Best Missouri Grants for Nonprofits

Missouri Arts Council

The Missouri Arts Council supports the arts that strengthen the cultural, educational, and economic vitality of our state.

Established as a state agency in 1965, the Missouri Arts Council is a division of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor. The Council is funded through the Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Cultural Trust, and National Endowment for the Arts.

The Missouri Arts Council is the state agency dedicated—as public leader, partner, and catalyst—to broadening the growth, availability, and appreciation of the arts in Missouri and fostering the diversity, vitality, and excellence of Missouri’s communities, economy, and cultural heritage. The grants we award make possible quality arts programming to communities both large and small throughout the state. We provide grants to arts projects that meet our strategic goals:

• Engage people in meaningful arts experiences
• Grow Missouri’s economy using the arts
• Strengthen Missouri education through the arts

In addition to funding, we provide technical assistance in community development, fundraising, marketing, grant writing, arts education, artistic disciplines (visual arts, music, literature, theater, dance, festivals, and film/media) and more.

Annual Grants

Annual Grants are designed for experienced Missouri Arts Council applicants with large budget arts projects. The annual application is extensive and more demanding with a rigid deadline schedule, a more competitive review process, and a longer turnaround. While the request amount is higher, organizations receive a smaller percentage of their request based on our funding. 

Annual Grants: Organizations of Color

Organizations must meet the following criteria:

• Organizations where a majority of the board and staff (combined) are American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (as reflected in the Demographic section of the application).
• The mission of the organization has historically served people of color. Supports arts projects created by and/or targeted to African-American, Asian-American, Latino/Hispanic, and Native American communities. 

Enterprise Community Partners

Enterprise Community Partners is a national nonprofit that exists to make a good home possible for the millions of families without one.

We support community development organizations on the ground. We aggregate and invest billions to improve housing and strengthen communities across the U.S. We advance housing policy at every level of government. We build and manage communities ourselves. Everything we do is informed by the residents we serve. Since 1982, we have invested $80.9 billion and created 1 million homes across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. We do all this to make home and community places of pride, power, and belonging.

Southwest Tribal Resilience Academy - Resilience Capacity Grant

Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise) is seeking Requests for Proposals (RFPs) from eligible tribal entities, Community Development Corporations (CDCs), and Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDOs) that have participated in the Southwest Tribal Resilience Academy.

The Academy provides cohort-based learning opportunities for Southwest Tribal housing organizations to connect with one another, engage with subject-matter experts, and collaborate with local stakeholders to address the unique climate-related hazards facing their region.

To build on the knowledge and technical assistance gained through the Academy, Enterprise will award grant funding to participants of the Southwest Tribal Resilience Academy to support the implementation of resilient, community-driven solutions.

Community Foundation of Northwest Missouri

The Community Foundation of Northwest Missouri Inc. was established in 2009 as a 501(c)3 public charity to help donors support their favorite charities while receiving maximum tax advantage.

We serve as a vehicle for charitable giving, helping donors give to the causes they care about. Donor gifts will strengthen nonprofits increasing programs and services. 

St Joseph Construction Association Scholarship

This fund was established by the St Joseph Construction Association to provide academic scholarships to students pursuing a degree in a Construction related field.

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is the administrative arm of the State Board of Education. It is primarily a service agency that works with educators, legislators, government agencies, community leaders and citizens to maintain a strong public education system. Through its statewide school-improvement activities and regulatory functions, the Department strives to assure that all citizens have access to high-quality public education. DESE does not regulate, monitor or accredit private, parochial or home schools.

The Department’s responsibilities range from early childhood to adult education services.

Innovation Grants

House Bill 2 (2025) allocated funds from Missouri’s Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) to be used towards innovation grants to increase access to high quality child care across Missouri during Fiscal Year 2026. These grants are available to child care providers in two forms:

• Innovation Grant to Start-Up a New Child Care Program for prospective child care providers wanting to start a new licensed child care program.
• Innovation Grant to Expand a Child Care Program for currently licensed child care providers.

Innovation Grant funds must be used to implement solutions to reduce the child care shortage in the state, including but not limited to the following:

• Funding for child care business start-ups or expansion
• Staff training and professional development
• Minor modifications or improvements to the facility that are required for licensing
• Incentives to retain employees
• Assistance with licensing and other regulatory requirements

Innovation Grant to Start-Up a New Child Care Program

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), Office of Childhood, is offering the Innovation Grant to Start-Up a New Child Care Program to help providers open new, licensed child care programs to increase access to child care for families across the state. This opportunity provides funding support through matching business or community partnership contributions.

This is made possible using the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), which is a state and federal partnership program that provides financial assistance to low-income families to access child care so that they can work or attend a job training or educational program. Missouri also uses CCDF to invest in quality to benefit thousands more children by building the skills and qualifications of the teacher workforce, supporting child care programs to achieve higher standards, and providing consumer education to help parents select child care that meets their family’s needs. For this reason, any facility applying for the grant must be CCDF eligible in order to receive payment(s).