Best Grants for Mentoring Programs in Iowa

Schools and nonprofit partners in Iowa seeking to run after-school academic and enrichment programs, including mentoring and tutoring, can apply for the Nita M. Lowey 21st CCLC grants, with awards from US $50,000 - US $150,000 per year. With a mission to expand community learning centers, Iowa Department of Education funds programs serving high-need, Title I-eligible schools.

Nonprofits and agencies providing youth mentoring and case management for refugee and ORR-eligible youth ages 15–24 in Iowa can seek funding through the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. Focused on tutoring, mentoring, and vocational advancement, awards of US $61,250 - US $245,000 support civic engagement and educational or career development.

Iowa 501(c)(3) nonprofits running mentoring, tutoring, workforce readiness, or economic mobility programs can access funding through Bank of America Charitable Foundation’s Neighborhood Builders Program. Selected organizations receive a two-year leadership development experience plus a capacity-building grant, supporting efforts like career exposure, financial literacy, and stable housing in eligible Iowa communities.

Nonprofit and community organizations providing youth mentoring and case management can access funding in Iowa to serve refugee youth ages 15–24. Iowa Department of Health and Human Services offers US $61,250 - US $245,000 to support positive civic and social engagement and educational or vocational advancement through one-on-one or group mentoring and related support services.

Undergraduate and recent college graduates in Iowa interested in public health and healthcare careers can access a full-time, 10-week summer mentoring internship through John Muir Health’s Health Career Connection program. Focused on diverse, underrepresented, and low-income students, it offers real-world experience, mentoring, and networking that can strengthen local tutoring and mentoring efforts.

High school, undergraduate, and medical students in Iowa interested in healthcare careers can apply for John Muir Health’s CLIMB Near Peer Mentorship Program, a year-long, multi-level mentoring experience. This virtual program connects participants with medical student mentors and offers opportunities to mentor high school students exploring medicine and family medicine pathways.

Focused on film music, New Music USA invites developing U.S.-based film composers, including those in Iowa, to seek support for feature-length narrative or documentary scores in production or post-production. Grants of approximately US $20,000 can cover composer fees, live musicians, studio time, recording, equipment, and other score-related costs, plus mentorship from leading composers.

Iowa students interested in mentoring-rich legal and higher education experiences can access funding through the Josh Dubin Fellowship, a seven-week paid professional and educational development program. Open to current Shawn Carter Foundation scholars across the U.S., it combines legal research, case analysis, mentorship, site visits, and additional scholarship support for undergraduate educational expenses.

Aspiring or current PhD-level researchers in fields like artificial intelligence, data science, and tutoring and mentoring can access multi-year predoctoral research positions through the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Grants from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence help Iowa mentoring-focused scholars gain intensive research experience, co-author publications, and strengthen their preparation for top graduate programs.

Graduating high school seniors pursuing business, engineering, or related fields with strong character and interest in mentorship can receive renewable scholarship funding plus one-on-one mentoring through the Jacob A. Bradley Memorial Scholarship. Bradley Family Foundation provides U.S. students, including those from Iowa mentoring programs, with multi-year academic support and structured mentor relationships connecting school to the workplace.

Undergraduate, master’s, and medical students interested in pediatric oncology research can receive up to US $5,000 for a mentored summer research internship, including those in Iowa. With a mission to change the lives of children with cancer, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation provides hands-on training and mentoring through its Pediatric Oncology Student Training (POST) Program.

Milwaukee high school seniors seeking undergraduate education funding and mentorship can receive US $3,000 - US $5,000 scholarships that include ongoing support and guidance. With a mission to invest in future leaders, Rotary Club Of Milwaukee Community Tr provides need-based awards and mentoring that may interest Iowa programs supporting similar tutoring and mentoring pathways to college.

Early-career production managers in live entertainment who are USITT members and U.S.-based can apply for United Institute for Theatre Technology’s Carolyn A. Satter Production Management Mentorship Program; awards US $2,000 for conference-related expenses and intensive mentoring. Iowa professionals seeking tutoring and mentoring-style career development may benefit from this national opportunity.

Faculty at U.S. colleges developing or expanding undergraduate programming in the liberal tradition can apply for Institute for Humane Studies’ Free Society Grants to support mentoring-style initiatives, reading groups, and discussion series. Iowa tutoring and mentoring programs based in higher education settings may be eligible if they feature sustained student engagement and faculty-led activities.

First-generation master’s and doctoral students in exercise physiology, sports science, kinesiology, or sports nutrition at U.S. schools can receive US $4,000 - US $6,000 for graduate research plus one year of 1:1 mentorship. With a mission to advance health and human performance, American College of Sports Medicine Foundation also provides ACSM Annual Meeting registration and presentation opportunities, benefiting Iowa students in mentoring-rich programs.

About

What is the Pizza Hut Foundation?

In pursuit of happiness, the Pizza Hut Franchisee community, in partnership with Pizza Hut U.S. is proud to announce the formation of the Pizza Hut Foundation.

Our foundation is seeking to touch the lives of over 100 youth annually by partnering with youth-serving nonprofit organizations focusing on literacy education programs to enable our team members and their peers to be career and life ready.

Pizza Hut Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable organization under the Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.

Financial Assistance & Scholarships for Education

Education is key to success in life. However, each year two million students drop out of college due to financial hardship and a lack of financial assistance. In the United States there are more than 900,000 college-bound students who qualify for federal financial assistance each year. Yet almost 90% of these students don’t receive adequate guidance or support, leaving hundreds of thousands of students’ needs unmet.

The Pizza Hut Foundation is proud to partner with Kaleidoscope as our scholarship platform provider, pairing education dreams with funding.

Mentorship Program

While the Scholarship program financially supports the awarded students enrolled in higher education, it doesn’t stop there. The Pizza Hut Foundation offers a mentorship opportunity, through leaders from within the Pizza Hut organization and Vendor partners, to engage Scholarship recipients in a meaningful way throughout their educational journey.

The Pizza Hut Foundation will support engagements with the students via monthly connections to ensure a positive experience for both the mentors and the mentees.

$20K for changemakers with transformative ideas & firsthand insight in early childhood

About the Imagine Award

The Imagine Award by the Promise Fund offers $20,000 in flexible funding (see definition in FAQs) and a six-month cohort-based learning experience for community-rooted early childhood leaders with ideas for transformative impact. ​​Award recipients are at the idea stage and will launch a pilot within six months, testing their solutions with real users, gathering feedback, and refining their approach.

Imagine Award recipients will learn strategies for designing and executing lightweight tests for rapid learning while gaining clarity on their idea's direction using impact and business models. They will craft a compelling story about their work to build future partnerships and run a focused pilot with strong feedback loops for gathering data, all while growing alongside a supportive peer community.

What We Provide

Our grant dollars are flexible and meant to be used at award recipients’ discretion for the pursuit of tests or a pilot of a transformative idea. Read the FAQ for more information.

Direct, one-on-one support from our team to help you learn, get tailored help, and make relevant connections.

Multi-day gathering for peer connection, learning, and pilot design.

Access to a bench of mentors to guide you as you transition out of the program and navigate next steps with your pilot.

Light, tailored coaching to support pilot preparation, launch, and implementation.

Ongoing peer community and resources to continue learning and collaboration

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) offers research training programs aimed at advancing education research through two key initiatives: the Early Career Development and Mentoring Program and the Methods Training Program. These programs support emerging researchers in developing their skills and enhancing their research capabilities to address vital education issues. The funding is designed for early career investigators and current education researchers, fostering rigorous and relevant research that informs education policy and practice.

May Family Foundation

Eleanor Jean May established the May Family Foundation in 2000, as a gesture of gratitude to the communities that shaped her life. The May Family Foundation is dedicated to identifying programs that strongly resonate with our mission and values as we work together to empower and uplift lives within our communities.

Our foundation provides resources and opportunities that empower young individuals to thrive and reach their full potential. Our goal is to create a brighter future for under-resourced youth in our local communities.

May Family Foundation Mentoring Grant

Our foundation strives to be engaged in our local communities beyond grant funding. We support select programs that align with our goals and form a connection through potential volunteering opportunities, site visits, and recognition of successes.

We welcome grant applications for financial support in mentoring:

• Programs that pair students with adult mentors who provide guidance and support to help students succeed academically and develop important life skills.
• These can go beyond the classroom, such as sports and recreation enrichment programs.

Chicken & Egg Pictures Inc

Chicken & Egg Films was founded in 2005 by documentary film industry veterans Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger, and Judith Helfand. As filmmakers, teachers, funders, and impact producers, they were inspired to utilize their collective expertise to uplift the power of fellow women storytellers. Chicken & Egg was thus created to help address financial and creative challenges uniquely faced by women in the field–a model that married funding with mentorship to create not just an organization, but a growing community. 

Chicken & Egg Films shapes a more equitable and just world with the catalytic power of documentary films by providing funding, mentorship and industry access to a global community of women and gender-expansive filmmakers. 

Chicken & Egg Award

The Chicken & Egg Award recognizes women and gender-expansive filmmakers at advanced stages in their careers who are poised to reach new heights in their creative and impact trajectories across the world.

Despite progress by talented women and gender-expansive documentary filmmakers across the globe, there are often still numerous roadblocks that stand in the way of a true industry breakthrough. These barriers are often tied to gender, race, class, disability, and geography. Only a few women and gender-expansive nonfiction directors in the United States and abroad are able to work full time as independent storytellers, and few are folks of color, from working-class backgrounds, or from under-represented countries. 

There are, however, a growing number who are getting close. Each has made several films, and each is an influential leader for the issues they explore on screen. With this Award, Chicken & Egg Films is making a bold investment in these creatives and a statement about gender equity. A greater diversity of voices participating in storytelling drives change. We believe this effort is inextricably connected to elevating critical social justice, environmental, and human rights issues. 

The Chicken & Egg Award consists of a $75,000 USD cash award and a year-long mentorship program. Of the total, $50,000 is unrestricted, allowing filmmakers to decide how to use the funding to support their creative and business practices. The additional $25,000 is a grant for the project(s) the filmmaker will work on during their program year. Our in-depth mentorship program is focused on strengthening Awardees’ professional infrastructure, increasing their visibility, and fulfilling their personal and creative goals.

The Established Clinician Investigator Award to Support Mentoring (KS1) is designed to provide established clinician investigators with dedicated time for mentoring early-career clinician research scientists. This initiative by the US Dept. of Health & Human Services: National Institutes of Health (NIH) aims to enhance the quality of mentorship, fostering the development of future leaders in clinical research. It supports a sustained commitment to training and guidance, ensuring a robust pipeline of skilled professionals.

The Mentored Career Transition Award (KT1/R00) offers a biphasic funding opportunity for up to 5 years, supporting the transition of postdoctoral researchers to independent faculty positions. The first phase provides 1-2 years of mentored career development, while the second phase grants up to 3 years of independent research support, contingent upon satisfactory progress and faculty appointment. This grant aims to enhance the capacity of early-career researchers in achieving research-intensive roles.

The Mentored Clinician Research Scientist Career Development Award (KC1) from the NIH supports clinician research scientists for up to five years, providing dedicated time for intensive research career development. This award aims to guide candidates with clinical doctoral degrees towards achieving research independence by pairing them with experienced mentors who can help navigate their career paths.

The Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Award (KR1) offers crucial support for researchers aiming for independence. Funded by the US Dept. of Health & Human Services through the NIH, this award allows candidates to engage in intensive research training under a mentor's guidance for up to five years. It is designed for those with research doctoral degrees, facilitating their transition into independent research roles and enhancing their contributions to the scientific community.

About

Building a community of journalists committed to better health care reporting.

We believe accurate, contextual and balanced health care reporting is more important than ever.

People depend on health care stories to make life-altering decisions every day.

AHCJ International Health Study Fellowships

A fellowship for experienced journalists with a focus on international health.

In comparing the U.S. health care system to its global counterparts, journalists traveling to different countries as part of the AHCJ International Fellowship program can produce projects that provide valuable insights that can help inform policy decisions, improve health care outcomes and contribute to the ongoing evolution of health care systems worldwide.

Through the AHCJ International Health Study Fellowships, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, you can pursue a story or project comparing a facet of the U.S. health care system to that of another country. 

For 2027, the focus will be on the U.K. and France in comparison with the U.S. health care system. You’ll pursue the projects with the support of your newsrooms or arranged outlets, which commit to publish or air the work.

This fellowship allows highly experienced journalists to maintain their regular employment while working to evaluate a key component of the health care system, a health outcome, access, performance, providers, efficiency or other focal point over a six-month period.

That period allows for preparatory time, a site visit to the chosen European country, interviews and information gathering, as well as follow-up and writing time. Guidance is provided through seminars, conference calls and consultations with AHCJ fellowship leaders, a mentor and exposure to various topic experts.

About

Building a community of journalists committed to better health care reporting.

We believe accurate, contextual and balanced health care reporting is more important than ever.

People depend on health care stories to make life-altering decisions every day.

AHCJ U.S. Health System Reporting Fellowship

This opportunity is for U.S.-based journalists.

Issues with the U.S. health care system are often obvious — from large swaths of uninsured residents and junk insurance plans, to high maternal mortality rates and preventable medical errors. But what is at the root of issues like these? What could an equitable health care system look like? 

Through the U.S. Health System Reporting Fellowship, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, you can pursue a significant reporting project related to the U.S. health care system at the local, regional and/or national level.

This fellowship allows mid-career journalists to maintain their regular employment while working on a major project over a 12-month calendar year. You’ll pursue the projects with the support of your newsrooms or arranged outlets, which commit to publish or air the work.

We believe that issues of health equity impact every facet of the health care system, which is why we’re specifically interested in projects focused on health equity. This might include racial disparities within a community, gaps in public health inclusion, unstable housing, insurance access, food insecurity, violence as a health issue, how health care institutions or systems are applying a racial equity lens to their policies and practices or otherwise addressing inequities or disparities, or other examinations of systemic problems that have become so apparent over the last few years.

Guidance is provided by AHCJ mentors through customized seminars on health care systems, conference calls and email consultations. The fellowship covers the cost of attending the seminars and the annual AHCJ conference, as well as a $2,500 project allowance to defray the cost of field reporting, health data analysis and other project-related research. In addition, you will receive a $5,000 fellowship award upon the successful completion of the project.