Best Professional Development Grants for Nonprofits

The Ecumenical Education Fund, managed by the Community Foundation of Grundy County, provides financial support to churches and Christian-based nonprofits in Grundy County. This fund aims to foster educational initiatives, evangelical outreach, energy efficiency projects, and emergency aid. Applications are accepted year-round, with specific deadlines for larger grants. This funding opportunity is designed to empower community-driven efforts that enrich the lives of local residents.

The VOICES of Philanthropy Grant Program, established in 1998 by the Community Foundation of DeKalb County, empowers youth from local high schools to engage in philanthropy. By fostering leadership skills and community awareness, the program supports charitable initiatives in DeKalb County, Indiana. It encourages student-led organizations to apply for grants that address diverse community needs, while excluding funding for individual projects or religious purposes.

The American Research Institute in Turkey offers fellowships for graduate and post-doctoral research in the humanities and social sciences, focusing on projects conducted in Turkey. Eligible applicants include scholars and advanced graduate students researching ancient, medieval, or modern topics. Fellowships support tenures up to one academic year, with funding ranging from $2,500 to $15,500, providing vital resources and connections for academic endeavors.

The Princeton Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts offers a fellowship in LGBT Studies, aimed at scholars engaging with issues related to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender communities. This three-year fellowship encourages innovative research and teaching, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among postdoctoral fellows and faculty. The Society prioritizes diversity among applicants and supports candidates from underrepresented backgrounds, enhancing the scholarly dialogue on contemporary LGBT topics within the academic community.

The Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and Environment, co-led by Washington State University and MIT, focuses on advancing aviation technology through research. Supported by the FAA, NASA, and other federal entities, ASCENT collaborates with 16 top U.S. universities and over 60 stakeholders to enhance the safety and sustainability of aviation. This initiative aims to foster innovative solutions in alternative jet fuels while addressing environmental impacts in the aviation sector.

The Proposal Development Award supports Michigan-based nonprofits by providing funding to hire grant writers for health-related grant applications. This initiative helps organizations apply for funding from various sources, including the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation and local health grants. The award is designed for nonprofits lacking the capacity to develop proposals independently, ensuring they can compete for essential health funding.

The Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) scheme by The Royal Society aims to bridge the gap between academia and industry by placing experienced industrial scientists in UK universities. Over two years, award holders will dedicate 20% of their time to enhance knowledge of industrial science and innovation. This initiative supports university staff and students by providing expert advice, fostering entrepreneurship, and developing bespoke projects that align with cutting-edge research, ultimately contributing to the growth of the scientific community.

The Willson Center Public Impact Grant, offered by the University of Georgia, supports faculty-led initiatives that organize conferences, exhibitions, and performances showcasing humanities and arts research. With a funding limit of $7,500, this grant encourages collaboration between faculty and graduate students, facilitating interdisciplinary projects. Award recipients must communicate program details to the Willson Center and provide proper credit in all related publicity. Applications are open for the upcoming academic year, with a focus on impactful engagements.

Rotary Club of San Jose

The Rotary Club of San Jose is the largest, most active and well-known service organization in the community. We are a leadership organization working together to make a difference. Our members include local business, nonprofit, professional and civic leaders. We form lasting friendships through our shared Rotary experiences including weekly meetings with interesting speakers, committee meetings and projects, social events and group service projects within our community and internationally.

Community Grants

• The primary purpose of the Rotary Club of San Jose Foundation Community Grants is to assist nonprofit organizations serving the citizens of San Jose with grants up to $15,000 for specific, tangible and identifiable capital purchases. Recent examples include grants to purchase a commercial oven, refrigerator, computers (including peripherals), streaming equipment, and cameras.

• Grants up to $15,000 may also be made for small facility improvement projects of under $30,000 total. Recent examples include linoleum flooring, electrical upgrades, carpet and fences. The intent is to provide a grant that will serve the grantee for many years.

The Nagel Foundation Grant supports non-profits in southwest Idaho by providing financial assistance to qualified 501(c)(3) organizations. The Foundation has a selective grant-making process, focusing on community enrichment through education and service. It does not fund political campaigns, projects outside southwest Idaho, or grants to individuals. This targeted approach ensures that funds are allocated effectively to benefit the local community.

Enhance Hamilton County Foundation

The mission of the Enhance Hamilton County Foundation is to foster private giving, strengthen service providers and improve the quality of life for citizens in Hamilton County. To these ends, the Foundation will promote endowment collaboration, and public leadership for the benefit of the designated area.

The Enhance Hamilton County Foundation was formed in 2005 as an affiliate of the Greater Des Moines Foundation. The founding members of the organization had a vision to ensure that our communities’ charitable programs were supported now and in the future.

EHCF Annual Grant Program - Other

The Enhance Hamilton County Foundation will provide grants to improve the quality of life throughout Hamilton County, Iowa. We want to help develop all our communities into places where people want to live, as well as, to benefit rural areas of the county.

The Foundation supports the spirit of giving throughout Hamilton County by providing outstanding support and services to our donors, volunteers, other charitable-focused agencies, grant seekers, and the community. We achieve this by:

• Helping people realize their dreams of making a difference and finding the best vehicle to achieve that, by designing and implementing their charitable giving plans.
• Facilitating and supporting the works of charitable-focused organizations in Hamilton County through strategic grant making.
• Acting as stewards for the community by managing donor funds.
• Bringing diverse groups together for the common good.

Competitive grants are made available yearly from unrestricted funds, one of which is: 

Other – Use this category only if the grant cannot be categorized as Arts/Culture/Humanities, Education, Environment/Animal, Health, Human Services and Public/Society Benefit.

Purpose

The Bullis Fund was created from the estate of Jeanette ‘Nettie’ Bullis, an astute businesswoman whose family settled in Macedon in the late 1830s. Grants from income generated by the endowment fund are recommended by a committee of Wayne County representatives to reflect Miss Bullis’ interest in improving the quality of life of residents of Wayne County, especially in the Town of Macedon or within the area served by the Palmyra-Macedon Central School District. Miss Bullis believed strongly in providing a “hand up” not a “hand out.” Therefore, most grants require a matching component.

Funding Criteria

All criteria must be met for a request to be considered. Applications must:

• Show how the project/program provides direct or indirect benefit to residents of southwest Wayne County;
• Indicate how the project/program makes southwest Wayne County significantly better and/or how it has significant community-wide impact;
• Indicate matching or leveraged support from other constituencies.
• Provide evidence of ongoing stability and financial sustainability for the funded projects. How projects will be funded in the future is a key consideration.

Organizations are urged to participate in one of a variety of programs through Causewave Community Partners. These programs are designed to help nonprofit organizations grow their impact and could include: communications, strategic planning, board development, and fundraising support.

The Willson Center Research Seminar Program at the University of Georgia provides $2,000 for faculty-led interdisciplinary discussion groups on specific research topics. This grant is aimed at tenured or tenure-track faculty and is intended to facilitate the visit of external scholars to the campus. Applications are open for the upcoming academic year, focusing on fostering collaborative research initiatives among faculty.

The Ed & Joyce Creske Family Foundation Grants support charitable organizations in central Wisconsin, specifically Lincoln, Marathon, and Portage Counties. The foundation prioritizes causes that positively impact the Mosinee community. However, it does not fund annual campaigns, operating expenses, debt retirement, endowments, direct individual support, lobbying, or sectarian causes. This initiative reflects the Creske family's commitment to giving back to the community that has supported them throughout their lives.

The NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award supports individual scientists or groups of scientists proposing bold, groundbreaking, exceptionally innovative, original, and/or unconventional research with the potential to create new scientific paradigms, establish entirely new and improved clinical approaches, or develop transformative technologies. Applications in any area within the biomedical sciences are welcome. No preliminary data are required. Projects must clearly demonstrate, based on the strength of the logic, a compelling potential to produce a major impact in a broad area of relevance to the NIH. The NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award is a component of the High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) Program of the NIH Common Fund.

Unlikely Collaborators Inc

We exist to help people RESOLVE CONFLICT. What kind of conflict are we talking about? The inside kind.

It's our perspective that most of the EXTERNAL conflict in the world is the result of unconscious, unresolved INTERNAL conflict in each and every one of us.

Unlikely Collaborators is an organization that exists to help people resolve conflict by making them aware of and helping them work with their Perception Box.

RFP To Fund Transformative Projects Rooted in the Perception Box™ Framework

This RFP is designed for organizations creating meaningful shifts in how people interpret their experiences, beliefs, and perspectives.

All requests must be project-specific and aligned with the Perception Box framework.

At Unlikely Collaborators, we support people and organizations who are helping others see something about themselves they couldn’t see before. Our work is grounded in the Perception Box, a framework developed by our founder, Elizabeth R. Koch.

The Perception Box is the internal lens through which each of us experiences the world. It is shaped by our beliefs, our past experiences, our identity, and the stories we carry, often without realizing it.

Most of the time, we don’t see this lens. We experience our perspective as reality. But when people begin to notice it, something shifts. There is often more curiosity, less certainty, and more openness to others and new possibilities.

We are not a fit for projects focused primarily on advocacy, external blame, or telling people what to think. We support work that helps people examine how they think.

What this looks like in practice

We are most interested in projects where participants are actively engaged in noticing and questioning their own assumptions. This might include:

• Structured experiences where people reflect on their beliefs and how those beliefs were formed
• Encounters with perspectives that challenge their existing worldview
• Moments of realization where someone recognizes their interpretation may not be the only one
• Practices that build curiosity, self-awareness, and the ability to stay open in the face of difference

Before you get started on your RFP grant application, here’s what to expect:

• At Unlikely Collaborators, we support people and organizations that create meaningful shifts in how individuals see themselves.
• We are not looking for surface-level awareness. We are looking for work that leads to a real moment of recognition, when someone begins to question their own assumptions, reconsider their perspective, or see others differently.
• We prioritize leaders working from lived experience, not distance—people who understand the challenge from the inside and are translating that insight into something others can directly experience.
• The strongest projects are designed to create these moments of reflection in a tangible way. They bring people together in environments that are thoughtful, human, and often unexpected, where insight is felt, not just discussed.

Department of Economic and Community Development

At DECD, we are more than two dozen experts whose broad mission is to help communities and businesses prosper through a variety of programs providing everything from targeted tax relief to community block grants to tourism marketing. Whether your business wants to make a film here, bring a Maine-made product to market, expand an aquaculture project, or explore financing when moving a business to our state, our experienced staff can help.

Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program 

In 1982 the State of Maine began administering the CDBG Program to assist units of local government in various community projects in areas ranging from infrastructure, housing, downtown revitalization to public facilities and economic development.

CDBG Objectives

All CDBG funded activities must meet one of three National Objectives of the program. These objectives are:

• Benefit to low- and moderate-income persons.
• Prevention and/or elimination of slum and blight conditions; and
• Meeting community development needs having a particular urgency

The Maine CDBG Program serves as a catalyst for local governments to implement programs which meet one of the three National Objectives, and:

• Are part of a long-range community strategy, or State of Maine Strategic Economic Development Plan
• Improve deteriorated residential and business districts and local economic conditions
• Provide the conditions and incentives for further public and private investments
• Foster partnerships between groups of municipalities, state and federal entities, multi-jurisdictional organizations, and the private sector to address common community and economic development problems; and
• Minimize development sprawl consistent with the State of Maine Growth Management Act and support the revitalization of downtown areas.

CDBG Special Projects Program

The Special Projects Program provides funds to projects that are not funded through the normal CDBG application process. SP funds will be used for alternative OCD grant activities and partnerships that meet the community or economic development needs of municipalities and CDBG National Objectives in the State of Maine. Approval for the use of SPMF funds is through the Director, Office of Community Development.

Funding for this program may be available based upon redistribution, reallocation and/or additional allocation from HUD.

The Next Generation of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program Trial Innovation Network aims to tackle significant challenges in multi-center clinical trials. By enhancing trial efficiency and safety through innovative solutions, the initiative seeks to improve the design and execution of these studies. Key areas of focus include safety monitoring tools, trial leader mentorship, and advancements in digital health technologies. This program invites eligible organizations to apply for funding to promote groundbreaking clinical research.

The Allied Arts and Humanities Grant, provided by the Bartlesville Community Foundation, aims to bolster cultural organizations in the greater Bartlesville area. This funding opportunity is open to 501(c)(3) nonprofits offering arts and humanities programming, particularly encouraging innovative projects that reach underserved communities. With a focus on sustainable community growth, the grant supports both program-specific and general operational needs, ensuring a vibrant cultural landscape for all residents.

The Basil L. King Scholarship Foundation offers four-year scholarships to St. Lucie County residents pursuing careers in Health Sciences. Applicants must maintain a GPA of 3.00 or higher, although those with a GPA of 2.5 may be considered under special circumstances. The scholarship is renewable for up to three years with continued eligibility. Preference is given to students who intend to return to the Treasure Coast after graduation, ensuring support for local talent.

Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines

The Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines improves quality of life for all by promoting charitable giving, connecting donors with causes they care about and providing leadership on important community issues…we’re simply better together. 

Guthrie County Community Foundation

Mission of the Guthrie County Community Foundation:

The mission of the Guthrie County Community Foundation is to foster giving, strengthen service providers, and improve the local conditions and quality of life. To these ends, the Guthrie County Community Foundation promotes philanthropy, endowment building, community-building, capacity-building, grant making, organizational collaborations, and public leadership for the benefit of Guthrie County, Iowa.

The Guthrie County Community Foundation is committed to improving the quality of life throughout Guthrie County by investing in area nonprofits through our grant programs and by providing individuals, families and area businesses who love our communities with a way to give back.

Guthrie County Community Foundation Grants

Grants are available to 501(c)3 organizations and government entities serving Guthrie County. Grant selections are made in an effort to create a better quality of life for people in Guthrie County. The local governing committee reviews the applications from charitable organizations serving their community.

The Northern Lowcountry Grants: Giving Back to Berkeley County Fund, established in 2008 by the Coastal Community Foundation, aims to enhance the quality of life for residents in Berkeley County, South Carolina. This fund supports nonprofits across various fields, encouraging applications for general operating support. The foundation, active since 1974, is the largest community foundation in the state, managing over 700 funds and distributing millions in grants and scholarships each year.

The Mockingbird Nonprofit Incubator Grant Program supports emerging nonprofit founders in creating sustainable growth and impact. The program includes eight live workshops on nonprofit management, fundraising, and access to resources from Givebutter. Selected organizations receive scholarships and the chance to apply for $4,000 in grant funds. Eligibility is limited to 501c3 nonprofits or those under fiscal sponsorship with budgets under $500,000, fostering a community of committed leaders ready to make a difference.

The Northern Lowcountry Grants, specifically the Dorchester County Fund, is managed by the Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina. Established in 2010, this fund aims to improve the quality of life for residents of Dorchester County by providing grants to various organizations. Eligible applicants include nonprofits dedicated to serving this community, and applications for general operational support are welcomed. The foundation is committed to fostering vibrant communities through strategic funding.

The Stevens Family Foundation Grant supports 501(c)(3) charities in Caldwell County, North Carolina, focusing on community services and the arts. Applications are accepted primarily via email, with a preference for one request per year. Notably, grants are exclusive to charitable organizations, and must not involve political lobbying or discrimination. This foundation aims to benefit the broader community, ensuring that grants are awarded fairly and without preference for previous applicants.

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) offers the Statistical and Research Methodology in Education grant (84.305D) to enhance education research through improved statistical methods and tools. This program invites applications focused on Core Grants for developing new methodologies or Toolkits for compiling existing research into user-friendly resources. The initiative aims to ensure these products are rigorously tested and disseminated widely to support effective education research practices.

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) supports state agencies in utilizing their longitudinal data systems to inform educational policies and program decisions. This grant aims to enhance access to high-quality education and improve academic performance among learners. By empowering local education agencies with data-driven insights, IES fosters evidence-based practices that can lead to significant advancements in educational outcomes. This initiative is essential for shaping effective education strategies across states.