NOTE: The Foundation accepts applications on a rolling basis, but has two deadlines per year. 

• Wednesday, March 8, 2023 -- Applications submitted for this deadline will be reviewed in May 2023. 
• Wednesday, September 6, 2023 -- Applications submitted for this deadline will be reviewed in November 2023. 

Background

The Allen P. and Josephine B. Green Foundation is a private foundation with approximately $11 million in assets. The mission of the Foundation can be summed up as “Improving the quality of life in Missouri”. The Foundation’s Board of Directors consists of eleven members who meet twice a year to award grants and conduct other business essential to the Foundation. 

Every year, the Foundation receives many more deserving requests than it can afford to fund. Not counting investment expenses, more than 80% of the Foundation’s expenditures are payments of grants. Over its lifetime, the Foundation has paid out over $17,500,000 in grants, mostly to organizations in Missouri. 

In 2011 the Foundation partnered with the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation (GKCCF) in order to provide a more efficient and streamlined process for eligible organizations to submit requests and reports to the Green Foundation.

Commonly Funded Requests

• Facilitating health care
• Helping the physically or mentally disabled
• Children and youth
• Strengthening families
• Providing for the elderly
• Food banks and pantries
• Education at all levels
• Libraries
• Museums
• Literacy
• Religious organizations
• Restoration and preservation

Grant Guidelines and Policies

• To support qualified organizations operating within the state of Missouri that relieve human misery, want and suffering regardless of age, race, religion or economic status
• To support both independent and institutional educational programs that develop and empower individuals of all ages to become more productive members of their communities
• To establish, maintain, and support student scholarships that further the educational opportunities for and objectives of highly qualified candidates
• To contribute to regularly organized religious institutions, and the establishment, preservation and rehabilitation of historically significant places, assets, programs and that make a meaningful and positive impact in their communities
• To support organizations and programs that seek to improve the health, wellness, longevity and happiness of members of their communities
• The programs hereby referred to may be open to any qualified group which, in the discretion of the Board of Directors, falls within the purposes of the Foundation

Historic Foundation Guidelines

• The Foundation's original trust indenture identified the following list as the grantmaking guidelines.
• To contribute to and assist, by disbursement, donation, or loans, to regularly organized religious institutions
• To establish, maintain or endow, in whole or in part, or contribute to chairs, professorships, lecture courses, fellowships or scholarships in institutions of learning
• To establish or contribute to loan funds in aid of students in institutions of learning
• To initiate, establish, maintain or contribute to projects or programs for the preservation, extension or dissemination or learning, including research in any field of human knowledge and to make such use and disposition of the results thereof as the Trustee may determine
• To contribute, by disbursement, donation or loan to the establishment and maintenance of hospitals, orphanages, and homes for the aged or helpless
• To initiate, establish, maintain or contribute to programs for the relief of human misery, want, and suffering. While it is not intended that the Trustee shall distribute to individual alms, the programs hereby referred to may be limited to any group or class which, in the discretion of the Trustee, falls within the purposes of the Foundation

We care about the communities in which we live and work. Amcor Cares (formerly the Bemis Company Foundation) was founded as our principal tool in the United States to serve our Amcor Flexibles communities. From volunteer work to monetary donations and community support, Amcor Cares donates several million per year to charitable organizations.

Community Support Grants

Encourage

• Fighting Hunger & Homelessness
• Supporting Disaster Relief

Empower

• Expanding STEM Education
• Building Life Skills
• Improving Health & Wellness

Elevate

• Promoting Arts & Culture
• Funding Amcor Scholarships

Types of support:

• Non-profit Organization Programs
• Non-profit Organization Operating Support
• Capital Campaigns
• STEM Programs

Since its inception, the Foundation, which is still led by Lester T. Sunderland's descendants, has focused on supporting construction projects, awarding grants to nonprofits in the Kansas City region and other markets traditionally served by the Ash Grove Cement Company. 

 The Foundation prefers to make grants for construction and special interest projects rather than for annual operating expenses. 

Grants for planning, design, construction, renovation, repairs and restoration of facilities are considered. Areas of interest include higher education, youth serving agencies, health facilities, community buildings, museums, civic projects and energy efficient affordable housing projects sponsored by qualified tax-exempt organizations. 

Funding Areas

In recent grant cycles, the Board of Trustees has awarded the majority of grants in four broadly defined areas:

Health Care and Hospitals

A growing area of need in many of the communities the Foundation serves. In 2017, more than $2.9 million was awarded to hospitals and health-care groups to build and improve their facilities. 

Human Services

The Foundation awarded over $7 million to human service nonprofits in 2017, and the majority of grants in this area were awarded to groups that provide essential services to youth and families. Grantees included a range of youth-focused groups, including the Kansas 4-H Foundation, Kids TLC, Ronald McDonald House & Boys & Girls Clubs. 

Higher Education

In 2017, the Foundation awarded more than $10 million to over 45 educational organizations. Grantees included community colleges, private colleges, and public universities. 

Arts and Culture

NOTE:  The application deadline has been  extended to December 1, 2023.

About School-Based Healthcare Solutions Network (SBHSN).

Utilizing a unique framework of funding systems offered by the Department of Health and Human Services, managed care organizations, health insurers, and private donors, SBHSN promotes a system of care model (Coaching Model℠) offering a mix of evidenced-based intervention, prevention, and care coordination services to children in grades K-12. The Coaching Model aims to expand quality mental healthcare access on public school campuses and improve children's social, emotional, behavioral, family, and wellness outcomes.

School-Based Mental Health Implementation Grant

In response to the growing number of students who need mental health counseling, the School-Based Healthcare Solutions Network (SBHSN) is accepting applications from Local Education Agencies (LEA), Public and Private Universities, State and local Colleges, Charter School Management Companies, Public Schools, Charter Schools, and Non-Profit Organizations (501c3) to implement and expand mental health program services on local school campuses. Grantees will receive direct funding and reimbursement to support the following activities: 

• Expanding access to School-Based Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).
• Coordinating mental healthcare services with school administration and staff. 
• Delivering mental healthcare services and coordinating academic-support activities to students with a history of attendance, behavior, and poor academic performance.

FUNDING

5-Years, renewable based on meeting performance goals 5-year award ceiling is $5,500,000.

The Impact Fund awards recoverable grants to legal services nonprofits, private attorneys, and small law firms who seek to advance justice in the areas of civil and human rights, environmental justice, and poverty law. Since being founded in 1992, the Impact Fund has made more than 700 recoverable grants totaling more than $8 million for impact litigation. 

Social Justice

The Impact Fund provides grants and legal support to assist in human and civil rights cases. We have helped to change dozens of laws and win cases to improve the rights of thousands. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In Orange County, California there are currently 13 gang injunctions under effect, which disproportionately affect young men of color.
• In Chicago, Illinois, the city’s homeless shelter program is inaccessible to people with disabilities.
• In Springfield, Oregon, the city and its police department used excessive force during a Black Lives Matter protest.
• In Maine, the state fails to safely monitor the prescription and administration of powerful psychotropic medications to foster youth.
• In Missouri, a Medicaid agency fails to arrange for in-home nursing services for children with medically complex conditions.
• In Montana, voter suppression laws disadvantage young adults and give priority to gun owners.
• In Vancouver, British Columbia, the police perpetuate systemic discrimination against Indigenous people through bureaucratic measures.
• In West Virginia, incarcerated individuals do not receive adequate medical and mental health care, and jails do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

Environmental Justice

The Impact Fund provides grants to support local litigation for environmental justice. These are often cases no one else will support. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin the proposed expansion of a highway will divide the region's Black, Asian, and Latine neighborhoods and bring pollution and ill health.
• In North Dakota, the five-month closure of a highway in response to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests disproportionately affected the livelihoods and health of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe members.
• In Ontario, Canada, mercury contamination of the English-Wabigoon river system causes catastrophic environmental and health impacts for the Grassy Narrows First Nation.
• In Sacramento, California, the county government and Sacramento Area Sewer District violate the Clean Water Act by discharging raw sewage into the Delta, the Sacramento River, and the American River.
• In Fresno, California, the city’s efforts to streamline industrial development fail to protect vulnerable neighborhoods from adverse environmental and public health impacts.
• In the Eastern Coachella Valley in California, 1,900 residents of the Oasis Mobile Home Park suffer from arsenic-laced drinking water, wastewater contamination, and overcharging for utilities.

Economic Justice

The Impact Fund provides financial and other forms of support to cases fighting for economic justice. From workers' rights to consumer protection for vulnerable populations, impact litigation is a powerful tool to hold corporations accountable. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In San Diego, California, vehicle ordinances target homeless vehicle owners even when no adequate housing alternative exists.
• In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the city and county destroy the property of homeless individuals and employ forced evictions from public spaces.
• In Miami, Florida, insurance companies discriminate against a nonprofit community development corporation renting to tenants with Section 8 rental subsidies.

NOTE:  Charitable Grant requests to the Ameren Corporate Charitable Trust and Ameren Missouri will be accepted and awarded on a cycle.

CYCLE 1 - Public Safety and Housing Stability: Applications during Cycle 1 must pertain to the core AmerenCares Focus Areas (See definitions below). Applications accepted through the end of March.

CYCLE 2 - To Be Announced

AmerenCares is the charitable contribution and community outreach platform through which Ameren Corporation, Ameren Missouri, Ameren Illinois and Ameren Transmission invest in the communities we serve and endeavor to support. AmerenCares seeks to partner with reputable and collaborative non-profit organizations that share our mission of meeting critical human needs, helping communities thrive, and promoting economic growth.

AmerenCares Focus Areas

Critical Needs

The recent economic downturn has highlighted significant disparities faced by disadvantaged communities in achieving the most basic critical human needs. Ameren welcomes grant applications that aim to diminish food insecurity; eliminate disparities in access to health and well-being care; support children living in poverty; and provide pathways to stable housing.

Economic Empowerment

For our region to grow and thrive, opportunities for economic mobility must exist across all demographics and neighborhoods. Ameren welcomes grant applications that provide education persistence programs, showcase skilled trade job pathways, promote regional workforce development and target neighborhoods with beautification and development opportunities.

Thriving Communities

Thriving communities include low-crime, youth programs, connected neighborhoods, plenty of cultural assets, and public green spaces. Ameren welcomes grant applications that provide youth enrichment programs; violence de-escalation; preserve and maintain public parks and biodiversity; make the arts and cultural institutions accessible; and bolster community and civic pride to attract visitors to events. Ameren considers the quality of our environment another indicator of our communities’ well-being and invests in programs that support avian endangered species, pollinators, watersheds, bats, and biodiversity.

The Bellwether Foundation is a charitable foundation located in St. Louis, Missouri. The mission of The Bellwether Foundation is to promote the ideals and aspirations of its founders and supporters beyond their lifetime by providing funds to organizations for projects which anticipate the future in the areas of the arts, computer science, education, finance, health care, medicine, and the social sciences, including research in any of these areas. Bellwether will receive, manage, and disburse funds on an annual or more frequent basis to provide for opportunities in any geographic region deemed appropriate by the Board of Trustees.

Funding Priorities

• Education
  • Focus on early childhood through post-secondary education
  • Target students in under-served, under-resourced school districts. 
• Conservation
• St. Louis Civic Institutions

Types of Grants

Grant categories include: Program, Operating, Capital and Endowment.

Our Mission...

The mission of The Needmor Fund is to work with others to bring about social justice. We support groups of people who come together to organize their community, build power, and challenge the social, economic, or political conditions that bar their access to participation in a democratic society.”

Our Vision...

Our work is informed by a vision of democracy and justice:

We strive to engage those whose participation in our democratic society has been systemically denied, because we believe our nation will operate most equitably when all of its people are actively involved in crafting the vision, values and policies that affect their lives. This includes, but is not limited to, those who have traditionally been marginalized – i.e., low- and moderate-income communities, people of color, the disabled, immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community.

We seek a just society in which all persons are treated with dignity and assured their fundamental rights, including equal access to the basic necessities of life: food, shelter, safety, health care, education, livable wages, and a clean environment.

We work to build a nation in which all citizens are free to exercise their rights regardless of race, ethnic origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, economic status, or religious persuasion.

We believe in the power of community and its ability to collectively determine the best strategies for improving the lives of its members.

Our Values...

Our work together is guided by the following beliefs:

• Every individual has inherent worth and has the right to have his or her voice heard.
• Community organizing is one of the most effective means to engage and lift the voices of those whose participation in our democratic society has been systematically denied.
• Equality, equity, and inclusion of the diverse voices of our society are central to responsible deliberation and decision-making, within both our institutions and society-at-large.

Core Grants

Needmor’s Core Grants Program provides general operating support to groups engaged in the work of community organizing. Grantees funded through this program are eligible to receive funding for up to three years, after which an organization may not apply for at least two years.

The Fund’s Core Grants Program will focus on supporting community organizing in the Midwest – specifically an eight state region that includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Basic Criteria

While Needmor embraces the opportunity to fund emerging organizations, our commitment remains to funding strong, effective community organizing. We thus seek to support groups that:

• Organize primarily low- and moderate-income people, as evidenced by demographic/ statistical data indicating social and economic distress.
• Have a multi-issue agenda that reflects an intersectional approach to addressing issues associated with race, economic justice and equality.
• Demonstrate a commitment to long-term base building and effectively link issue work to building organizational power.
• Are democratically run and consist of a dues-paying membership base, with deep member engagement and a process for both developing and regenerating a strong cadre of leaders over time.
• Have developed a power analysis and a clearly defined plan for challenging/altering the dynamics of power within their communities.
• Engage in direct action and have demonstrated the ability to win concrete victories of increasingly larger scale.
• Have a vision to continually build and aggregate power, enabling them to take on bigger policy issues and expand its base of allies to increase its impact over time.
• Are well managed, engage in strategic planning, and have a sound budget and diversified fundraising plan.

Additional Screens

In addition to meeting the above basic criteria, Needmor is interested in funding groups that:

• Organize across lines of race, class, and gender; and, promote the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Are linked to and leverage the power of faith, labor, and community into powerful organizations.
• Demonstrate a willingness to work collaboratively for the purpose of building collective power to achieve systematic change at the regional, state, and national level. 
• Are connected to larger organizing networks that are working to implement new, broad, and creative public policies that address systemic issues facing low- and moderate-income communities.
• Integrate voter engagement strategies and the expansion of democracy into the building of powerful community organizations.
• Demonstrate the ability to develop an agenda that frames issues of relevance to both urban and rural constituencies.
• Recognize and address the impact of global corporatization as it relates to issues of economic and environmental justice.
• Have potential for attracting the interest and support of other funders.

Ms. Foundation for Women

The mission of the Ms. Foundation for Women is to build women’s collective power in the U.S. to advance equity and justice for all. We achieve our mission by investing in, and strengthening, the capacity of women-led movements to advance meaningful social, cultural and economic change in the lives of women. Ms. has six grantmaking initiatives, one of which is the Birth Justice Initiative.

Birth Justice Initiative

Our Birth Justice Initiative aims to:

• advance equitable birth outcomes and experiences;
• strengthen the capacity, organizational infrastructure, and financial stability of grassroots Black, Indigenous and women of color-led birth justice organizations; and
• expand the frame of birth justice to support intersectional movements and strategies that recognize the full spectrum of experiences and identities in birthing, parenting, and family building.

We believe that Black, Indigenous, and women of color (including trans women and non-binary people) are key experts and should be decision-makers in shaping policy and culture change around birth justice. By investing directly into organizations led by and for women and girls of color, we are ensuring that the movement to address racial based disparities in healthcare, including birth outcomes and experiences, is led by those who are impacted most. Strengthening the collective power of communities of color is critical to addressing the root causes of these disparities and advancing birth justice for all.

The U.S. has one of the highest maternal mortality rates of all developed nations and Black women die at three to four times the rate of white women in birth – one of the widest racial disparities in women’s health. Systemic racism, implicit bias, and anti-Blackness all contribute to the significant disparities in birth outcomes among Black, Indigenous and birthing people of color. Moreover, the spectrum of intersectional issues that comprise birth justice and the ability to have children and parent with dignity, are not only limited to the birth process.

As such, the Ms. Foundation’s Birth Justice Initiative invests in organizations who represent the full spectrum of birth experiences including–but not limited to–preconception health, mental health and wellness, infertility, abortion access and abortion care, comprehensive sex and sexuality education, non-racist culturally affirming and gender expansive healthcare, access to birth workers of color, access to lactation support and services, postpartum health and wellness, grief and loss care and support, and sexual assault prevention and survivor support services. Organizations supported collectively utilize a range of movement building strategies to advance birth justice—such as narrative change, policy and systems change, advocacy, leadership development, direct service among others. And finally, they work at the intersection of birth justice and other movements, such as disability justice, youth justice, LGBTQIA+ justice, environmental justice, economic justice, and criminal legal reform.

Funding

During this cycle, Ms. will provide one-time grants ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 to selected organizations not currently receiving funding from Ms.’ Birth Justice Initiative. The grant period will comprise two years.