Search Through Grants for Community Service Projects in Africa in the U.S.

About Us

AJA Foundation seeks to help those who have done everything society asks of them, yet for whom access to essential resources and the probability for advancement that comes from them remain elusive at best and structurally impossible at worst.

We know that the “playing field” of opportunity tilts substantially and unfairly towards those coming from advantage and that nobody succeeds on their own. AJA Foundation is dedicated to leveling the playing field by investing globally in organizations addressing what we see as fundamental human rights with a focus on equal access to clean water, quality education and essential healthcare.

What We Fund

Water

Billions of people lack access to clean water. This affects health and hinders education, employment, economic growth, and gender equality.

Having access to clean water not only saves lives and leads to better health outcomes, it creates a domino effect of positive change throughout entire communities by improving access to education, food, employment, gender equality, and mitigates the effects of climate change.

Over the last 15 years, AJA Foundation has invested approximately $3 million to support five clean water initiatives. Some have been multi-year commitments.

Education

Access to primary education is inequitable. Children who are economically disadvantaged lack access to curriculum and support necessary to thrive academically.

Education is the critical tool for upward economic mobility. Students who are structurally denied necessary coursework and critical support like tutoring, mentoring, and scholarships cannot reach their full potential.

The AJA Foundation has invested over $4 million to date in programs that empower deserving students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Investing in the potential of these students not only improves their financial future, it unlocks broader economic opportunities for entire communities and fosters future leadership.

Health

Half of the world’s population lacks access to essential health services. This not only puts the individual's health at risk, but also the stability of communities, societies, and economies.

Billions of people do not live close enough to medical centers or providers to access basic healthcare or are too poor to afford it. As a result, far too many medical conditions that are routinely treated in the developed world go untreated in the developing world. The same is true for prevention.

Because where you are born should not determine access to healthcare, the AJA Foundation has invested over $1.8 million in organizations delivering quality healthcare in developing countries. In addition to prevention, health services include maternal, newborn, and pediatric medicine and treatment of common diseases.

What We Stand For | Our Giving Priorities

We practice the discipline of being Good Company—cultivating meaningful awareness, driving sustainable action, and setting a new standard for how businesses and communities impact the Greater Good together. A grassroots appeal guides our efforts in food and the arts, while a holistic approach integrates commitment to learning and the environment. Compassion is extended from the inside out with actionable goals and a global perspective. We create mutually enriching philanthropic experiences for our CoStars, guests, investors and the community. And, although we are located in Las Vegas, we are home all around the world.

We take part in several charitable and community events throughout the year, many focused on our community giving priorities:

• Food and Hunger Relief - Providing food and nourishment, especially to those that are low-income or homeless.
• Learning and Student Enrichment - Enhancements to schools and programs that help students succeed in school.
• Accessible Art - Providing opportunities for the community to engage with and create their own expression of art.
• Military - Programs and services that support the military, veterans and their families.
• Diversity and Inclusion - Programs and services that support minorities and the LGBT Community.y.

Organizations may request cash or in-kind donations.

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.

Background

Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation seeks to dramatically improve the lives of underserved communities across the globe by supporting scalable, innovative, and impact-first solutions that leverage existing systems and stakeholders. Our goal is to find social entrepreneurs with dynamic products or services that have a proven ability to positively impact the lives of underserved people, and nurture those organizations at the early stages by providing capacity, capital, and community.

Our application process is designed to be open and accessible, and we accept applications year round from across our priority geographies and sectors. Borrowing from our venture capital legacy, we find exceptional entrepreneurs and provide them with: 

Capacity

• The core of DRK’s model is deep and extensive operational and technical support for each portfolio organization, both through dedicated hands-on Board service and specialist capacity-building resources for fundraising, board and organizational development, leadership, financial support, and scaling strategy,

Capital

• DRK provides up to $300,000 USD in either unrestricted grant funding or investment capital over a three-year period, and

Community

• DRK convenes our portfolio and alumni annually, facilitating connections and community. 

What We Fund

DRK Foundation funds early-stage social impact organizations solving the world’s biggest social and environmental problems using bold, scalable approaches.

What stage of growth does DRK Foundation typically fund?

Early stage: Organizations who are early stage, which we define as post-pilot and pre-scale. This typically means: 

• Your program, product or service is already being used in the market or in the field, 
• You have early indication that your model is having its intended impact on the beneficiary populations,
• Your organization is relatively young (ideally between two and five years old, although we will consider both younger and older organizations).

Venture funding: In the case of for profits, we typically support Seed to Series A organizations, and never lead rounds; we also generally but not exclusively refrain from participating in financings exceeding a $15M USD post-money valuation.  

About Us

The Gerda Henkel Foundation was established in June 1976 by Lisa Maskell in memory of her mother Gerda Henkel as an incorporated foundation under civil law, headquartered in Düsseldorf.

The Gerda Henkel Foundation provides financial support for the historical humanities. Research projects that explore current issues in a larger historical context or consciously focus on topics of relevance to the present or the future receive support from programmes of a limited duration such as the the special programme “Forced Migration”, or the “Democracy” and “Lost Cities” funding programmes. As part of the Lisa Maskell Fellowship programme, the Foundation supports young scholars in the humanities in Africa. With its “Patrimonies” funding initiative, it promotes the preservation of the cultural heritage, specifically in regions experiencing crisis. In connection with funded projects, the Foundation also provides assistance for social support measures as part of complementary projects. The Gerda Henkel Foundation can by virtue of its statutes pursue its objectives both inside and outside Germany.

Principles

The Gerda Henkel Foundation is an incorporated foundation under civil law (§ 1 StiftG NW). The object of the Foundation is to promote science, primarily by supporting specific projects in the field of the humanities that have a specific specialist scope and are limited in time and the related publications, in particular:

• by supporting research projects by scholars inside and outside Germany on carefully defined themes in the humanities,
• by awarding scholarships (in particular for research and Ph.D. projects) to scholars inside and outside Germany,
• by undertaking and supporting measures on a scientific basis in the field of monument preservation as well as by undertaking and supporting all measures that are suited to further the object of the Foundation,
• by carrying out measures to enhance public awareness in the above-mentioned fields that support the Foundation’s objectives.

Other objectives of the Foundation are:

• to promote assistance for persons subject to political, racial or religious persecution, refugees, expellees, war victims, surviving dependents of war, people injured by war, injured and disabled civilians as well as the victims of crimes.
• to promote an international mindset, tolerance and understanding among nations.
• to promote development assistance.

Fields Supported

Support is primarily provided for the historical humanities, in particular to support research projects in the following fields:

• Archaeology
• History
• Historical Islamic Studies
• Art History
• History of Law
• Prehistory and Early History
• History of Science

Funding Initiative Patrimonies

The Patrimonies funding initiative considers projects that focus on the preservation of historical cultural heritage first and foremost in crisis regions and, in some cases, should for the first time enable scientific research in the fields of history, archaeology, and art history. In this context, the Foundation supports measures that make a contribution to preserving cultural heritage, augmenting scientific infrastructure, educating young scientists and establishing networks in science, politics and society in the regions in question. The programme is not officially announced, but is being developed step by step in collaboration with selected partners. As an operationally geared programme, by supporting smaller projects »Patrimonies« offers an opportunity, on the one hand, for fast and flexible responses to emergencies and acute threat to cultural heritage and, on the other, for larger projects to be developed with appropriate lead times.

What Can Be Supported

• Preservation, restoration, and research on endangered buildings and objects
• Digitisation, conservation, documentation and accompanying research on material sources.
  • Applications for digitization and cataloguing are only possible in connection with further measures to secure archives and collections. A clear digitization strategy based on international standards must be proven.
• Documentation and research on collections of oral sources
• Training and further education are only supported in the context of specific preservation projects, emergency measures or for the purpose of forming academic networks, e.g.:
• Training and further education for young scientists, particularly in the field of archaeology, history, art history, historical construction research/monument preservation
• Training and further education of specialists for measures accompanying research (e. g. restorers, curators, geo-physicians)
• Trips/workshops to prepare projects and collaborations and for training purposes
• Site management and building measures (in individual cases)

Funding can only be provided for projects where there is scientific guidance (except in cases where only material resources are provided).

Types of Funding

Funding may include:

• Material aid, including costs for conservation and restoration work
• Personnel costs, preferably for service contracts and scholarships
• Grants to support the costs for research and training residencies
• Travel expenses

The amounts for fees, allowances, and special service contracts are based on local conditions and need to be calculated by the research partner. Scholarships are also based on local conditions and are granted up to the limit of the Foundations regular scholarships rates.

Where is the Support Provided?

• Crisis regions
• Countries which do not have the capacity to preserve their own cultural heritage themselves (currently no funding is provided for cultural heritage in European countries)

Overview

Google Ad Grants helps nonprofits share their causes with the world. Raise awareness, attract donors, and recruit new volunteers using Google search ads. Google Ad Grants shows your message to people searching for nonprofits like yours.

You’ll receive $10,000 USD of in-kind advertising from Google each month to create text-based ads, and get access to tools to help you build effective campaigns that can display on Google Search when people look for information related to your nonprofit.

Established in 1982 in Kingsville, Texas, L'Aiglon Foundation has an established interest in supporting projects in the areas of land/watershed conservation, education, the creative arts.

L’Aiglon Foundation strives to maximize the impact of its charitable giving over a wide spectrum of organizations and groups. We target our funding in the areas of:

• education;
• environment; and
• cultural arts.

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.

Mission

Driven by a philanthropic calling to support marginalized communities throughout the world, the Semnani Family Foundation partners with on-the-ground organizations and leverages its resources in a cost-effective and efficient manner that delivers the maximum benefit.

History

Guided by his grandmother Maliheh’s example and teachings, Khosrow Semnani and his wife Ghazaleh established the Semnani Family Foundation in 1993. The foundation’s first grant was issued through CARE International to an orphanage in Romania that cared for newborns affected by HIV. Over the last few decades, the foundation has continued to build upon its mission to empower the disaffected, partnering with a variety of organizations in different countries who can make the greatest impact.

In addition to its global influence, the Semnani Family Foundation established roots within the state of Utah with the founding of Maliheh Free Clinic in 2005 to provide free healthcare to thousands of uninsured people in the Salt Lake City area.

Where We Work

The Semnani Family Foundation focuses primarily on promoting health, education, and disaster relief for marginalized communities all around the world. Driven by a clear mission to adapt and serve at the global level, we have leveraged our resources to make a meaningful impact in the following countries so far:

• Afghanistan
• Bosnia
• Colombia
• England
• Ethiopia
• Ghana
• Guatemala
• India
• Iran
• Kenya
• Madagascar
• Mali
• Mexico
• Pakistan
• Philippines
• Romania
• Somalia
• South Africa
• Tanzania
• Tonga
• Uganda
• United States
• Yemen

At the heart of the Foundation lies a fervent commitment to human welfare, always prioritizing health and the needs of society’s most vulnerable.

About

The Audacious Project is a collaborative funding initiative catalyzing social impact on a grand scale. Every year we select and nurture a group of big, bold solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges, and with the support of an inspiring group of donors and supporters, come together to get them launched.

Housed at TED, the nonprofit with a long track record of surfacing ideas worth spreading, and with support from leading social impact advisor The Bridgespan Group, the funding collective is comprised of several respected organizations and individuals in philanthropy.

Our goal is to match bold ideas with catalytic resources.

• We encourage the world’s inspirational changemakers to dream bigger than ever before.
• Help shape their best ideas into viable multi-year plans.
• Present those solutions in a compelling way to potential supporters.

The Process

Every year, The Audacious Project works with proven change-makers to surface their best, boldest ideas for tackling global problems.

Sourcing & review

Projects are sourced from public applications and a global network of partners and donors. They are narrowed down to a group of finalists whose ideas are representative of a broad range of geographies and issue areas while elevating leaders with proximity to the communities they serve.

Idea shaping & investment support

Each finalist project goes through a rigorous ideation, due diligence, and investment support process, to ensure their proposal is achievable and compelling.

Funding & launch

Finalist projects are presented privately to groups of donors and are then publicly unveiled at TED. Funded projects then pursue their plans and share regular updates on key milestones reached with donors and the public.

Is Your Idea Audacious?

• Are you a changemaker with a bold vision?
• Are you a non-profit with an experienced team equipped to receive large scale philanthropic support?
• Is your idea a proven concept that aspires to create a better world?
• We look for ideas that cover a wide range of issues, from global health and climate change, to social justice and education.

What Makes An Idea Audacious?

Inspire

• Transformative vision
  • Your idea should capture a bold vision for tackling one of the world's most urgent topics.
• Creating a better world
  • It is your opportunity to take a giant leap forward; you may be tempted to think incrementally, but remember for it to be bold, your idea should offer significant, enduring impact.
  • This vision should bring us much closer to your version of an ideal world in a matter of years rather than generations.
• Innovative and original
  • There should be a unique aspect or creative element to your approach that challenges convention or status quo or changes the narrative for the greater good.

Convince

• Proven concept
  • There should be evidence that the idea will have impact based on a track record of past success, a demand from those that would be affected, and justified confidence that results can be sustained in the future.
• A bold vision that has clear outcomes
  • There should be a sense of where you will be at the end of a multi-year funding term and the strategy, resources and timeline required to achieve it. We want to hear about the changes that would take place because of your idea, not just the components that go into implementing it.

• Established support
  • You and your capable and confident team have the backing of a nonprofit, NGO, or institution (or is part of a collaboration between multiple such entities). This organization should be able to receive philanthropic funds and have the core infrastructure necessary to support the work. (Note: Past projects have had an annual operating budget of $1 million or more.)

Please refer to FAQ for additional guidelines.

The Global Commons Alliance’s Accountability Accelerator

The Accountability Accelerator is currently funding early-stage projects and organizations that contribute to building an accountability architecture across the four clusters with significant grant making through a regional lens across Africa, South America and Southeast Asia.

We support the development of a robust accountability ecosystem for corporate action on nature by making small to mid-sized grants (~USD 50,000-100,000) to specific projects that fit with our areas of work: Data & Standards, Finance, Legal, and Campaigns. We specifically focus on closing gaps in the accountability landscape and on projects that are early-stage and require higher-risk seed funding that might be deemed too risky by larger funders.

We work with applicants to co-develop proposals and accept proposals on a rolling basis. We pride ourselves in our ability to be reactive and nimble to catch and support urgent and time-sensitive projects, including lesser-known or early-stage ideas and organizations, with a keen attention to local organizations at the front-line of where devastation of nature is happening.

Across our clusters, we support projects which align with the following elements of the accountability ecosystem:

• Frameworks and tools, including standards, frameworks and targets based on credible data to enable business and financial institution commitment, disclosure, planning and action.
• Incentives and capacity building for companies to act by enabling service providers,  NGOs & business networks share knowledge, guidance & tools for business & FIs to identify, address and act on the harm to nature.
• Assurance and pressures, including third party validation of science based targets for natures, verification of transition planning and progress, and enabling a broad set of stakeholders advocate for action while driving corporate accountability
• Policy and regulation through influencing governments and regulators to embed nature and society into policies, finance rules, and legal framework & create economic incentives for business and FIs to act.
• Community mobilization by which citizens are mobilized, IPLC rights are recognized and people everywhere are supported in their efforts to hold corporations accountable, especially their supply chains and impacts on the ground.

Finally, the Accountability Accelerator recognises and supports the rights and leadership roles of Indigenous Peoples and local communities as stewards of nature and the vast majority of the world’s biodiversity regions. We endeavor to have at least half our grants going to regional and local organizations, where the impacts of global agricultural, manufacturing, and commodity supply chains are most deeply felt on the ground.

The FAWCO Foundation Development Grant

The purpose of the program is to fund projects that can make an immediate impact and lead to success for the people they support. The assistance offered should be direct, with a goal of sustainability.

Through The Foundation, FAWCO Member Clubs and FAUSA have been aiding worthy and reputable charitable projects around the globe for over 50 years. Some clubs are working “hands-on” with their projects while others make financial contributions or donations of goods. The Development Grants provide the financial assistance that can help the recipients achieve their goals.

The Foundation encourages FAWCO clubs to nominate grassroots organizations that receive little to no sponsorship or support from other sources.

Grant Categories

Education

For projects:

• promoting literacy and supporting academic studies,
• that build or provide classrooms, libraries or general learning facilities for disadvantaged women/children, 
• that provide training designed to lead to economic and social empowerment for women and girls.

Human Rights

For projects:

• providing vocational training, teaching practical skills, promoting social entrepreneurial initiatives for at-risk/marginalized population groups,
• addressing the critical problems of violence, food and shelter, healthcare, education, poverty, advocacy, human trafficking, prostitution, refugees, including all those impacted by economic, political or other forced migration,
• promoting cultural understanding

Global Issues

For Projects:

• that fall within any of the FAWCO focus areas with which we align our Development Grants i.e., Education, Environment, Health or Human Rights.
• that recognize club’s local charities often overlooked on the world stage, 
• that take place in the nominating club's home country.

The Foundation is dedicated to providing financial assistance to organizations committed to improving our world. Solutions to the problems of today's world still lie in the values of innovation, practicality, hard work, and compassion.

The Foundation considers applications for grants in the following areas:

• Education
• Social Service
• Health care
• Civic and cultural
• Environmental

The categories above are not intended to limit the interest of the Foundation from considering other worthwhile projects. In general, the Foundation guidelines are broad to give us flexibility in providing grants.

The majority of our grants are made in the U.S. However, like Dr. Scholl, we recognize the need for a global outlook. Non-U.S. grants are given to organizations where directors have knowledge of the grantee.

Overview and Objectives

The Global Forest Watch Small Grants Fund (SGF) seeks to build the capacity of civil society organizations to effectively use GFW tools and data to reduce illegal or unplanned deforestation. Successful projects translate data into action, applying GFW to overcome challenges in protecting the world’s forests.

Project scope should fall into one or more of the following approaches:

• Advocacy
  • Examples include:
    • Using data and imagery found on GFW alongside community territorial maps to advocate for land titles and other strengthened land rights.
    • Create an open data platform with MapBuilder by crowdsourcing, compiling and publishing data on concessions that overlap with ancestral community lands, and support communities in applying public pressure to get these concessions revoked
• Forest Monitoring and Enforcement
  • Examples include:
    • Develop the capacity of forest monitoring brigades to conduct field verifications of near-real time alerts with the Forest Watcher mobile application and other technologies, and work with enforcement officials to stop unplanned or illegal deforestation.
    • Support Indigenous communities in developing response protocols, formulating legal strategies and compiling evidence of illegal deforestation including satellite imagery, data and analyses, and submitting it to law enforcement through formal complaints or other legal processes.
    • Train police, prosecutors and/or judges to raise awareness as to how satellite imagery and data can be used to provide accurate, timely and cost-effective evidence of deforestation.
• Journalism and Storytelling
  • Examples include:
    • Publish stories, data visualizations, and/or videos highlighting where illegal deforestation is occurring and how it impacts local livelihoods or ecosystems to raise public awareness and put pressure on authorities to respond.
    • Use data found on Global Forest Watch to analyze the direct and indirect impacts of proposed development projects on local livelihoods and forest biodiversity and share these through traditional media outlets and social media channels.
• Stakeholder Engagement and Capacity Building
  • Examples include:
    • Build the capacity of Indigenous or local communities and/or law enforcement agencies to utilize alert systems accessed through GFW tools to monitor, verify, and respond to forest threats within community lands or protected areas.
    • Work with forest fringing communities to understand their needs for protecting their forest and co-design land defense strategies using GFW and other technologies to protect their forest landscapes.
    • Create an online course that specifically addresses issues of deforestation in your community and teaches non-experts how to use GFW tools to investigate and report on deforestation in their area.
• Informing Land Use Management and/or Policy
  • Examples include:
    • Train a collective of smallholder farmers to monitor and manage their areas using forest, land use and carbon data.
    • Use data and insights found on GFW to conduct high quality research and put together policy briefs to influence land use policy for more sustainable land management and long-term land use planning.
    • Use GFW to identify and establish areas or jurisdictions as nature based solutions, REDD+ or other payment for ecosystem services projects, and monitor compliance.

Award Information

Small Grants Fund at a glance:

• The Small Grants Fund awards organizations between $10,000 and $40,000 USD
• The number of projects selected can range from 8-15, with 12 being the average
• Projects for next year's grant cycle will run from June 1 – May 31.
• Each grantee will be assigned a WRI staff member as an advisor, who will provide virtual technical support and other assistance.

In addition to the financial support and technical assistance, SGF recipients become part of a network of organizations and receive benefits that extend beyond the lifetime of their grant. These include opportunities to connect with others in the GFW network, invitations to GFW events, opportunities to test and provide feedback on new GFW features, and the potential to be featured in blogs, social media, or other WRI communications materials.

Mission Statement

The Zimmer Family Foundation is a small foundation located in Sarasota, Florida for the purpose of supporting religious, educational and social programs…locally, nationally and internationally…that bring help and hope to the less fortunate, primarily by seeding short-term pilot projects that have the potential of self-support.

Welcome to Wikimedia Foundation Funds!

The Wikimedia Foundation supports individuals and organizations around the world to increase the diversity, reach, quality, and quantity of free knowledge. We promote knowledge equity aligned with the strategic direction of the Wikimedia movement. Our funding programs are focused on decentralized decision-making, regional committees, and reaching underrepresented communities.

Our people-centred approach is built on the principles of equity & empowerment, collaboration & cooperation, and the promotion of innovation and learning

Mission Statement

The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.

Wikimedia Foundation General Support Fund

General Support Fund can fund both annual plans and more narrow but distinct projects that require more funding than Rapid Funds can support. Ideally, the minimum length of programming for a General Support Fund is 6 months of work implementation. Exceptions to this rule can be considered due to regional variances.

Examples of projects we fund as part of annual plan

• Education projects
• Cultural and heritage projects that support contribution of content, curation of the content and promote accessibility of that content.
• Gender and diversity projects
• Community support and engagement projects
• Coordination of global campaigns.
• Public policy advocacy projects that aim to influence legal and regulatory environments (at the national, regional or international level) in order to protect the people, model and the values of the free knowledge movement. These projects could target national legislation, trade agreements, human rights frameworks, and any other regulations and norms set by governments and lawmakers.

Examples of expenses we support

• Operating expenses - working space, services, and other common costs needed for an affiliate to operate.
• Programmatic expenses - data costs to support access to online events, prizes, outreach, and other common costs needed to support programs.
• Staff expenses - compensation for well-defined roles that do not replace volunteer activities, including (but not limited to) graphic design, training, childcare services, translation, project or organisation management, and Wikimedian-in-Residence roles.
• Learning or training expenses - costs related to learning or training for community members or affiliate staff.
• Travel and participation expenses for staff and organisers.

Thematic Areas

In all our areas of geographic focus, we support communities in the stewardship of their landscapes and seascapes and the biocultural diversity found in these places.

We welcome inquiries from nonprofit organizations working to:

• Conserve terrestrial and marine biological diversity.
• Sustain cultural diversity, linguistic diversity, and traditional knowledge systems and practices.
• Maintain ecosystem services (including, water, soil, and carbon sequestration).
• Support food sovereignty and economic vitality of local communities.
• Sustain healthy reefs and fisheries.

And, in coastal communities along the North Shore of Massachusetts, in addition to the thematic areas listed above, we support artistic expression projects that at their core:

• Raise awareness of an issue or catalyze action.
• Help promote the protection of the environment.
• Help foster community diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Approaches

We support community-based projects that seek to meet their objectives in a variety of ways. Among the kinds of approaches we support are those concerned with:

Among the kinds of approaches we support are those concerned with:

• Creating and/or ensuring effective management of terrestrial and marine protected areas, in particular where governance is led by communities (e.g., Indigenous Peoples’ and Community-Conserved Areas and Territories [ICCAs]).
• Ecological restoration involving native species, prioritizing efforts linked to existing conservation areas already valued by communities (e.g., a watershed, community forest, or sacred grove).
• Providing enhanced and alternative livelihoods to support local economies and community well-being (e.g., through agroecology and non-timber forest products).
• Environmental education that draws on Indigenous and local traditions and languages to address present-day problems.
• Use of the arts and other innovative methods to convey social and environmental messages.
• Fostering civic engagement of communities through creative facilitation and other methods (e.g., community-mapping exercises).

About EEP Africa

The Energy and Environment Partnership Trust Fund (EEP Africa) is a clean energy financing facility hosted and managed by the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) with funding from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, NDF and Switzerland. It is guided by a vision for a climate resilient, zero-carbon future with the aim of contributing to achievement of the Paris Climate Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The immediate objective is to enhance clean energy access, development and investment, with a particular focus on benefitting vulnerable and underserved groups.

EEP Africa provides risk tolerant early-stage grant financing for locally driven innovative clean energy projects, technologies and business and delivery models in Southern and East Africa. Since 2010, EEP Africa has committed more than EUR 60 million to over 270 pioneering projects, creating over 11,600 jobs, improving energy access for more than 5 million people, and avoiding 1.8 million tonnes of CO2e.

Core Activities 

EEP Africa focuses on three core activities:

• Clean Energy Financing: EEP Africa channels funding through open, competitive calls for proposals, offering both grants and repayable grants on a co-financing basis to early-stage innovative projects that are in active development. There have been 16 Calls for Proposals (CfPs) since 2010.
• Investment Facilitation (IF) and Business Development Support (BDS): In addition to financing, EEP Africa enhances the investment readiness of its grantees through targeted business development services and cohort level trainings. Furthermore, EEP Africa actively facilitates linkages between its grantees and the investor community by providing introductions or by cohosting in-person matchmaking events together with its sector peers, thus offering investors access to a pipeline of investable clean energy projects and enterprises.
• Knowledge, Learning and Partnerships: EEP Africa leverages the lessons learned from its diverse project portfolio to develop knowledge products that advance clean energy understanding and awareness. EEP Africa works closely with partners to amplify lessons and harmonise activities for increased efficiency. Moreover, EEP Africa offers visibility and peer-to-peer learning opportunities for grantees.

EEP Africa Call for Proposals

EEP Africa invites companies, start-ups and social enterprises to submit applications for innovative early-stage clean energy projects in active development phase in Southern and Eastern Africa. 

General characteristics

• Innovation - The applicant is expected to explain in what way their project is innovative within the market and geographic context where it will be implemented. Innovation can be demonstrated in the technology and proposed product, in the business model (including the financing model, distribution approach, service, etc.), in partnerships or other innovations that do not fall under these three categories. Innovation can also include replication and scaling of comparatively mature and tested technologies or business models into new nascent markets.
• Active development – The applicant needs to demonstrate that they have actively worked on the proposed project before the launch of the EoI. Applicants should provide some or all of the following proof: 1) company registration at least 6 months prior to the EoI opening date (mandatory), 2) founding staff activity, 3) seed equity invested, 4) other evidence such as e.g., any relevant partnerships are in place, minimum viable product, business model is well designed.
• Additionality – The applicant needs to prove that the project would not proceed without EEP Africa funding or other public money and that the project is unlikely to be financed by commercial financiers. The grant should not be a substitute for private sector financing but instead bridge the gap where private sector money would be too risk-averse. The grant is hence justified and necessary to de-risk the early stages of a promising technology, business or delivery model.
• Locally-driven – The applicant needs to demonstrate that they are committed to sustainable long-term local development. Project implementation, business models and partnerships should be rooted in the local context. Local engagement can be demonstrated through local company registration and years of operation in the country and/or EEP Africa region, majority local ownership of the company, and/or a strong existing local team/partner.

Funding

Applicants can apply for grants and repayable grants between EUR 200,000 —1,000,000. The minimum required co-financing is 30-50% of the total project budget depending on the project phase and company maturity. Please read the CfP 2023 Application Guidelines and Project Implementation Manual for more concrete guidance on financing.

James B. Pearson Fellowship

Established by former Kansas Senator Pearson to encourage graduate students from Kansas public universities to experience the global perspective gained from study abroad.

Senator James B. Pearson represented Kansas in the U.S. Senate from 1962 to 1978. He served on several committees, including the Foreign Relations Committee. His attention was often focused on the conflict and unrest in the Middle East, Far East, Central America, Africa, and Europe. Senator Pearson believed that the United States needed to stay involved in the global community. With this in mind, the James B. Pearson Fellowship Fund was established in 1979 to assist graduate students in pursuing studies abroad.

Selection Criteria

Pearson Fellows are selected at the sole discretion of the selection board and may be based on the applicant’s character, plan of study, and financial need. The members of the Pearson Board are appointed by the governor. Please note that the board prioritizes research projects that link to the core objectives of the Pearson Fellowship Fund, which are to further scholarly study to promote a global community.

Examples of past programs approved for the fellowship include:

• West Germany; energy politics in the German Democratic Republic
• Tohoku University in Japan; exploration of urban design
• International Institute of Human Rights in France; considering the law of human rights
• Erdgenossische Technische Hochschule in Switzerland; energy conservation practices of major industries
• Jordan; archaeology
• Ireland; investigate similarities of dialect in Irish English and Black American English
• University of Stockholm; administration of Swedish social services

Funding

The average stipend provided is $3,000. Awards are subject to availability of funding. Applications also available from graduate school offices.

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 Mission

The Marine Debris Foundation leads efforts to eliminate marine debris and plastic pollution through innovative grantmaking, effective advocacy, and strategic partnerships.

Our Vision

The Marine Debris Foundation envisions a planet free from marine debris and plastic pollution.

Our Values

• Dedicated to environmental justice
  • We commit to empowering frontline communities to address marine debris and plastic pollution.   
• Inclusive
  • We create a welcoming environment for all and honor a diversity of perspectives and people in all of our work.   
• Collaborative
  • We pursue strategic partnerships with the marine debris community to enhance collective impact.
• Solutions oriented
  • We encourage innovation and creativity to foster holistic, long-term interventions.
• Committed to scientific integrity
  • We are guided by the best available science, including place-based and traditional knowledge.   
• Transparent
  • We disclose our sources of funding and are accountable in our grantmaking.

Marine Debris Grants

The Marine Debris Foundation (MDF) is pleased to launch the first round of its Marine Debris Grants! The MDF seeks to address the problem of marine debris through diverse partnerships, initiatives, and creative solutions. It prioritizes grantmaking to eliminate marine debris and plastic pollution, and to augment the efforts and impact of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program. As such, any proposed project should fit into one or more of the following marine debris/plastic pollution focal areas:

• Reduction
• Prevention
• Removal
• Assessment

The MDF’s Grantmaking Initiative is focused on strengthening, enhancing, and improving domestic and international efforts that address the adverse impacts of marine debris on the economy, environment, and/or maritime safety.

Evaluation Criteria

The MDF aims to provide fair and equitable consideration to all grant requests. All grant requests are evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Environmental impact: the net environmental benefit of the proposed activities;
• Human health and environmental justice: the net benefits of improving air quality, water quality, water quality and human health from proposed activities;
• Innovation: novel and creative proposed interventions, methodologies, service models, and technologies to be tested/used (if applicable);
• Feasibility of implementation: political, financial, technological, and behavioral science circumstances required to successfully execute proposed activities;
• Solution-oriented: direct application of research, interventions, and campaigns to produce solutions to marine debris and plastic pollution;
• Sustainability: likelihood of the project continuing to make an impact following the term of the grant;
• Organizational capacity: necessary logistical and technical qualifications of the applicant to execute proposed project/activities

Award Information

For this open call, grants will be given for up to $30,000 per award.

The MDF awards grants annually during a call-for-proposal process, with grant periods ranging from 12 to 24 months; multi-year grants will also be considered. 

Please check back later for information on future funding opportunities. The International Foundation fund US-based non-profit organizations who partner with poor communities in the developing world to improve their health, education and incomes, while strengthening local capacity to sustain their benefits. Our strategy seeks change in the intermediate area between individuals and national organizations, where community members work together toward a shared vision. 

The International Foundation funds grants in three key areas—health, education and incomes. However, each of these areas represents a range of investment opportunities that, if integrated with other program areas, can lead to broader, more balanced and more sustainable results.

The focus of our grant-making combines criteria on the nature of the program, the geographic location, and the level of poverty.

Quantifiable Impact Focus

Our grants support the specific types of programs, in specific geographic regions, that we believe address the most pressing needs in the world today.

Program Focus

We believe each of our priority program categories are linked by our overall goal to benefit an entire region. While grants are awarded to some organizations focused on one category, we look for partners who take a more holistic, community-based approach and are committed to delivering positive and sustained results.

• Agriculture: We support projects working toward agricultural sustainability in developing countries that suffer from the impact of population growth and environmental shifts, poor technology, and policy and management issues. These projects help smallholder farmers with crop management, storage, timely market information, mobile phone-based training services, savings and loan programs, and resource acquisition.
• Education: We support programs that extend the reach of national education systems to remote and undeserved areas. This includes remedial education, access to technology resources, teacher training, and extracurricular projects. We also support formal and informal education programs in information technology and vocational skills in both rural and city communities that prioritize women and girls.
• Environment: We support projects designed to address air and water pollution, environmental shifts, soil degradation, exploitation of natural resources, biodiversity loss, deforestation, desertification, and ocean acidification. Our grants focus on projects that ensure water quality and access, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), and eliminating vector-borne diseases and exposure to toxic chemicals.
• Health: We support community primary health programs as well as maternal and child health care. We also support programs that provided general health education including hygiene, family planning, and birth control. Finally, we support programs that extend the reach of healthcare to remote regions and sectors of countries while also working to extend the reach of national health systems.

Geographic Focus

We support US-based organizations serving vulnerable populations and communities in many parts of the developing world. We prioritize countries in which the need is great and the environment allows for successful outcomes.

Latin America & The Caribbean or Africa or South & Southeast Asia

Our Mission

The mission of the Tomberg Family Philanthropies is to support well run and effective programs that make a difference in the areas of poverty alleviation, the environment, health and education. Our focus is on supporting projects that help their recipients build capabilities themselves that will last far beyond the end of the specific project.  

We agree with the Nobel Committee that “every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life.”

Funding Areas

This funding cycle we will again be accepting applications in all four of our funding areas, which are:

• Education
• Environment
• Health
• Poverty Alleviation

Gupta Family Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, USA. Our mission is to support organizations that provide focused intervention in the lives of people who have been disadvantaged in some way to help them become self-reliant. We take a very broad view of “disadvantage” to include anything that holds a person back from realizing their potential, such as poverty, physical or mental disability, social alienation, etc. The foundation also supports relief agencies that serve people affected by emergencies such as natural disasters.

The foundation evaluates and awards annual and multi-year grants ranging from $5,000 to over $250,000 (USD). Our focus is on funding smaller organizations all around the world that are led by individuals with a deep personal commitment to their missions. 

Our selection criteria include:

• Mission alignment
• The organization is run by the founder or, if not, by a successor who embodies the original inspiration, passion and commitment of the founder.
• At least 90% of grant monies reaches the intended beneficiaries.
• The organization is non-sectarian, i.e.,
  • It does not, directly or indirectly, support or condone the proselytization of any religion,
  • It is not supported by or affiliated to a religious organization.

The SUEZ Foundation is launching a call for projects to support associations whose actions promote access to essential services for vulnerable and weakened populations in developing and emerging countries where SUEZ is present.

Themes

• Access to Water
• Sanitation
• Hygiene

Fields of action of the project

The project aims to promote access to essential services (water, sanitation and hygiene) in emerging and developing countries, for vulnerable and weakened communities (rural and informal urban areas).

• Development aid projects for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups (access to water, sanitation, hygiene).
• Projects in urban, peri-urban or rural areas, with project support from local authorities.
• Projects including capacity-building /skills enhancement component to improve services and their management, and actions to raise awareness of hygiene and health issues among the residents.
• Project that involve the beneficiaries in defining the project and/or monitoring it.
• Project including, if possible, volunteer work and skills sponsorship by SUEZ employees.
• Project with concrete objectives whose results can be evaluated and monitored. These objectives must be accompanied by indicators for monitoring the impact of the project at different stages (2 years and 5 years), particularly in terms of improving the quality of life of the beneficiaries.

Which countries are eligible for Foundation support ?

Angola, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Morocco, Mozambique, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda and Uzbekistan.

Funding

Project funding from the SUEZ Foundation must:

• Represent at least 15 % of the budget of the submitted project and must not exceed 50% of the budget for the project submitted
• Be between €50,000 and €100,000

Background

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime and pave the way, together, to a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right.

We have set three ambitious goals for our work:

• Economic Inclusion for Family Wellbeing
• Equitable and Accountable Public Health and Healthcare Systems
• Healthy and Equitable Community Conditions

Making progress toward those Generational Goals requires changing the systems that underpin our society. Currently, those systems create and uphold inequity by placing more value on some lives than others, based on race, class, and other factors. To create a more equitable future, we must identify and dismantle structural racism in our systems. We must create space for health practitioners, community leaders, and researchers to rethink the way our systems work, dream up new possibilities, and put one foot in the future to anticipate opportunities or roadblocks that future may bring.

Through our Ideas for an Equitable Future team, we support visionary thinkers—scientists, anthropologists, engineers, technologists, creatives, and others—who are imagining what the world might look like in the next 10 to 100 years.With our funding, they explore how those futures may unfold in ways that could slow down or speed up our collective efforts to dismantle structural racism and improve health equity.

By applying this future-facing lens, our grantees are uncovering how emerging social, cultural, scientific, technological, environmental, and economic trends and forces could shape the future of health for everyone. They are also discovering and experimenting with cutting-edge ideas that have the potential to tear down barriers to health and wellbeing and reinvent our systems so that they work better for us all.

The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation Vision

The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation, "A Foundation for All", was established in 2002. It was begun in order to give a clear voice for those who wish to be a part of the many, worthy, forces for change in our world.

We are a foundation whose purpose is to look ahead towards the future, giving the past its due by remembering where we came from, and how much we can all accomplish together. We aim to make the critical difference on our planet by recognizing and having respect for our ever changing world. We respect all Life, the Environment, and all People, no matter who they are.