Search Through Grants for Mentoring Programs in the U.S.

About Us

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

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

What We Fund

Water

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

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

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

Education

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

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

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

Health

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

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

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

Mission

The mission of the Henry E. Niles Foundation is to help in the nurturing and uplifting of people in need. The Foundation strives to support humanitarian efforts, including faith-based endeavors, that:

• strengthen education including special education, literacy and others; 
• fight economic hardships through self-help opportunities;
• enhance public health and sanitation on a global basis.

Primary Program Interests

The Board is currently highlighting the following areas:  

Education – Included in this interest area are primary, secondary and higher education for those motivated individuals who are unable to obtain the benefits of quality education without assistance.

Economic Self-Sufficiency – This program area includes but is not limited to: job training, the encouragement and support of entrepreneurialism, mentoring, and micro-credit initiatives.

Health & Independence – Special interests here include medical and public health assistance for the elderly, the poor, the disadvantaged and the disabled.

Guiding Principles & Considerations

• Favors programs addressing long-term solutions to the causes of problems, as distinguished from programs that simply treat the symptoms.
• Added emphasis on programs and organizations that address the intersection of its various program interests.
• Encourages pilot initiatives that test new program models.
• Particular interest in organizations that promote collaborative efforts among groups and organizations.
• Qualities sought by the Foundation in its grantee organizations are: effective and dynamic personnel; passionate leadership; a bias against bureaucracy; prudent management & governance practices; and commitment to results and overall assessment of program impact.

Grants range from $2,500 up to $50,000. In unique circumstances, the Foundation does consider a more significant grant for a program having a major impact in one or more of its areas of interest.

Journalism & Media Grant

The Journalism and Media program seeks to promote and amplify just and inclusive news and narratives, based on the belief that accurate and compelling media plays an important role in informing, engaging, and activating individuals and groups to take part in democratic practices and processes.

To build and strengthen organizations creating and disseminating just, accurate, and inclusive news and narratives, the program supports work in three areas:

• Professional Nonprofit Reporting
• Nonfiction Multimedia Storytelling
• Participatory Civic Media

In each of the three areas, the program pursues the following objectives:

• Build strong, independent, and sustainable organizations and networks that exemplify leadership and innovation in a rapidly changing media ecosystem and comprise the media infrastructure required to meet the democratic ideals of a multiracial, multiethnic America.
• Address barriers that limit the creation of, access to, or participation in media activities, including the legal, safety, digital security, and technological challenges facing organizations and individuals.
• Promoting learning, leadership, innovation, and field-building opportunities that explore timely and emerging issues related to the production, dissemination, and engagement with journalism and media.

Our Journalism and Media program supports U.S.-based nonprofit institutions with national reach and influence. In a few cases, we support regional and place-based organizations that are exemplars in their fields and provide a model for others to replicate.

We also support journalism and media in Chicago, where the Foundation is located, and in 2021, in partnership with MacArthur’s Technology in the Public Interest Program, we began supporting a small portfolio of organizations and activities focused on combatting racialized disinformation and conspiracy.

Indigenous Peoples

The idea that underpins Foundation programs in this area is that we strive to catalyze economic development by investing in entrepreneurship and business education and investing in capacity building for business and entrepreneurship in Indigenous communities. The Foundation has 30 years of experience with programs that work to give life to this idea.

Since 1992 our Entrepreneurship Scholarship program has provided scholarships to Indigenous students who study business or entrepreneurship. We invest about $500,000 annually on scholarships and another $100,000 to $500,000 on endowment building. The program began with students at tribal colleges, but the Foundation now funds Indigenous students at other institutions as well. Those institutions have a high number of Indigenous students and graduates.

In 2001 the Foundation requested that Gonzaga University develop an MBA in American Indian Entrepreneurship, and the Foundation provided full-ride scholarships for Indigenous students to attend. Since its inception, the program has produced more than 80 graduates. We know of no comparable program in the country.

The Foundation also has made capacity-building grants to aid the establishment of business and entrepreneurship training in Indigenous communities. Grant recipients include American Indigenous Business Leaders (AIBL), Capital for Aboriginal Prosperity through Entrepreneurship (CAPE) Fund, Lakota Funds, and the Native CDFI network. The expectation is that these will complement our investments in education by enhancing the conditions and opportunities for entrepreneurs and business owners.

JSF Grant Making Strategy

JSF makes grants to organizations that help people overcome barriers to education and employment. Addressing these barriers enables them to graduate and find good jobs, thereby contributing to and enriching their communities.

JSF assists people indirectly by making grants to schools, universities, and non-profits, and funds initiatives such as scholarships, mentoring, tutoring and internships. Grants are focused on three areas: individuals with disabilities, individuals with financial need, and Indigenous peoples.

People with Disabilities

The Foundation makes grants to organizations that educate, mentor or otherwise support students with disabilities. It funds scholarships for students with disabilities at each campus of the State University System of Florida as well as schools throughout the United States and Canada that specifically focus on those populations.

Since the early 1990s the Foundation has funded scholarships for students with disabilities at each State University System of Florida campus and has developed close ties with the disability service offices at each of the 12 campuses. The Foundation also provides scholarships for students with disabilities at Gallaudet University. As in other areas of its programing, the Foundation supports early education, which is especially important for deaf and hard-of-hearing students and blind students. Since inception, the Foundation has made an annual grant to Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, and in recent years it has made grants to Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech and Perkins School for the Blind.

The Foundation makes grants to organizations that educate, mentor or otherwise support students with learning differences. Examples of these are Landmark East School, Mount Allison University and Landmark College.

The Foundation also focuses on employment for people with disabilities. Even with good educational qualifications, people with disabilities still have difficulty entering the work force. Therefore the Foundation has developed a portfolio of grants to transition-oriented programs that are designed to help people with disabilities obtain traction in the workplace. These grants are riskier than scholarships but, when they work, often have great social impact. They also resonate with the Foundation’s desire to identify niche areas which may have been overlooked by other educational funders.

JSF Grant Making Strategy

The Johnson Scholarship Foundation makes grants to organizations that help people overcome barriers to higher education. Addressing these barriers enables them to graduate and find good jobs, thereby contributing to and enriching their communities.

The Foundation provides grants for scholarships and other support to nonprofit organizations that serve students with disabilities, students Indigenous to Canada and the United States, and students from low-income families.

What We Fund

We view our grantees as partners and work with them to develop sustainable proposals that will catalyze change and growth in their organization and in the individuals served. Grantee partners are usually required to leverage Foundation grants by obtaining matching funds from other sources. The amount of matching money varies according to the circumstances and is negotiated with the grantee partner in each case.

Why Education?

We have chosen education because we believe that it is the best means to empower people to get better jobs, to become more independent and to participate more fully in our society.

Our Grantmaking Strategy

JSF makes grants to organizations that help people overcome barriers to education and employment. Addressing these barriers enables them to graduate and find good jobs, thereby contributing to and enriching their communities.

JSF assists people indirectly by making grants to schools, universities, and non-profits, and funds initiatives such as scholarships, mentoring, tutoring and internships. Grants are focused on three areas: individuals with disabilities, individuals with financial need, and Indigenous peoples.

Economically Disadvantaged Students

Our purpose is to help economically disadvantaged students pursue and achieve success in education so that they can obtain meaningful employment. Our programs to serve that purpose are focused on scholarships.

The Foundation has developed a broad spectrum of scholarship programs. Most of them are leveraged by matching funds (sometimes as much as 4 to 1) and, where available, government grants. Some programs seek to reach students in middle or high school on the theory that preparation and mentoring are necessary if these students are to succeed at the post -secondary level. Others are straight scholarship programs at the university level.

The Foundation’s university and college scholarships to students in financial need are offered at Berklee College of Music, Palm Beach Atlantic University, South Florida University, University of Florida, and University of West Florida. The Foundation also provides scholarship for dependents of UPS employees who attend college or university in Florida.

The Foundation has funded scholarships and endowment building at Florida's state (community) college level and has recently entered into an innovative project with the University of Central Florida and 4 state colleges in the DirectConnect partnership, which allows graduates from those state colleges to go directly to UCF and obtain scholarship support.

Examples of programs that seek to reach middle or high school students are the Johnson Take Stock program in the School District of Palm Beach County, Florida, and Providence St. Mel School in Chicago, Illinois. Both of these seek to engage disadvantaged students with a mentoring and scholarship program aimed at helping them to graduate from high school and attend postsecondary institutions.

The Kars4Kids Small Grant Program is dedicated to supporting educational initiatives around the world, helping us impact more children.

Causes We Care About

We’re passionate about helping children develop into productive members of their community.

• Youth Development
• Mentorship
• Education

Our Impact

Through our small grant program, we've helped likeminded charities ensure a brighter future for children & their families.

Our Mission

We’re a national Jewish nonprofit that provides year-round educational and mentoring opportunities and support to develop youth into productive and engaged members of society. Our small grant program enables us to expand our reach to more diverse populations by lending support to local charities doing great work for the children in their communities.

How it works

Are you a 501c3 lay organization with a central focus of doing original work on behalf of America’s children? We want to hear from you. Grants typically range from $500-$2,000, depending on such factors as mission alignment and availability of funds.

Our committee considers each application seriously. We aim to get a response to you within 4-6 months, when possible. Due to the large number of requests we receive, it may take up to a year for us to get back to you with a final determination. We may not respond to your application if it does not meet our criteria for consideration. Determination is made on a case-by-case basis, depending on factors like mission alignment and availability of funds. 

The Russell Foundation

The Russell Foundation supports programs for children and youth that promote their development into confident, competent, and caring adults who will make positive contributions to society.

Our Purpose

To make a positive difference in the lives of children, youth and young adults (thru age 23) so that they can achieve their highest potential.

Our Business

Supporting qualified charitable organizations, projects and research that seek solutions to detrimental issues – individual and systemic – which achieve enduring positive effects on the physical, intellectual and emotional development of children and youth of all ages and socio-economic status.

Our Values

Self-Image, Self-Respect, Personal Responsibility, Confidence, Education, Competence, Healthy Lifestyle, Caring and Respect for Others.

Focus Areas

Award grants focus on six areas supporting children and youth. The distribution of grants awarded each year reflects the Foundation’s current emphasis toward each area. The Foundation’s future emphasis may change, but it will consider grant applications addressing any of these focus areas.

• Education: Advancing the learning skills and academic achievements of children from kindergarten to high school using tutoring, mentoring, and talent-coaching that supplement and complement formal educational systems.
• Development: Building the long-term life skills, awareness, and ambition to have the confidence and motivation necessary to pursue goals for the betterment of themselves and society. 
• Intervention: Providing the short-term framework and resources needed to protect children facing immediate difficulties in their living environments that undermine their long-term development.
• Character: Instilling morals and principles that foster ethical behavior, self-responsibility, respect for others, stewardship of the environment, and caring for those in need.
• Health: Fostering and maintaining the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of children that is essential for positive development.
• Medical: Providing services, resources, and other support for specific treatment / correction of birth defects, disease, and physical injury.

Charitable Donations

Sanofi provides donations to non-profit organizations that are aligned with our corporate social responsibility priorities: Health Equity, STEM Education Equity, and Local Communities (programs focusing on social determinants of health).

Everyone deserves equal opportunity to thrive...to be healthy...to be an innovator...to be part of a flourishing community. We aren't there yet. More needs to be done so all people, wherever they are in the world, have the same access to quality healthcare.

Sanofi purposefully partners with our patients and communities to learn where gaps exist and how we can develop sustainable solutions. Listening is a critical part of our process so we can focus investments and implement programs rooted in local cultures and populations where there is the greatest need.

• We collaborate for collective impact.
• We mentor and educate our next generation of talent to answer the medical challenges of tomorrow.
• We foster an inclusive community of purpose-driven employees who understand our responsibility is not just about driving innovation to improve health -- it goes deeper than that.

Our responsibility is to support society's fundamental right to health by contributing to healthcare access for the underserved, addressing environmental changes, and living by our code of ethics, so everyone has an opportunity to thrive.

Specialty Care, General Medicines, and Vaccines

 Areas of interest include:

• Cardiovascular (Atrial Fibrillation)
• Community Relations (Bridgewater, NJ, Cambridge, MA, and Swiftwater, PA areas)
• Dermatology
• Diabetes
• Eosinophilic Esophagitis
• Neurology
• Oncology
• Rare blood disorders
• Rare genetic diseases
• Researchers and Scientists
• Respiratory
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Transplant
• Vaccines
• Other Immunology

Smart Family Fund

We fund early-stage non-profits with the potential for positive, scalable impact that have not yet demonstrated the efficacy needed for growth funding or a sustainable model.

Our Philanthropic Role

Social entrepreneurs often face significant challenges, especially when their initiatives are still in the early stages. Securing funding for innovative but untested ideas can be particularly daunting without extensive performance data to attract large-scale investors.

We are a small family foundation guided by three brothers united in their commitment to fostering social entrepreneurship. Our mission is to discover, support, and mentor emerging nonprofit organizations and their leaders, providing the necessary backing to help them succeed.

Small Grants Make a Big Difference

Each year, we make grants, ranging from $25,000 to $100,000. When we find an organization that is making significant advances, we work with them to grow their programs, and get them ready for more significant funders who can support them through the growth phase.

All applications must be submitted through this application portal. Our goal is to keep it as simple as possible for you to apply and for us to be able to review. 

STEM Higher Education Program

The Foundation believes that increases in human welfare are largely driven by increases in our understanding and mastery of the forces of nature and society. The health of the scientific enterprise is thus an issue of fundamental concern to us. This includes the quality of scientific training and inquiry, the structure of scientific careers, the diversity of the scientific workforce, the strength of scientific educational institutions, and the openness and accessibility of scientific education and training to all.

Priorities

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are the central tenets of our program. As articulated in Sloan’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion statement, upholding these tenets is a matter of fundamental justice and our path to ensuring that the best science is done.

When educational settings are diverse, they comprise individuals with a variety of life experiences, whether they be racial, ethnic, economic, cultural, religious, geographic, or otherwise.

Equity and equity-mindedness is found in institutions and individuals who understand that while talent is evenly distributed, opportunity is not, and thus seek to transform organizational practices, policies, and cultures in order to provide all individuals with the tools, resources, and supports needed to succeed at the highest levels.

Inclusion ensures that everyone, regardless of their backgrounds or held identities, feel belonging in a given environment, whether that be a classroom, laboratory, academic department, or entire discipline.

Six equally important strategic priorities guide our grantmaking. In particular, we seek to:

• Invest in widening pathways to STEM graduate education. The pathway to STEM graduate education is broken for far too many students given systemic barriers faced by individuals and institutions. Among other investments, we seek to support educational pathways from Minority Serving Institutions to master’s and doctoral STEM programs.
• Empower universities to transform graduate education. Increasing diversity is crucial but not enough. Institutions and their STEM departments must also pursue new and creative ways of ensuring inclusive environments and equitable outcomes for their students. Through the Foundation’s University Centers for Exemplary Mentoring and Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership, we seek to empower STEM departmental leadership, faculty, and staff in doing just that.
• Support innovative efforts to increase diversity in the STEM professoriate. Widening the pathway to and through graduate education requires a diverse faculty body, as does the ability of the STEM enterprise to truly innovate. We are interested in investing in efforts by institutions and organizations that seek to transform the culture and climate of STEM departments and disciplines such that more individuals are attracted to the professoriate and supported once there.
• Pursue systemic change. For too long, systemic change efforts have gone underinvested in and understudied, resulting in stagnant progress on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the STEM disciplines. It’s not enough to promote individual advancement without also seeking to improve the capacity of STEM environments to attend to diversity, equity, and inclusion in their policies and practices, and in the standards and norms carried out by their community members. We seek to empower and equip institutions seeking this kind of change and to support research on how such change happens.
• Examine our own practices. Any grantmaking process also necessitates looking inward at one’s own practices. We commit to regularly revisiting and evaluating how we do things in order to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion at every stage of the grantmaking process – from the proposals we solicit to the reviewers we appoint.
• Coordinate and collaborate with others. We recognize that any one organization has a finite amount of dollars and finite amount of influence. We seek to engage private foundations, federal agencies, and corporate funders in enabling systemic change in STEM higher education and the field at large. This includes internal collaboration at Sloan, working alongside and in support of our colleagues in advancing their own DEI agendas.

Who Can Get Tickets?

Tickets for Kids Charities partners with organizations (agency partners) that serve low-income, at-risk children and youth to supplement their existing programming with ticketed experiences. These programs can include: residential, mentoring, behavioral health counseling, after-school program, summer day camps, and other types of services. TFK ticketed experiences are provided to approved agency partners at no cost to their organizations or clientele.

Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is a California-based foundation with roots in amateur radio and the technology of internet communication. Our mission is to support, promote, and enhance digital communication and broader communication science and technology, to promote amateur radio, scientific research, experimentation, education, development, open access, and innovation in information and communication technology.

Grantmaking Categories

• Support and growth of amateur radio. Grants in this category are core to our mission. We make grants to clubs for all types of projects, including licensing classes, continuing education, repeater infrastructure, and certain emergency communications projects that expand interest and access to amateur radio.
  • Examples:  Make Operating Radio Easier (MORE), CVARC Serves Its Community and Promotes Amateur Radio, Bridgerland ARC: Engaging and Educating Youth in Amateur Radio
• Education. Grants in this category include scholarships, as well as projects that aim to educate or mentor individuals, such as K-12 school programs and programs aimed at under-served groups. We are primarily interested in STEAM programs that are linked to amateur radio, wireless technology, or digital communications.
  • Examples:  West Bend Public Library, Walters State Community College (WSCC), South Eugene High School
• Research and development.  Projects in this category are projects that are advancing the state of the art in amateur radio and communication science and technology.
  • Examples: Rhizomatica: Digital HF Telecommunications for Civil and Amateur Uses, Tangerine SDR

Grantmaking Goals

ARDC makes grants to programs and organizations that aim to advance our mission and vision to create:

A thriving global community of learners, experimenters, and contributors advancing freedom with open source communication and information technology.

ARDC’s strategic approach to achieving this vision involves three main goals:

• Promoting learning: getting more people learning about amateur radio (AR) and digital communications (DC).
• Promoting experimenting: getting more people experimenting, innovating, and developing technology (in the context of AR and DC).
• Promoting doing: getting more people using new technology productively on more (and newer) bands, modes, and technologies (and other dimensions) within the context of AR and DC.

As we evaluate opportunities for our grantmaking and other program activities, we will be reviewing them based on their ability to meet the above objectives and, overall, help to manifest our vision.

Please review our vision and strategy pages for more detailed information.

Open Access Requirement

Because ARDC works with and for the public, we require that the work of the projects we fund be freely available to everyone who can benefit and to everyone who can contribute. Thus, all technology, documentation, and other materials produced using ARDC funds must be made freely available to the public, ideally using one of the below open source licenses:

• Software: GPL licenses (esp. AGPLv3), MIT, BSD, LGPL
• Hardware: CERN Open Hardware License
• Media, writing, images etc.: Free Culture subset of the Creative Commons licenses, particularly CC-BY-SA, as well as CC-BY and CC0

About The Memorial Trust

In 1975, two years after his death, The John Ben Snow Memorial Trust was established in New York. The four original trustees were a member of the Snow family, a lawyer, a publishing associate and a corporate trustee, the Irving Trust Company, now BNY Mellow N.A.. The current Trustees continue this legacy being well aware of the donor and his beliefs, values and ideals. The John Ben Snow Memorial Trust strategically focuses funding within specific geographic regions of the United States across a range of program areas. They meet once a year, usually in June.

The John Ben Snow Memorial Trust

The Memorial Trust strategically focuses funding within specific geographic regions of the United States across a range of program areas (prioritized below and visually depicted here) while responding to the ever-changing needs of various segments of the population, especially to the needs of youth and people who are disadvantaged economically, emotionally, or physically.

Dating back to the inception of the Trust in 1973, the primary and overarching grant making priority has been and continues to be programs that focus on education.

• Education: Targets funds to organizations that provide educational opportunities or academic assistance to individuals who demonstrate an intellectual aptitude and a financial need. Examples include scholarships, fellowships, academic tutoring or counseling, literacy, and journalism.

Secondarily, the Trust considers proposals within the areas of Arts and Culture, Community Initiatives, and Youth Programs. The Board’s objective is to extend the primary educational focus by providing funding support within these additional program areas.

• Community Initiatives: Provides funding for programs or services that directly improve the quality of life within the geographic focus areas that we serve. Examples include support for libraries, food pantries and shelters, and neighborhood revitalization. Generally, the Trust does not seek proposals for health care initiatives or animal welfare programs.
• Arts and Culture: Offers grants that promote arts education and appreciation, particularly for young adults, via the development of educational curriculum and professional instruction including visiting artists and performance support for targeted populations.
• Youth Initiatives: Offers grants that provide character education or enrichment opportunities via mentoring or after-school programming

As a third priority, the Trust does consider proposals in the areas of Disabilities and Universal Access, Environmental, and Historic Preservation. As these are not core focus areas, funding is often limited. Priority will be given to proposals with an educational focus.

• Disabilities and Universal Access: Offers grants to organizations in complying with ADA requirements within their facilities (e.g. elevator, handrails, automatic doors, and ramps) or offering services targeted for individuals with physical, mental, or emotional disabilities.
• Environmental: Provides funds for organizations that strive to protect strategic parcels of land and bodies of water as well as programs that educate the general public on key environmental issues such as conservation and water management.
• Historic Preservation: Provides funding for organizations that preserve historical artifacts (e.g. sites, structures, objects) and accounts (e.g. events), and educate the greater community on their significance. Examples include museums, historical societies and educational programming.

Mission

At the Nasdaq Foundation, our mission is to:

• Reimagine investor engagement to equip under-represented communities with the financial knowledge and tools to share in the wealth that markets create; and
• Leverage the Foundation’s investment in the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, alongside new strategic partnerships with organizations that can help build a deeper, data-led understanding where the challenges are greatest, what existing efforts could be amplified, and how the Foundation can make new and distinctive contributions.

Quarterly Grant Program

As we strive to accelerate progress in diversifying entrepreneurship and empowering a more diverse group of investors, the Nasdaq Foundation will accept grant requests for programs that align with our mission.

Areas of Focus

We use our resources in two areas of focus:

• Programs designed to empower diverse investors with the financial knowledge and confidence they need to share in the wealth that markets can create.
• Programs designed to support women and under-represented minority communities with the resources needed to grow and sustain their businesses.

Program Criteria:

Empower-Financial Knowledge And Confidence

Empower diverse investors with the financial knowledge and confidence they need to share in the wealth that markets can create.

Grants will be given in this area to organizations and programs which deliver impact in one or more of the following ways:

• Enhance financial literacy among women and under-represented communities
• Improve access to knowledge and tools among women and underrepresented communities

Support diverse entrepreneurs with the resources to strengthen and scale their businesses and contribute to the prosperity of society.

Grants will be given in this area to organizations and programs which deliver impact in one or more of the following ways:

• Equip women and diverse founders with mentoring and resources
• Improve access to capital for women and diverse founders

Amounts and Terms

There is no set minimum or maximum grant amount, though the average size of a grant made by the Foundation is $75,000. The Nasdaq Foundation’s Leadership Team will consider whether the amount requested is commensurate with the project proposed and appropriate for the Nasdaq Foundation’s annual grant making target and charitable purposes.

Reasonable overhead costs may be included in the grant request but must be specified.

Unless otherwise specified and agreed upon, all grants have one-year terms. Under very limited circumstances, the Nasdaq Foundation will make a multiple-year commitment. It is incumbent upon the grant seeker to demonstrate the necessity or benefit of multiple-year funding in the grant proposal.

There is no limit as to the number of proposals a single entity may submit at one time.

Our Purpose

For too many girls and women around the world, access to quality education is often limited. Two-thirds of all illiterate adults in the world are women, and not even seven percent of the world’s population has a college education. Education can equip all of us to challenge many of the global issues impacting women – poverty, oppression, misogyny, brutality. Ultimately, more and more educated girls will mean stronger and healthier villages, communities, and entire countries. And education will eradicate poverty.

Quality schooling can serve as an emancipator from poverty and lead to a better life for a woman and her family. The Circle of Sisterhood exists today to help make that better life possible by removing barriers to education and creating sustainable change for girls and women around the globe.

Grants

The Circle of Sisterhood seeks to support entities working worldwide to remove barriers to education for girls and women. We hope to help end oppressive brutality against women internationally by uplifting them from poverty through education.

Impact Categories

• Adult Education
• Community Programming
• Early Childhood Development
• Health & Medical Supplies
• K-12 Education
• Life Skills/Vocational Training
• Menstrual Hygiene Management
• Mentoring
• Reintegration from Sex Trafficking
• School Supplies/Infrastructure
• Teacher Salaries/Education

Our Areas of Interest

The Circle of Sisterhood Foundation (CofS) will fund programs or projects that remove barriers to education for girls and women, thereby improving their lives and those of their families. We value requests that advance long-range plans to improve the well-being of communities in sustainable ways.

Through relationships with our Grantees, we seek to:

• Ensure opportunities for girls and women to achieve education, by focusing on readiness for, access to, and performing well/persisting in school (e.g., providing tuition/school fees and necessary materials to succeed in school, enrichment/study groups, innovative approaches to education, awareness of the importance of education, parent involvement, menstrual health and hygiene, improving infrastructure, funding teacher salaries, etc.); and
• Improve the livelihood of girls and women (e.g., training to learn income-generating skills, business and vocational training, capacity-building, etc.).

The Foundation began as a focused way to affect positive change for children in poverty. The Foundation’s  values are the result of lessons learned from a rural upbringing and lifestyle where commitment to community, neighbor and family, and satisfaction in a job done well are held in high regard.

Mission

To encourage and multiply opportunities for children in poverty

Priorities

The Foundation will create, mentor and sustain projects such as, but not limited to:

• Impactful programs which support children in poverty
• Partnership programs with schools & organizations fostering job skill fundamentals of the Building Construction Trades

Value Statement

The Foundation focuses on practical applications, programs and projects specific to Human Health, Community Well-Being, and Education. The Foundation will seek partnerships which create access to  programs and improvements changing the lives of children living within the confines of poverty.

Youth as Solutions

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

Focus Areas

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

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

Elevating Migrant Leadership: Building Inclusive Futures

The Elevating Migrant Leadership initiative was designed to support immigrant and refugee-led organizations in the U.S. that are seeking to develop civic leadership and advocacy skills so they can more effectively influence the development of programs and policies that affect them and their communities.

Background

Elevating Migrant Leadership: Building Inclusive Futures is a grantmaking initiative of the WES Mariam Assefa Fund that seeks to shift power to where it belongs: to immigrants, refugees, and migrants who best understand the needs of their communities.

How? By supporting organizations in the United States that are amplifying the voices of immigrants and refugees in their communities and advancing their leadership to shape more effective programs and policies.

Elevating Migrant Leadership launched as an open call funding opportunity in January 2024, and we were humbled to receive 364 applications from 43 states across the country. After a thorough review process with our advisory committee and WES staff, we are now proud to announce the 10 awardees who will be the recipients of a collective $1 million in flexible funding. All organizations are led by immigrants and refugees and show a strong commitment to advancing civic leadership and advocacy in their communities. 

The Opportunity

Ten selected awardees will receive $100,000 grants and become grantee partners of the WES Mariam Assefa Fund. As part of the Fund’s partner community, each awardee will have access to peer-learning, capacity building, and other programming.

Funding is awarded to organizations with programs, current or developing, that focus on 2 out of 3 of the following areas:

• Narrative Building: Immigrants, refugees, and other migrants learn the best ways to build or shift prevailing narratives so that they are inclusive of their voices and perspectives.
• Experiential Learning: Immigrants, refugees, and other migrants increase their leadership capacity through applied learning experiences that help them build strategic development and decision-making skills.
• Mentorship: Immigrants, refugees, and other migrants forge relationships with mentors who can provide guidance and introduction to networks.

Our Mission

Our mission is to uplift and sustain the lifeways and economies of Native communities through advocacy, financial support, and knowledge sharing.

We envision a world in which Tribal Sovereignty is upheld, and Native ingenuity and knowledge are honored and respected.

Grant Overview

First Nations believes that Native youth represent the future of Native communities and that investing in youth and giving them a sense of place and tradition in the community ensures a future of bright and capable leaders. We seek programs that meet youth where they are, support them in accomplishing their goals and dreams as future leaders, and shape pathways that prepare them for an empowered adulthood guided by their cultures and families.

In 2002, First Nations launched the Native Youth and Culture Fund (NYCF) to support tribes and Native American-led organizations that work with Native youth through programs that provide learning, leadership building, and intergenerational mentoring.

In 2024, through this Fund, two-year grants ranging from $20,000 to $60,000 will be awarded to Native youth programs and projects that focus on increasing youth leadership and providing opportunities for intergenerational transfer of knowledge.

• 10 to 12 grants of up to $60,000 will be awarded to structured day and/or overnight camp programs that focus on recreational, cultural, educational, language, Native youth leadership and intergenerational mentoring activities. (If you are applying as a camp program you must indicate this within the application.)
• 4 to 8 grants of up to $60,000 will be awarded to programs supporting Native youth by California-based tribes or California tribally controlled non-profit organizations. These grants are made possible through our California Tribal Fund (CTF). The CTF was created to support California-based, California-Native-led nonprofits and tribal programs in controlling and protecting their food systems, water, languages, traditional ecological knowledge, and land.
• 10 to 12 grants of up to $60,000 will be awarded to programs supporting Native youth that demonstrate alignment with one or more of the program priorities (see below).

Native Youth and Culture Fund Priorities

All proposals must demonstrate their project or program will carry out one or more of the following:

• Provide structured day or overnight camp activities. Camps are defined as structured day or overnight programs that focus on recreational, cultural, educational, youth leadership, and intergenerational mentoring activities.
• Focus on preserving, strengthening, or renewing cultural and/or spiritual practices, beliefs, and values of Native youth.
• Engage youth and elders in activities that demonstrate methods for documenting traditional knowledge systems, practices, and/or beliefs.
• Increase youth leadership and their capacity to lead through intergenerational educational or mentoring programs.
• Increase youth access to and sharing of cultural customs and beliefs and traditional Native art forms using appropriate technologies (traditional and/or modern), as a means of reviving or preserving tribal language, arts, history, or other culturally relevant topics.

About

The Higher Education Program at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is pleased to announce its third Call for Letters of Inquiry for the Creating Equitable Pathways to STEM Graduate Education initiative, continuing its investment in Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and in the establishment of partnerships between MSIs and graduate programs nationwide.

Grantees awarded via this initiative will engage the expertise of MSIs—and the unique experiences of their faculty and students—to model effective systems and practices that remove barriers and create opportunities for equitable learning environments in STEM graduate education so all students can thrive. Grant awards will support sharing MSIs’ institutional know-how on equitable undergraduate and graduate education, as well as modeling that know-how to create systemic changes that enhance pathways from MSIs to master’s and doctoral degree programs in astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, data science, Earth sciences, economics, engineering, marine science, mathematics, physics, and statistics at partner institutions.

In addition to establishing seamless pathways, successful projects will address policies, processes, and practices that reinforce existing systems that are barriers to student access and success in graduate education. These projects could include efforts to examine or redesign graduate recruitment, admission policies and processes, mentoring practices, departmental climate, or other gatekeeping (or gateway) structures to and through STEM graduate education.

Since the barriers to equitable pathways do not end once students are admitted to graduate programs, Sloan is looking for evidence that projects will promote and enhance existing efforts to reduce and eliminate policies, procedures, and institutional climates and cultures that prevent students from successfully attaining a graduate degree.

Grants up to $500,000 will be awarded to U.S. higher education institutions and organizations developing equitable pathways to STEM graduate education

Implementation Grants

Implementation grants will support work between two or more institutions (one of which must be an MSI) that are seeking to augment or scale an already well-established partnership or set of partnerships. Such projects will have preliminary data or evidence of their effectiveness, or potential effectiveness, in widening educational pathways.

Aura Cacia Positive Change Project

In communities everywhere, women of courage and determination are working hard to better their lives in the face of seemingly overwhelming difficulties. We’re inspired by these resilient women and created the Aura Cacia Positive Change Project to support them. Together, we’re helping women transform their lives.

Aura Cacia provides meaningful financial support to organizations committed to helping women and girls facing difficult life situations make transformational improvements in their lives. Founded in 2016, the Positive Change Project works to equip women and girls with the resources necessary to further their commitment to live more purposeful lives.

Programs supported through the Positive Change Project, are those that help women and girls through one or more of the following measures: enable disadvantaged women and girls become more stable and self-sufficient, employ strategies to help them live healthfully and purposefully, reinforce positive self-image, self-respect and self-confidence in women and girls, or creates opportunities for women to drive curriculum or programming that can be applied to program development and mentoring other women.

A portion of every sale of an Aura Cacia product goes back into the program, so you know that when you purchase from Aura Cacia, you are giving back to those in need. Since beginning the program in 2016, the Positive Change Project has given back more than $1 million.

Organizational Priorities

• Provide resources and services directly to women and/or girls facing significant barriers to sustaining their commitment to positive change.
• Empower disadvantaged women/or girls who are motivated to create lasting change to achieve greater stability and self-sufficiency.
• Maintain an annual organizational budget between $2 million and $8 million USD.

Program Priorities

• Implement strategies that support and reinforce women’s and girls’ positive change by promoting healthy, purposeful living.
• Foster positive self-image, self-respect, and self-confidence in women and/or girls.
• Create opportunities for women/program participants to lead and shape curriculum or programming, enabling them to contribute to program development. 

At OpenAI, ensuring broad deployment of benefits and applying an iterative approach to innovation is core to who we are. We believe AI should help solve humanity’s hardest problems, and that we should listen to and learn from organizations already leading that work on the frontlines.

What we’re funding

We welcome applications from organizations at every stage of AI adoption—from exploration to pilots and active deployment. We recognize that some of the most impactful opportunities may be new initiatives, approaches not yet been widely proven, or come from unexpected places.

The People-First AI Fund will support organizations directly working in three areas:

• AI literacy & public understanding: We seek to support organizations that help communities build the knowledge, skills, and confidence to navigate the age of artificial intelligence. This includes education programs, media initiatives, and opportunities for people to engage with and better understand the technology. We are particularly interested in efforts that equip people with practical skills. This may involve training trusted local leaders—such as educators, faith leaders, youth mentors, or artists—to make discussions about AI more accessible and relevant.
• Community innovation: We seek to support organizations that work in partnership with communities to guide how AI might be shaped and used in their lives. Our priority is to back efforts where communities lead participatory design and decision-making to ensure AI strengthens civic life and helps people stay healthy, connected, and thriving. This includes initiatives that use AI to expand access to and improve delivery of essential services, as well as community co-designed approaches in areas such as health, mental well-being, and building community trust. Priority consideration will be given to organizations working in place-based settings such as schools, libraries, clinics, or community centers; applicants that actively involve residents—including youth—in the design of initiatives; and efforts serving populations traditionally left out of digital innovation, such as older adults, rural communities, or linguistically isolated groups.
• Economic opportunity: We seek to support organizations expanding access to meaningful work in ways that are fair, inclusive, and community-driven by leveraging the promise of AI. This could include programs that prepare people—especially young people—for the jobs of the future; tools that support caregivers and local businesses; and initiatives that help workers build economic security. We are also interested in models of shared value—such as cooperatives or community-based platforms—that respect local culture and center worker needs. Across all efforts, we will prioritize approaches that enhance, rather than replace, human work and ensure the benefits of AI are broadly distributed instead of concentrated among the few.

Challenge

Seeking innovative solutions that rethink the delivery, space and place of care for communities with limited availability or proximity to healthcare services.

Background

Underserved communities often experience limited access to quality healthcare services due to various factors, including geographical and physical barriers, lack of available culturally competent care, discrimination and bias, constraints on how care is delivered (e.g., in-person vs. virtual) and more. By rethinking the delivery, space and place of care to expand access to care beyond traditional settings to institutions trusted by communities, community-based organizations can address non-medical factors that influence a person’s health outcomes, commonly known as social determinants of health (or non-medical determinants of health).

Innovative, grassroots solutions have the potential to bridge these gaps, improving access and enhancing the quality of care by meeting communities where they are and providing tailored services to address the specific needs of diverse populations.

Community-based organizations are particularly effective in this regard due to their deep knowledge of local community dynamics, cultural nuances and specific needs. They also have the ability to foster partnerships, collaborations and leverage investments beyond the traditional healthcare system, addressing the socioeconomic and structural factors that drive population health.

The AbbVie Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to drive transformative change and advance health equity in communities worldwide, in partnership with MATTER, has launched the AbbVie Foundation Health Equity Accelerator. We invite applications for innovative, scalable solutions that rethink the delivery, space and place of care for communities with limited access or proximity to healthcare services.

The accelerator will empower nonprofit organizations to drive innovative, community-led solutions to address health disparities by providing mentorship and access to resources to scale their programs’ impact and drive meaningful change.

Benefits of participation

Participants in this eight-week accelerator will gain access to valuable resources, including a dynamic, interactive curriculum delivered by subject matter experts. This program is designed to enhance participants’ solutions, refine their model and strategies and empower them to drive significant impact in health equity.

• Financial support: Each selected participant will receive a $10,000 stipend, recognizing their time and dedication to the program. Additionally, one winning solution will be awarded a $50,000 unrestricted grant to support the implementation and development of their innovative approach to health equity.
• Expert guidance and mentorship: Participants will benefit from tailored mentorship from industry leaders and health equity experts. This guidance will help refine their strategies and maximize their impact.
• Networking opportunities: Engage with a diverse cohort of peers, potential partners, and stakeholders in the health equity space. These connections can lead to valuable collaborations and long-term partnerships.
• Visibility and recognition: Participants will have the opportunity to showcase their solutions to a broader audience. This exposure can open doors to additional funding and support.

Delta believes data is powerful and anyone should be able to use it for change in their community. We partner with non-profits and communities all over the world to build technical capacity that generates positive social impact.

Background

Delta Analytics is community of 300+ data scientists, economists, analysts, and software engineers seeking to leverage their data skills for the welfare of the community. While our primary background is in the private sector, we apply our skill set to facilitate progress in the nonprofit world. We find the data questions of the social sector fascinating and address them with an eye towards high impact and sustainability.

Delta Data Grants

Every year, Delta Analytics partners skilled data scientists, engineers and analysts with nonprofits around the world for free. We provide a wide range of data-related services catering to non-profits big and small. Very few projects are straightforward but all start off with a question. Where is my funding coming from? How did my free after-school mentoring program impact test scores? How many people have we reached in the past 6 months?

Armed with a clear question, we can decide what services best illuminate an answer. That is why we start off with an application -- we want to work with nonprofits who have a well-defined sense of what they want to achieve. Our potential services are described in more detail below.

Data Management

If you have data but are unsure what to make of it, we can help transform the data into something meaningful. We can set up data management systems that let you pull important insights from the information at your fingertips.

Data Analysis

Delta can run statistical analysis to help assess impact on measurable variables. For instance, we can tell an environmental organization how much waste it has reduced per dollar spent.

Marketing Metrics

Understanding who you work with is crucial to maximizing your influence; Delta can analyze data to help you categorize your market. For example, we can track characteristics of donors, clients, or volunteers, and provide insights on the demographics of stakeholders.

Data Visualization & Presentation

Delta creates engaging graphs, charts, and tables to help you visualize data. These can be utilized for internal processes or to show off your organization's impact to the world.

Funding

The data grant is not a monetary grant. The data grant provides the organization with access to data analytics services.

About the Innovation Prize

The J.M.K. Innovation Prize seeks out innovators who are spearheading transformative early-stage projects in the fields of the environment, heritage conservation, and social justice.

The J.M.K. Innovation Prize is open to non-profit and mission-driven for-profit organizations that are tackling America’s most pressing challenges through social innovation. In 2019, we will award up to ten Prizes, each including a cash award of $150,000 over three years, plus $25,000 for project expenses, for a total award of $175,000. Awardees also receive guidance through the Fund and its resource network, providing tools and training for ascendant change agents.

For more than three generations, The J.M. Kaplan Fund has provided catalytic funding for projects in their early stages of development. Whether a pilot project, a new organization, or a nascent initiative, work supported by the Fund has involved a certain measured risk that ultimately led to large-scale, transformative results. We launched the J.M.K. Innovation Prize in 2015 to leverage this legacy of catalytic grant-making in the field of social innovation. Currently on a biennial schedule, the Prize has to date funded twenty wildly creative solutions to social and environmental challenges, ranging from high-tech efforts to restore imperiled coral reefs, to the nation’s first farm labor trust. Each awardee takes a visionary approach to a societal need, working within one or more of the Fund’s three program areas:

• The Environment: Protecting natural resources and reducing the impacts of climate change.
• Heritage Conservation: Conserving the places that communities care about most.
• Social Justice: Supporting just alternatives and reforms to the criminal justice and immigration systems.

Tailored for Early-Stage Social Entrepreneurs

We know there is a scarcity of funding for untested ideas being piloted in the social innovation field. The Prize is designed to fill this gap in innovation philanthropy, supporting ideas that other funders may deem too risky or too small. We also know that early-stage innovators need the freedom to seize opportunities when and where they arise. The Prize’s unrestricted funding offers this flexibility, letting awardees deploy resources where they are most needed, whether investing in core projects, hiring staff, or just keeping the lights on.

We know each organization must follow its own path to achieving a change-making vision. With its three-year period, the Prize gives awardees room to evolve at their own pace, with an infrastructure of support tailored to their specific needs as early-stage innovators.

An Innovation Community

Beyond the cash award, the Innovation Prize provides tools to help turn ideas into action. Over the three-year Prize term, we bring awardees together for two convenings each year. Each of these meetings, spotlighting a different awardee’s organization, offers opportunities for peer learning and mentoring from experts in organizational development, board cultivation, media coaching, leadership training, and more. From West Virginia coal country to Monterey, California, our awardees have shared powerful learning moments, embedded in one another’s work and reflecting on their role as change agents.