Charitable Contributions

Our goal with financial contributions from BOK Financial and the BOKF Foundation is to enhance the quality of life and economic wellbeing in the communities where BOK Financial operates and where our employees work and live including Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Our charitable contributions are focused on four pillars of giving: United Way, economic development, education and basic needs

Our long-term strategic plan guides all contributions to assure maximum impact in the community and to develop mutually beneficial relationships with our nonprofit partner agencies. BOK financial contributions are budgeted on an annual calendar basis. We accept online charitable contribution/grant applications throughout the year.

Pillars of giving

Basic Needs

We provide volunteer and financial support to organizations serving the most vulnerable members of our community. Our efforts largely focus on organizations providing direct services addressing such issues as poverty, hunger, healthcare, housing and safety.

Education

An equitable, robust educational system drives long-term community growth. We support local nonprofits whose primary mission is promoting basic education, including public school foundations, early childhood education, financial literacy, and institutions of higher education.

Economic Development

Actions that raise the standard of living and economic health of our communities make them better places to live and work. We provide support to local chambers of commerce; nonprofits focused on workforce development, job training, etc.; and public/private partnerships investing in our communities.

Centene Charitable Foundation

Successful corporate citizenship happens when companies invest in the local organizations that know their communities best. The Centene Foundation works with our local partners on initiatives that focus on inclusion, the whole person and community development.

Vision

Centene’s purpose is transforming the health of the community, one person at a time. The Centene Foundation is an essential part of how we pursue this purpose. We achieve measurable impact for the communities we serve through partnerships and philanthropy efforts that invest in initiatives with holistic approaches to dismantling barriers to health.

Areas of Focus

Reflecting Centene’s commitment to the needs of those who rely on government-sponsored health care and to addressing social determinants of health and health equity, preference will be given to initiatives in three distinct areas of focus.

• Healthcare Access
• Social Services
• Education

Charitable Contributions

Costco Wholesale’s primary charitable efforts specifically focus on programs supporting children, education, and health and human services in the communities where we do business. Throughout the year we receive a large number of requests from nonprofit organizations striving to make a positive impact, and we are thankful to be able to provide support to a variety of organizations and causes. While we would like to respond favorably to all requests, understandably, the needs are far greater than our allocated resources and we are unable to accommodate them all.

Warehouse Donations:

Warehouse donations are handled at the warehouse level - please consult your local warehouse for up-to-date information regarding their donations contacts and review process.

Grant Applications

If the request is under consideration, you may be contacted by staff for any additional information needed. Applications are reviewed within 4-6 weeks, and decisions are made based on several factors, including: type of program; identified community need not otherwise available; indication that evidenced based data will establish measurable results of intended outcomes; community collaboration; broad base of financial support; project budget and operating expenses.

The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation seeks to dramatically improve the lives of people and the world around us through innovative strategies, systems changing approaches, and disrupting technologies. Our goal is to find social entrepreneurs with dynamic ideas and nurture them at the early stages with maximum leverage and total commitment.

Prospects for our portfolio of social enterprises come from a vast field of compelling ideas and dedicated leaders. We concentrate our selection on the capabilities of the founder/leader, the scalability of the model, and the potential impact of the organization on the world.

We have an open application process and accept applications year round. Borrowed from our venture capital legacy we find exceptional entrepreneurs, provide them with 3 years of unrestricted capital (totaling $300,000) and provide rigorous on-going support by joining their board of directors for the 3 years and partnering with the leader to help them to build capacity in their organization and scale their impact.

What We Fund

DRK’s hope is to support outsized impact through entrepreneurs and enterprises that create a transformational paradigm shift to meaningfully address a pressing societal problem affecting people’s lives.

DRK Funds:

• Organizations addressing a critical social or environmental issue as the focus of their work.
• Founders who intend to expand their impact significantly over time.
• Organizations operating in Africa, Europe, India, Latin America, and the United States.
• Independent nonprofit and impact first, mission-driven for-profit entities, including US 501(c)3 and its non-US equivalents, C corporations, B corporations, and hybrid organizations.
• Fiscally sponsored organizations in select cases where there is a plan to spin out (in our experience, independence creates stronger enabling conditions for growth).
• Post-pilot, pre-scale organizations. This typically means:
  • Your program, product or service is already in the market or in the field.
  • You have early indication that your model is having its intended impact.
  • Your organization is 3-5 years old (this is not a rule, but a guidepost).
• Organizations with one or more founders who are full-time or intend to be.
  • We believe that full-time leadership from the organization’s founder(s) is critical to an early stage organization’s growth.
  • We recognize that going full-time requires resources that you may still be putting together, and if that is the case we are happy to start a conversation with you in the meantime.
• We value diversity of people proximate to the problem at hand and a commitment to foster justice, equity, inclusion, and belonging practices.

Issues

Issues include:

• Arts & Culture
• Civic Engagement
• Economic Empowerment
• Education
• Energy & Environment
• Environment & Climate Change
• Food & Agriculture
• Health
• Social Justice
• Systemic Poverty

Hearst Foundations' Mission

The Hearst Foundations identify and fund outstanding nonprofits to ensure that people of all backgrounds in the United States have the opportunity to build healthy, productive and inspiring lives.

Hearst Foundations' Goals

The Foundations seek to achieve their mission by funding approaches that result in:

• Improved health and quality of life
• Access to high quality educational options to promote increased academic achievement
• Arts and sciences serving as a cornerstone of society
• Sustainable employment and productive career paths for adults
• Stabilizing and supporting families

Funding Priorities

The Hearst Foundations support well-established nonprofit organizations that address significant issues within their major areas of interests – culture, education, health and social service – and that primarily serve large demographic and/or geographic constituencies. In each area of funding, the Foundations seek to identify those organizations achieving truly differentiated results relative to other organizations making similar efforts for similar populations. The Foundations also look for evidence of sustainability beyond their support.

Culture

The Hearst Foundations fund cultural institutions that offer meaningful programs in the arts and sciences, prioritizing those which enable engagement by young people and create a lasting and measurable impact. The Foundations also fund select programs nurturing and developing artistic talent.

Types of Support: Program, capital and, on a limited basis, general and endowment support

Education

The Hearst Foundations fund educational institutions demonstrating uncommon success in preparing students to thrive in a global society. The Foundations’ focus is largely on higher education, but they also fund innovative models of early childhood and K-12 education, as well as professional development.

Types of Support: Program, scholarship, capital and, on a limited basis, general and endowment support

Health

The Hearst Foundations assist leading regional hospitals, medical centers and specialized medical institutions providing access to high-quality healthcare for low-income populations. In response to the shortage of healthcare professionals necessary to meet the country’s evolving needs, the Foundations also fund programs designed to enhance skills and increase the number of practitioners and educators across roles in healthcare. Because the Foundations seek to use their funds to create a broad and enduring impact on the nation’s health, support for medical research and the development of young investigators is also considered.

Types of Support: Program, capital and, on a limited basis, endowment support

Social Service

The Hearst Foundations fund direct-service organizations that tackle the roots of chronic poverty by applying effective solutions to the most challenging social and economic problems. The Foundations prioritize supporting programs that have proven successful in facilitating economic independence and in strengthening families. Preference is also given to programs with the potential to scale productive practices in order to reach more people in need.

Types of Support: Program, capital and general support

NOTE: Recipients will be notified by email mid-March to mid-April, depending on their location. Fall recipients will be notified in September. 

Monarch Watch is a nonprofit educational outreach program based at the University of Kansas that focuses on the monarch butterfly, its habitat, and its spectacular fall migration.

Free Milkweeds for Restoration Projects

Free milkweeds are available for habitat restoration projects in the Eastern and Western breeding range of the monarch butterfly. Monarch Watch and our partner nurseries have distributed over 730,000 free milkweeds for monarch butterfly habitat restoration since the program began in 2015. Thank you to our funding sources and everyone who has worked so hard to plant and care for these milkweeds!

This program focuses on distributing free milkweed plugs for large-scale habitat restoration projects throughout the breeding range of the eastern monarch butterfly population (east of the Rocky Mountains) and the western population in California. The focus is on the main migration routes.

Free Milkweeds for Schools & Non-Profits

Monarchs and pollinators need our help due to habitat loss. If your school or non-profit educational organization is interested in this conservation measure, we can help you create a habitat for monarchs and pollinators. 

NOTE: Grant and sponsorship requests currently are accepted on a rolling basis through the application portal.

Our Mission

Improve and enrich the lives of families and children

Ous Focus

Our giving priorities include supporting programs or organizations in the areas of healthcare, housing, hunger, and education, especially those serving women and children. Our giving takes place throughout the United States where we operate stores, distribution centers, and our corporate office.

What We Fund

Support is provided in the form of monetary gifts, gift cards, and merchandise in-kind. Significant partnership projects and capital requests are by invitation only. Big Lots Foundation expects requests from 501(c)3 public nonprofit organizations only. Requests from individuals, families, and other sources will not be accepted. We receive a very high volume of requests. Only the most competitive of those will be considered. Fewer will be funded.

Big Lots Foundation Grants

Big Lots invests in partnerships that improve and enrich the lives of families and children. Support is provided in the form of monetary gifts, gift cards, and merchandise in-kind.

Focus Areas

Big Lots Foundation accepts requests for organizations affecting:

• Hunger
  • Providing nutritious food or meals.
  • Providing emergency food assistance.
  • Educating families or individuals about the importance of healthy eating.
• Housing 
  • Preventing families or individuals from losing their housing.
  • Providing affordable, stable housing.
  • Providing emergency shelter for families and individuals.
• Healthcare 
  • Improving healthcare through research and education.
  • Providing preventative education and care.
  • Providing affordable, critical medical care.
• Education 
  • Providing service-learning curriculum that aligns with education standards.
  • Promoting servant leadership through academic and experiential learning.
  • Improving classroom learning outcomes through innovation.

Background

At Bank of America, we’re guided by a common purpose to help make financial lives better. Through our focus on Responsible Growth, we deliver for our teammates, clients and shareholders, while addressing economic mobility, racial equality and social progress focused on the needs of the community. We drive meaningful and sustainable progress to help address society’s biggest challenges by aligning all of our resources – including our financing, our client products and services, our philanthropy and how we manage our own activities.

As part of this work, we develop strong partnerships with nonprofit organizations focused on issues fundamental to economic mobility in low- and moderate-income communities. We focus on improving the lives of individuals and families by investing in health, jobs, and strengthening broader community vitality by addressing needs related to small business resiliency, and community development.

Through our partnerships, we support vulnerable populations, including working families, youth, seniors, individuals living with disabilities, veterans, and those impacted by the criminal justice system – enabling them to move forward in their goals.

RFP: Economic Mobility Focused on the Needs of individuals and Families

We focus on the economic mobility of individuals and families by investing in workforce development & education and addressing basic needs.

Today, more than 40 million people are living in poverty and struggling to make ends meet. Many working families are still forced to make tough spending decisions. Access to basic needs (e.g., food, shelter, affordable childcare, transportation) and the ability to find meaningful employment are challenges faced by many. That’s why we partner with nonprofits that are working to alleviate poverty and create pathways to economic success.

Health

Too many communities across the United States do not have sufficient access to what is needed to live healthier lives. In communities of color, generations of lack of access to care and health resources have contributed to poorer health outcomes. We are focusing on programs and organizations who are working to address the economic and social conditions that influence family stability and health access including access to community- based health services, crisis-prevention tied to family stabilization programs, and other poverty related issues.

Examples:

Prevention and Access to healthcare – Services that improve health outcomes with an emphasis on community-based healthcare , mental health counseling, substance use disorder treatment, and rehabilitation.; services that address access to quality health care, including early detection and disease prevention; capacity building and training for local community-based health centers and clinics

Food Access and Nutrition – food-based health care partnerships; programs addressing fresh and nutritious food access; programs that address dietary nutritional needs and education for persons with underlying health conditions (diabetes, cancer, heart-health)

Family stabilization – access to crisis prevention programs and wrap services including help with immediate and safe shelter, free or subsidized benefits like internet access, utilities, childcare, transportation, financial assistance and recovery.

Services for the homeless – programs that prevent or end homelessness, such as emergency shelter, rapid-rehousing, rental and utility assistance and permanent supportive housing.

Jobs

Employment is a key driver of economic mobility. That’s why we’re focused on building pathways to employment by supporting a range of workforce development opportunities, including education, upskilling and reskilling programs – meeting people where they are so that individuals and families can advance.

Examples:

Student supports – Nonprofit programs providing support services to help students obtain training, certificates, or degrees. Supports for students who may be first-generation, low-income, students with disabilities and/or other barriers, in particular supports for BIPOC students

Youth workforce development and employment  – Nonprofit programs providing high school completion programs, supportive services for students, skills-training (hard and soft skills), first- time employment, internships, and/or apprenticeships for youth, especially those who are not in school or working

Skills training for adults through alternate routes – Nonprofit organizations providing adults with job preparedness, training, skill building, career counseling, placement, job retention, and entrepreneurship opportunities

Barriers to employment – Nonprofit organizations that help people needing additional assistance to overcome extraordinary barriers to employment (i.e. case management for individuals with disabilities, the formerly incarcerated, ESL training and foster care youth).

Academic Institutions – Post-secondary institutions (vocational/technical college, community college, four-year university or other trade school) that are ensuring students matriculate and achieve post-graduation success

The Lawrence Foundation is a private family foundation focused on making grants to support environmental, human services and other causes.

The Lawrence Foundation was established in mid-2000. We make both program and operating grants and do not have any geographical restrictions on our grants. Nonprofit organizations that qualify for public charity status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or other similar organizations are eligible for grants from The Lawrence Foundation.  

Grant Amount and Types

Grants typically range between $5,000 - $10,000. In some limited cases we may make larger grants, but that is typically after we have gotten to know your organization over a period of time. We also generally don’t make multi-year grants, although we may fund the same organization on a year by year basis over a period of years.

General operating or program/project grant requests within our areas of interests are accepted. In general, regardless of whether a grant request is for general operating or program/project expenses, all of our grants will be issued as unrestricted grants.