Search Through Grants for Historic Buildings in New York in the U.S.

Letter of Inquiry

Typically, the Altman Foundation uses letters of inquiry (LOIs) to learn more about organizations working in its five program areas. When openings in the Foundation’s portfolio become available, candidates that are a strong fit receive more in-depth reviews by the Foundation’s staff and, potentially, are invited to submit a full application for funding.

Given the volume of proposals in the Foundation's current pipeline, including active grantees that are eligible for renewal consideration, opportunities for new grants are limited at this time. Please note that we have modified the LOI process; only LOIs for the Health portfolio are being accepted at this time. In the upcoming period, areas of specific interest for new grantmaking are outlined below. Once you have reviewed this guidance, if you wish to submit a Letter of Inquiry, please answer our eligibility questionnaire. Regrettably, our small staff is not available to provide additional guidance about the LOIs that are not accepted for further review.

Health

Expand and strengthen quality out-of-hospital health care for the most underserved and vulnerable populations.

Expand access to health care for underserved, uninsured, or vulnerable populations or communities.

Here, a particular focus will be:

• Projects that aim to strengthen and sustain the resilience and capacity of NYC safety net health, behavioral health, and social service providers -- and the ability of vulnerable and/or marginalized populations to find and obtain quality, accessible health and social services and supports -- in an era of reduced federal funding and public benefits;
• Projects that aim to document the value of, help mainstream, and sustain support for ‘whole person’ and/or integrated health, behavioral health, and related social care within New York’s Medicaid and safety net health care systems; and
• Projects tackling (i) barriers to health, behavioral health, and social services (such as affordability, immigration status, and accessibility) that -- at a structural, community, or individual level -- contribute to inequity and result in health disparities or (ii) social needs such as food and housing (when determinative of health outcomes and closely linked to health care)

Full Proposal

If we have suggested that you follow your Letter of Inquiry with a full proposal or if you are a current grantee applying for renewed funding, please log in to the grant portal where you will find the related application form in the “Proposals in Progress” section. Please fill out the application and submit it with the required documents. In the application form, please select from the three types of investments most relevant to your request:

• Investments in Direct Service
  • In this area we support programs and projects that create human gain for people in our areas of focus. Historically, most of the grants in our portfolio have fallen into this category.
• Investments in Capacity Building*
  • At times we believe that making an investment in an organization so that it can achieve and sustain stronger gains for those served is the best investment we can make
• Investments in Systems Change
  • At times we believe that the most pressing need is to make an improvement in the larger context of factors and forces that affect programs and organizations. The Foundation will consider requests for strategic policy, advocacy, and applied research initiatives that advance the Foundation's grantmaking priorities.

*Please note that if you are providing technical assistance services to other organizations, they are your clients and you should designate your request as a “direct service” application. The “capacity building” designation refers to organizations seeking to build their own internal capacity.

Canton Community Fund

The Canton Community Fund is a non-profit organization operating under the auspices of the Northern NY Community Foundation. The Fund seeks to support local projects that sustain or improve the life of our community.

​We believe that Canton, New York is a wonderful place to live, work, study, and play. The community can truly thrive when resources are available to individuals and groups that serve vulnerable neighbors and create initiatives to build community through education, the arts, and empowerment of all kinds. 

Canton Community Fund Grants

The Canton Community Fund is a community-based organization that financially supports projects aiming to sustain and improve life in the Village and Town of Canton.

The Canton Community Fund invites applications for grants to support projects that aim to sustain and improve the life of the community. The Fund has provided assistance in a wide variety of areas, including historic preservation and awareness, community beautification, the arts, education, recreation, human services, and programs for youth and senior citizens.

Program goal

To ensure that New York City’s public schools provide all students with the opportunity to reach their full potential and to graduate prepared for college and work. The Trust will support projects that focus on system-wide improvements and reforms that advance equity, narrow the opportunity gap, and create safe and supportive learning environments. In addition, our Early Childhood grants program supports efforts to make high-quality child care for children ages 0-5 more accessible and affordable, including through organizing and advocacy.

Focus Area: Education

Grants are made to:

Expand opportunities and improve academic outcomes for students who are inadequately served by the city’s public schools for reasons such as poverty, race, disability, lack of English proficiency, and homelessness, with a focus on projects that can be adopted by numerous schools or at the district level. The Trust will support projects that:

• Demonstrate programs and instructional approaches that have the potential to meet the learning needs of underserved students, with support from school leadership and/or the Department of Education.
• Support the adoption of research-informed programs to increase foundational skills in the early and middle grades, such as higher-order reading skills and arithmetic.
• Equip educators to use data to monitor student progress and provide and track targeted interventions.
• Increase access to high-level coursework, Advanced Placement classes, college classes, and early college programs for low-income students of color.
• Expand emotional and social support as well as academic, college, and career advisement in schools with high numbers of underserved students.
• Increase retention of qualified teachers and leaders in high-poverty schools, including educators and leaders of color, through approaches including coaching, peer-to-peer learning, and communities of practice
• Ensure that all families and students have the necessary information and assistance to navigate the school choice process.
• Promote policy advocacy and organizing to ensure that local and state policies affecting the programming, personnel, budget, priorities, and leadership of the city’s public schools account for the needs of all students, particularly those who have historically been inadequately served.

Priority will be given to projects that:

• Promote the use of high-quality, culturally inclusive approaches and curricula as well as aligned professional growth opportunities for educators.
• Contribute to safe and supportive school environments and reduce reliance on suspensions and police intervention.
• Increase access to technology—including computers, broadband accounts, and the skills necessary for their use—for economically disadvantaged students.
• Help underserved students and families advocate for school policies that meet their needs.
• Collect and share data on the state of the system, service gaps, student and parent preferences, and the potential and actual impact of policy choices.
• We will support research projects that seek to answer practice and policy questions with implications for high-quality teaching and learning in the city’s public schools, with a focus on inquiries concerning underserved students.

Vision

To promote wellness and access to opportunities so that individuals and communities can thrive.

Grounded in our work in Connecticut and New York, we support visionary leaders and nonprofit organizations that serve historically marginalized populations, help individuals contribute to their communities, and champion advancements and experiences that make it possible for all people to live healthy and joyous lives.

Our Story

The Tow Foundation was established in 1988 by Leonard and Claire Tow as a way to give back to the communities that shaped them.

Leonard and Claire’s three children, Andrew, Emily and Frank, joined the board of directors soon after its inception, and our initial investments were largely guided by the personal passions of the boardroom. With a focus on New York, our earliest grants went to innovative projects in the fields of medical research and higher education.

As our organization evolved, so did our areas of support. Emily Tow was hired as the Foundation’s president and first full-time staff member in 1995. Motivated by the belief that every child deserves an opportunity to thrive, our grantmaking expanded to include nonprofits with a focus on youth justice. As the years went by, the transformative power of theater and performing arts led us to add culture as a core area of interest.

Today, our five primary impact areas are

• Arts and culture,
• Higher education,
• Civic engagement,
• Equity and justice
• Medicine and public health.

What We Fund - Justice Initiatives

We must address the harm caused by unfair systems and work to build new ones grounded in equity and justice. To realize a future in which all people are healthy, safe, and free to lead a fulfilling life, there must be a commitment to racial equity and justice.

We invest in work at the policy-change level to end mass incarceration, mass criminalization, and other harmful systems. We also fund direct service organizations working to support and empower individuals and families who have been impacted by these systems.

• Advocacy, organizing, and coalition-building, led by directly impacted leaders
• Initiatives that affirm the humanity and dignity of people who are incarcerated and remove barriers to their success
• Opportunities, care, and resources for individuals impacted by the criminal legal system
• Cross-disciplinary, intersectional approaches to achieving equity and justice

The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation promotes the advancement and perpetuation of humanistic inquiry and artistic creativity by encouraging excellence in scholarship and in the performing arts, and by supporting research libraries and other institutions which transmit our cultural heritage.

The programs of the Foundation reflect the interests and patronage of its founders, Gladys Krieble Delmas and Jean Paul Delmas.

Humanities Program

The Foundation intends to further the humanities along a broad front, supporting projects which address the concerns of the historical studia humanitatis: a humanistic education rooted in the great traditions of the past; the formation of human beings according to cultural, moral, and aesthetic ideals derived from that past; and the ongoing debate over how these ideals may best be conceived and realized.

Programs in the following areas are eligible: history; archaeology; literature; languages, both classical and modern; philosophy; ethics; comparative religion; the history, criticism, and theory of the arts; and those aspects of the social sciences which share the content and methods of humanistic disciplines. The Foundation welcomes projects that cross the boundaries between humanistic disciplines and explore the connection between the humanities and other areas of scholarship. Programs of institutions in Venice relating to the humanities are eligible in this category. The geographical concentration is primarily but not exclusively directed toward European and American history and letters, broadly defined.

The Humanities Program is primarily directed to institutions of higher education and humanistic enterprises such as learned societies, museums, and major editorial projects. The program may also consider, on a selective basis, projects that increase the exposure of those outside these institutions to the humanistic experience or that strengthen preparation for the humanistic disciplines. The prime criterion remains that of Gladys and Jean Delmas: a commitment to excellence, whether proven or promised.

Performing Arts Program

Each year, the Foundation supports a limited number of not-for-profit performing arts institutions based in New York City that provide performances in music, dance and theatre. Only established performing or producing entities with a history of appearing at preeminent venues and such venues themselves are eligible. Applicants must be publicly supported organizations described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; the Foundation does not make grants to fiscal agents. Special initiatives of other institutions, start-up projects, emerging organizations, development campaigns, and building projects are ineligible. Proposals for pre-professional programs and opera are only accepted from past grantees. The Foundation receives many more requests for support than it could ever fund, and for that reason most first-time grant applications are not successful.

Subject to the above requirements, the program supports:

• Dance presenters who make ballet and modern dance available to the public and otherwise provide support to the dance field, as well as a limited number of ballet and modern dance companies.
• Theatre companies and presenters that have demonstrated a commitment to include the classics in their regular offerings.
• Music groups and concert presenters committed to making early music or contemporary repertory available to New York City audiences.

Research Libraries Program

The Research Libraries Program concentrates primarily in those areas of its founders’ interests and aims to be fully complementary to the Foundation’s other program areas (i.e., humanities scholarship, performing arts, and Venetian history and culture).

The overall objective of the Research Libraries Program is to improve the ability of research libraries to serve the needs of scholarship in the humanities and the performing arts, and to help make their resources more widely accessible to scholars and the general public. Wherever possible, grants to libraries seek to promote cooperative cataloging projects, with an emphasis on access to archival, manuscript, and other unique sources; some elements of interpretation and exhibition; scholarly library publications; bibliographical and publishing projects of interest to research libraries; and collection-level preservation/conservation work and research.

Small-scale digitizing is eligible for support when the process is part of a clearly defined and timely scholarly project that incorporates recognized standards for metadata production, for preservation, and for distribution. The Foundation does not support massive digitizing projects of a general nature.

Open Philanthropy Project Focus Areas

So far, the focus areas we have selected fall into one of two broad categories: Global Health and Wellbeing (GHW) and Global Catastrophic Risks (GCR). We summarize the key differences between these portfolios as follows: 

• While GCR grants tend to be evaluated based on something like “How much this grant reduces the chance of a catastrophic event that endangers billions of people”, GHW grants tend to be evaluated based on something like “How much this grant increases health (denominated in e.g. life-years) and/or wellbeing, worldwide.”
• The GHW team places greater weight on evidence, precedent, and track record in its giving; the GCR team tends to focus on problems and interventions where evidence and track records are often comparatively thin. (That said, the GHW team does support a significant amount of low-probability but high-upside work like policy advocacy and scientific research.)
• The GCR team’s work could be hugely important, but it’s very hard to answer questions like “How will we know whether this work is on track to have an impact?” We can track intermediate impacts and learn to some degree, but some key premises likely won’t become very clear for decades or more. (Our primary goal is for catastrophic events not to happen, and to the extent we succeed, it can be hard to learn from the absence of events.) By contrast, we generally expect the work of the GHW team to be more likely to result in recognizable impact on a given ~10-year time frame, and to be more amenable to learning and changing course as we go.

Global Health and Wellbeing focus areas

Effective Altruism (Global Health and Wellbeing) - Many people want to help others, and seek out ways to do so effectively.

We empower people to use their careers and donations to help others as much as possible.

We believe that individuals can have a huge positive impact on the world by being thoughtful about how they can best use their resources to help others.

We support organizations and projects that enable people to use their careers and donations to improve the lives of humans and animals around the world.

Our work is guided primarily by two observations:

• First, there is large variation in the impact that different charitable organizations can achieve. By focusing on important, neglected problems and relying on evidence-based solutions, top charities, such as those recommended by GiveWell, can achieve much more than others with the same donation. GiveWell estimates that the funding it has directed since inception will save at least 200,000 lives.
• Second, the career a person chooses is one of the most important decisions they can make — and a career focused on important and neglected problems is likely to achieve much more impact. Today, however, there is a lack of quality resources and guidance that can help people find and pursue these kinds of careers.

Farm Animal Welfare - Tens of billions of animals are kept in factory farms globally, usually in harsh and inhumane conditions. 

We support efforts to improve the lives of animals confined on factory farms, and to end factory farming.

We support reforms to phase out the worst factory farm practices on land and sea. Through our cage-free work, we seek to end the use of cruel battery cages, used to confine about seven billion hens globally. Our broiler welfare initiative supports better welfare for the roughly 15 billion broiler chickens alive globally. And our fish welfare work supports the establishment of minimum standards for the world’s over 70 billion farmed fish.

We also fund scientific research to find new ways to help farm animals. This includes the development of innovative technologies (like in ovo sexing to end the killing of male chicks in the egg industry) and research into chronic welfare problems (like keel bone fractures in layer hens) in the hope of finding ways to reduce pain and suffering. We want to expand the global farm animal welfare movement, especially in emerging economies where the majority of the world’s farmed animals live. We’re especially focused on expanding advocacy in East and Southeast Asia.

Global Aid Policy - International aid improves millions of people’s health and wellbeing. We think it can do even more.

We’re working to create a future where wealthy countries give more aid to other countries in ways that help more people survive and thrive. 

International aid has helped save millions of lives, reduce poverty, and increase prosperity for millions of people throughout the past century. But there is still more to do. At the end of 2022, more than 8% of the world’s population — as many as 670 million people — were thought to be living on less than $2.15 per person per day. If trends continue, we will not achieve the global goals of ending global poverty and significantly improving health and well-being by 2030.

We launched our Global Aid Policy program in early 2022 to support efforts to increase government aid and guide it toward more cost-effective approaches that can improve people’s health and well-being.We focus our new, relatively small resources in ways we believe complement other donors and can go especially far:

• Increasing aid budgets, especially for multilateral health organizations operating in low-income countries.
• Improving existing aid programs by helping leaders draw on evaluations and technical analysis.
• Using our flexible resources creatively to accelerate progress.

Global Health & Development - We believe that every life has value — and that philanthropic dollars can go particularly far by helping those who are living in poverty by global standards.

We support work to save and improve lives in low- and middle-income countries.

Most of our giving in this category is to organizations recommended by GiveWell, with whom we have a close relationship. We are excited to support cost-effective interventions to save and improve lives in low- and middle-income countries. An additional subset of our giving supports scientific research we believe can help address diseases that disproportionately afflict the global poor.

Global Health R&D - Improving diagnosis, prevention and treatment of the most neglected diseases could save and improve the lives of millions of people..

We seek to support the development of new vaccines, drugs, and other tools to improve global health.

Historically, health technologies like vaccines and drugs have saved millions of lives around the world. However, diseases primarily affecting the world’s poorest people, such as tuberculosis, malaria, diarrheal diseases, rheumatic heart disease, and sickle cell disease receive much less research and development spending relative to their health burdens than diseases affecting the wealthy. Further investments could prevent millions of deaths and illnesses caused by neglected diseases.

Open Philanthropy has supported scientific research for human health since 2016. Over time we have learned that there are many excellent opportunities in global health R&D that we could support with increased resources and specialized staff. As a result, we launched this new program in 2023, substantially increasing our total funding in the area.

The Global Health R&D team works in parallel and in collaboration with our Scientific Research team, but with a greater focus on supporting tools and treatments through the development life cycle, including those requiring early proof of concept studies, human efficacy trials or implementation research. We are interested in funding research and development for new vaccines, diagnostics, drugs, monoclonal antibodies, and vector control tools for diseases with a large global health burden, as well as efforts to make these products more affordable and accessible.

Global Public Health Policy - Some of the world’s worst health issues can be addressed through public policy.

We support work on policies that cost-effectively address major public health issues.

Policies like air quality regulations, tobacco and alcohol taxes, and the elimination of leaded gasoline have saved and improved millions of lives.

These policies typically improve public health by addressing risk factors to alleviate the burden of non-communicable disease, which comprises a growing share of the health burden but receives relatively few resources. Policy interventions affect entire populations and are often cost-effective for governments to implement. We think philanthropy can have an outsized impact by helping governments design, implement, and enforce more effective public health policies. Because the benefits are diffuse, and responsibility for addressing them can cut across government departments and disease categories, many problems that are addressable through public health policy are currently neglected.

Innovation Policy - Scientific discovery and technological innovation are key contributors to economic growth and material progress.

We hope to safely accelerate scientific and technological progress to make life better for billions of people.

Historically, economic growth and scientific innovation have created enormous social benefits, lifting billions of people out of poverty and improving health outcomes around the world. At the same time, innovation carries risk; some technologies have the potential to do far more harm than good.

Our goal is to accelerate growth and innovation, without unduly increasing risks from emerging technology. Even small changes to the annual growth rate can compound to great effect over time, which gives us the opportunity to make high-leverage grants.

We’re interested in pursuing a wide range of strategies. Our current interests include:

• Helping build a scientific ecosystem that experiments with new ways of doing things, learns from those experiments, and adopts evidence-based practices.
• Supporting early-stage development of general technologies with the potential to accelerate scientific progress across many disciplines.
• Investigating programs and policy reform to help more migrants, especially highly-skilled migrants, move to countries operating on the scientific and technological frontier.
• Providing financial support for individuals to write “living literature reviews” that rigorously synthesize research and communicate it to a non-specialist audience. (See our call for pre-proposals at right!)
• Funding programs and research to help identify and minimize potential catastrophic risks from new scientific and technological capabilities.

Land Use Reform - Excessively restrictive local land use regulations push people away from centers of economic activity, inhibit innovation, and raise costs for renters.

We seek to reduce the harms caused by excessively restrictive local land use regulations.

These price increases ( see diagram)  are pronounced in large, high-wage metro areas (e.g., New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Washington D.C.). More permissive policy which enabled a greater supply of housing in those areas could unlock value by:

• Encouraging economic growth through greater innovation and agglomeration.
• Increasing the earnings of individuals moving to high-wage jobs in those areas.
• Enabling more people to live in denser areas, which have lower carbon emissions.
• Redistributing wealth and income to lower-income households and supporting access to housing for lower earners.

Scientific Research - We believe scientific progress has been, and will continue to be, one of the biggest contributors to improvements in human wellbeing, and we hope to play a part in this

We aim to support research that could affect a large number of people.

We primarily support biomedical research but our interests are not limited to any particular field, disease, condition, or population. Instead, we seek to identify scientific research that has the potential for high impact and is under-supported by other funders. We are excited to support high-risk and unconventional science when the potential impact is sufficiently large.

We are broadly interested in research that may lead to improved understanding of topics related to human health. We are most interested in research that could affect a large number of people. We typically start by looking for metrics related to the number of lives affected (often starting with the World Health Organization’s Global Health Estimates and IHME’s Global Burden of Disease Study). We begin with landscaping exercises to identify important research topics that could have the greatest impact in a given area.

Once we understand the research gaps in these fields, we assess which gaps are underfunded and seem most amenable to progress if funded. Often as part of this process, we will attend scientific conferences and interview scientists as advisors, peer reviewers, or potential grantees.

Some aspects of the following topics are currently of particular interest:

• broad-spectrum antiviral drugs,
• vaccine development,
• basic immunology,
• some aspects of cardiovascular disease,
• Alzheimer’s disease, predicting mouse-to-human translation, control of inflammation,
• epigenetics,
• novel scientific tools and methods,
• malaria, and
• research on how biomedical research may be improved. 

Leadership For Equity Grant

Investing in Diverse NYC Leaders

Investing in the potential of people is at the heart of our work to build a stronger New York City. With our interest in supporting and helping individuals step into their leadership, we are most interested in issue- or identity-focused programs that bring people from different groups together in a cohort that has sustained contact over a period of time.

At the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, we believe that strong leadership is necessary to create a more equitable and vibrant New York City. Therefore, we are committed to investing in groups that develop the leadership of New Yorkers to advance equity and to address structural inequities.

This is our primary grantmaking stream. Through it, we support New York City-focused efforts that:

• Approach leadership as a practice, rather than an identity. We don’t believe leadership development is for a select few or about superheroes. We see leadership as a practice that can be strengthened and honed through a variety of means, including gaining knowledge, perspective and skills, as well as engaging in individual and collective transformation processes. We invest in groups that identify, train, and support people and communities to grow their leadership abilities.
• Develop leadership for equity, particularly race equity. Recognizing that structural inequities have been perpetuated by exclusionary approaches to leadership, we fund those developing leadership for equity, especially developing the leadership skills of people from racial identity groups that have been historically excluded.
• Bring people together in sustained relationships over time. We’re looking for something that’s bigger than the sum of the parts. Some groups call this a “cohort,” which may be composed of member-leaders of an organizing group, different staff of multiple organizations, or other configurations of people engaged in relationship building toward action. We believe this type of approach expands the possibilities for systems-level change.
• Can demonstrate a long-term commitment to leadership development and knowledge of how to run a leadership development program well. We’re interested in funding those that have the track record or have done the research to offer effective leadership development programs. 

About Cloudsplitter Foundation

The Cloudsplitter Foundation formed as a 501c3 charity in 1986, re-domiciled in New York in 1999. Over the past ten years we have granted over $17 million to the Adirondack region, with $44 million in assets.

An Adirondack focus, at least 70% of our grants go to Adirondack grantees.

Through our strategic giving, we promote public support or support of other foundations, support a policy direction or change and provide leadership grants.

Areas of Interest

• Environment: Protecting our natural resources through advocacy, land protection, stewardship
• Community Building: Supporting cultural, physical, & civic facilities like theaters, community centers, parks, trails, community revitalization
• Economic Stability: Supporting Tourism, critical infrastructure like museums & historic sites, recreational facilities
• Communications and Data Infrastructure: Broadband everywhere, public radio and television, focused fact-based journalism
• Helping our most vulnerable neighbors: Birth-to-Three program, food programs, family resources, aging in place

Program/Project Support Grants

These grants are to support a well-defined project or program that has a defined need, budget, and associated supporting documentation. This type of grant also includes events. Program/Project grants will only be considered during the normal grant cycles. There is no upper limit on such grants, but they are limited to 20% of the project or program’s cost. The one exception is that “Last money in” grants can be as much as 30% of the project or program cost but 70% must be raised before the Foundation grant is payable.

Priorities

Applications that have a HIGHER LIKELIHOOD of funding:

• Projects, programs and organizations that are focused on supporting communities in need 
• Projects, programs and organizations whose support will lead to long term Community Impact
• Projects and Programs that include multiple nonprofit stakeholders and partners
• Organizations with a diverse and sustained number of funding sources
• Organizations that have established a relationship with Cloudsplitter in advance of their application

Grant applicants that there is a LOWER LIKELIHOOD that we will be funding, at this time:

• Capital Projects
• Lakes Associations
• Events
• Very Large Grant Requests

Grant Amount

For requests over $50,000, YOU MUST CONTACT CLOUDSPLITTER PRIOR TO AN APPLICATION SUBMISSION for permission. For requests above $50,000 the application (automatically) will require additional details than asks below $50,000.

About Cloudsplitter Foundation

The Cloudsplitter Foundation formed as a 501c3 charity in 1986, re-domiciled in New York in 1999. Over the past ten years we have granted over $17 million to the Adirondack region, with $44 million in assets.

An Adirondack focus, at least 70% of our grants go to Adirondack grantees.

Through our strategic giving, we promote public support or support of other foundations, support a policy direction or change and provide leadership grants.

Areas of Interest

• Environment - Protecting our natural resources through advocacy, land protection, stewardship
• Community Building - Supporting cultural, physical, & civic facilities like theaters, community centers, parks, trails, community revitalization
• Economic Stability - Supporting Tourism, critical infrastructure like museums & historic sites, recreational facilities
• Communications and Data Infrastructure - Broadband everywhere, public radio and television, focused fact-based journalism
• Helping our most vulnerable neighbors - Birth-to-Three program, food programs, family resources, aging in place

Strategic Philanthropy

• Be active in identifying and meeting community and environmental needs
• Identify opportunities to leverage our financial support, like bringing other funders into projects, leveraging public monies (e.g., grants requiring a match) and creating incentives (e.g., last-dollar in grants).
• Bring grantees together when goals are aligned to increase impact, funding
• Use in-depth local knowledge to identify needs and initiate projects
• Help local government with critical projects where philanthropy matters
• Subsidize research when having data can create leverage

Unrestricted Support Grants

These grants support a not-for-profit’s operating costs and not specific projects or programs. Eligible grantees must meet the Cloudsplitter Foundation’s strategic objectives. Unrestricted support grants are limited to $5,000 per year. These grants generally go to organizations that Cloudsplitter has an established relationship with. Unrestricted Support grants are considered during our regular grant rounds.

Overview

The Tower Foundation is a family foundation that helps children, adolescents, and young people affected by intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, mental health issues, and/or substance use disorders. Our goal is to improve the lives of young people in our geographic footprint of Erie and Niagara Counties in Western New York, and Barnstable, Dukes, Essex, and Nantucket Counties in Eastern Massachusetts.

The Tower Foundation believes every young person should have the chance to achieve their personal goals, regardless of the challenges they face. Individuals who live with one or more of these issues may be overlooked or stigmatized, creating additional challenges. We also know that some young people face more challenges than others because of systemic inequalities. The convergence of our focus areas with racism, ableism, sexism, and other types of discrimination warrants the Foundation’s attention because as we know, people do not live single-issue lives.

The Tower Foundation sees its role as more than just a funder. These issues are near and dear to us because we have members of our family who live with one or more of the issues. These are individuals who are resilient—persevering despite the challenges they face— and who should be valued by our communities. The Tower Foundation envisions a future in which equitable communities include, accept and value these young people.

Strengthening Partner Capacity Grants

The Foundation seeks to fund requests that, “build and/or strengthen the systems, structures, cultures, skills, resources, and power that organizations need to serve their communities.” Strengthening Partner Capacity grants are available for board/leadership development; diversity, equity, inclusion; evaluation/evaluation design; organizational development; professional development; program design and planning (not service delivery); small capital projects/equipment purchases; staff mental wellness support; technology planning/purchasing; and other ideas that help organizations better serve their communities as described above. We accept applications for Strengthening Partner Capacity grants multiple times a year. All other grants in this category are by invitation only.

Focus Areas

The Foundation supports organizations and initiatives that help provide young people with opportunities to realize their highest potential regardless of the challenges they face. Our funding supports work in four focus areas: Intellectual Disabilities, Learning Disabilities, Mental Health, and Substance Use Disorders – all typically underfunded and stigmatized conditions.

We have set out broad, aspirational goals to guide our work and to keep us focused on the big picture. With these in mind, we hope to move a little closer each day to these ideals.

Intellectual Disabilities

• Children with intellectual disabilities are identified early and receive services that meet their evolving needs.
• Young people with intellectual disabilities are engaged in meaningful, social, vocational, and educational pursuits.
• Families understand intellectual disabilities and secure needed supports.
• Communities embrace young people with intellectual disabilities and provide them with a full range of supports and opportunities to engage in community life.

Learning Disabilities

• Children with learning disabilities are identified early, diagnosed, and connected to services that meet their ongoing individual needs.
• Youth with learning disabilities understand how they learn and pursue resources that support them accordingly.
• Young adults are confident and do not view their learning disability as a liability.
• Young adults with learning disabilities are ready for work and/or educational pursuits.
• Families are informed about learning disabilities and can identify and navigate available services.
• Communities value persons with learning disabilities and accommodate their needs.

Mental Health

• Stigma related to mental illness is eliminated.
• Children with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges are identified early and connected to appropriate services.
• Young people with mental health challenges understand and manage their conditions and behaviors.
• Families understand mental health challenges and help young people live productive lives.
• Communities offer meaningful opportunities and appropriate support to young people with mental health challenges and their families.

Substance Use Disorders

• Community members understand the prevalence and harmful effects of alcohol and drugs on young people and work to address them.
• Resources for substance use disorders prevention, treatment, and recovery are readily available.
• Families provide safe environments that support healthy and informed choices about alcohol and drugs.
• Young people make healthy and informed choices about alcohol and drugs.

Click here for the Foundation’s definitions of the above four focus areas.

What We’re Most Interested in Funding

Here are some examples of the sorts of things the Foundation might be willing to fund, just to get you thinking. This is not a complete list of everything we’ll consider!

• Board/Leadership development
• Diversity, equity, inclusion
• Evaluation/Evaluation design
• Mergers/affiliations
• Organizational development (e.g., strategic planning; marketing, development, and/or communications support; process improvement; succession planning)
• Professional development
• Program design and planning (not service delivery; contact us if you have questions!)
• Small capital projects/equipment purchases
• Staff mental wellness support
• Technology planning/purchasing
• What are your ideas? (We’re happy to discuss them!)

At more than 100 years old, the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo is committed to making grants that maximize impact on the eight counties of Western New York within four Community Goals. 

Community Goals and the Solutions

The Community Foundation’s competitive grants will align with one or more of the four following Community Goals and the Solutions detailed below:

Special consideration will be given to requests that fit a Solution AND advance the racial equity work of the Greater Buffalo Racial Equity Taskforce.

Achieve racial/ethnic equity. Requests must address one of the following Solutions:

Solutions:

• Increase interaction and bridge racial/ethnic divides between residents and organizations throughout WNY.
• Promote civic engagement and leadership in communities of color.

Promote economic mobility through educational achievement for residents living in low-income households. Requests must address one of the following Solutions:

Solutions:

• Improve the school readiness of children (ages 5 and under) living in communities of poverty.
• Improve the academic achievement and postsecondary completion of students living in low-income households with a preference for systems change.

Steward significant environmental resources. Requests must address one of the following Solutions:

Solutions:

• Protect and restore the region’s waterways.
• Strengthen individual environmental organizations and support a more racially inclusive and collaborative environmental community.

Promote regional vibrancy through architecture, arts, and culture. Requests must address one of the following Solutions:

Solutions:

• Increase access to long term arts instruction for children and youth living in low-income households.
• Strengthen race equity through the arts.
• Restore and leverage significant historic buildings and architectural landmarks, with a preference for sites that promote cultural tourism. (Defining historic as official recognition by State/National Register of Historic Places or local preservation ordinance.)

Special funding available to support the following:

• Programs that serve the visual, speech or hearing impaired (~$5,000)

Preference for this special funding will be given to requests that also align with one or more of the four Community Goals.

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive.

Our Mission

To conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.

Connectivity, Climate, Communities Fund

To make the highest possible impact on the climate and biodiversity crises, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is committed to advancing solutions and supporting partners throughout the Appalachians to connect and conserve vital wildlife habitat, build resilience to the impacts of climate change, and generate new job and recreation opportunities for communities.

Approximately one-third of the U.S. population lives in or within 100 miles of the Appalachians, including an estimated 36 million people that rely on the region for sources of drinking water. The landscape contains the world's largest remaining expanses of temperate broadleaf mixed forest and provides habitat to a wide diversity of plants of animals, many of which are listed as rare, threatened, or endangered. Conserving this landscape is critical for nature and for the people that live and work there.

However as climate change drives ecosystem instability, plants and animals are shifting their ranges northward, and people are having to find ways to adapt to complex and intertwined challenges. TNC and many others have been working to conserve vital Appalachian habitats for decades. Now we must ramp up our efforts and coordinate with partners across the Appalachians for maximum impact.

To succeed in these efforts, TNC’s Connectivity, Climate, Communities Fund offers two grant programs for conservation and community organizations, municipalities, Federally Recognized Tribal Nations, and local and state agencies in the Appalachians who are working to protect and conserve this region:

• The Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant Program
• The New York Climate Resilience Grant Program

New York Climate Resilience Grant Program

The Nature Conservancy is pleased to announce a fifth round of funding available in New York through our Climate Resilience Grant Program. The program supports conservation and climate adaptation projects, including land protection, led by local organizations, with the goal of increasing resilience to climate change for people and nature. Program grants will help local organizations with fee and easement acquisitions of lands that connect with important floodplains and shorelines that mitigate flooding and erosion. The grants will also provide funding for organizational capacity building, planning and strategy development.

Resilient Floodplains and Shorelines

Natural infrastructure, like floodplains, streams, wetlands, tidal marshes, beaches, dunes and bluffs, help mitigate flooding and erosion. We refer to these features as resilient floodplains and shorelines. They also benefit people and nature by filtering water, recharging groundwater, offering recreational opportunities, providing habitat and enhancing human wellbeing. 

New York is experiencing more intense rainfall, erosion and sea level rise.  To ensure our communities are resilient to climate change impacts like flooding and erosion, we must plan for future conditions, engage with people affected by flooding, and collaborate with nature to keep people safe and allow nature to adapt. By conserving undeveloped lands along rivers, streams and coasts, we mitigate flooding, preserve migration pathways and habitats, maintain water quality, facilitate the movement of sediment, and protect drinking water and aquifers.

The Climate Resilience Grant Program offers grants for projects and initiatives that support conservation and resiliency planning, build organizational capacity and help develop climate focused strategies. The program also supports land acquisition projects that:

• Maintain natural buffers between people and flooding or erosion, particularly in areas where natural lands are threatened by development,
• help lessen harmful impacts to communities from floods,
• and make floodplain and shoreline habitats more resilient.

Equitable Conservation and Community Benefits

Conservation organizations are increasingly acknowledging the importance of incorporating social equity in their missions, partnerships, and projects and evolving how they work to have better outcomes for people and nature.

TNC defines community benefits as the positive outcomes that directly result from or are included within conservation projects as experienced by local communities and people. This is particularly important for historically marginalized communities, communities with limited access to nature, communities experiencing heightened impacts of climate change due to systemic underinvestment and poor infrastructure, and Indigenous communities. 

Climate Resilience Grant Program funding will support projects that demonstrate meaningful community engagement, work with those historically excluded from conservation, and lead to a fairer distribution of benefits for people and communities.

Some examples of community benefits include improved and greater access to nature, protection of drinking water sources, recreational and resource-based economic opportunities, flood mitigation, engagement in cross-cultural initiatives, or protection of lands that will meet community-defined conservation needs. We encourage projects with meaningful community benefits that are integrated with the land protection goals.

Project Types

The Climate Resilience Grant Program invites applications for two types of projects:

• Projects that strengthen an organization’s planning, capacity or strategy initiatives that will ultimately lead to actions that will help make species, habitats and communities more resilient to climate change. 
• Projects that result in the permanent fee or easement acquisition of lands that contain or intersect with floodplains; coastal sediment sources and natural, protective infrastructure like beaches and dunes; or tidal marshes and marsh migration corridors. These Resilient Floodplains and Shorelines features are shown on the program’s online map viewer.

Project Evaluation

Planning, capacity and strategy projects will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Planning:
  • The project develops or updates an existing plan to advance climate resilience and landscape connectivity and/or climate adaptation initiatives in your work.
• Capacity:
  • The project increases your capacity for engaging in land protection projects, conservation planning, climate-focused strategy development and community engagement (e.g., staff professional development, skills enrichment, technology access or skills, grant or financial resources).
• Strategy:
  • The project advances strategies to incorporate or expand equitable climate resilience and connectivity or climate adaptation principles into your work.
    • This may include expanding, innovating or developing new kinds of work for your organization related to climate resilient land protection and equitable conservation, as well as funding for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice training, support for community engagement, development of communication or media campaigns, or convening non-traditional or historically excluded partners.

Resilient Floodplains and Shorelines land acquisition projects will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Size:
  • Total acres of Resilient Floodplains and Shorelines features within the project area (the context of the property to its surroundings will be considered).
• Connectivity:
  • The property adjoins or is near other protected lands or waters and/or is part of a floodplain complex (see online map viewer)
• Timeline:
  • The anticipated closing is before deadline on website.
• Collaboration: 
  • Evidence of engagement with other organizations, community groups or local governments.
• Community:
  • Project elements that directly engage or help people, especially vulnerable or marginalized groups.

All projects will also be evaluated for:

• Clarity of project goal(s) and how the project increases organizational capacity to achieve climate resilience and connectivity and/or climate adaptation outcomes
• Degree of collaboration with or support from other conservation organizations, community groups, local governments or Tribal Nations
• Feasibility of project and reasonable costs.

Funding

The total amount of funding available is $500,000. Applicants may apply for up to $50,000 for a project. Grant awards may be less than the amount requested. Projects must be completed within twelve months of the start of the grant term.

Planning, capacity and strategy grant recipients will receive an initial payment followed by two additional payments tied to interim and final reporting requirements.

Land acquisition project awards are disbursed up front, except for any portion of the grant allocated for stewardship and legal defense, which will be provided after closing.

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive.

Our Mission

To conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.

Connectivity, Climate, Communities Fund

To make the highest possible impact on the climate and biodiversity crises, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is committed to advancing solutions and supporting partners throughout the Appalachians to connect and conserve vital wildlife habitat, build resilience to the impacts of climate change, and generate new job and recreation opportunities for communities.

Approximately one-third of the U.S. population lives in or within 100 miles of the Appalachians, including an estimated 36 million people that rely on the region for sources of drinking water. The landscape contains the world's largest remaining expanses of temperate broadleaf mixed forest and provides habitat to a wide diversity of plants of animals, many of which are listed as rare, threatened, or endangered. Conserving this landscape is critical for nature and for the people that live and work there.

However as climate change drives ecosystem instability, plants and animals are shifting their ranges northward, and people are having to find ways to adapt to complex and intertwined challenges. TNC and many others have been working to conserve vital Appalachian habitats for decades. Now we must ramp up our efforts and coordinate with partners across the Appalachians for maximum impact.

To succeed in these efforts, TNC’s Connectivity, Climate, Communities Fund offers two grant programs for conservation and community organizations, municipalities, Federally Recognized Tribal Nations, and local and state agencies in the Appalachians who are working to protect and conserve this region:

• The Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant Program
• The New York Climate Resilience Grant Program

Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant Program

The Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant Program provides grants of up to $100,000 for fee and easement acquisition projects throughout the Appalachians.

Equitable Conservation and Community Benefits

Conservation organizations are increasingly acknowledging the importance of incorporating social equity in their missions, partnerships, and projects and evolving how they work to have better outcomes for people and nature.

TNC defines community benefits as the positive outcomes that directly result from or are included within conservation projects as experienced by local communities and people. This is particularly important for historically marginalized communities, communities with limited access to nature, communities experiencing heightened impacts of climate change due to systemic underinvestment and poor infrastructure, and Indigenous communities. 

RCA program funding will support projects that demonstrate meaningful community engagement, work with those historically excluded from conservation, and lead to a fairer distribution of benefits for people and communities.

Some examples of community benefits include improved and greater access to nature, protection of drinking water sources, recreational and resource-based economic opportunities, flood mitigation, engagement in cross-cultural initiatives, or protection of lands that will meet community-defined conservation needs. We encourage projects with meaningful community benefits that are integrated with the land protection goals.

Project Evaluation

Projects will be evaluated  according to their capacity to deliver land protection outcomes aligned with the program goals, including:

• Location:
  • the project is located within TNC’s Appalachians Program boundary and is in or near a mapped focal area.  Projects outside of focal areas will also be considered.
• Resilience:
  • the percentage of the total project area that is part of the Resilient and Connected Network.
• Connectivity:
  • adjacency to protected lands or other attributes that will lead to landscape connectivity over time (e.g., the project is a necessary acquisition for advancing a local or regional plan that aims to protect a critical conservation corridor).
• Collaboration:
  • evidence of engagement with other organizations, community groups, or local governments (including, but not limited to, shared funding).
• Community:
  • project elements that directly engage and or benefit people, especially vulnerable or marginalized communities.
• Timeline:
  • the project will close within 12 months from the start of the grant agreement term.
• Feasibility:
  • likelihood that the project will close and the costs seem reasonable.

Grant Information

Jonathan Schor (1946-2004), a resident of Red Rock for thirty years, established the Quailwood Fund before he died to create an endowment to generate annual grants “to provide community support in the Red Rock, Columbia County, New York area for public services and improvement of the quality of life, for conservation work, public recreation facilities, fire and rescue facilities and educational scholarships.”

According to Jon’s wishes, the Quailwood Fund has an advisory committee that consists of the presidents of the Red Rock Volunteer Fire Company, the Red Rock Historical Society, the Canaan Conservation Club, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation and the executive director of the Columbia Land Conservancy.

The Quailwood Fund and its Advisory Committee looks to the long term needs of the Red Rock community. It remains open to new ideas and possibilities to improve and enrich the quality of life for the residents of Red Rock.

Through its grantmaking programs, the Quailwood Fund works to help retain a strong sense of community in Red Rock by bolstering community gatherings, encouraging a diversity of participation in the life of the community and supporting a wide range of social and economic opportunities for residents.

Funding

Awards will generally range between $500 and $10,000. There may be a larger amount allocated (up to $20,000) for a project of particular significance or urgency for the community.

All Quailwood General Fund grants will require a 1:1 match. For grants of $7,500 and under, a minimum of 50% of the match must be in cash. For grants over $7,500, a minimum of 25% of the match must be in cash. In both cases, the balance may be in donated goods and/or services.

Our Mission

The Scherman Foundation invests in the economic, political, and cultural transformation necessary for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to reclaim and build power. 

Our Strategic Framework

We believe that investing in cultural, political, and economic transformation together advances justice to realize our vision. We support organizations working at the intersections of these transformation areas inside our strategic framework. This framework is the foundation of our more specific and evolving program priorities.

• Economic Transformation
  • Our focus on economic transformation acknowledges that the root causes of economic inequity are linked to white supremacy and racial injustice and that the economic well being of BIPOC individuals and communities is critical for liberation.
  • We support organizations that focus on:
    • Strategies and models that provide BIPOC communities with greater access to capital, assets, and opportunities
    • Economic stability and security for BIPOC individuals and families
    • Advocating for more equitable economic systems through policy reform, institutional changes, and increased transparency
• Political Transformation
  • We believe that those who have been excluded must lead the way in dismantling current political structures and creating new, inclusive, and reflective democratic processes.
  • We support organizations that focus on:
    • Work and priorities that are driven by BIPOC communities
    • Forging multi-racial coalitions working toward racial justice
    • Reforming political structures and processes to make the political system more accessible and accountable to BIPOC communities
    • Increasing the participation of BIPOC communities in democratic processes and decision-making at all levels
• Cultural Transformation
  • Recognizing the crucial role of culture in advancing justice, we support organizations that harness storytelling, expression, and artistic activism to drive systemic change.
  • Our focus is on collaborative narrative change strategies, innovative storytelling frameworks, and equitable media accessibility.
  • We support organizations that focus on:
    • Public Narrative Change: Combating misinformation and harmful stereotypes through investments in journalism, local news outlets, and nonfiction narratives
    • Artistic Expression: Supporting the creativity and work of BIPOC artists and communities without imposing agendas or conditions and transforming the field to do the same
    • Artivism: Using art as a tool for organizing grassroots movements and collective action, including funding on-the-ground storytelling and public art projects

General Criteria

We consider the following general criteria in our grantmaking process.

• Organizations that are accountable to or directed by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities.
  • While we prioritize BIPOC leadership, our main focus is on organizations where BIPOC communities have clear influence and decision-making power over the organization's strategy, direction, programmatic work, and finances.
• Organizations that are intersectional in their work and practices.
  • Intersectionality recognizes that individuals hold multiple identities, shaping their experiences with power.
  • We look for organizations that demonstrate a deep understanding of intersectionality in their mission, programs, and practices; center the voices and experiences of those most affected by multiple forms of oppression; and address the interconnectedness of racial justice with economic status, gender, LGBTQ+, and/or disability justice as well.
• Organizations that work with others to build movements toward racial justice.
  • Movement-building is the long-term process of organizing and empowering individuals and organizations to collectively work towards systemic change and a shared vision.
  • We look for organizations and coalitions that reflect key characteristics of movement building including an authentic mass base; grassroots leadership; a shared ideology or narrative; broad coalition-building; and strategy to create and sustain structural change beyond specific organizations or campaigns.
  • The Foundation supports organizations focused on organizing and advocacy, while our Arts funding includes a wider range of approaches

Environmental & Climate Justice Program

Over the next 20 years, and likely beyond, climate chaos will be a primary driver of economic, social, cultural, and political change in the U.S.  But while transformation is inevitable, a Just Transition one that replaces fossil fuel systems that drive racial and economic inequality with structures that are decentralized, equitably distributed, and democratically controlled—will only be achieved through grassroots climate organizing and movement-building that embodies racial justice.

Climate change disproportionally harms Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, whether it is adjacency to noxious fossil fuel facilities that drive sky-rocketing asthma rates, the poisoning of Indigenous peoples’ lands, or the ocean inundation of unprotected communities already suffering from climate-driven heat waves. In New York, these harms will be increasingly exacerbated by climate-driven immigration, pitting one historically oppressed group against another. This reality is central to the environmental and climate justice movement. It is also the movement’s strength because frontline communities of color are the natural leaders to build economic, cultural, and political power in the fight to shape climate transformation. Local and state based community organizations and mass-based coalitions embody the intersectionality, first-hand knowledge, and determination rooted in lived experience that informs and drives systemic change.  

Funding Priorities

New York Regional Focus

The Foundation will focus its support on New York City and State in order to seek synergies with grantees in its other programs, facilitate deep staff engagement and support of the field, and take advantage of the moment. The state and city are at dramatic climate policy tipping points, positioned to demonstrate that a transition to climate sustainability is inextricably interwoven with the fight for racial justice. Having won historic legal commitments to a Just Transition—the CLCPA, Local Law 97, etc.—our grantees are working to defend those wins and fight for aggressive implementation. 

In order to leverage regional synergies (and confront regional challenges), the Foundation will continue to fund a limited number of grassroots groups in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Local Frontline Organizations and Allies

The Foundation funds multi-issue, BIPOC, community-based organizations, or coalitions of such groups, with a primary focus on racial justice and climate sustainability, from democratically controlled renewable energy projects and local/state policy to local climate resiliency and green jobs. These groups approach climate through the lens of local needs and concerns of historically oppressed communities. They are not first and foremost focused on emissions reductions (the usual measure of climate strategies) but on intersectional approaches such as asthma and PEAK plant transition; community self-sufficiency and solidarity through renewable energy microgrids and resilient, community-controlled community infrastructure; and the creation of energy efficient housing and green jobs. This complex intersectionality requires the Foundation to vet groups on the viability of their goals and strategies and on the authenticity of their community roots, power building, and accountability.

The Foundation provides targeted support for mass transit work. The city and region are uniquely shaped by the benefits and inequities of mass transit. These systems intersect with issues of economic access, health inequities, affordable housing, and, of course, climate. While almost all of the ECJ program’s grantees work at least tangentially on transportation issues, the Foundation funds a core group of grassroots organizing, advocacy, and policy groups and campaigns working exclusively for equitable mass transit.

The Foundation also supports a limited number of policy, legal, and technical support organizations allied with, and accountable to, frontline groups and coalitions.

National Climate Justice Groups

The Foundation will support a limited number of national Climate Justice groups distinguished by the following characteristics:

• A strong grassroots base in New York BIPOC communities, primarily through affiliations
• The capacity to both support and amplify New York climate justice groups
• An intersectional approach addressing racial, political, and economic justice in addition to climate
• A cohesive racial justice narrative built with other organizations and community partners

Mission & Vision

The New York Foundation is a steadfast supporter of community organizing, grassroots advocacy, and movement-building. We believe that the resilience and vitality of New Yorkers is the city’s greatest resource, and we value the courage and experience of community groups and their leaders.

In the ongoing struggle for racial, economic, gender, and climate justice, the Foundation supports grassroots initiatives that build power to confront systemic barriers and inspire people to work toward a more just, equitable, and inclusive city. 

Funding

New York Foundation Core Grants are $47,500 per year, up to 3 years for established groups and 5 years for emerging groups

In addition to funds, grants include access to capacity building resources: 

• Lawyers Alliance for New York: Probono legal services tailored to social change nonprofits
• Tides Advocacy: 501(c)(4) startup and strategizing
• Small Grants: Responsive grants up to $5,000 for organizational development goals and unanticipated needs
• Workshops: Monthly skills-building trainings combined with coaching

What we look for:

• Community-initiated and led: community, membership, or base identifies problems and solutions 
• Power building: intentionally build community power through political activation, leadership development, base building, and collective action
• Systemic change: address the root causes of oppression to ensure the equitable distribution of resources, power, and rights
• Racial justice: address the harms caused by systemic and historical racism; creates intentional systems to support and sustain racial equity
• Collaborative: build alignment through coalition work with allies that have similar goals and values

2025 Special Projects Fund

The New York Health Foundation (NYHealth) has a broad mission to improve the health of all New Yorkers, especially people of color and others who have been historically marginalized. The Foundation concentrates most of our grantmaking in three strategic priority areas:

• Primary Care;
• Healthy Food, Healthy Lives; and
• Veterans’ Health.

The Foundation also engages in responsive grantmaking through the Special Projects Fund.

Special Projects Fund awards are one-time, nonrenewable funding opportunities supporting projects that address important and emerging health care and public health issues that fall outside our three priority areas.

We seek to partner with a wide range of organizations implementing projects that can improve health at the local, regional, or statewide levels. The most competitive applications are requests for projects and initiatives that have strong potential for replication, scaling, and/or implications for policy I and systems change. 

Please see FAQs for additional guidelines.

The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation

The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, established in 1987, primarily supports the study of Long Island history and its role in the American experience.

Robert David Lion Gardiner was, until his death in August 2004, the 16th Lord of the Manor of Gardiner’s Island, NY.

The Gardiner family and their descendants have owned Gardiner’s Island since 1639, obtained as part of a royal grant from King Charles I of England.

The Foundation is inspired by Robert David Lion Gardiner’s personal passion for New York history.

Foundation Purpose

The purpose of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation is:

• To educate and inform the general public in the State of New York, particularly in the area of the Town of Islip and more generally in Suffolk County, concerning the culture, art and tradition of the locality.
• To cultivate, foster and promote interest in, and understanding and appreciation of the societal heritage of Town of Islip, particularly during the nineteenth century.
• To encourage and sponsor the creation and perpetuation by existing and future historical societies of collections and repositories for the deposit, collection and examination of documents and artifacts of various kinds relevant to such heritage and traditions.
• To sponsor and encourage the preservation, restoration and exhibition by existing and future historical societies of at least one facility appropriate to such purpose.

Funding Priorities

Objects Conservation

• Cataloging & Digital Imaging, Conservation of Objects, Collections Care, Acquisitions

Historic Preservation

• Cultural Resource/Historic Landscape Survey, Historic Structure Report/Condition Assessment, Structural Stabilization/Restoration, Adaptive Reuse/New Construction (Structural Stabilization/Restoration, Adaptive Use/New Construction projects are defined as proposals seeking funding to restore or construct a new facility or add to a current facility or purchase equipment with an expected useful life of at least three years.

Programs

• Higher Education, Community Education, Primary/Secondary Education, Outreach Programs, Research (including archeology), Exhibition, Events/Community Activities

Capacity Building

• New technology equipment (e.g. computers); volunteer development; temporary consultant; strategic planning; staff training and internal operations planning, resource development planning; customer service and program delivery planning; marketing and communications planning; community engagement/partnership development; board, governance or leadership

Funding Limits and Categories

Up to $300,000.00 | Non-Matching Grants

• Cataloging & Digital Imaging
• Conservation of Objects
• Collections Care

Up to $100,000.00 | 50% Matching Grants

The following grants require that the applicant has raised half of the funds needed to complete the project:

• Exhibitions
• Education

Up to $50,000.00 | Non-Matching Grants

• Public Programs
• Publications
• Events/Community Activities

Up to $500,000.00 | 50% Matching Grants

The following grants require that the applicant has raised half of the funds needed to complete the project:

• Structural Stabilization & Restoration
• Adaptive Reuse & New Construction

Amplify Her Foundation

Amplify Her® Foundation’s mission is to support women and girls from underserved communities to become transformative changemakers. We achieve this by establishing funding partnerships with community-led organizations in New York City that make progress toward gender equity by building the economic and social power of women and girls through leadership programs, educational opportunities, career training and development, internships, mentorship and more. 

PRIORITY FOCUS AREAS

During this cycle, priority will be given to organizations and programs that advance the leadership of women and girls in the following ways: 

• RESOURCES: Funding for leadership development and educational experiences
  • Career advancement, professional development, and/or leadership development programs. 
  • Entrepreneurship, business incubator, and/or business development coaching, lending, and support. 
  • Educational and enrichment opportunities that allow for exposure and access to opportunities.
  • Asset building and financial literacy programs.
  • Programs that support personal growth, confidence, resiliency, socio-emotional health and well-being, and the self-efficacy of women and girls. 
• TRAINING: Capacity building and technical training for women to excel in fields in which women have historically been underrepresented
  • Hard and soft skills-building, workforce development, and/or job training programs. 
  • Specialized training programs tailored to specific industries or leadership roles.
• NETWORKS: Initiatives to support building social capital and professional networks
  • Programs that facilitate networking opportunities, peer-to-peer mentorship programs, and platforms for women and girls to connect with professionals, experts, and peers in their fields of interest, and to navigate the unwritten and “unsaid” norms of workplace and higher education culture.
• COMMUNITY: Resourcing to develop ‘third’ spaces for girls and women
  • Programs that provide culturally-appropriate, supportive, and affirming environments - outside of home, work and/or school - for personal connection, support, and leadership development. 

GENERAL OPERATING VS. PROGRAMMATIC SUPPORT

Organizations may be eligible to apply for general operating support if all of the organization’s work aligns with the strategic priorities of the Amplify Her® Foundation. 

To qualify for general operating support -

• 100% of the organization’s programs and activities must take place in New York City.
• 100% of the organization’s activities must be women and/or girl focused.

At this time, organizations offering co-ed programming, or those that are part of a larger national organization, are not eligible for general operating support.

FUNDING

Organizations are eligible to apply for up to a $50,000 grant.

Our Grants & Programs

Building upon the legacy of Mother Cabrini and the Catholic tradition of healing for the sick and caring for the poor, our Foundation supports programs that meet the unmet healthcare and healthcare related needs of individuals, families, and communities throughout New York State.

Mental and Behavioral Health Grant Program

Mother Cabrini Health Foundation envisions a future where all New Yorkers can thrive and lead productive lives with sound mental and behavioral health. MCHF wants to ensure that individuals directly or indirectly impacted by mental and behavioral health will be provided with affordable, high-quality, culturally appropriate support, services, or treatment within nurturing communities. Mental health includes an individual’s emotional, psychological, psychiatric, and social well-being, and needs to also address substance use, addictions, and other behaviors. MCHF understands that mental and behavioral health needs are particularly acute in historically marginalized communities and for populations that have been adversely affected by socioeconomic inequities. MCHF also understands that mental and behavioral health services are embedded in multiple systems and will consider system-specific and collaborative efforts across those systems.

•  Interventions and Treatment: Improving the quality of care and services in clinical and non-clinical settings, including supporting the delivery of trauma-informed, culturally responsive, person-centered or family-centered care targeting specific populations. It could also include crisis response services or integrating and coordinating mental and behavioral health with other medical providers, social services, or systems.
• Capacity and Access: Building the capacity of the sector to increase the timely availability of and access to affordable, high-quality mental and behavioral healthcare in clinical or community-based settings. This could include building and diversifying the workforce, introducing services in traditional or non-traditional settings, supporting technological innovations and increasing the volume of providers, professionals, peers, and other supports.
• Education, Awareness, and Prevention: Increasing education, awareness, and prevention, including suicide prevention; improving engagement, reducing stigma and other barriers to services and treatment; and involving impacted communities into the design and implementation of responsive solutions.

Funding

MCHF will generally consider grant proposals of $75,000 or greater.

Community Partnerships

Con Edison supports organizations and causes that champion a clean and equitable energy future for all New Yorkers.

Priority will be given to organizations with programs/projects centered-in historically marginalized and disadvantaged communities.

Focus Areas

Con Edison proudly funds organizations that share our vision to combat the effects of climate change, advance social justice, and create green jobs. Our philanthropic initiatives power the vitality of our communities in New York City and Westchester to advocate for equity and support the gaps that exist in state-designated disadvantaged communities.

Con Edison feels an urgency to confront the threat that climate change poses to our communities and help New Yorkers adapt to a changing world.

Our efforts focus on:

Climate Change and Environmental Stewardship

We will accelerate access to clean energy by prioritizing place-based investments, resilient infrastructure, and environmental stewardship.

Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation: Projects focused on addressing the accelerated risks of climate change and promote nature-based solutions. Special attention will be given to initiatives that address extreme weather events, sea level rise, biodiversity loss, and the restoration or conservation of natural habitats and ecosystems.

Environmental Stewardship: Initiatives that focus on equitable land use and greenway enhancement—specifically green corridors, pocket parks, community gardens, and local farms.

• Program support may include stewardship of public lands, promotion of environmental education, coalition building focused on climate and energy policy, and leadership development for climate and environmental advocates.

Social Justice

We are applying our resources to help organizations and social movements that address systemic social justice issues—through skill building, action, and advocacy.

Human Rights and Democracy: Fund social justice organizations that are providing the building blocks to address discrimination, bias, and opportunity inequities for marginalized and disadvantaged communities.

Economic Empowerment and Opportunity: Fund social justice organizations whose goals are to reduce the racial, ethnic, and gender wealth gap and expanding access to resources for nonprofits that serve disadvantaged populations.

Community Resilience Fund social justice organizations and projects that support initiatives to ensure that marginalized and disadvantaged communities have the capacity, leadership, and agency to address environmental, social, and political change.

• This focus includes support for climate justice implementation programs focused on areas such as emergency preparedness, extreme weather, and similar areas of impact.

Program support may include funding to assist with skill building, leadership development, capacity building, civic engagement, and community organizing and outreach.

Clean Energy and Technology Careers

We will foster a new generation of workers by supporting access to education, skills training, economic supports, and hiring and/or career advancement opportunities they will need for well-paying jobs in emerging and in-demand clean energy, technology, and environmental science careers.

Skills Training: Training programs that equip new and existing workers with the skills and credentials needed for sustainable, well-paying careers, in high-demand clean energy and technology fields—with prioritization for individuals from disadvantaged communities.

Career Exploration & Pathways: Programs, workshops, and initiatives that build awareness of career paths and further educational and career goals in clean energy and technology fields for young adults (grade 9 and above) and adults.

Energy Ecosystems: Foster innovations, partnerships, movements, and coalitions that bring together business, training providers, and community organizations to develop clean energy and workforce strategies to help workers access quality careers and address specific challenges.

Program support may include skills-based training, barrier reduction and retention services, on-the-job training, apprenticeships, paid internships, career coaching, curriculum development, and coalition and network-building.

Park & Trail Partnership Grants

The Park and Trail Partnership Grants is a $2 million capacity-building matching grants program funded through the NYS Environmental Protection Fund. The program is designed to:

• Enhance the preservation, stewardship, interpretation, maintenance and promotion of New York State parks, trails, state historic sites and public lands.
• Increase the sustainability, effectiveness, productivity, and volunteer and fundraising capabilities of not-for-profit organizations that promote, maintain, and support New York State parks, trails, state historic sites and public lands.
• Promote the tourism and economic development benefits of outdoor recreation through the growth and expansion of a connected statewide network of parks, trails, greenways and public lands.

Stewardship and Public Access Grants

Stewardship and Public Access Grants may be used to assist organizations with the stewardship, interpretation, promotion, education, and public access of a New York State Park, trail, historic site or DEC public land, or a partnership involving more than one such organization, which significantly enhances the organization’s visibility and capacity.

Examples of projects include, but are not limited to:

• Public access or engagement improvements, such as interpretive kiosks, exhibits, signage, new trails with signage, and other activities that enhance public enjoyment and access to the public resource.
• Community and constituency-building initiatives and programs that promote outreach and public education and recreation resulting in greater public support and broader public involvement, especially from new and presently underserved audiences, and those which enhance age-friendly recreational opportunities.
• Shared consultant services between more than one eligible organization.
• Development and implementation of a community outreach plan to enhance community access to and enjoyment of the public resource and awareness of the organization’s role in its preservation, stewardship, interpretation, maintenance and/or promotion.
• Development and implementation of public resource marketing plans, especially if undertaken in partnership with local tourism promotion efforts.

Examples of projects that are considered construction or rehabilitation are:

• Building rehabilitation.
• Any change to historic structure: adding or removing anything, painting, remodeling or reconstructing.
• Improvements, such as interpretive kiosks, exhibits, signage, new trails with signage, trailwork and other activities that enhance public enjoyment and access to the park, trail, site, or public land.
• Activities whose costs are part of a larger construction project.
• Activities that involve any ground disturbance or shovel in the ground.
• Activities that require engineering plans and specifications.
• Activities that require State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) review.

Grants up to $150,000. A 10 percent match of the total project budget is required, up to 50 percent of which may be in-kind. Fifty percent of award is disbursed at contract signing; remainder disbursed after submission of satisfactory six-month progress report.

WHDC'S Grantmaking

WHDC aims to support activities that benefit West Harlem by deploying funds pursuant to the CBA through WHDC Grantmaking and other activities. WHDC’s strategy is to address the needs of West Harlem through project specific collaborations with nonprofit organizations and institutions. WHDC requires its grantees to meet specified or negotiated measurable goals within WHDC’s vision. Funded projects of organizations must be located in, or provide services to Manhattan Community District 9 (MCD9) in West Harlem, bounded as: South to North: from 110th Street to 155th Street; and East to West: from Manhattan, Morningside, St. Nicholas, Bradhurst and Edgecombe Avenues to the Hudson River.

The CBA contains a list of activities for which its original $76 million, payable over 16 years, may be spent. Included are activities to address eight need-categories namely: Arts and Culture, Community Facilities, Education, Workforce and Economic Development, Environment, Historic Preservation and Housing. In 2014, WHDC’s board decided to condense these into four categories: Education, Community Facilities, Housing, and Workforce & Economic Development. In 2015, WHDC’s Board further prioritized these into Affordable Housing, Education (including youth development), and Workforce & Economic Development. The prioritization aims to ameliorate the endemic issues of public school failure, rising unemployment and limited skills, and rising housing costs and displacement.

In 2018, WHDC’s Board made the decision to shift from two funding cycles per year to one cycle titled Community Benefits Grant Awards. WHDC continues to examine the impact of its grantmaking and thus reserves the right to set new priorities. 

Priority Areas

Health & Human Services

Projects that demonstrate that they promote and protect the health of MCD9 residents and provide essential human services to many.

Housing Affordability & Preservation

Projects that preserve and sustain affordable housing, that support racial equity and economic security, access to permanent housing opportunities and that provide a mechanism to ensure that the residential units remain affordable over time for MCD9 residents.

Economic Development

Projects that engage MCD9 local businesses, tackling current challenges, and advancing entrepreneurial economic growth as well as workforce development.

Youth & Older Adults Services

Projects in this priority area provide instruction to support older adults and youth by creating a strong foundation for growth and stability that educate and empower them.

Arts & Culture

Projects that cultivate, support, and promote the works of West Harlem artists and arts & culture organizations who create and work in MCD9. Projects that have a commitment to public service and public participation that not only commemorates and preserves West Harlem’s rich cultural history but also celebrates its rich cultural diversity.

Who We Are

The Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley works to strengthen our community by helping individuals, businesses and organizations establish and administer funds that support vital causes and charities. Partnering with our generous donors, we address current and emerging community needs through effective grantmaking to improve the quality of life for all. Additionally, we provide technical assistance to help nonprofits operate more effectively.

Community Grants

The Community Foundations Community Grant Program is an annual opportunity to provide nonprofits with unrestricted General Operating Support (GOS). GOS grants are flexible and allow funds to support an organization’s ongoing administrative and infrastructure costs and to provide support to maintain existing, effective programs, organizational development and capacity building in Dutchess, Putnam and Ulster County.

Funding Focus:

Funding will support a broad variety of organizations and programming, including; effective and innovative programs in the areas of:

• human services,
• arts and culture,
• education and youth,
• health,
• the environment and
• civic affairs.

Funding will have a focus on benefiting people who are from historically marginalized and under-funded communities or populations based on their race, ethnicity, age, gender/gender identity, socioeconomic status, health status, abilities or geographic location.

General Operating Support grants will provide unrestricted support to the organization but can include specific support including:

• planning and/or the direct implementation of the program
• technology, equipment, or material costs
• strategic planning, staff/board development and/or succession planning
• management systems (financial, HR)
• marketing and communications
• investments to increase organizational capacity

Awards:     

Grants made through this program will not exceed $5,000.

Park & Trail Partnership Grants

The Park and Trail Partnership Grants is a $2 million capacity-building matching grants program funded through the NYS Environmental Protection Fund. The program is designed to:

• Enhance the preservation, stewardship, interpretation, maintenance and promotion of New York State parks, trails, state historic sites and public lands.
• Increase the sustainability, effectiveness, productivity, and volunteer and fundraising capabilities of not-for-profit organizations that promote, maintain, and support New York State parks, trails, state historic sites and public lands.
• Promote the tourism and economic development benefits of outdoor recreation through the growth and expansion of a connected statewide network of parks, trails, greenways and public lands.

Capacity and Organizational Effectiveness Grants

Capacity and Organizational Effectiveness Grants strengthen the capacity and expertise of organizations that support New York State parks, trails, historic sites, and public lands, or a partnership involving more than one such organization, in order to aid them in fulfilling their mission and to improve their reach, effectiveness, and impact.

Examples of projects include, but are not limited to:

• Development of a multi-year strategic plan or major fundraising/capital or marketing campaign plan.
• Board/staff training and development, including facilitated retreats.
• Website and email newsletter design and development, graphic design, and printing and distribution of digital or print brochures, newsletters and other promotional materials.
• Efforts to expand the organization’s membership and broaden the diversity of support for the organization.
• Software to improve fundraising/development/donor relations, bookkeeping, or recordkeeping. Grant funds may cover initial software purchase or licensing, not license renewal.
• Development and implementation of activities that will provide a future ongoing revenue source.
• Development and implementation of a volunteer program.
• Development of partnerships to promote new or strengthen existing collaboration with more than one organization and/or local government to increase public support for and/or participation in the planning, development, promotion or stewardship of the public resource.
• Hiring of temporary contractors, staff or interns to support the organization’s capacity-building work.
• Hiring of a consultant or implementing a training program to enhance staff, board, and/or programmatic diversity within the organization
• Shared consultant services between more than one eligible organization.

One-year grants up to $100,000; a 10 percent match of the total project budget is required, up to 50 percent of which may be in-kind. Fifty percent of award is disbursed at contract signing; remainder disbursed after submission of satisfactory six-month progress report.

Park & Trail Partnership Grants

The Park and Trail Partnership Grants is a $2 million capacity-building matching grants program funded through the NYS Environmental Protection Fund. The program is designed to:

• Enhance the preservation, stewardship, interpretation, maintenance and promotion of New York State parks, trails, state historic sites and public lands.
• Increase the sustainability, effectiveness, productivity, and volunteer and fundraising capabilities of not-for-profit organizations that promote, maintain, and support New York State parks, trails, state historic sites and public lands.
• Promote the tourism and economic development benefits of outdoor recreation through the growth and expansion of a connected statewide network of parks, trails, greenways and public lands.

Step-Up Grants

Step-up Grants assist organizations with the administrative and legal fees needed to secure 501(c)(3) status, along with the costs associated with completing a consultant-facilitated organizational assessment and resulting plan(s).

Grants up to $20,000; a $500 match is required. Cash or in-kind. Award disbursed at contract signing.

The Center for Cooperative Media, a grant-funded program within the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University was founded in 2012 in response to the downsizing of New Jersey news organizations and the changes in the ownership of regional public media. These shifts in the news and information landscape hurt the volume of local news available in a state that has historically had limited news coverage, due to its proximity to the major metropolitan areas of New York City and Philadelphia. With 564 municipalities packed into a densely populated state, New Jersey was—and is—ripe for innovation in local journalism.

The mission of the Center for Cooperative Media is to grow and strengthen local journalism and support an informed society in New Jersey and beyond. The Center coordinates statewide and regional reporting, connecting more than 300 local news and information providers through its flagship project, the NJ News Commons. We offer innovative professional development seminars, with training sessions on topics such as data and investigative journalism, fact-checking, OPRA, podcasting, video production, digital sales, and business planning, among many others. We also offer one-on-one coaching. The Center’s research agenda is focused on issues impacting local journalism, especially collaboration and sustainability questions.

About Civic Science Media

At its core, civic science media is created when journalists and other storytellers work intentionally with diverse community members and scientists to collaboratively address issues of shared interest. Civic science media serves as an important bridge between scientists or scientific organizations and the people most impacted by scientific discovery, and promotes a dynamic conversation between scientists, media, and the public. The goal is both to inform and support active participation in solving or addressing community-identified concerns related to science, including climate change, public health, and artificial intelligence.

Civic Science Media Project Funding

The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University is delighted to announce a funding opportunity for civic science media projects, thanks to support from the Rita Allen Foundation. The awards aim to accelerate civic science media collaborations across the United States with funding and coaching.

This is the second open call for pilot awards in support of projects that can bridge the gap between scientists, media, and communities, with a focus on increasing public participation in science, expanding public deliberation about emerging science and creating opportunities for science to be informed by diverse communities.

• The award builds on a global research project conducted in 2020 and 2021 by the Center that studied how and why journalists and civil society organizations around the world collaborate to achieve and increase impact. Led by Dr. Sarah Stonbely and funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the research showed that journalists have become more willing to partner with civil society organizations in order to achieve tangible impact on issues such as corruption, governance, climate and environment, and human rights.
• With new openness among journalists and media makers to partner with civil society and community organizations, rapid advances in scientific discovery and debate, and increased polarization across communities, there is an urgent need to create a culture of civic science — where all people feel a sense of belonging in, and benefit from, the practice of science so they can inform meaningfully deliberation about society's most pressing problems.
• Rita Allen Foundation recently published the industry’s first in-depth analysis of civic science media, in a report that highlights a broad range of civic science media initiatives from across the country. The landscape scan showcases a range of civic science media projects and insights from leaders in this emergent field; potential award applicants should familiarize themselves with the paper.

The Award

A total of 10 awards up to $15,000 each are available. This opportunity is not meant to fund long-term, multi-year partnerships, but rather short-term pilots that:

• Foster ongoing, multidirectional dialogue between media organizations, scientists, and local communities.
• Include direct community participation in the scientific and/or media-creation process, ensuring that local concerns and perspectives substantially influence the conversation.
• Enhance science literacy by making complex scientific topics more accessible and engaging.

In addition to funding, participants will receive hands-on coaching, including regular check-ins, peer-to-peer meetings, and tailored support to align goals, address challenges, and ensure robust and impactful community engagement.

Priority areas include artificial intelligence, climate science, and neuroscience, which align with the broader goals of the Rita Allen Foundation’s overall civic science program.

The awards are intended to cover the cost of the applicant’s and co-collaborator’s time, project materials, equipment, and associated production/editing costs to complete the project. Audience participation incentives are also encouraged; applicants should ensure they are not being extractive when it comes to involving members of the public.