vibrant and healthy by supporting organizations who promote nature, beauty, education and health.

Program Criteria

Each year, National Garden Bureau’s judging committee selects five Therapeutic Gardens to be the recipients of a Grant that will help the organization expand or perpetuate their initiatives. Those chosen will then compete via a social media voting contest by submitting a one-minute video featuring the gardens’ operations for First place, Second place, and three runners-up financial prizes. They will also be featured on National Garden Bureau’s website for national exposure.

Funding

$7,500 is available and will be divided among the five gardens chosen, with graduated amounts going to the first, second, and third-place contestants, as determined by online voting.

• First place award: $3,000
• Second place award: $1,500
• (Three) Third place awards: $1,000

The grants are co-funded by National Garden Bureau, Sakata Seed America, and American Meadows.

Simply Organic's Giving History 

Providing consumers the opportunity to use their buying power to support the environmental and social values of organic agriculture has always been part of Simply Organic. Since 2001, we've given back more than $2 million to supporting organic agricultural development and grower communities, including:

• Helping growers in developing countries produce and market certified organic products.
• Building training centers that teach organic agriculture methods and wells that bring fresh water to villages; supporting schools, meal programs and other social projects in grower communities.
• Supporting U.S. organic research and education projects, scholarships in sustainable agriculture, and organic-growing-based social organizations such as urban gardens and community food banks.

The Simply Organic Giving Fund Grant Program

Since 2018 we’ve been committed to focusing the Simply Organic Giving Fund Grant Program on addressing an issue that’s especially persistent and critical, but that is often overlooked or misunderstood: food insecurity. We’re working to help organizations across the United States and Canada to nourish the millions of food insecure in our communities by providing access to nutrient-dense organic food options to populations in need.

The Simply Organic Giving Fund strives to nourish the millions of food insecure in the US and Canada by providing access to nutrient-dense organic food to populations in need.