Note: Requests for sponsorship must be submitted at least eight weeks before the activities begin. 

Cascades fulfills its role as a responsible citizen by supporting environmental and social causes. Since it was founded, the Corporation has encouraged the human and economic development of the communities in which it operates by investing major sums of money. Thus, year after year, Cascades has used donations and sponsorships to support different products and events that are related to its preferred sectors.

The concept of sustainable development for Cascades goes beyond its environmental actions. It also involves support to the communities surrounding it. Annually, millions of dollars are paid in the form of donations and sponsorships to hundreds of organizations in North America and Europe. 

Cascades provides support in four sectors:

• sustainable development,
• education and entrepreneurship,
• amateur sports and physical activity, and
• the social community environment

Sustainable DevelopmentSustainable development and the need to respect the environment have always been key concerns for Cascades. A pioneer in this domain, Cascades is proud to support initiatives and organizations that promote sustainable development.

Education and EntrepreneurshipCascades firmly believes that young people have a key role to play in the future economic growth of business and society, which is why it also supports post-secondary educational institutions and young, emerging companies.

Amateur Sports and Physical ActivityCascades encourages daily physical activity by offering discounts on employee memberships at fitness centres and by providing amateur sports leagues (hockey, softball, soccer, etc.) with ongoing support.

Social Community Environment Cascades believes that achieving a balanced lifestyle requires both healthy working conditions and a thriving community. It strives to provide these conditions in a variety of ways, in particular through major investments in the communities in which it operates.

NOTE:  This program is NOT a grant, but rather a matching funds program.

About Elevation

Mission

Traditionally, technology and nonprofits have existed in separate worlds. At Elevation, we are bridging this longstanding gap by combining these two ostensibly different industries into one. We believe that technology is a catalyst that can propel nonprofits into making a greater impact. Our team at Elevation is that bridge and our solutions are the driving forces behind nonprofits generating quantifiable change and inspiring others to do the same. This idea is the foundation of how we do business every day.

Read more about mission & values here. 

Our Approach

At Elevation, we are united under one goal – provide quality digital solutions to nonprofit organizations so they can continue generating measurable change in their communities. In order to fulfill this mission, we have fostered a design process that is customized, flexible, and results-driven. Our clients receive fully functioning, efficient websites, and more. Your website is a tool and an integral part of fulfilling your nonprofit’s mission. When developed with the right team and ideas, you’ll be able to reach broader audiences and transmit a greater positive impact.

Read more about Elevation's team & clients here.

1 for 1 Matching Fund

For every dollar your nonprofit invests in Elevation’s in-house services, we will match that dollar with one of our own.

Born out of our mission to elevate nonprofits’ impact, our 1 for 1 Matching Fund helps us to provide otherwise out-of-reach services to eligible nonprofit partners.

What is the 1 for 1 match?

Making professional design & web services affordable

For every dollar your nonprofit invests in Elevation’s in-house services, we will match that dollar with one of our own.

Born out of our mission to elevate nonprofits’ impact, our 1 for 1 Matching Funds program helps us provide otherwise out-of-reach services to eligible nonprofit partners.

How can your organization participate?

If you are a nonprofit with a project and would like to apply for assistance, please complete our brief online application.

Are there Additional Requirements? 

We work with all sectors, from religious to environmental, provided that their missions align with the values listed on Elevation's "About Us" page. For logistical purposes, we do rely on a point of contact based in the US, Canada, or Europe, but past recipient organizations have been located across the Americas and Africa as well.

Which Projects are Eligible? 

• Website Design & Re-design in WordPress
• Copywriting
• CRM Integrations in WordPress
• Branding & Graphic Design
• Marketing & Google Grants
• On-going WordPress Support
• Website Hosting

Is there a maximum benefit? 

We match what you raise, up to a 50K project. (For a 50K project, we’ll fund up to 25K. For a 16K  project, we fund up to 8K, etc.) We consider projects over 50K to be appropriate for well-established organizations and thus are not eligible for this program. We still strive to provide all nonprofits with the best results for every dollar they spend.

Why do we need other funding for the first half of our project?

We understand that nonprofits are under-resourced. We include a stipulation about additional funding to support an organization's commitment to finishing a project, which we have found to work best when additional parties are invested. If you feel the project minimums are unachievable for your organization but you can provide empirical data showing strong community support, please include that information in your application.

What is the timeframe for projects? 

The minimum timeframe for projects is 4 months, though most projects take 5 to 6 months to complete. Projects that take longer than 6 months due to delays from the client incur an extraordinary fee.

What is the time commitment required from our staff? 

On average, website clients can expect their staff to dedicate 10 labor hours each week in order to make adequate progress. The amount of time required from your staff members depends on how much they split up the work and how much support your organization has for creating content, writing copy, and accessing hosting and integration information from the other technologies you use. Significant, actionable progress on a project must be made within two weeks of a request from the Project Manager, or your project will be placed on hold.

NOTE: Although we operate an invitation-only application process, we want to hear about ideas and work that fit within our programme strategies. Therefore, if an organisation believes that strong alignment exists with Oak Foundation’s funding priorities, we encourage the organisation to submit an unsolicited letter of enquiry. We will invite the organisation to apply for a grant if we also find alignment with our funding priorities and if there is available budget.

Environment Program: Climate Change Strategy

We envision a future free of pollution. To this end, we support organisations in Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, India and the United States.

In December 2015, world leaders signed the historic Paris Agreement on climate change. Their pledge is to keep global average temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius. It is an ambitious target and we will play a role alongside civil society groups, businesses and policy makers in finding ways to meet it.

Our grants between 2016 and 2020 are helping to guide economic, social and environmental development policies towards clean energy and an equitable future

Our Four Key Areas

Clean and efficient energy systems

We believe that clean and efficient energy systems will help reduce pollution, improve health and lift millions out of poverty.

To achieve the vision of a low-carbon future, financial and political support must end for the most heavily polluting projects, including tar sands expansion, new and existing coal power plants and deep-sea oil drilling.

Sustainable cities

We believe in building cleaner, safer and healthier cities. Sustainable cities have people-friendly urban planning and promote the use of low-carbon public transport to reduce car use and slash CO2 emissions.

To this end, we support organisations that champion better public health and quality of life through: better-funded transport systems; the promotion of cycling and walking; and the active involvement of women, young people and the elderly in public transit design. This will help make city living more attractive and accessible for everyone.

Fuel efficiency and electric vehicles

We believe that laws which regulate vehicle efficiency, encourage the use of electric vehicles and implement driverless cars will help create a cleaner, low-carbon world.

To this end we support organisations that: protect progressive vehicle efficiency standards; promote the benefits of fossil-free transport; and shape policies that make roads safer and cities healthier.

An enabling environment

We believe that creating jobs and economic benefits that encourage cleaner, smarter ways of powering homes and economies will:

• enable groups to mobilise public pressure for action;
• raise awareness of opportunities for climate action; and
• work with institutions that invest in clean energy solutions.

Our Grant-Making

For programme officers to make the best possible recommendation for funding, they strive to gain the most comprehensive view of the organisation, its board members, the project and finances. Therefore, we have a rigorous due diligence and selection process, which includes extensive discussions, financial reviews and site visits.

Funding decisions are made by the Board of Trustees, either individually or as a group. While the Board of Trustees meets twice annually, grants are considered on a rolling basis throughout the calendar year.

This process does not have a set time frame. It can take from two months to more than a year from the submission of a concept note to final approval, as indicated in the chart on this page. The formal application process begins only when an organisation is invited to submit an application.

Timing depends on a number of factors, but we work to ensure the most efficient process possible. After the initial approval of a concept note, organisations are encouraged to reach out to programme officers to learn about the grant-making process and the stages of the application.

The lines of communication between the programme officer and the organisations are always open once the organisation has been invited to apply – it is a collaborative effort.

Our principles

In all of our work, we are committed to social justice. To this end, we pursue rights-based approaches, gender equality and partnership with the organisations we fund. We seek to support innovation, visionary leaders and organisations. We seek to be inclusive, flexible and to learn from different points of view. We believe that the best grant-making reflects both careful due diligence and the willingness to take risks.

We encourage our partners to work together – we believe that together we are stronger. As a whole we fund initiatives that:

• target the root causes of problems;
• are replicable either within a sector or across geographical locations;
• include plans for long-term sustainability, such as co-funding;
• strive to collaborate with like-minded organisations;
• demonstrate good financial and organisational management; and
• value the participation of people (including children) and communities.

NOTE: Our Environment Program is not accepting unsolicited letters of inquiry at this time. Climate change is the defining issue of our day. It is an urgent global crisis that affects every problem philanthropy seeks to solve, whether it’s improving health, alleviating poverty, reducing famine, promoting peace, or advancing social justice. To safeguard human health and the environment, the Hewlett Foundation supports work to ensure that energy sources are clean and efficient, and that global average temperature rise does not exceed 2° Celsius.

The Hewlett Foundation has been investing for a number of years in various strategies to avoid the worst effects of climate change and spare human suffering by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Our grants focus on cleaning up power production, using less oil, using energy more efficiently, preserving forests, addressing non-CO2 greenhouse gases, and financing climate-friendly investments. Our grantmaking is focused in developed countries with high energy demand and developing countries with fast-growing energy demand or high deforestation rates.

GOALS

The following fundamental logic guides our grantmaking:

• We should focus our charitable dollars on mitigating climate change. The window for effective mitigation is rapidly closing, and the more society can reduce future warming, the less it will need to adapt.
• The most effective way to reduce GHG emissions is to focus on supporting progress in the biggest emitting countries and regions of the world: China, the United States, Europe, and India. These areas have both the largest potential gains and opportunities for spillover effects to other countries.
• Within these countries and regions, we should focus on the highest-emitting industries and sectors, including electricity and transportation, as well as industrial processes, the built environment, and forests and land-use.
• Philanthropy can speed emissions reductions by supporting a mix of analysis, advocacy, communications, technical assistance, innovation, business sector engagement, public-private partnership, and building public support and will for policy change. This work is largely national, and includes support for international agreements.
• The dramatic emissions reductions we need will not be possible unless we shift our thinking. We must get beyond our present focus on near-term, incremental efforts that reduce emissions today, and identify the longer-term, scaled-up, step-changes needed to mitigate the climate problem. To do that, we looked farther into the future—to 2050, rather than 2025 or 2030, and asked: What will energy and economic systems need to look like in 2050 to achieve the well below 2°C goal? And how can philanthropy support this transition?

Given this logic, we have five strategic imperatives for our grantmaking:

• Support work to reduce fossil fuels:
• We must continue to support current efforts to peak global use of fossil fuels as early as possible, including defending recent successes.
• Support work on energy systems:
• We must pivot from narrowly focusing on specific sub-elements of the energy sector to looking for systemic shifts that are potentially transformational. For example, instead of resting on the field’s success at bringing renewable electricity generation to market, we must now support work to overcome the complex, persistent, and interrelated regulatory, legal, social, and political barriers to deploying it at scale.
• Support work integrating across sectors.
• The work we support needs to be more broadly integrated across different problems and solutions. For example, transforming the transportation sector will require going beyond vehicle improvement and integrating it with the electricity, information, and land-use sectors.
• Support work to store carbon in the land.
• Climate models suggest that nearly a third of global emissions reductions must come from managing our lands, our agriculture, and our forests. To date, only a very small share of government or philanthropic resources has gone to support this work. Our society must increase that amount dramatically.
• Support and promote innovation.
• Climate philanthropy needs to invest more in research, analysis, and advocacy for policies that drive innovation in advanced energy systems and technologies. This includes finding ways to unlock public funding for the early stages of innovation and encouraging private investment for the commercial deployment of viable new technologies.

About Us

The JDC Europe Community Initiative Fund encourages Jewish communities and communal organizations to pilot new initiatives or advance key programmatic expansions. In certain cases, the Fund may support existing programs in their current scope.

Through this Fund, JDC also hopes to strengthen relationships with communities that have had limited connections with JDC.

JDC Europe Community Initiative Fund

The JDC Europe Community Initiative Fund is a project of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) – the world’s leading Jewish humanitarian aid organization working to alleviate poverty and strengthen Jewish life in more than 70 countries around the world.

Through partnerships with communities and organizations around the world, JDC serves as a catalyst for the development of Jewish communities, fostering self-sustainability and paving the path for future generations. The JDC Europe Community Initiative Fund is designed to stimulate Jewish community development in Europe by supporting innovation and key programmatic efforts through the provision of grants.

Grants will focus on the following program areas:

• Volunteerism and engagement
• Providing Jewish content to community members
• Leadership development
• Community outreach
• Resilience
• Community planning

About Us

We’re on a mission to bring color and brightness to the communities where we live and operate. Around the world, 47,000 PPG employees call 70 countries home. To all of us, home exists in every neighborhood where we have the opportunity to bring to life our purpose and promise: WE PROTECT AND BEAUTIFY THE WORLD™.

At PPG, we develop and deliver the innovative paints, coatings and specialty materials that our customers have trusted for 135 years. Through dedication and industry-leading expertise, we solve our customers’ biggest challenges, and we commit to the communities we call home.

To help support and create thriving communities, we make financial contributions to local organizations through PPG and the PPG Foundation, add to our employees’ charitable contributions and volunteerism and supply PPG products to projects that revitalize communities.

Focus Areas

What does it take to protect and beautify the world? All of us. And we believe the most effective way to make a meaningful difference in our communities is to use who we are and what we do best.  

That’s why our community support is focused on the areas where each one of us at PPG can have the most impact – education, community sustainability and employee engagement. 

You can find our employees in classrooms sharing their science and technology knowledge and volunteering their time with local nonprofits they care about. You can see our paint brightening the walls of elementary schools and hospitals. You can discover how our grants are supporting robotics labs, chemistry summer camps and color science lessons in communities across the globe to prepare the next generation of engineers and scientists with the enthusiasm and skills to pursue new possibilities. 

At PPG, we’re grateful to our local community partners that help us to fulfill our mission to make our world brighter and more colorful. In 2018, PPG and the PPG Foundation invested more than $9 million to hundreds of community organizations across 28 countries around the world.

Employee Engagement

With more than 47,000 employees across 70 countries, we have an opportunity to make many positive impacts in the places we call home, and we empower our employees to lead the way.

Our employees are inspired by a student’s joyful smile when completing a fun new science experiment. By the peace in a mother’s eyes at a newly renovated and colorful maternity ward. And by children’s laughter at a brightly painted playground. All around the world, PPG employees are bringing color and brightness to their neighborhoods. And when they dedicate their money, their expertise and their time to building better communities, we commit with them through a series of employee programs:

• COLORFUL COMMUNITIES® Initiative: In the hands of volunteers, PPG paint can make life-changing differences. That’s why thousands of employees are protecting and beautifying special places in their lives through this program, which combines volunteer power with our products to brighten and transform neighborhoods. From identifying project sites, recruiting volunteers and selecting the paints and colors used in each project, PPG employees power each initiative from start to finish. Learn more.
• Matching Gifts: When our employees in the U.S. and Canada make a personal financial contribution to the local organizations and causes they care about, the PPG Foundation doubles the impact. Dollar-for-dollar, we match personal donations to eligible nonprofit organizations to make every contribution go further.
• GIVE Program: The PPG Foundation backs the commitments of our employees who volunteer their time or serve on boards with $500 grants to eligible community organizations that are personally important to our employees in the U.S. and Canada.
• Charity Partner: Employees at each PPG EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) site are encouraged to identify and rally around an annual charitable organization partner through a variety of fundraising efforts from bake sales to raffles and volunteering. PPG provides matching funds in recognition of employees’ collective efforts.
• Volunteer Time Off (VTO): Each year, eligible employees in the U.S. are offered eight hours of paid time off to get out of the office and into their communities to contribute to causes they care about.
• Volunteer Teams: Employees across our global sites are encouraged to identify needs in their local communities and join together to create and mobilize volunteer teams to address them. From mentoring students to collecting personal items for families impacted by natural disasters to painting the home of a local veteran, every day PPG employees are out making a difference, together.

Community Sustainability

To PPG, community sustainability means revitalizing the spaces where we live to create happier, healthier, thriving communities.

The magic of color

We know that paint can do more than cover a building or coat a car. It can breathe new life and purpose into a space, create memories and spark emotion. It’s this power of transformation that inspires our global COLORFUL COMMUNITIES® program every day and drives us to brighten and refresh spaces in our neighborhoods. From a popular city park with faded playground equipment, or a school with dreary corridors and uninspiring classrooms, our employees are volunteering their time and talent to apply PPG paint products and brighten communities. We launched this program in 2015 with a commitment of $10 million over 10 years, and we’re well on our way. Learn more.

Helping communities thrive

We know that community revitalization comes in many forms – and often appears in unexpected ways. When local food banks are in need or natural disasters strike, PPG partners with local organizations that help to meet essential needs and strengthen local economies.

Education

At PPG, we see education as a way to enable possibilities and progress through learning, curiosity and discovery. After all, our scientists, engineers and innovators were once eager students with an appetite to shape the world around them. We know first-hand the importance of sparking a passion for science and math in students, as well as the need for a skilled science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce. That’s why we aim to share our passion and joy of experimentation with future inventors.

 A New Era of STEM Exploration 

The work we do in our labs helps to create innovations and inventions that improve how we move, work and live. Our work demonstrates the power of color and its ability to create joy, to change moods and to brighten a future. And, it enables a passion for protecting our environment for future generations.

We are proud to connect young innovators with our love and mastery of STEM, and to play a role in leading them to the groundbreaking, world-changing careers that PPG employees experience. We are on a journey to help prepare today’s students for tomorrow’s opportunities. Here’s how:

• We fund hands-on activities that immerse young people in STEM concepts that are linked to real-life solutions and innovations. Through our program partners, students learn these lessons in fun ways through the context of space exploration, mobility, color science experiments, and more.
• We support programs that target women and other underrepresented groups, exposing them to STEM learning and the possibilities and progress that the field offers.
• We support opportunities for the public to become more deeply engaged in how science and technology impact our daily lives. Long-term partnerships with the Carnegie Science Center in our global headquarters of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and with NEMO Science Museum in the Netherlands help us reach thousands of community members every year.
• We invest in students pursuing higher education in STEM-related fields and support them with scholarships and career skills training, in partnership with some of the world’s leading universities and training institutions.
• We activate the science talent of our employee volunteers to be mentors, host facility tours, conduct Q&A with students and demonstrate career and education paths in engineering, manufacturing, chemistry and more.

Building a world together where children can thrive

Our societies have the responsibility to help children thrive. Yet millions of children around the world are sexually abused, and the effects are often devastating and long-lasting. Thankfully, we are seeing new openings for change. Survivors and advocates are breaking through the culture of silence to call for justice. Governments and private institutions have begun to accept that they can and should do more. And researchers and practitioners are showing that prevention is possible.

We believe that children everywhere deserve a positive future: the chance to grow and learn in safety – free from the threat of sexual abuse.

We have seen growing evidence that preventing the sexual abuse of children is possible. For example, in Nairobi, Kenya, rapes have dropped by more than 50% in communities where girls and boys take part in a powerful training programme called No Means No. In Northern Uganda, through REAL Fathers Initiative, after being mentored by trained peers, young fathers were half as likely to use physical, psychological and verbal violence with their wives and children.

Together with our partners - along with policy-makers, global institutions, business and the public - we can build societies where children are never sexually abused. To this end, we work through two sub-programmes to: 

• promote, advance and scale up solutions to reduce child sexual abuse; and
• engage with and hold global institutions accountable to prevent abuse and to end impunity for child sexual abuse. 

Our Strategy

THe Prevent Child Sexual Abuse team launched this five-year strategy in December 2018. The strategy includes two sub-programmes: Solutions & Advancing Action and Accountability & Ending Impunity. It also includes limited support for strategic opportunities and initiatives. We plan to move to fewer, larger grants and to provide more core support. We have also made a commitment to tkae more risks, and welcome bold ideas that can unleash energy, much attention and hope. 

Sub-Programme 1 - Solutions and Advancing Action

We have three targets

• Target 1 - Drive forward actions to reduce child sexual abuse and exploitation
• Target 2 - Scale interventions that accelerate the reduction of child sexual abuse and exploitation by: 
• engaging men and boys and promoting positive gender norms in early childhood; and 
• building healthy relationships amongst young adolescents
• Target 3 - Shine the spotlight on boys as victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. 

Sub-Programme 2 - Accountability and Ending Impunity

We have three targets: 

• Target 1 - Implement new child rights standards in international financial and supporting institutions. 
• Target 2 - Shift the paradigm to see young athletes as young people first. 
• Target 3 - Build global commitment to end impunity for child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Strategic Opportunities

We also support cross-cutting efforts beyond our sub-programme focus. This includes support for networks that strengthen the movement to end child sexual abuse, survivor groups and other catalytic or time-bound initiatives that advance our mission.

KKR Grants supports nonprofit organizations that are working across three key areas:

• Opportunities: Support for innovative pathways of workforce recovery and development
• Communities: Support for food security, safe housing, public health, and crisis relief
• Heroes: Support for teachers, first responders, essential workers and front line medical professionals

Community Investments

While charitable investments are tailored to local needs, Applied Materials and the Foundation provide funding focused on Girls Empowerment, Education, Civic Engagement, Arts and Culture and the Environment. We also contribute to relief and recovery efforts when natural disasters affect our communities around the world.

Focus Areas

We provide funding to organizations providing programs and services in the following focus areas:

Education, Arts & Culture, Civic Engagement, Environment and Girls Empowerment.

We prioritize projects that address community needs in sites where Applied Materials does business and welcome opportunities to engage employees with local grant recipients.

Education 

Education inspires young minds, opens new doors and paves the way to more promising futures. We recognize that many communities and schools lack the resources and programs required to prepare their students for meaningful careers. For this reason, the majority of our education grants are directed to neighborhoods with the greatest need.

We have a special interest in funding Education grant proposals that:

• Benefit students in grades K-12
• Focus on traditional skills such as reading, writing, math, science and technology, and other subjects that prepare young people for college and career
• Address critical education needs through innovative approaches to learning
• Expand existing efforts in order to reach more students or a wider geographic area
• Actively partner with other nonprofit groups to create, implement or evaluate shared programs

Arts and Culture

Creativity sparks the imagination and drives the development of new ideas that can transform the way we live. We support efforts that bring the full spectrum of artistic expression to the greater community, from visual and performing arts to community events and workshops.

We have a special interest in funding Arts and Culture grant proposals that:

• Have broad community appeal
• Take arts and culture outside traditional settings to reach young people of diverse backgrounds, particularly in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods
• Support nonprofit organizations in bringing the arts to educational programs and organizations

Civic Engagement

When people are actively involved in improving the quality of life in their neighborhoods, they help to create more vibrant, livable communities. With our civic engagement grants, we support organizations that help people find stability in difficult times and develop strength of NGO/nonprofit sector to address community challenges.

We have a special interest in funding Civic Engagement grant proposals that:

• Meet basic needs such as access to nutritional food, clean water and affordable housing
• Support systemic, collaborative approaches to eliminating homelessness
• Stimulate innovations that improve efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery
• Support the infrastructure of the nonprofit sector and its leadership 

Environment

To engage employees and community members in working toward a more sustainable future, we invest in environmental education and community-based projects that demonstrate the importance and value of protecting the environment.

We have a special interest in funding Environment grant proposals that:

• Focus on environmental education for young people, especially in underserved communities
• Encourage hands on opportunities for employee volunteers and their families

Girls Empowerment

See separate grant page here