Search Through Newport County Grants for Nonprofits in Rhode Island

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.

Background

Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation seeks to dramatically improve the lives of underserved communities across the globe by supporting scalable, innovative, and impact-first solutions that leverage existing systems and stakeholders. Our goal is to find social entrepreneurs with dynamic products or services that have a proven ability to positively impact the lives of underserved people, and nurture those organizations at the early stages by providing capacity, capital, and community.

Our application process is designed to be open and accessible, and we accept applications year round from across our priority geographies and sectors. Borrowing from our venture capital legacy, we find exceptional entrepreneurs and provide them with: 

Capacity

• The core of DRK’s model is deep and extensive operational and technical support for each portfolio organization, both through dedicated hands-on Board service and specialist capacity-building resources for fundraising, board and organizational development, leadership, financial support, and scaling strategy,

Capital

• DRK provides up to $300,000 USD in either unrestricted grant funding or investment capital over a three-year period, and

Community

• DRK convenes our portfolio and alumni annually, facilitating connections and community. 

What We Fund

DRK Foundation funds early-stage social impact organizations solving the world’s biggest social and environmental problems using bold, scalable approaches.

What stage of growth does DRK Foundation typically fund?

Early stage: Organizations who are early stage, which we define as post-pilot and pre-scale. This typically means: 

• Your program, product or service is already being used in the market or in the field, 
• You have early indication that your model is having its intended impact on the beneficiary populations,
• Your organization is relatively young (ideally between two and five years old, although we will consider both younger and older organizations).

Venture funding: In the case of for profits, we typically support Seed to Series A organizations, and never lead rounds; we also generally but not exclusively refrain from participating in financings exceeding a $15M USD post-money valuation.  

Community Grants

State Farm is committed to helping build safer, stronger and better-educated communities.

• ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​We are committed to auto and home safety programs and activities that help people manage the risks of everyday life.
• We invest in education, economic empowerment and community development projects, programs and services that help people realize their dreams.
• We help maintain the vibrancy of our communities by assisting nonprofits that support community revitalization.

Good Neighbor Citizenship company grants focus on safety, community development and education.

Focus Areas

Safety Grants

We strive to keep our customers and communities safe. That's why our funding is directed toward:

• Auto safety — improving driver, passenger, vehicle or roadway safety
• Home safety — shielding homes from fires, crime or natural disasters
• Disaster preparedness and mitigation
• Disaster recovery

Community Development

We support nonprofits that invest and develop stronger neighborhoods. That's why our funding is directed toward:

• Affordable housing — home construction and repair
• Commercial/small business development
• Job training
• Neighborhood revitalization
• Financial literacy
• Sustainable housing and transportation
• Food insecurity

Education

Our education funding is directed toward initiatives that support the following programs:

• Higher education
• K-12 academic performance
• K-12 STEM
• Pathways for college and career success

The Labcorp Charitable Foundation

We believe every person deserves equitable care and education.

In 2020 Labcorp established a private charitable 501(c)(3) foundation to advance our desire to bring quality healthcare access to all by supporting education and our local communities. 

Common grant opportunities include:

• Supporting food pantries and meal programs
• Providing healthcare and patient services for underserved populations
• Encouraging STEM programming
• Advocating for healthy lifestyles through ongoing medical research and screening

Our Approach

Our grant making priorities focus on the impact we aspire to make in the community.

Aquidneck Island and Newport County remain at the center of our work. We recognize that communities are part of larger systems and economies and we welcome proposals from outside this region that can make a clear case for the benefit to our target communities.

These grant priority areas are intentionally designed to recognize the connections between education, health, economic development, and place. Emphasis in the grant consideration process will be on the impact the proposed activities will have on one or more of these grant priority areas. The Foundation is open to innovative and collaborative approaches, encouraging proposals in the discovery, planning and pilot stages.

Additionally, we invest in strengthening organizations. Through our programming and grant making, we seek to advance our community’s capacity for leadership and best practices needed to thrive and to sustain high-performing nonprofits.

Grant Priorities

• Strong Starts:
  • Our Goal: Children and youth have a strong start in life, benefitting from a supportive community and an education that prepares them for the future.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: At every age children are ready and engaged learners, supported by their family, schools, and community.
  • Our Point of View: Investing in the success of our children is fundamental to the community’s future. Healthy minds and bodies maximize learning. A reputation for excellence in education will both retain and attract families to our community.
• Healthy Lifestyles:
  • Our Goal: Residents experience health throughout their lives.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The community offers access to quality health care as well as positive social and physical environments where residents can make healthy choices.
  • Our Point of View: Health improves learning, workforce productivity, and the ability of residents to contribute to family and civic life. Healthy places support healthy choices. Communities known for outstanding health care and healthy lifestyles are attractive to both employers and talented workers.
• Community Prosperity:
  • Our Goal: Regional economic growth creates opportunities for residents and enterprises.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The regional economy is home to a skilled workforce and thriving enterprises, and continues to foster a strong sense of place.
  • Our Point of View: A diverse regional economy supports job growth, improves wages, and raises the standard of living for residents. Creating synergies between our workforce, enterprises, institutions, and quality of place will contribute to community vibrancy. A prosperous community can shape its future and invest in its social, environmental, and cultural values.
• Excellence in the Commons:
  • Our Goal: Quality common spaces and institutions make our communities desirable places to live, work, and play.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The quality of landscapes and buildings support the community’s aspirations and contribute to community vitality.
  • Our Point of View: Our buildings and landscapes can inspire, shape, and reflect the aspirations of the community. Well-designed natural and built environments enhance the local community and economy--they are physically and socially connected, welcoming, and vibrant. Robust planning processes and thoughtful design lead to quality facilities and landscapes that support program excellence.

Major Construction and Landscape Grants - Design Grants

And three types of Major Construction and Landscape Grants, typically for building renovations and upgrades, new construction, and major landscape redesign and improvement.

Because large capital projects can be complex and happen infrequently enough that organizations may have had limited experience with them, we’ve found it helpful to break the process into several phases, based on MASS Design’s Planning for Impact Toolkit. A proposed project doesn’t necessarily have to fit neatly into one of these phases, but thinking about them in this way does offer a framework that can help organizations work through projects, anticipate challenges and opportunities, clarify, and inform important decisions, and ultimately yield projects that better meet their needs and aspirations. Phasing also allows organizations to adapt project designs based on what they learn along the way. What’s more, even smaller-scale capital projects can benefit from this approach.

These grants are designed to support one of three phases of construction and landscape projects: 

• Design Grants can help organizations who have decided to move forward on a project put together the requirements to be ready for construction.
  • The design phase responds to the “design brief” that describes the requirements of the project (amount of space, types of programs, constraints, and context). It’s not unusual for design grants to include some planning activities. Typical outputs from design grants include the key elements of construction projects:
    • Schematic drawings
    • Design development
    • Construction documents
    • Project budget

If you are requesting funding for equipment (e.g. computers, furniture, tools, etc.) that is not part of a major building project, please use our project/program grant application.

Michael & Susan Dell Foundation Grants

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation only accepts unsolicited proposals for specific areas within the education, family economic stability and childhood health sectors in select countries where we work, namely the United States, India and South Africa.

As a guideline, the foundation does not fund more than 25% of a project’s budget or more than 10% of an organization’s total annual operating expenses.

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation has always recognized the power of providing grants to partner organizations that we knew were already working hard to improve the lives of urban children living in poverty. By aligning with organizations that are already making a difference, we continue to make an immediate impact on the lives of thousands of children.

Foundation priorities:

We fund social enterprises that directly serve or impact children or youth from urban low-income communities in the areas of education, health, and family economic stability (including livelihoods and financial inclusion). These social enterprises may be structured as for-profit or nonprofit entities.

Partnerships

We collaborate with a range of organizations focused on creating opportunities for children and families living in urban poverty, with a deep emphasis on measuring impact. Our funding advances projects already making an impact in education, health, and family economic stability. Through these enduring and long-standing partnerships, we create lasting change together.

Rockland Trust is founded on a set of core values.

We build strong relationships with our customers, helping business owners grow their companies, and helping individual consumers be successful by providing straightforward products and convenient service. Our success is based on having respectful and knowledgeable bankers, as well as robust technology available to our customers. These values instilled within our company are reflected in our level of service as well as our ongoing commitment to our community.

At Rockland Trust each relationship matters. No matter large or small, old or new, we are committed to serving and meeting every customer’s needs. As a result, we have very loyal customers who stay with us, deepen their relationship, and tell their friends about Rockland Trust.Rockland Trust

Rockland Trust's philanthropic mission is to strengthen the communities served by Rockland Trust Bank, enabling individuals and their families to access opportunity and improve the quality of their lives.

The Sidney Stern Memorial Trust is devoted solely to the funding of charitable, scientific, medical and educational organizations.

The Board endeavors to support soundly-managed charitable organizations that give service with a broad scope, have a substantial effect on their target populations, and contribute materially to the general welfare. The Board does not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.

About

The Audacious Project is a collaborative funding initiative catalyzing social impact on a grand scale. Every year we select and nurture a group of big, bold solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges, and with the support of an inspiring group of donors and supporters, come together to get them launched.

Housed at TED, the nonprofit with a long track record of surfacing ideas worth spreading, and with support from leading social impact advisor The Bridgespan Group, the funding collective is comprised of several respected organizations and individuals in philanthropy.

Our goal is to match bold ideas with catalytic resources.

• We encourage the world’s inspirational changemakers to dream bigger than ever before.
• Help shape their best ideas into viable multi-year plans.
• Present those solutions in a compelling way to potential supporters.

The Process

Every year, The Audacious Project works with proven change-makers to surface their best, boldest ideas for tackling global problems.

Sourcing & review

Projects are sourced from public applications and a global network of partners and donors. They are narrowed down to a group of finalists whose ideas are representative of a broad range of geographies and issue areas while elevating leaders with proximity to the communities they serve.

Idea shaping & investment support

Each finalist project goes through a rigorous ideation, due diligence, and investment support process, to ensure their proposal is achievable and compelling.

Funding & launch

Finalist projects are presented privately to groups of donors and are then publicly unveiled at TED. Funded projects then pursue their plans and share regular updates on key milestones reached with donors and the public.

Is Your Idea Audacious?

• Are you a changemaker with a bold vision?
• Are you a non-profit with an experienced team equipped to receive large scale philanthropic support?
• Is your idea a proven concept that aspires to create a better world?
• We look for ideas that cover a wide range of issues, from global health and climate change, to social justice and education.

What Makes An Idea Audacious?

Inspire

• Transformative vision
  • Your idea should capture a bold vision for tackling one of the world's most urgent topics.
• Creating a better world
  • It is your opportunity to take a giant leap forward; you may be tempted to think incrementally, but remember for it to be bold, your idea should offer significant, enduring impact.
  • This vision should bring us much closer to your version of an ideal world in a matter of years rather than generations.
• Innovative and original
  • There should be a unique aspect or creative element to your approach that challenges convention or status quo or changes the narrative for the greater good.

Convince

• Proven concept
  • There should be evidence that the idea will have impact based on a track record of past success, a demand from those that would be affected, and justified confidence that results can be sustained in the future.
• A bold vision that has clear outcomes
  • There should be a sense of where you will be at the end of a multi-year funding term and the strategy, resources and timeline required to achieve it. We want to hear about the changes that would take place because of your idea, not just the components that go into implementing it.

• Established support
  • You and your capable and confident team have the backing of a nonprofit, NGO, or institution (or is part of a collaboration between multiple such entities). This organization should be able to receive philanthropic funds and have the core infrastructure necessary to support the work. (Note: Past projects have had an annual operating budget of $1 million or more.)

Please refer to FAQ for additional guidelines.

We have strong partnerships with nonprofit organizations across the country that are working to advance economic mobility and social progress in low- and moderate-income communities. Our focus areas include basic needs like food and housing, workforce development and education, and community development. In addition to our philanthropic investments, we also encourage our employees to make a difference by offering robust employee giving and volunteering programs, including the opportunity to direct funds to organizations they support through volunteer efforts, and a matching gifts program that doubles their individual giving to causes they care about. Last year, we invested $350 million in the communities we serve, and employees contributed more than 1 million volunteer hours and directed $65 million through individual giving and matching gifts to support nonprofits.Through our regional U.S. sponsorships, we support the economic, social and cultural life of the places we live and work. We provide an extensive program of arts and sports sponsorships to help maintain vibrant, healthy communities.Sponsorships supporting communitiesBank of America welcomes your sponsorship proposal for opportunities that make our communities a better place to live and work. We are particularly interested in providing support to address needs vital to the health of our communities through a focus on:

• preserving neighborhoods;
• educating the workforce for 21st century jobs;
• addressing critical needs such as hunger and emergency shelter;
• arts and culture;
• the environment; and
• diversity and inclusion programs.

Grants are made at the Foundation’s discretion based on our current funding strategies focused on housing, jobs and hunger. 

Helping Build Better Futures

Our mission is to deliver great value to our customers every day. For over four decades, our deep commitment to the principles of providing value and caring for others has helped define our culture. It extends beyond the walls of our stores, distribution centers, and offices, and into our local communities around the world. The intersection of these principles defines our global community mission:

Deliver great value to our communities by helping vulnerable families and children access the resources and opportunities they need to build a better future.

Our Social Impact Areas

We bring our community relations mission to life around the world by focusing our giving on four social impact areas where we believe we can have the most impact and are critical to helping families and children succeed and thrive.

Basic Needs

We are passionate about supporting nonprofit organizations that help fill critical basic needs such as a warm meal, clean clothing, and a safe place to sleep for vulnerable families.

Education & Training

Our efforts have focused on quality enrichment and extracurricular programs that provide skills, resources, and opportunities to support school and career success for children, teens, and young adults.

Patient Care & Research

We support organizations that deliver services to families and children facing health challenges and life-threatening illnesses.

Empowering Women

We support programs that provide services ranging from help for those fleeing domestic violence, to others that offer education, training, and job placement resources.

Our Approach

Our grant making priorities focus on the impact we aspire to make in the community.

Aquidneck Island and Newport County remain at the center of our work. We recognize that communities are part of larger systems and economies and we welcome proposals from outside this region that can make a clear case for the benefit to our target communities.

These grant priority areas are intentionally designed to recognize the connections between education, health, economic development, and place. Emphasis in the grant consideration process will be on the impact the proposed activities will have on one or more of these grant priority areas. The Foundation is open to innovative and collaborative approaches, encouraging proposals in the discovery, planning and pilot stages.

Additionally, we invest in strengthening organizations. Through our programming and grant making, we seek to advance our community’s capacity for leadership and best practices needed to thrive and to sustain high-performing nonprofits.

Grant Priorities

• Strong Starts:
  • Our Goal: Children and youth have a strong start in life, benefitting from a supportive community and an education that prepares them for the future.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: At every age children are ready and engaged learners, supported by their family, schools, and community.
  • Our Point of View: Investing in the success of our children is fundamental to the community’s future. Healthy minds and bodies maximize learning. A reputation for excellence in education will both retain and attract families to our community.
• Healthy Lifestyles:
  • Our Goal: Residents experience health throughout their lives.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The community offers access to quality health care as well as positive social and physical environments where residents can make healthy choices.
  • Our Point of View: Health improves learning, workforce productivity, and the ability of residents to contribute to family and civic life. Healthy places support healthy choices. Communities known for outstanding health care and healthy lifestyles are attractive to both employers and talented workers.
• Community Prosperity:
  • Our Goal: Regional economic growth creates opportunities for residents and enterprises.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The regional economy is home to a skilled workforce and thriving enterprises, and continues to foster a strong sense of place.
  • Our Point of View: A diverse regional economy supports job growth, improves wages, and raises the standard of living for residents. Creating synergies between our workforce, enterprises, institutions, and quality of place will contribute to community vibrancy. A prosperous community can shape its future and invest in its social, environmental, and cultural values.
• Excellence in the Commons:
  • Our Goal: Quality common spaces and institutions make our communities desirable places to live, work, and play.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The quality of landscapes and buildings support the community’s aspirations and contribute to community vitality.
  • Our Point of View: Our buildings and landscapes can inspire, shape, and reflect the aspirations of the community. Well-designed natural and built environments enhance the local community and economy--they are physically and socially connected, welcoming, and vibrant. Robust planning processes and thoughtful design lead to quality facilities and landscapes that support program excellence.

Capacity Grants

Capacity Grants help organizations and institutions address capacity needs (e.g. board development, fund development plans, leadership coaching, exploring restructuring) with assistance from a coach or consultant.

When people think of nonprofit organizations, we tend to think first about their missions, strategies, and programs. What often gets less attention is what’s less visible: systems, operations, the capacity to implement programs. Yet, these ingredients are key to an organization’s survival and sustainability, and to its ability to deliver on its mission.

Past projects include (but are not limited to):

• Organizational needs assessments (capacities, systems, etc.)
• Board development
• Leadership coaching
• Building capacity around racial equity
• Fund development plans
• Business plans
• Exploring restructuring, mergers, and shared services

Funding

Capacity grants are limited to $10,000.

This year, vBCF will again offer a limited number of grants—typically averaging $3,500 to $5,000, not to exceed $10,000—to nonprofit organizations aligned with vBCF’s mission to help them address capacity needs by procuring technical assistance from a coach or consultant.

Our Approach

Our grant making priorities focus on the impact we aspire to make in the community.

Aquidneck Island and Newport County remain at the center of our work. We recognize that communities are part of larger systems and economies and we welcome proposals from outside this region that can make a clear case for the benefit to our target communities.

These grant priority areas are intentionally designed to recognize the connections between education, health, economic development, and place. Emphasis in the grant consideration process will be on the impact the proposed activities will have on one or more of these grant priority areas. The Foundation is open to innovative and collaborative approaches, encouraging proposals in the discovery, planning and pilot stages.

Additionally, we invest in strengthening organizations. Through our programming and grant making, we seek to advance our community’s capacity for leadership and best practices needed to thrive and to sustain high-performing nonprofits.

Grant Priorities

• Strong Starts:
  • Our Goal: Children and youth have a strong start in life, benefitting from a supportive community and an education that prepares them for the future.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: At every age children are ready and engaged learners, supported by their family, schools, and community.
  • Our Point of View: Investing in the success of our children is fundamental to the community’s future. Healthy minds and bodies maximize learning. A reputation for excellence in education will both retain and attract families to our community.
• Healthy Lifestyles:
  • Our Goal: Residents experience health throughout their lives.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The community offers access to quality health care as well as positive social and physical environments where residents can make healthy choices.
  • Our Point of View: Health improves learning, workforce productivity, and the ability of residents to contribute to family and civic life. Healthy places support healthy choices. Communities known for outstanding health care and healthy lifestyles are attractive to both employers and talented workers.
• Community Prosperity:
  • Our Goal: Regional economic growth creates opportunities for residents and enterprises.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The regional economy is home to a skilled workforce and thriving enterprises, and continues to foster a strong sense of place.
  • Our Point of View: A diverse regional economy supports job growth, improves wages, and raises the standard of living for residents. Creating synergies between our workforce, enterprises, institutions, and quality of place will contribute to community vibrancy. A prosperous community can shape its future and invest in its social, environmental, and cultural values.
• Excellence in the Commons:
  • Our Goal: Quality common spaces and institutions make our communities desirable places to live, work, and play.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The quality of landscapes and buildings support the community’s aspirations and contribute to community vitality.
  • Our Point of View: Our buildings and landscapes can inspire, shape, and reflect the aspirations of the community. Well-designed natural and built environments enhance the local community and economy--they are physically and socially connected, welcoming, and vibrant. Robust planning processes and thoughtful design lead to quality facilities and landscapes that support program excellence.

Major Construction and Landscape Grants - Planning Grants 

And three types of Major Construction and Landscape Grants, typically for building renovations and upgrades, new construction, and major landscape redesign and improvement.

Because large capital projects can be complex and happen infrequently enough that organizations may have had limited experience with them, we’ve found it helpful to break the process into several phases, based on MASS Design’s Planning for Impact Toolkit. A proposed project doesn’t necessarily have to fit neatly into one of these phases, but thinking about them in this way does offer a framework that can help organizations work through projects, anticipate challenges and opportunities, clarify, and inform important decisions, and ultimately yield projects that better meet their needs and aspirations. Phasing also allows organizations to adapt project designs based on what they learn along the way. What’s more, even smaller-scale capital projects can benefit from this approach.

These grants are designed to support one of three phases of construction and landscape projects: 

• Planning Grants help organizations answer critical questions about whether to proceed with a capital project, and how. 
  • Specifically, they support activities that help organizations:
    • Further refine the purpose and need for the project
    • Engage stakeholders
    • Define the programmatic and financial requirements of the project
    • Assess the feasibility of the project and the organization’s readiness to take it on
  • Typical outputs from planning grants include:
    • A case statement clearly articulating need and the goals that define success,
    • A design brief to inform architectural services and site selection, and
    • A project scope (budget, schedule, fundraising plan, project team).

If you are requesting funding for equipment (e.g. computers, furniture, tools, etc.) that is not part of a major building project, please use our project/program grant application.

Wells Fargo and the Wells Fargo Foundation collaborate with a wide range of nonprofit organizations that align with our strategic funding priorities. We prioritize our funding to activities and programs that have a broad reach and support the needs of underserved communities. We aspire to have a positive impact on the communities we serve by using our financial and volunteer resources and business expertise in collaboration with community organizations to help solve complex societal problems.

• Financial health
• Housing affordability
• Small business growth
• Sustainability

We may also support other local needs in eligible communities such as disaster relief, arts and culture, civic engagement, education, human and social services, and workforce development. However, opportunities are limited as our intent is to direct the majority of our giving within our major focus areas.

Our Mission

The Hansen Family Foundation provides opportunities to domestic, international, secular, and non-secular organizations that support the American way of life, which is defined by the principles of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” 

Causes

Children

The Hansen Family Foundation supports causes dedicated to helping children both home as well as abroad. Learn More

Education

The Hansen Family Foundation believes that a decent education should be made available to everyone, young or old, the world over. Learn More

Animals

The Hansen Family Foundation believes in helping those who cannot speak on their own behalf. Learn More

Environmental

The Hansen Family Foundation is dedicated to preserving the world we all share. Learn More

Humanitarian

The Hansen Family Foundation views the plight of our fellow man as an opportunity to actively engage and effect change. Learn More

Arts & Culture

The Hansen Family Foundation supports all forms of artistic and cultural endeavors. Learn More

Calling to Serve

Since its inception in 2016, the Robinson Foundation has sought to demonstrate God’s love through sharing the gifts we have received. We understand the often unspoken hardships and struggles that people in and outside of our community face everyday. As such, our contributions are focused on relieving these hardships for the betterment of our world.

As a family-operated foundation, we pray that our small efforts will not only create immediate change in the lives of our neighbors, but will help set those lives on a course for success in the future. We are thankful for each and every day we have on this earth to use what God has granted us to make a difference.

Areas of Interest

• Animal Welfare
• Children & Families
• Disaster Relief
• Education
• Medical Assistance
• Nature & Wildlife Conservation
• Poverty Relief
• Religious & Spiritual Endeavors
• Veterans' Issues

Grant Considerations

We take many different aspects of applications into account when making grant issuing decisions, however these are some of the high-level questions we ask ourselves during the process:

• How does the organization serve their key audience goals?
• Is the organization fiscally responsible?
• Will a grant have a tangible, meaningful impact?
• Will we see direct results from this grant?
• Does the organization have other financial contributors?

The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation Vision

The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation, "A Foundation for All", was established in 2002. It was begun in order to give a clear voice for those who wish to be a part of the many, worthy, forces for change in our world.

We are a foundation whose purpose is to look ahead towards the future, giving the past its due by remembering where we came from, and how much we can all accomplish together. We aim to make the critical difference on our planet by recognizing and having respect for our ever changing world. We respect all Life, the Environment, and all People, no matter who they are.

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.

Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation Grant

The Foundation will consider requests to support museums, cultural and performing arts programs; schools and hospitals; educational, skills-training and other programs for youth, seniors, and persons with disabilities; environmental and wildlife protection activities; and other community-based organizations and programs.

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

Our Mission

Our mission is to continue and further the philanthropic legacy of Gardner Cowles, Jr. and the Cowles family, which includes promotion of education, social justice, health, and the arts.

The Founder

The Cowles Charitable Trust was first established in 1948 by Gardner “Mike” Cowles, Jr. (1903-1985). Born into the Cowles publishing family of Des Moines, Iowa, Mike was the youngest of Gardner Cowles and Florence Call Cowles’ six children. A newspaper editor and publisher by trade, he was committed to his family’s traditions of responsible, public-spirited, and innovative journalism as well as philanthropy. 

The Cowles Charitable Trust supports the arts, education, the advancement of ethical journalism, medical and climate research.

Our Approach

Our grant making priorities focus on the impact we aspire to make in the community.

Aquidneck Island and Newport County remain at the center of our work. We recognize that communities are part of larger systems and economies and we welcome proposals from outside this region that can make a clear case for the benefit to our target communities.

These grant priority areas are intentionally designed to recognize the connections between education, health, economic development, and place. Emphasis in the grant consideration process will be on the impact the proposed activities will have on one or more of these grant priority areas. The Foundation is open to innovative and collaborative approaches, encouraging proposals in the discovery, planning and pilot stages.

Additionally, we invest in strengthening organizations. Through our programming and grant making, we seek to advance our community’s capacity for leadership and best practices needed to thrive and to sustain high-performing nonprofits.

Grant Priorities

• Strong Starts:
  • Our Goal: Children and youth have a strong start in life, benefitting from a supportive community and an education that prepares them for the future.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: At every age children are ready and engaged learners, supported by their family, schools, and community.
  • Our Point of View: Investing in the success of our children is fundamental to the community’s future. Healthy minds and bodies maximize learning. A reputation for excellence in education will both retain and attract families to our community.
• Healthy Lifestyles:
  • Our Goal: Residents experience health throughout their lives.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The community offers access to quality health care as well as positive social and physical environments where residents can make healthy choices.
  • Our Point of View: Health improves learning, workforce productivity, and the ability of residents to contribute to family and civic life. Healthy places support healthy choices. Communities known for outstanding health care and healthy lifestyles are attractive to both employers and talented workers.
• Community Prosperity:
  • Our Goal: Regional economic growth creates opportunities for residents and enterprises.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The regional economy is home to a skilled workforce and thriving enterprises, and continues to foster a strong sense of place.
  • Our Point of View: A diverse regional economy supports job growth, improves wages, and raises the standard of living for residents. Creating synergies between our workforce, enterprises, institutions, and quality of place will contribute to community vibrancy. A prosperous community can shape its future and invest in its social, environmental, and cultural values.
• Excellence in the Commons:
  • Our Goal: Quality common spaces and institutions make our communities desirable places to live, work, and play.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The quality of landscapes and buildings support the community’s aspirations and contribute to community vitality.
  • Our Point of View: Our buildings and landscapes can inspire, shape, and reflect the aspirations of the community. Well-designed natural and built environments enhance the local community and economy--they are physically and socially connected, welcoming, and vibrant. Robust planning processes and thoughtful design lead to quality facilities and landscapes that support program excellence.

Major Construction and Landscape Grants - Implementation Grants

And three types of Major Construction and Landscape Grants, typically for building renovations and upgrades, new construction, and major landscape redesign and improvement.

Because large capital projects can be complex and happen infrequently enough that organizations may have had limited experience with them, we’ve found it helpful to break the process into several phases, based on MASS Design’s Planning for Impact Toolkit. A proposed project doesn’t necessarily have to fit neatly into one of these phases, but thinking about them in this way does offer a framework that can help organizations work through projects, anticipate challenges and opportunities, clarify, and inform important decisions, and ultimately yield projects that better meet their needs and aspirations. Phasing also allows organizations to adapt project designs based on what they learn along the way. What’s more, even smaller-scale capital projects can benefit from this approach.

These grants are designed to support one of three phases of construction and landscape projects: 

• Implementation Grants support the implementation of projects developed through planning and design processes.
  • Implementation grants support the implementation of projects developed through planning and design processes. These earlier phases need not have involved vBCF, but we do require that capital projects we fund are built on a solid foundation of planning and design.
  • In addition to the online grant application, we ask that you submit a narrative description of the overall project and the specific request to vBCF, along with supporting documentation. For the narrative, feel free to refer to existing materials (and upload them) if they address the questions we’re asking

If you are requesting funding for equipment (e.g. computers, furniture, tools, etc.) that is not part of a major building project, please use our project/program grant application.

Our Approach

Our grant making priorities focus on the impact we aspire to make in the community.

Aquidneck Island and Newport County remain at the center of our work. We recognize that communities are part of larger systems and economies and we welcome proposals from outside this region that can make a clear case for the benefit to our target communities.

These grant priority areas are intentionally designed to recognize the connections between education, health, economic development, and place. Emphasis in the grant consideration process will be on the impact the proposed activities will have on one or more of these grant priority areas. The Foundation is open to innovative and collaborative approaches, encouraging proposals in the discovery, planning and pilot stages.

Additionally, we invest in strengthening organizations. Through our programming and grant making, we seek to advance our community’s capacity for leadership and best practices needed to thrive and to sustain high-performing nonprofits.

Grant Priorities

• Strong Starts:
  • Our Goal: Children and youth have a strong start in life, benefitting from a supportive community and an education that prepares them for the future.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: At every age children are ready and engaged learners, supported by their family, schools, and community.
  • Our Point of View: Investing in the success of our children is fundamental to the community’s future. Healthy minds and bodies maximize learning. A reputation for excellence in education will both retain and attract families to our community.
• Healthy Lifestyles:
  • Our Goal: Residents experience health throughout their lives.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The community offers access to quality health care as well as positive social and physical environments where residents can make healthy choices.
  • Our Point of View: Health improves learning, workforce productivity, and the ability of residents to contribute to family and civic life. Healthy places support healthy choices. Communities known for outstanding health care and healthy lifestyles are attractive to both employers and talented workers.
• Community Prosperity:
  • Our Goal: Regional economic growth creates opportunities for residents and enterprises.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The regional economy is home to a skilled workforce and thriving enterprises, and continues to foster a strong sense of place.
  • Our Point of View: A diverse regional economy supports job growth, improves wages, and raises the standard of living for residents. Creating synergies between our workforce, enterprises, institutions, and quality of place will contribute to community vibrancy. A prosperous community can shape its future and invest in its social, environmental, and cultural values.
• Excellence in the Commons:
  • Our Goal: Quality common spaces and institutions make our communities desirable places to live, work, and play.
  • The Difference We Want to Make: The quality of landscapes and buildings support the community’s aspirations and contribute to community vitality.
  • Our Point of View: Our buildings and landscapes can inspire, shape, and reflect the aspirations of the community. Well-designed natural and built environments enhance the local community and economy--they are physically and socially connected, welcoming, and vibrant. Robust planning processes and thoughtful design lead to quality facilities and landscapes that support program excellence.

Program and Project Grants

Programs are activities that provide ongoing benefit to the community. Projects are short-term activities with a distinct beginning and end.

Program and project grants support activities that improve the health, education, and wellbeing of the Newport County region. At vBCF, we see programs and projects grants as investments that advance mission and priorities. Programs are activities that provide ongoing benefit to the community. Projects are short-term activities with a distinct beginning and end. We typically fund pilot and established projects or programs that:

• help children and youth benefit from a strong start in life, education that prepares them for the future, and a supportive community
• create access to quality healthcare and positive social and physical environments
• foster a diverse regional economy and raise the standard of living for residents
• provide common spaces and institutions that make our communities desirable places to live, work and play
• increase organizational capacity, such as the creation of strategic plans

Requests to support equipment (e.g. computers, furniture, tools, etc.) that are part of a broader request for program support are considered through this application process. Requests for major building system (like HVAC, roofing, plumbing etc.) are considered through our major construction and landscapes grants program.

The Foundation is dedicated to providing financial assistance to organizations committed to improving our world. Solutions to the problems of today's world still lie in the values of innovation, practicality, hard work, and compassion.

The Foundation considers applications for grants in the following areas:

• Education
• Social Service
• Health care
• Civic and cultural
• Environmental

The categories above are not intended to limit the interest of the Foundation from considering other worthwhile projects. In general, the Foundation guidelines are broad to give us flexibility in providing grants.

The majority of our grants are made in the U.S. However, like Dr. Scholl, we recognize the need for a global outlook. Non-U.S. grants are given to organizations where directors have knowledge of the grantee.

The Newport County Fund (NCF) offers competitive small grants, which range from $1,000 to $10,000. Grants are awarded where a relatively small amount of money can be of strategic assistance to a nonprofit organization serving one or more of the six cities and towns of Newport County.

Program Focus & Priorities

The following are among areas where grants may be awarded:

• Project development support for new programs
• Strengthening and/or expanding established community programs and services
• Community or municipal planning and/or leadership
• Policy or advocacy efforts on behalf of community concerns 

RIF: Miss Swinburne Fund Grant

Miss Elizabeth Swinburne, a civic-minded woman of the early 1900s, established a school in her home to educate young women in the science and skills of household arts. In her will, she designated the Civic League of Newport to continue her mission of educating young women in Newport County. In 2002, the League established a fund in Miss Swinburne’s name at the Foundation to support scholarships and charitable programs and services for women and girls in Newport County, Rhode Island. Programs that provide certificates, degrees, and/or formal credentialing for the participants are encouraged.

This fund provides annual awards to nonprofit organizations that support the self-sufficiency and independence of girls and women in Newport County. An application to the Miss Swinburne Fund does not restrict an organization from applying to other funds administered by the Foundation.