Literacy Grants for Nonprofits
Literacy Grants for Nonprofits in the United States
Looking for the best list of literacy grants for nonprofits? This list of grants includes literacy grants for nonprofits all across the United States; whether you're California or Florida, we've got you covered. Whether you're part of a local library or an after school program, we can help you find a literacy grant.
Read more about each grant by clicking into them below, or start your 14-day free trial of Instrumentl to get active grant opportunities that match your specific programs and organization.
100+ Literacy grants for nonprofits in the United States for your nonprofit
From private foundations to corporations seeking to fund grants for nonprofits.
55
Literacy Grants for Nonprofits over $5K in average grant size
39
Literacy Grants for Nonprofits supporting general operating expenses
92
Literacy Grants for Nonprofits supporting programs / projects
Literacy Grants for Nonprofits by location
Africa
Alabama
Alaska
American Samoa
Arizona
Arkansas
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Georgia (US state)
Guam
Haiti
Hawaii
Idaho
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
North Dakota
Northern Mariana Islands
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Puerto Rico
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Utah
Vermont
Virgin Islands
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
View More
Explore grants for your nonprofit:
Rolling deadline
American Express Community Giving
American Express Foundation
Unspecified amount
Mission
It is our mission to support our customers, colleagues and communities by helping them achieve their aspirations and helping their communities thrive. This shapes our work as a responsible corporate citizen. We deliver high-impact funding and initiatives that support people, businesses and non-profit partners so that together, we can make a meaningful difference in the world.
Rolling deadline
Global Impact Cash Grants
Cisco Foundation
Up to US $75,000
Global Impact Cash Grants
Cisco welcomes applications for Global Impact Cash Grants from community partners around the world who share our vision and offer an innovative approach to a critical social challenge.
We identify, incubate, and develop innovative solutions with the most impact. Global Impact Cash Grants go to nonprofits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that address a significant social problem. We’re looking for programs that fit within our investment areas, serve the underserved, and leverage technology to improve the reach and efficiency of services. We accept applications year-round from eligible organizations. An initial information form is used to determine whether your organization will be invited to complete a full application.
Social Investment Areas
At Cisco, we make social investments in three areas where we believe our technology and our people can make the biggest impact—education, economic empowerment, and crisis response, the last of which incorporates shelter, water, food, and disaster relief. Together, these investment areas help people overcome barriers of poverty and inequality, and make a lasting difference by fostering strong global communities.
Education Investments
Our strategy is to inclusively invest in technology-based solutions that increase equitable access to education while improving student performance, engagement, and career exploration. We support K-12 solutions that emphasize science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as well as literacy. We also consider programs that teach environmental sustainability, eliminate barriers to accessing climate change education, and invite student engagement globally to positively affect the environment.
What we look for:
- Innovative early grade solutions using the internet and technology to bridge the barriers preventing access to education for underserved students globally.
- Solutions that positively affect student attendance, attitudes, and behavior while inspiring action by students to improve learning outcomes, whether they participate in person, online, or in blended learning environments.
- Solutions with high potential to replicate and scale globally, thereby increasing the availability of evidence-based solutions that support student-centricity, teacher capacity in the classroom, and increased parental participation to help students learn and develop.
Note: Cisco does not provide direct funding to schools.
Economic Empowerment
Our strategy is to invest in early stage, tech-enabled solutions that provide equitable access to the knowledge, skills, and resources that people need to support themselves and their families toward resilience, independence, and economic security.
Our goal is to support solutions that benefit individuals and families, and that contribute to local community growth and economic development in a sustainable economy.
We target our support in three interconnected areas:
- Skills development to help job seekers secure dignified employment and long-term career pathways in technology or other sectors, including environmental sustainability/green jobs.
- Inclusive entrepreneurship with small businesses as engines of local growth as well as high growth potential start-ups as large-scale job creators nationally and internationally, in technology or other sectors, including environment sustainability/green businesses.
- Banking the unbanked through relevant and affordable financial products and capacity building services.
Cisco Crisis Response
We seek to help overcome the cycle of poverty and dependence and achieve a more sustainable future through strategic investments. We back organizations that successfully address critical needs of underserved communities, because those who have their basic needs met are better equipped to learn and thrive.
What we look for:
- Innovative solutions that increase the capacity of grantees to deliver their products and services more effectively and efficiently
- Design and implementation of web-based tools that increase the availability of, or improve access to, products and services that are necessary for people to survive and thrive
- Programs that increase access to clean water, food, shelter, or disaster relief and promote a more sustainable future for all
- By policy, relief campaigns respond to significant natural disaster and humanitarian crises as opposed to those caused by human conflict. Also by policy, our investments in this area do not include healthcare solutions.
Rolling deadline
Global Payments Corporate Sponsorships
Global Payments Direct
Unspecified amount
Corporate Citizenship - Giving Back Globally
As a Service. Driven. Commerce company, Global Payments does its utmost to be a responsible corporate citizen, and our employees demonstrate passion and enthusiasm for making a difference in the lives of others. As a member of the global business community, corporate citizenship is fundamental to our values and who we are. We take action around the world to create change by offering our time, services and financial assistance to those in need.
Our Commitment
Global Payments is committed to serving the communities around the world in which we live and work by providing resources to improve financial preparedness and literacy, promote good health initiatives including preventative care and well-being programs, emphasize education and continuous learning, and support disaster relief efforts.
Our Purpose
We strive to integrate corporate citizenship into every aspect of our company in order to:
- Empower and encourage our employees and others to serve their communities
- Leverage our resources, talent, global reach and expertise to create meaningful change
- Ensure that society benefits from our company's commitment to make a difference around the world
Global Payments' Corporate Citizenship Goals
Global Payments' philanthropic efforts are focused on financial literacy, health, education and disaster relief. We believe that by supporting these common societal issues and concerns, we will be able to help individuals, businesses and communities overcome barriers to economic growth. We support a variety of organizations and programs that help create and sustain commerce around the world, helping to achieve positive economic outcomes wherever we may live or work.
Participation and Involvement
Global Payments makes it a priority to promote a culture of service to make a difference in the lives of others by committing financial resources to nonprofit organizations around the world.
Current Corporate Sponsorships
Global Payments is committed to supporting and nurturing programs that serve a global community in the each of the following areas.
Financial Preparedness and Literacy
We believe in the critical importance of financial literacy. We fund programs that not only provide assistance but also promote independence and well-being for individuals and small businesses that lack access to information, resources and related services.
Health
We support initiatives and programs that promote good health and preventative care. We focus on programs that help individuals and families cope with chronic health issues as well as programs dedicated to physical or mental disabilities (congenital or acquired), covering impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions.
Education and Continuous Learning
In addition to the financial literacy programs, we emphasize education in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) programs.
Disaster Relief
Global Payments has a longstanding commitment to helping people affected by major natural disasters and humanitarian crises. In these difficult times, we work with our humanitarian response partners to direct funds to the people and places in greatest need.
Rolling deadline
Hearst Foundations Grants
Hearst Foundation
US $30,000 - US $200,000
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
Rolling deadline
Richard Donchian Foundation Grants
The Richard Davoud Donchian Foundation
Up to US $25,000
NOTE: The foundation does not use prescreening or letters of inquiry or intent! The grant application is the appropriate first step in approaching the foundation. If you believe your organization might be a good fit after reviewing the guidelines and FAQs, you are welcome to submit an application.
Mission
The Richard Davoud Donchian Foundation provides funds to nonprofit organizations whose programs result in the strengthening of the human spirit and the enhancement of personal integrity. The Foundation channels most of its financial resources toward charitable organizations whose attention is concentrated on character development through leadership training, literacy, primary education, business integrity, spiritual enrichment and ethics.
It is the expressed belief of the Donchian Foundation that every individual can become physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually stronger, resulting in the culmination of a more confident and scrupulous lifestyle. The primary objective of the Donchian Foundation's grant making activities is to ensure that its ultimate recipients become empowered to strengthen and build up their families and communities -- passing onto others that which was given to them.
Guiding Principles
The Donchian Foundation's goal is to help effective organizations advance their mission and meet their charitable objectives. Through its endorsement, the Foundation's secondary objective is to create a ripple effect that leverages new partners and greater visibility. Leveraging is a principle that the foundation believes in, and one that is applied to its efforts toward strategic philanthropy. Whether it's leveraging matching funds through challenge grants, or motivating like-minded organizations to participate in a foundation-initiated project, the ultimate intention is to foster the best possible results.
Qualities sought by the Donchian Foundation in its partner organizations are:
- effective and dynamic personnel;
- passionate leadership;
- a bias against bureaucracy;
- prudent management & governance practices; and
- commitment to results and to the documented assessment of program impact.
The Foundation focuses its grant making in three key areas: Literacy & Education; Humanitarian Efforts and Ethics & Personal Development.
Literacy & Education
– With an interest in rethinking and reconfiguring curriculum, pedagogy, and the other academic resources in schools and communities, the Foundation focuses on programs that work toward long-term improvement in all aspects of education, but with an emphasis on literacy.
Humanitarian Efforts
– To improve the lives and spirits of individuals and communities facing pressing circumstances, etc., including efforts to address Children’s Health.
Ethics & Personal Development
– To enhance the moral, ethical, spiritual and physical well-being and progress of mankind. The Foundation's grantmaking activities are centered around the concept of social purpose enterprise that seeks to raise the standards of ethical excellence in society, moral character in the community, faith in the family, integrity in business and grassroots leadership in needy communities.
Applications dueMar 20, 2023
Olive Tree Foundation Grant
The Olive Tree Foundation
US $2,000 - US $11,000
NOTE: The Olive Tree Foundation begins accepting grant applications in the first quarter of each year. The increased number of applications we receive each continually exceeds expectations. To ensure our small staff can effectively and fairly review the requests, we decreased the number accepted in 2022 to 50.
About the Foundation
The Olive Tree Foundation, Inc., is an independent philanthropy established in the United States in 1997.
Our mission: The Olive Tree Foundation strives to support U.S.-based nonprofits that provide food, shelter, medical care and education for those in need; make arts and culture more accessible and equitable; invest in community and youth and adult development; and protect the environment.
Grantmaking Focus
Organizations eligible to apply for grants from The Olive Tree Foundation focus on:
Basic necessities
- We support nonprofits that provide food for the hungry, shelter the indigent and infirm and provide medical (physical and emotional) care to those in need.
Youth education and development
- OTF support nonprofits that develop the academic skills of youth. Key objectives should include character-building; fostering ethics, teamwork, self-esteem and self-confidence; broadening horizons and aspirations; strengthening unique abilities and talents; developing community awareness and involvement; improving academic, communication and interpersonal skills.
Adult education and development
- We support nonprofits that promote literacy and workforce development through various programs that empower adults to become self-sufficient and self-sustaining.
Community development
- We support nonprofits involved in the protection of civil rights and the creation of environmental infrastructures that enhance quality of life in the communities they serve.
Arts and Culture
- We support nonprofits that improve the quality of life in communities through arts and cultural enrichment and/or renovate structures that preserve a historical heritage.
Pre proposal dueSep 16, 2023
Sociological Initiatives Foundation Grant
Sociological Initiatives Foundation Inc.
US $10,000 - US $20,000
Sociological Initiatives Foundation Grant
The Sociological Initiatives Foundation supports social change by linking research to social action. It funds research projects that investigate laws, policies, institutions, regulations, and normative practices that may limit equality in the South. It gives priority to projects that seek to address racism, xenophobia, classism, gender bias, exploitation, or the violation of human rights and freedoms. It also supports research that furthers language learning and behavior and its intersection with social and policy questions.
The Foundation supports research that focuses on improving services and systems and increasing positive social and physical conditions through:
- Policy development
- Placement and shaping of the policy agenda
- Policy adoption or implementation
- Policy blocking
- Increasing advocacy capacity and political influence
- Shaping public sentiment
- Addressing challenges related to language and literacy
Language issues include literacy, language loss and maintenance, language policy, language and national security, bilingualism, language and gender, language and law, language disabilities, language and health, language and education, different language cultures, and second language acquisition.
In the context of social and racial inequality dating back centuries, the Foundation supports projects that address institutional rather than individual or behavioral change. It seeks to fund research and initiatives that provide insight into sociological and linguistic issues that can help specific groups and or communities expand opportunities and challenge injustices.
Grant sizes normally range from $10,000 to $20,000. We look for projects that have an explicit research design and a concrete connection to public or community impact. It is not enough to just write a report or add a focus group to a social change project. The research should build an organization or constituency’s potential to expand public knowledge, impact policy, and create social change.
Current Thematic Focus: Violence and Society
The Sociological Initiatives Foundation seeks to support community-based research in the Southern United States focused on the broad topic of violence and society. It invites requests to support research and advocacy efforts that move beyond the familiar conceptualizations of what violence is, how we experience it, how we talk about it, and how we advocate for freedom and safety.
Background
The Sociological Initiatives Foundation has supported a wide range of community-based research projects. Most of the activist-scholar projects have addressed structural race, class, and gender inequities. As the Foundation sharpened its emphasis on addressing systemic racism and racialized violence against Black people, however, it recognized a common but less-interrogated thread in many of the projects it has supported over the years. Many projects contend with the raw brutality of everyday violence in communities – a pressing reality that is often made invisible, individualized, or ignored as a form of structural oppression.
The scale and pervasiveness of this violence is staggering. With the rise of gun violence, gender-based violence, police-brutality, the carceral state, religious extremism, hate-crimes, and so on, there is an opportunity to develop more imaginative and innovative ways to understand these complex realities and create new spaces to investigate, theorize, and take action. More importantly, the various methodologies of community-based research present an opportunity to involve the people and communities most deeply affected by violence in shaping theory, narrative strategies, policies, and social movements.
What the Foundation looks for in a project:
The Foundation will continue to give priority to projects that link research with action and involve community members throughout.
It will invite proposals that communicate:
Insight. Challenges “common-sense” notions of activists, policymakers, and institutions.
Intersectionality. Addresses the multilevel and intersecting nature, and structural foundations of violence in our institutions – especially for racially marginalized women+ and girls+
A learning orientation. Builds critical literacies and new narratives/framing that illuminate the embeddedness of violence in legal, political, social, and cultural systems.
A civic agenda. Creates alternative public spheres for dialogue and deliberation about violence.
Urgency. Has a sense of urgency and express a readiness for strategic action; and addresses the lack of deep sociological engagement in questions of violence.
Some examples of desired applicants are:
- community-led academic partnerships
- advocacy or community groups that conduct research that can withstand challenge in academic and policy arenas
- academics allied with a constituency through their research
Applications dueSep 24, 2023
CIGNA: Health and Well-Being Grants
CIGNA Foundation
US $50,000 - US $100,000
Background
The Cigna Foundation is committed to eliminating health disparities and improving health and well-being for all. We wish to partner with nonprofits who are addressing the root causes of health inequity, including supporting under-resourced and systemically disadvantaged communities with poor social determinants of health (SDOH).1
Given recent incidents here in the U.S. and around the world, the persistence of COVID-19 and the economic climate, this grant cycle will focus on funding programs that address improving and ensuring good mental health.
Goals
Despite steady improvement in overall health outcomes over the past decade, many under-resourced communities continue to experience substantial health disparities.
Grants will address one or more of the following areas:
- Increased access to health care
- Increased access to primary care
- Increased health literacy, the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions and follow directions for treatment
The Cigna Foundation recognizes that this is a broad topic, therefore grants should address at least one if not more than one of the following programmatic areas, specifically in ethnic minority and underserved populations:
- Suitable care that provides access to mental health services and addresses depression, stress, anxiety, and promotes resiliency and mental well-being.
- Programs addressing the shortage of mental health care professionals.
- Cultural competency and awareness training for healthcare providers that addresses the stigma associated with seeking mental health care.
Applications dueNov 1, 2023
Honda Foundation Grants
American Honda Foundation (AHF)
US $20,000 - US $75,000
Overview
More than $41 million have been awarded to organizations serving over 118 million people in every state in the U.S.
American Honda Foundation (AHF) was established by American Honda Motor Co., Inc., to commemorate its 25th anniversary in the United States and to show its appreciation of America's support through the years. It is the aim at Honda that in every community in which it does business society will want Honda to exist.
Mission Statement
Help meet the needs of American society in the areas of youth and scientific education by awarding grants to nonprofits, while strategically assisting communities in deriving long-term benefits.
Guidelines
The American Honda Foundation engages in grant making that reflects the basic tenets, beliefs and philosophies of Honda companies, which are characterized by the following qualities: imaginative, creative, youthful, forward-thinking, scientific, humanistic and innovative. We support youth education with a specific focus on the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects in addition to the environment.
Geographic Scope
National
Funding Priority
Youth education, specifically in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, the environment, job training and literacy.
Literacy Grants for Nonprofits over $5K in average grant size
Literacy Grants for Nonprofits supporting general operating expenses
Literacy Grants for Nonprofits supporting programs / projects
American Express Community Giving
American Express Foundation
Mission
It is our mission to support our customers, colleagues and communities by helping them achieve their aspirations and helping their communities thrive. This shapes our work as a responsible corporate citizen. We deliver high-impact funding and initiatives that support people, businesses and non-profit partners so that together, we can make a meaningful difference in the world.
Global Impact Cash Grants
Cisco Foundation
Global Impact Cash Grants
Cisco welcomes applications for Global Impact Cash Grants from community partners around the world who share our vision and offer an innovative approach to a critical social challenge.
We identify, incubate, and develop innovative solutions with the most impact. Global Impact Cash Grants go to nonprofits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that address a significant social problem. We’re looking for programs that fit within our investment areas, serve the underserved, and leverage technology to improve the reach and efficiency of services. We accept applications year-round from eligible organizations. An initial information form is used to determine whether your organization will be invited to complete a full application.
Social Investment Areas
At Cisco, we make social investments in three areas where we believe our technology and our people can make the biggest impact—education, economic empowerment, and crisis response, the last of which incorporates shelter, water, food, and disaster relief. Together, these investment areas help people overcome barriers of poverty and inequality, and make a lasting difference by fostering strong global communities.
Education Investments
Our strategy is to inclusively invest in technology-based solutions that increase equitable access to education while improving student performance, engagement, and career exploration. We support K-12 solutions that emphasize science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as well as literacy. We also consider programs that teach environmental sustainability, eliminate barriers to accessing climate change education, and invite student engagement globally to positively affect the environment.
What we look for:
- Innovative early grade solutions using the internet and technology to bridge the barriers preventing access to education for underserved students globally.
- Solutions that positively affect student attendance, attitudes, and behavior while inspiring action by students to improve learning outcomes, whether they participate in person, online, or in blended learning environments.
- Solutions with high potential to replicate and scale globally, thereby increasing the availability of evidence-based solutions that support student-centricity, teacher capacity in the classroom, and increased parental participation to help students learn and develop.
Note: Cisco does not provide direct funding to schools.
Economic Empowerment
Our strategy is to invest in early stage, tech-enabled solutions that provide equitable access to the knowledge, skills, and resources that people need to support themselves and their families toward resilience, independence, and economic security.
Our goal is to support solutions that benefit individuals and families, and that contribute to local community growth and economic development in a sustainable economy.
We target our support in three interconnected areas:
- Skills development to help job seekers secure dignified employment and long-term career pathways in technology or other sectors, including environmental sustainability/green jobs.
- Inclusive entrepreneurship with small businesses as engines of local growth as well as high growth potential start-ups as large-scale job creators nationally and internationally, in technology or other sectors, including environment sustainability/green businesses.
- Banking the unbanked through relevant and affordable financial products and capacity building services.
Cisco Crisis Response
We seek to help overcome the cycle of poverty and dependence and achieve a more sustainable future through strategic investments. We back organizations that successfully address critical needs of underserved communities, because those who have their basic needs met are better equipped to learn and thrive.
What we look for:
- Innovative solutions that increase the capacity of grantees to deliver their products and services more effectively and efficiently
- Design and implementation of web-based tools that increase the availability of, or improve access to, products and services that are necessary for people to survive and thrive
- Programs that increase access to clean water, food, shelter, or disaster relief and promote a more sustainable future for all
- By policy, relief campaigns respond to significant natural disaster and humanitarian crises as opposed to those caused by human conflict. Also by policy, our investments in this area do not include healthcare solutions.
Global Payments Corporate Sponsorships
Global Payments Direct
Corporate Citizenship - Giving Back Globally
As a Service. Driven. Commerce company, Global Payments does its utmost to be a responsible corporate citizen, and our employees demonstrate passion and enthusiasm for making a difference in the lives of others. As a member of the global business community, corporate citizenship is fundamental to our values and who we are. We take action around the world to create change by offering our time, services and financial assistance to those in need.
Our Commitment
Global Payments is committed to serving the communities around the world in which we live and work by providing resources to improve financial preparedness and literacy, promote good health initiatives including preventative care and well-being programs, emphasize education and continuous learning, and support disaster relief efforts.
Our Purpose
We strive to integrate corporate citizenship into every aspect of our company in order to:
- Empower and encourage our employees and others to serve their communities
- Leverage our resources, talent, global reach and expertise to create meaningful change
- Ensure that society benefits from our company's commitment to make a difference around the world
Global Payments' Corporate Citizenship Goals
Global Payments' philanthropic efforts are focused on financial literacy, health, education and disaster relief. We believe that by supporting these common societal issues and concerns, we will be able to help individuals, businesses and communities overcome barriers to economic growth. We support a variety of organizations and programs that help create and sustain commerce around the world, helping to achieve positive economic outcomes wherever we may live or work.
Participation and Involvement
Global Payments makes it a priority to promote a culture of service to make a difference in the lives of others by committing financial resources to nonprofit organizations around the world.
Current Corporate Sponsorships
Global Payments is committed to supporting and nurturing programs that serve a global community in the each of the following areas.
Financial Preparedness and Literacy
We believe in the critical importance of financial literacy. We fund programs that not only provide assistance but also promote independence and well-being for individuals and small businesses that lack access to information, resources and related services.
Health
We support initiatives and programs that promote good health and preventative care. We focus on programs that help individuals and families cope with chronic health issues as well as programs dedicated to physical or mental disabilities (congenital or acquired), covering impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions.
Education and Continuous Learning
In addition to the financial literacy programs, we emphasize education in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) programs.
Disaster Relief
Global Payments has a longstanding commitment to helping people affected by major natural disasters and humanitarian crises. In these difficult times, we work with our humanitarian response partners to direct funds to the people and places in greatest need.
Hearst Foundations Grants
Hearst Foundation
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
Richard Donchian Foundation Grants
The Richard Davoud Donchian Foundation
NOTE: The foundation does not use prescreening or letters of inquiry or intent! The grant application is the appropriate first step in approaching the foundation. If you believe your organization might be a good fit after reviewing the guidelines and FAQs, you are welcome to submit an application.
Mission
The Richard Davoud Donchian Foundation provides funds to nonprofit organizations whose programs result in the strengthening of the human spirit and the enhancement of personal integrity. The Foundation channels most of its financial resources toward charitable organizations whose attention is concentrated on character development through leadership training, literacy, primary education, business integrity, spiritual enrichment and ethics.
It is the expressed belief of the Donchian Foundation that every individual can become physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually stronger, resulting in the culmination of a more confident and scrupulous lifestyle. The primary objective of the Donchian Foundation's grant making activities is to ensure that its ultimate recipients become empowered to strengthen and build up their families and communities -- passing onto others that which was given to them.
Guiding Principles
The Donchian Foundation's goal is to help effective organizations advance their mission and meet their charitable objectives. Through its endorsement, the Foundation's secondary objective is to create a ripple effect that leverages new partners and greater visibility. Leveraging is a principle that the foundation believes in, and one that is applied to its efforts toward strategic philanthropy. Whether it's leveraging matching funds through challenge grants, or motivating like-minded organizations to participate in a foundation-initiated project, the ultimate intention is to foster the best possible results.
Qualities sought by the Donchian Foundation in its partner organizations are:
- effective and dynamic personnel;
- passionate leadership;
- a bias against bureaucracy;
- prudent management & governance practices; and
- commitment to results and to the documented assessment of program impact.
The Foundation focuses its grant making in three key areas: Literacy & Education; Humanitarian Efforts and Ethics & Personal Development.
Literacy & Education
– With an interest in rethinking and reconfiguring curriculum, pedagogy, and the other academic resources in schools and communities, the Foundation focuses on programs that work toward long-term improvement in all aspects of education, but with an emphasis on literacy.
Humanitarian Efforts
– To improve the lives and spirits of individuals and communities facing pressing circumstances, etc., including efforts to address Children’s Health.
Ethics & Personal Development
– To enhance the moral, ethical, spiritual and physical well-being and progress of mankind. The Foundation's grantmaking activities are centered around the concept of social purpose enterprise that seeks to raise the standards of ethical excellence in society, moral character in the community, faith in the family, integrity in business and grassroots leadership in needy communities.
Olive Tree Foundation Grant
The Olive Tree Foundation
NOTE: The Olive Tree Foundation begins accepting grant applications in the first quarter of each year. The increased number of applications we receive each continually exceeds expectations. To ensure our small staff can effectively and fairly review the requests, we decreased the number accepted in 2022 to 50.
About the Foundation
The Olive Tree Foundation, Inc., is an independent philanthropy established in the United States in 1997.
Our mission: The Olive Tree Foundation strives to support U.S.-based nonprofits that provide food, shelter, medical care and education for those in need; make arts and culture more accessible and equitable; invest in community and youth and adult development; and protect the environment.
Grantmaking Focus
Organizations eligible to apply for grants from The Olive Tree Foundation focus on:
Basic necessities
- We support nonprofits that provide food for the hungry, shelter the indigent and infirm and provide medical (physical and emotional) care to those in need.
Youth education and development
- OTF support nonprofits that develop the academic skills of youth. Key objectives should include character-building; fostering ethics, teamwork, self-esteem and self-confidence; broadening horizons and aspirations; strengthening unique abilities and talents; developing community awareness and involvement; improving academic, communication and interpersonal skills.
Adult education and development
- We support nonprofits that promote literacy and workforce development through various programs that empower adults to become self-sufficient and self-sustaining.
Community development
- We support nonprofits involved in the protection of civil rights and the creation of environmental infrastructures that enhance quality of life in the communities they serve.
Arts and Culture
- We support nonprofits that improve the quality of life in communities through arts and cultural enrichment and/or renovate structures that preserve a historical heritage.
Sociological Initiatives Foundation Grant
Sociological Initiatives Foundation Inc.
Sociological Initiatives Foundation Grant
The Sociological Initiatives Foundation supports social change by linking research to social action. It funds research projects that investigate laws, policies, institutions, regulations, and normative practices that may limit equality in the South. It gives priority to projects that seek to address racism, xenophobia, classism, gender bias, exploitation, or the violation of human rights and freedoms. It also supports research that furthers language learning and behavior and its intersection with social and policy questions.
The Foundation supports research that focuses on improving services and systems and increasing positive social and physical conditions through:
- Policy development
- Placement and shaping of the policy agenda
- Policy adoption or implementation
- Policy blocking
- Increasing advocacy capacity and political influence
- Shaping public sentiment
- Addressing challenges related to language and literacy
Language issues include literacy, language loss and maintenance, language policy, language and national security, bilingualism, language and gender, language and law, language disabilities, language and health, language and education, different language cultures, and second language acquisition.
In the context of social and racial inequality dating back centuries, the Foundation supports projects that address institutional rather than individual or behavioral change. It seeks to fund research and initiatives that provide insight into sociological and linguistic issues that can help specific groups and or communities expand opportunities and challenge injustices.
Grant sizes normally range from $10,000 to $20,000. We look for projects that have an explicit research design and a concrete connection to public or community impact. It is not enough to just write a report or add a focus group to a social change project. The research should build an organization or constituency’s potential to expand public knowledge, impact policy, and create social change.
Current Thematic Focus: Violence and Society
The Sociological Initiatives Foundation seeks to support community-based research in the Southern United States focused on the broad topic of violence and society. It invites requests to support research and advocacy efforts that move beyond the familiar conceptualizations of what violence is, how we experience it, how we talk about it, and how we advocate for freedom and safety.
Background
The Sociological Initiatives Foundation has supported a wide range of community-based research projects. Most of the activist-scholar projects have addressed structural race, class, and gender inequities. As the Foundation sharpened its emphasis on addressing systemic racism and racialized violence against Black people, however, it recognized a common but less-interrogated thread in many of the projects it has supported over the years. Many projects contend with the raw brutality of everyday violence in communities – a pressing reality that is often made invisible, individualized, or ignored as a form of structural oppression.
The scale and pervasiveness of this violence is staggering. With the rise of gun violence, gender-based violence, police-brutality, the carceral state, religious extremism, hate-crimes, and so on, there is an opportunity to develop more imaginative and innovative ways to understand these complex realities and create new spaces to investigate, theorize, and take action. More importantly, the various methodologies of community-based research present an opportunity to involve the people and communities most deeply affected by violence in shaping theory, narrative strategies, policies, and social movements.
What the Foundation looks for in a project:
The Foundation will continue to give priority to projects that link research with action and involve community members throughout.
It will invite proposals that communicate:
Insight. Challenges “common-sense” notions of activists, policymakers, and institutions.
Intersectionality. Addresses the multilevel and intersecting nature, and structural foundations of violence in our institutions – especially for racially marginalized women+ and girls+
A learning orientation. Builds critical literacies and new narratives/framing that illuminate the embeddedness of violence in legal, political, social, and cultural systems.
A civic agenda. Creates alternative public spheres for dialogue and deliberation about violence.
Urgency. Has a sense of urgency and express a readiness for strategic action; and addresses the lack of deep sociological engagement in questions of violence.
Some examples of desired applicants are:
- community-led academic partnerships
- advocacy or community groups that conduct research that can withstand challenge in academic and policy arenas
- academics allied with a constituency through their research
CIGNA: Health and Well-Being Grants
CIGNA Foundation
Background
The Cigna Foundation is committed to eliminating health disparities and improving health and well-being for all. We wish to partner with nonprofits who are addressing the root causes of health inequity, including supporting under-resourced and systemically disadvantaged communities with poor social determinants of health (SDOH).1
Given recent incidents here in the U.S. and around the world, the persistence of COVID-19 and the economic climate, this grant cycle will focus on funding programs that address improving and ensuring good mental health.
Goals
Despite steady improvement in overall health outcomes over the past decade, many under-resourced communities continue to experience substantial health disparities.
Grants will address one or more of the following areas:
- Increased access to health care
- Increased access to primary care
- Increased health literacy, the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions and follow directions for treatment
The Cigna Foundation recognizes that this is a broad topic, therefore grants should address at least one if not more than one of the following programmatic areas, specifically in ethnic minority and underserved populations:
- Suitable care that provides access to mental health services and addresses depression, stress, anxiety, and promotes resiliency and mental well-being.
- Programs addressing the shortage of mental health care professionals.
- Cultural competency and awareness training for healthcare providers that addresses the stigma associated with seeking mental health care.
Honda Foundation Grants
American Honda Foundation (AHF)
Overview
More than $41 million have been awarded to organizations serving over 118 million people in every state in the U.S.
American Honda Foundation (AHF) was established by American Honda Motor Co., Inc., to commemorate its 25th anniversary in the United States and to show its appreciation of America's support through the years. It is the aim at Honda that in every community in which it does business society will want Honda to exist.
Mission Statement
Help meet the needs of American society in the areas of youth and scientific education by awarding grants to nonprofits, while strategically assisting communities in deriving long-term benefits.
Guidelines
The American Honda Foundation engages in grant making that reflects the basic tenets, beliefs and philosophies of Honda companies, which are characterized by the following qualities: imaginative, creative, youthful, forward-thinking, scientific, humanistic and innovative. We support youth education with a specific focus on the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects in addition to the environment.
Geographic Scope
National
Funding Priority
Youth education, specifically in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, the environment, job training and literacy.
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