Best Grants for BIPOC in Illinois

The Next Generation of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program Trial Innovation Network aims to tackle significant challenges in multi-center clinical trials. By enhancing trial efficiency and safety through innovative solutions, the initiative seeks to improve the design and execution of these studies. Key areas of focus include safety monitoring tools, trial leader mentorship, and advancements in digital health technologies. This program invites eligible organizations to apply for funding to promote groundbreaking clinical research.

The Basil L. King Scholarship Foundation offers four-year scholarships to St. Lucie County residents pursuing careers in Health Sciences. Applicants must maintain a GPA of 3.00 or higher, although those with a GPA of 2.5 may be considered under special circumstances. The scholarship is renewable for up to three years with continued eligibility. Preference is given to students who intend to return to the Treasure Coast after graduation, ensuring support for local talent.

The Honoring the Best in the Construction Community initiative celebrates outstanding individuals in the construction field, such as Craft Instructor of the Year, who exemplify creativity and dedication to education. Award recipients gain national recognition and a $10,000 cash prize, promoting construction as a rewarding career while emphasizing safety and lifelong learning. This prestigious award is part of the ABC Construction Workforce Awards, which highlights the importance of quality instruction in the industry.

The Do Something Great Awards, presented by the Heart of Illinois Community Foundation, recognize extraordinary individuals who have significantly impacted Macon County through their dedication and service. This award, specifically honoring the Ray Batman Nonprofit Professional of the Year, celebrates professionals who demonstrate exceptional commitment to community support, particularly during challenging times like the pandemic. Renamed in memory of Ray Batman, a revered community leader, the award continues to inspire others to contribute to societal betterment.

The ACLS Leading Edge Fellowships provide recent humanities PhDs with the opportunity to work with nonprofit organizations focused on social justice. Over 24 months, fellows receive a stipend of $70,000 in the first year and $72,000 in the second, along with relocation funds and health insurance. The program emphasizes diversity and inclusion, encouraging applications from all eligible scholars to enhance their professional skills in meaningful roles.

The Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation's Jasper County Community Endowment supports charitable initiatives that enhance the quality of life in Jasper County, Illinois. By investing in local projects, the foundation aims to cultivate a culture of philanthropy and strengthen community ties. Organizations seeking funding must be tax-exempt public charities serving the area and possess a clear charitable purpose. This endowment exemplifies a commitment to sustainable community development and long-term philanthropic impact.

Digital Promise

Digital Promise is a global nonprofit working to expand opportunity for every learner. Working with a wide range of partners and practitioners in the U.S. and around the world, our initiatives have impacted over 4.4 million students and 180,000 teachers across 173 districts and in 27 countries to date.

Digital Promise was authorized by Congress in 2008, signed into law by President George W. Bush, and formally launched by President Barack Obama in September 2011. Startup support came from the U.S. Department of Education, Carnegie Corporation of New York, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Since then, Digital Promise has grown rapidly with support from both original and new funders.

AIMS EduData Initiative

The Advancing Innovative Math Solutions (AIMS) EduData Initiative, funded by the Gates Foundation, seeks to build sustainable and scalable research infrastructure to advance math learning. AIMS EduData especially encourages applications from graduate students and early career professionals, educators with research roles, such as those working in district research offices, and researchers located at minority serving institutions or Title I school districts. Successful applicants will conduct original research using datasets provided by leading digital learning platforms (DLPs) and participate in a growing community.

RightOn Education and Teachley Math RFP

For education researchers and practitioners

Benefits for successful applicants:

• Opportunity to investigate associations between features of a Digital Learning Platform and mechanisms supporting student learning, engagement, motivation, and instructional practice.
• Opportunity to contribute to the education R&D movement by expanding its capacity and skills, providing feedback to DLPs about the utility of their datasets and insights about their features, and demonstrating the affordances and value of conducting research through DLPs.
• Involvement in a dynamic, supportive community of digital learning providers and researchers
• Two proposals will be funded

This solicitation offers opportunities to run experiments in two DLPs. One enables research with Teachley Math, an intervention that includes interactive digital games and problem-solving modeling tools, lessons and formative assessment data for students in grades K-5. The second enables research with RightOn Education, an online digital learning platform for grades 7-10 that allows teachers to create or select math games, engage students in feedback and reflection on their thinking, and access real-time information about student misconceptions. 

Teachley Math

Teachley Math is particularly interested in research investigating:

• Through what mechanisms does feedback shape outcomes?
• What sequences of tool actions best predict eventual correctness?
• What are common error patterns and do they vary by grade level?
• Do process measures add predictive validity beyond final-answer accuracy?

Digital Promise

Digital Promise is a global nonprofit working to expand opportunity for every learner. Working with a wide range of partners and practitioners in the U.S. and around the world, our initiatives have impacted over 4.4 million students and 180,000 teachers across 173 districts and in 27 countries to date.

Digital Promise was authorized by Congress in 2008, signed into law by President George W. Bush, and formally launched by President Barack Obama in September 2011. Startup support came from the U.S. Department of Education, Carnegie Corporation of New York, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Since then, Digital Promise has grown rapidly with support from both original and new funders.

AIMS EduData Initiative

The Advancing Innovative Math Solutions (AIMS) EduData Initiative, funded by the Gates Foundation, seeks to build sustainable and scalable research infrastructure to advance math learning. AIMS EduData especially encourages applications from graduate students and early career professionals, educators with research roles, such as those working in district research offices, and researchers located at minority serving institutions or Title I school districts. Successful applicants will conduct original research using datasets provided by leading digital learning platforms (DLPs) and participate in a growing community.

RightOn Education and Teachley Math RFP

For education researchers and practitioners

Benefits for successful applicants:

• Opportunity to investigate associations between features of a Digital Learning Platform and mechanisms supporting student learning, engagement, motivation, and instructional practice.
• Opportunity to contribute to the education R&D movement by expanding its capacity and skills, providing feedback to DLPs about the utility of their datasets and insights about their features, and demonstrating the affordances and value of conducting research through DLPs.
• Involvement in a dynamic, supportive community of digital learning providers and researchers
• Two proposals will be funded

This solicitation offers opportunities to run experiments in two DLPs. One enables research with Teachley Math, an intervention that includes interactive digital games and problem-solving modeling tools, lessons and formative assessment data for students in grades K-5. The second enables research with RightOn Education, an online digital learning platform for grades 7-10 that allows teachers to create or select math games, engage students in feedback and reflection on their thinking, and access real-time information about student misconceptions. 

RightOn Education

RightOn Education is particularly interested in research investigating questions related to the following areas (illustrative research questions are provided below):

• Student confidence and math self-efficacy: How do patterns of student confidence differ across correct and incorrect responses, and how do they vary by question or Common Core standard?
• Productive struggle, metacognition, and learning from misconceptions: How do different types of reflection prompts (e.g., self-directed vs. peer-directed explanations) affect the likelihood of optional hint submission and the length of student-generated hints?
• Student motivation and engagement: How do different incentive conditions influence student participation in optional activities, and how are they associated with student correctness and confidence?

Unlikely Collaborators Inc

We exist to help people RESOLVE CONFLICT. What kind of conflict are we talking about? The inside kind.

It's our perspective that most of the EXTERNAL conflict in the world is the result of unconscious, unresolved INTERNAL conflict in each and every one of us.

Unlikely Collaborators is an organization that exists to help people resolve conflict by making them aware of and helping them work with their Perception Box.

RFP To Fund Transformative Projects Rooted in the Perception Box™ Framework

This RFP is designed for organizations creating meaningful shifts in how people interpret their experiences, beliefs, and perspectives.

All requests must be project-specific and aligned with the Perception Box framework.

At Unlikely Collaborators, we support people and organizations who are helping others see something about themselves they couldn’t see before. Our work is grounded in the Perception Box, a framework developed by our founder, Elizabeth R. Koch.

The Perception Box is the internal lens through which each of us experiences the world. It is shaped by our beliefs, our past experiences, our identity, and the stories we carry, often without realizing it.

Most of the time, we don’t see this lens. We experience our perspective as reality. But when people begin to notice it, something shifts. There is often more curiosity, less certainty, and more openness to others and new possibilities.

We are not a fit for projects focused primarily on advocacy, external blame, or telling people what to think. We support work that helps people examine how they think.

What this looks like in practice

We are most interested in projects where participants are actively engaged in noticing and questioning their own assumptions. This might include:

• Structured experiences where people reflect on their beliefs and how those beliefs were formed
• Encounters with perspectives that challenge their existing worldview
• Moments of realization where someone recognizes their interpretation may not be the only one
• Practices that build curiosity, self-awareness, and the ability to stay open in the face of difference

Before you get started on your RFP grant application, here’s what to expect:

• At Unlikely Collaborators, we support people and organizations that create meaningful shifts in how individuals see themselves.
• We are not looking for surface-level awareness. We are looking for work that leads to a real moment of recognition, when someone begins to question their own assumptions, reconsider their perspective, or see others differently.
• We prioritize leaders working from lived experience, not distance—people who understand the challenge from the inside and are translating that insight into something others can directly experience.
• The strongest projects are designed to create these moments of reflection in a tangible way. They bring people together in environments that are thoughtful, human, and often unexpected, where insight is felt, not just discussed.

About

We want to help create a Chicago where all people have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

We support nonprofit organizations working toward this shared vision. Our grantmaking is grounded in our guiding principles including respect, trust and accessibility. We know it takes real time and effort to apply for funding, so we try to keep early steps as simple as possible and only ask for a full proposal when there’s a strong likelihood of alignment.

At Polk Bros. Foundation, we believe real transformation happens when the conditions shaping people’s lives are changed. Too often, early mortality, economic insecurity, and lack of influence are treated as separate challenges – when they all stem from the same long-standing practices, beliefs, and power dynamics that determine which communities get resources and whose voices are heard.

To shift these conditions, we fund community-driven approaches across three interconnected goals: Closing the Life Expectancy Gap; Building Community Wealth, Across Generations; and Fostering Participatory, Multiracial Democracy.

By investing across all three goals, our grantmaking aims to help shift the policies, practices, relationships, and stories that shape opportunity and belonging in Chicago. Together, these investments aim to improve safety and longevity, build lasting community wealth, and expand the power of residents to shape the decisions that affect their lives – creating the lasting conditions for a Chicago where everyone can reach their full potential.

Organizations must wait at least 12 months from the date of their most recent Polk Bros. Foundation grant before receiving another grant. Because our application and review process can take up to four months, organizations may begin a new application process as early as eight months after their most recent grant was issued.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is set to announce a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for multi-site investigator-initiated clinical trials. This initiative aims to support a range of clinical trials addressing efficacy and implementation research. The funding mechanism includes a two-phase approach (UG3/UH3), with a total award duration of up to seven years. Investigators are encouraged to prepare proposals that demonstrate scientific rationale and operational plans for these important studies.

The Burg-Coleman Iowa State 77 ACI Fellowship, offered by the ACI Foundation, supports graduate students pursuing advanced degrees in civil engineering focused on concrete structures or materials. Recipients receive a $10,000 stipend for educational expenses, recognition in Concrete International magazine, and coverage of travel costs for two ACI conventions. Open to international students attending institutions in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico, this fellowship fosters the next generation of leaders in the concrete industry.

The East and Inner Asia Council of the AAS offers small grants up to $2,000 for dissertation-level students and scholars focusing on China, Taiwan, or Inner Asia. Eligible projects include short research trips and conference organization. Preference is given to junior scholars and projects that enhance communication and curriculum development. Successful applications will clearly outline research questions and significance, and demonstrate the project's broader impact within the field. For further guidelines, visit the AAS FAQ page.

The ARS Women in Rhinology Research Grant, sponsored by Medtronic, offers $25,000 for one year to support innovative research in rhinology. Eligible applicants must be members of the American Rhinologic Society who have completed their residency, with at least one female investigator involved. The award covers legitimate research costs, with a detailed budget required. Results must be presented at an ARS national meeting, acknowledging the grant's support. This initiative fosters women's contributions to rhinology research.

The American-Made Promoting Registration of Inverters and Modules with Ecolabel (PRIME) Prize, backed by the U.S. Department of Energy, offers $2.7 million to enhance the registration of solar PV modules and inverters via the EPEAT ecolabel. This initiative encourages manufacturers to meet EPEAT standards, thus appealing to environmentally conscious buyers. With two phases, the competition aims to boost sustainable practices as the U.S. increases solar adoption in various sectors.

The ASNT Foundation offers the Robert B. Oliver Scholarship to support students enrolled in Nondestructive Testing (NDT) programs at U.S. institutions. With a funding amount of $2,500, the scholarship is awarded to students presenting the best original manuscript on NDT. This initiative aims to enhance educational opportunities and workforce development in the nondestructive testing field, promoting research and training for future professionals.

The PhRMA Foundation's Translational Medicine Predoctoral Fellowship supports promising students engaged in advanced stages of thesis research in translational medicine. The program focuses on innovative research that translates laboratory discoveries into practical applications that enhance patient care. It provides $30,000 in stipend support per year, conditional upon the awardee's ongoing university enrollment. This fellowship seeks to foster a new generation of researchers dedicated to improving health outcomes through rigorous scientific inquiry.

Village of the Living Dead Kenneth Fulton Memorial Scholarship

Kenneth Fulton was a member of the St. Charles Haunted House since its very beginning in 1985 until his passing at the haunted house in 1998. He volunteered and also brought along with him his kids and brothers to volunteer as well. Ken was a quiet gentle man that loved what the haunted house stood for and who it was all about – the kids. His favorite character to play was Michael Myers. He was tall and quiet and was able to scare the patrons with his eerie silence. He loved the members of the haunted house as his own family. He is greatly missed and would be so proud to be a part of this scholarship.  

Evaluation Criteria

• Community service (50)
• Financial need (25)
• Letters of recommendation from two volunteer organizations (13)
• Extracurricular/school activities (12)

American Physical Society

The American Physical Society is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance physics by fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and global community dedicated to science and society. APS represents more than 50,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and around the world.

APS Honors recognizes and celebrates the accomplishments of the global physics community. Guided by our core values, APS Honors encourages nominations that reflect the full range of talent, distinction, and experience in our field, and supports broad canvassing for professional achievement across diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise.

Irwin Oppenheim Award

This award recognizes outstanding contributions to physics by early career scientists who publish in Physical Review E (PRE). The annual award consists of a $5,000 stipend, a certificate, registration waiver and travel reimbursement to attend the APS March Meeting, and an invitation to speak at the conference.

American Physical Society

The American Physical Society is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance physics by fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and global community dedicated to science and society. APS represents more than 50,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and around the world.

APS Honors recognizes and celebrates the accomplishments of the global physics community. Guided by our core values, APS Honors encourages nominations that reflect the full range of talent, distinction, and experience in our field, and supports broad canvassing for professional achievement across diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise.

Richard A. Isaacson Award in Gravitational-Wave Science

This award recognizes outstanding contributions in gravitational-wave physics, gravitational-wave astrophysics, and the technologies that enable this science.

The annual award consists of $5,000, a certificate, travel reimbursement and a registration waiver to attend the APS April Meeting to give an invited talk and accept the award.

Nominations will be considered for three review cycles provided the nominator re-certifies the nomination before the next deadline.

The Garden Grant Program by Whole Kids Foundation offers $3,000 to schools and non-profits to create or enhance edible educational gardens. This initiative connects children with food, fostering curiosity and healthy eating habits. Eligible applicants include K-12 schools and organizations that regularly engage at least ten children in gardening activities. The program emphasizes the importance of hands-on learning about food and gardening, aiming to inspire a new generation of healthy eaters.

The Economic Research Rescue Fund, established by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), provides emergency grants up to $250,000 for economics-related research projects whose NSF funding has been terminated. This initiative aims to support Principal Investigators facing disruptions in crucial research that holds significant societal benefits, amidst reduced NSF support. Eligible projects must have previously received NSF funding and be linked to a practicing PhD economist. This fund seeks to sustain vital economic research during challenging times.

The PLTW Computer Science - Program Expansion grant from Phillips 66 aims to enhance access to quality education in STEM fields for middle and high school students. This initiative supports schools in expanding their existing PLTW Computer Science programs, particularly in high-need areas starting in the 2026-2027 academic year. Grants of $10,000 are available, prioritizing institutions with significant economic need among students, ensuring future generations are equipped for success in technology and engineering careers.

The Translational Medicine Postdoctoral Fellowship by the PhRMA Foundation supports U.S. and non-U.S. citizens in multidisciplinary research training at accredited U.S. universities. The program aims to enhance credentials in translational medicine, focusing on turning laboratory observations into effective medical interventions. The fellowship includes a stipend of $60,000 per year for 12 to 24 months, promoting innovative research that addresses unmet clinical needs in various scientific disciplines.

The Native Plant and Wildflower Education Grant offers up to $500 for educational programs focused on native plants and wildflowers. State Garden Clubs and similar organizations can co-sponsor symposia aimed at increasing awareness and knowledge about native flora, including endangered species and habitat management. Programs should be scheduled to coincide with wildflower blooming periods, promoting public planting initiatives and the design of native gardens.

What We Fund

The Dunham Foundation is committed to providing positive, multi-generational support to all individuals and families in our service area.

We believe that this support lays the groundwork for successful generations to come and builds an infrastructure for a community where all can thrive. The Dunham Foundation invests in the following three areas:

• Education
• Economic Growth
• Community 

Dunham Foundation Education Grant

If your request supports programming for children, birth through high school, particularly programming scheduled to begin during the school year or summer, please sign into the Dunham Foundation’s online portal to complete an Education Application and submit it by February 1. 

American Physical Society

The American Physical Society is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance physics by fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and global community dedicated to science and society. APS represents more than 50,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and around the world.

APS Honors recognizes and celebrates the accomplishments of the global physics community. Guided by our core values, APS Honors encourages nominations that reflect the full range of talent, distinction, and experience in our field, and supports broad canvassing for professional achievement across diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise.

Rolf Landauer and Charles H. Bennett Award in Quantum Computing

This award recognizes recent outstanding contributions in quantum information science, especially using quantum effects to perform computational and information-management tasks that would be impossible or infeasible by purely classical means. The award is given annually and will consist of $5,000 and a certificate citing the contributions of the recipient, plus an allowance for travel to an APS meeting to receive the award and deliver an invited lecture.