Search Through Small Grants for Nonprofits in California in the U.S.

Community Support Grant Program

The Community Foundation of Mendocino County supports local educational opportunities open to the public, and public events with broad community impact, that align with the Community Foundation’s strategic plan. Nonprofits, tribes, schools, special districts and organizations with a fiscal sponsor are eligible to apply for these small grants.

Each request is evaluated on:

• The alignment with the Community Foundation’s mission, vision, strategic plan, and current priorities.
• The impact the event will have on meeting immediate needs in Mendocino County.
• The quality of the planning.
• The scope of outreach in the broader community.

Funding

$500-$1,000

Junior Board Grants

The Junior Board of the Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation is proud to support nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles County that “maximize the potential of youth”. Each year, the Junior Board chooses a grantmaking theme to guide the focus of its giving.

Past themes have been:

• S.T.E.M. Through the Arts
• Life and Leadership Ready
• Mentoring: Support to Success
• Girls, Forward

Funding

The grant amounts vary, but do not exceed $10,000.

The Leighty Foundation (TLF) is a small family foundation incorporated under Iowa law.  Directors and advisors live in Colorado, Alaska, and California.

Mission

To carry on the Leighty family legacy of service and stewardship by leveraging our time and talents, as well as our financial resources, primarily in the areas of Earth Protection, Education, Philanthropy, and Strategic Volunteer Engagement.Focus Areas Earth Protection “Environmental” has become trite, and does not convey the profound, urgent, and necessary changes in the way our species perceives and relates to our fellow species on Earth, and to its wonderful physical systems. The Leighty Foundation is especially interested in accelerating humanity’s transition to a sustainable, equitable, benign, affordable global energy system based entirely upon renewable energy sources — driven by radiant energy from our local star, the Sun, and by geothermal. Our earliest, most rewarding investments will be energy conservation and efficiency, while we invent and invest to “run the world on renewables.” We assist science education, so that we will better understand who and what and where we humans are, and to better understand Earth and our options for cooperation within its context and limits. Thus, we intend to invest wisely in Earth Protection, with both Foundation funds and with our personal involvement. An urgent Grand Challenge is transforming the world’s largest industry from about 80% fossil to nearly 100% renewable, CO2-emission-free energy sources, as quickly as we prudently and profitably can. Prudently: with acceptable social and economic disruption. Profitably: the huge amount of capital needed will flow only to attractive opportunities for returns. Electricity systems may be inadequate or technically and economically suboptimal for this transformation. Therefore, we now need to think beyond electricity, to comprehensively consider alternatives. Hydrogen (H2) and Anhydrous Ammonia (NH3) are attractive, energy carriers, storage media, and fuels – as complete renewable energy systems. The Leighty Foundation Earth Protection program focuses on the Big Three challenges of time-variable renewable generation:

• Gathering and transmission;
• Low-cost, annual-scale, firming storage;
• Distribution, integration, and end-use of energy services.

Strategic Volunteer Engagement Our nation finds itself faced with a perfect storm with shrinking resources and escalating needs. Meeting these needs will require a dramatic increase in the number of people willing to give their time and skills as well as their financial resources. However, the challenge may be less about increasing the number of people who volunteer, and more about building infrastructures which connect people with worthy opportunities, and empower them to make a meaningful difference.There is a growing awareness that even if Americans respond to the myriad of calls for service, many charities are not prepared to effectively engage them. A recent survey found that more than 30% of charities do not currently have the infrastructure to effectively deploy volunteers. Now is the time for us as funders to seize this unique opportunity to financially support nonprofits in building their capacity.

Education, Science and Health Grant

Education

Education grants focus on scholarships, targeted programs within educational communities, and general operating support for institutions demonstrating measurable impact.

• Scholarships: Providing opportunity for those who could not otherwise access the educational environment to not only benefit the student, but also enhance institutions by ensuring a robust and diverse community.
  • Castilleja School
  • Dartmouth College
  • Menlo School
  • Phillips Brooks School
  • Stanford University
  • Stanford Law School
• Program: Partnership with organizations with programs that enhance research and learning.
  • Stanford Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
  • Stanford Law School Constitutional Law Center
• General Operating Support: Targeting specific small institutions to enhance their delivery of services through long-term support for operations.
  • Ragazzi Boys Chorus
  • College Track
  • Playworks Northern California
  • Eastside Prep
  • Child and Family Institute
  • Wood River Valley YMCA
  • Learning Matters

Science and Health

The purpose of our science and health grant-making is to enhance life experience through improved health outcomes.

• Research: Grants to research lead to medical breakthroughs for a healthier and more productive society.
  • UCSF General Clinical Research Institute: Salt Sensitivity; Chloride-sensitive Hypertension and Stroke, Comparative effects of potassium chloride and bicarbonate on thiazide-induced reduction in urinary calcium excretion
  • UCSF Gladstone Institute-Cardiovascular Disease
• Program: Supporting targeted programs that enhance an institution’s delivery of services.
  • Autism Center, Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health
  • Mosbacher Fellow, Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health
  • The impact of research in genetics
  • Hospital for Special Surgery, Patricia Mosbacher Flower Fund
  • Hospital for Special Surgery, Patricia Mosbacher Honorary Lecture in Orthopedic Trauma
• General Operating Support: Targeting specific institutions to enhance their delivery of services through long-term support for operations. 
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
  • Danny Thompson Memorial Leukemia Foundation
  • California Pacific Medical Center

Background

The Foundation’s primary grantmaking strategy is place-based. We seek opportunities to make clusters of complementary grants in specific communities, supporting public and nonprofit organizations that serve essentially the same children, youth, and families.

We respond first and foremost to the capacities and vision of the community and to expressed community needs. Then we seek ways to build on the insights, resources, and achievements generated through our grantees’ efforts.

We prioritize places in Northern or Central California that are experiencing acute and widespread poverty, where people of color likely experience disparate outcomes. Our goal is to achieve more capable, responsive, and effective community organizations and institutions.

Through the sustained, concerted efforts of those organizations, we expect community residents to realize benefits including:

• The healthy development and education of children
• The economic and social advancement of their families
• The opportunity to influence the conditions that shape their lives

Funding Priorities

The Foundation’s primary grantmaking strategy is place-based. We seek opportunities to make clusters of complementary grants in specific communities, supporting public and nonprofit organizations that serve essentially the same children, youth, and families.

Families

We support programs that honor lived experiences and incorporate resident voices in the design, implementation, and governance of family-support services.

We fund programs and community-building efforts that help families build on their strengths and increase their self-efficacy, and that implement trauma-responsive practices. We also support comprehensive programs that safeguard equitable access to concrete services such as food, shelter, childcare, and safety.

Examples of grant-funded activities include, but are not limited to:

• Family resource centers that promote physical health and wellness, child development, and parenting;
• Organizations that build pathways for families to attain financial literacy, employment, and economic mobility;
• Community-organizing initiatives focused on emerging issues prioritized and led by residents.

Education

We believe that high-quality public schools, available to all, are essential for society to thrive.

We fund initiatives within schools and school districts to provide equitable learning for all students, particularly students of color and those living in poverty. We support engaging students in relevant, immersive learning that prepares them for college, career, and citizenship, equipping them to help solve complex challenges in their communities and the world. We also invest in organizations outside of school districts that, along with community residents, hold public schools to account and help them improve.

Examples of grant-funded activities include, but are not limited to:

• Efforts within schools to improve teaching and academic support, particularly for underserved students, by fostering teamwork, adaptation, and organizational learning;
• Organizing efforts among students and families to effect positive changes in their schools and expand learning opportunities;
• Programs promoting reconciliation and mental and emotional health among students and educators;
• Outdoor education and stewardship programs that link academics to life and deepen students’ understanding of the environment, climate, and community health.

Youth

We support youth development organizations that provide safe spaces for youth to explore their interests and aspirations, build confidence and resilience, and solidify a commitment to lifelong learning and community engagement.

We prioritize programs focused on the mental health and well-being of young people and supporting their agency and leadership, as well as their readiness for higher education and careers. We support organizations implementing trauma-responsive practices in their programs and services for youth.

Examples of grant-funded activities include, but are not limited to:

• Addressing the mental health and well-being of students through school-based wellness centers;
• Providing afterschool and/or summer programming that engages youth academically and in special interests such as the performing arts;
• Developing youth leadership, training them in community organizing skills, and supporting them to create solutions for their communities around issues such as educational equity, racial justice, and environmental health.

Supporting Programs

Through our active engagement in communities, we often learn about critical needs and opportunities that lie outside our main program areas.

Leadership & Organizational Health: Cowell commonly funds the direct costs of delivering services and operating programs for community residents; but we are keenly aware that the scope and quality of those services, and ultimately their effectiveness, depend on the vitality of our grantee organizations. Accordingly, grantees in the Families, Education, and Youth program areas may inquire about complementary grants through the Leadership & Organizational Health program.

In addition, Cowell supports organizations whose mission and core capability is leadership development.

Community Resources: Through our active engagement in communities, we often learn about critical needs and opportunities that lie outside our main program areas. For that purpose, we maintain a budget for responsive grants in communities where we are active. This complementary program is necessarily broad, but likely areas of focus include:

• Affordable housing construction and preservation;
• Small business and workforce development;
• Access to banking services, credit, and other supports for economic security;
• Neighborhood infrastructure such as parks, gardens, and greenways.

Across our programs, the funding guidelines incorporate four themes:

• Racial Equity
• Economic Advancement
• Community Health
  • Environmental Health and Justice
  • Mental Health
• Resident Voice and Agency

Types of Grants

Place-Based

• Grants awarded to organizations in active Cowell communities across program areas and initiatives.

Resource Capacity-Building

• Resource Capacity-Building grants from a secondary strategy that supports our primary, place-based investments.
• These grants enhance the resources, practices, and cohesiveness of the program fields in which Cowell operates, and to create access to such resources on behalf of place-based grantees

Exploratory

• Types of work that currently lie outside the program area guidelines.
• These grants are awarded while Cowell is prospecting and developing relationships in a community, before determining whether it is appropriate to fully engage there under the place-based guidelines.
• Exploratory grants may also be awarded as Cowell seeks to learn about emerging fields of work beyond the current program guidelines.

Larger funding requests

For requests that exceed $25,000, applications should be aligned with our funding priorities. We fund programs, operations and capital projects. 

Grant Funding Priorities

Family

Grants aligned with our Family impact area help strengthen connections between a parent or other primary caregiver and a child. We focus on ensuring that children have nurturing attachments from their earliest years, including preventing child abuse and neglect. We also focus on promoting financial stability so that families have the resources they need to care for their children.

Current grant funding examples

• Children’s mental health supports
• Parenting support programs
• Domestic violence programs and shelters for families with children
• Child abuse prevention and intervention programs
• Supports for children in foster care
• Maternal-child health programs
• Two-generation family literacy programs
• Family financial education and access
• Earned Income Tax Credit access and utilization
• Scholarships for parents to complete their college education
• Statewide networks and systems reform to support all of the above

Education

Grants aligned with our Education impact area aim to ensure that rural children have the supports and opportunities they need to succeed in their education. Our emphasis is on early childhood education, helping children start strong in their early grades, and preparing students for the transition from high school to postsecondary education or a career.

Current grant funding examples

• Child care and early childhood education
• Early literacy programs
• Family engagement in their children’s education
• Programs that support social-emotional learning
• Youth development and summer learning programs
• Programs supporting students of color and marginalized populations
• College and/or career preparation programs
• Scholarships for aspiring low-income rural and urban students to attend and complete college
• Programs to support low-income, first-generation rural student success beyond high school

Community

Grants aligned with our Community impact area support conditions that help children and families thrive in rural communities. This includes focusing on their local economies, social capital, community visioning and planning capacity, and public gathering spaces.

Current grant funding examples

• Community building and engagement efforts
• Community centers and convening spaces
• Community social service centers (Where direct youth programming is provided)
• Arts and culture centers
• Libraries
• Rural health centers (Federally Qualified Health Centers)
• Disaster resiliency planning and fire halls
• Community economic development planning, feasibility studies
• Community supports for entrepreneurs, including start-ups, business retention, and youth and women entrepreneurs
• Business development services

Applying for a capital project?

We offer support for large capital projects (usually up to $250,000) aligned with our impact areas. Capital grants can fund up to one-third of a project’s total budget. Successful applications include significant community support in the form of local or regional dollars. Fifty percent of the budget should be raised before applying. This process can take three to six months.

Capital projects aligned with our impact area are limited to the following:

• Community centers and gathering spaces
• Social services centers (when direct youth programming is provided)
• Libraries
• Children’s museums or children’s exhibitions
• Small business incubators
• Fire halls
• Rural health centers (Federally Qualified Health Centers)
• Art and cultural centers

In addition, we support capital projects aligned with our Family and Education impact areas.

What does this program do?

It provides loans and grants to Microenterprise Development Organizations (MDOs) to:

• To help microenterprises startup and growth through a Rural Microloan Revolving Fund.
• Provide training and technical assistance to microloan borrowers and micro entrepreneurs.

Microenterprise Development Organizations must demonstrate experience in managing a Revolving Loan Fund, or:

• Certify that it or its employees have received education and training from a qualified microenterprise development training entity so that the applicant has the capacity to manage such a revolving loan fund.
• Demonstrate that it is actively and successfully participating as an intermediary lender in good standing under the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Microloan Program or other similar loan programs as determined by the Administrator.

 What kind of funding is available? 

• Grants are available to provide technical assistance to rural micro-entrepreneurs or microenterprises, up to $205,000 annually.
  • Funding at the requested level is not guaranteed, and at least 15 percent matching funds are required.
• Loans of $50,000 to $500,000 may be used for establishing a Rural Microloan Revolving Fund managed by the Microenterprise Development Organization.
  • Total aggregate debt is capped at $2.5 million.

What are the loan terms? 

• Maximum term is 20 years.
• Two-year payment deferral.
• Must establish a loan loss reserve fund.

What terms are required on loans to ultimate recipients? 

• Up to $50,000.
• Fixed interest rate.
• Limited to 75 percent of project cost.

How may the funds be used? 

Microlenders may make microloans for qualified business activities and expenses including, but not limited to:

• Working capital.
• Debt refinancing.
• Purchasing equipment and supplies.
• Improving real estate.

The Impact Fund awards recoverable grants to legal services nonprofits, private attorneys, and small law firms who seek to confront economic, environmental, racial, and social injustice. Since our founding in 1992, the Impact Fund has made more than 800 recoverable grants totaling more than $10 million for impact litigation. We award grants four times per year, most within the range of US$10,000 to US$50,000.

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 Texas and North Carolina, incarcerated people with mental health disabilities are forced to remain in jail despite being found not guilty and unable to proceed with a criminal trial.
• 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 against Black Lives Matter protesters.
• In West Virginia, the state fails to protect children in foster care from abuse and neglect. 
• In Montana, voter suppression laws disadvantage young adults and give priority to gun owners.
• In Gary, Indiana, a gun manufacturer negligently marketed and distributed its guns, leading to an epidemic of gun violence in the city. 
• In Vancouver, British Columbia, the police perpetuate systemic discrimination against Indigenous people through bureaucratic measures.

Environmental Justice

The Impact Fund provides grants to support local litigation for environmental justice. These grants are for cases aiming to help people or communities who are affected by environmental harm or who lack access to basic environmental needs, such as clean water, clean air, adequate waste treatment, and green spaces. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In Centreville, Illinois, the city’s failure to maintain its sewer system has caused raw sewage to flood peoples’ homes, endangering the property and health of a predominantly Black community.
• In Fresno County, California, the California Department of Transportation approved a highway expansion project that would increase air pollution and traffic in one of the state’s most environmentally burdened communities.
• In downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the proposed expansion of a highway would divide the region's Black, Asian, and Latine neighborhoods and cause 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 violated the Clean Water Act by discharging raw sewage into nearby rivers.
• 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 corporationss and the government accountable. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In Brooklyn, New York, a prominent mortgage lender engaged in predatory practices, leaving homeowners of color at risk of losing their homes. 
• In Washington, live-in caregivers are unconstitutionally excluded from the state’s wage-and-hour protections.
• In Ravalli County, Montana, the county has created a “modern-day debtors’ prison” by incarcerating people unable to afford pre-trial fees. 
• In San Diego, California, vehicle ordinances target unhoused vehicle owners even when no adequate housing alternative exists.
• In New York, a federal immigration detention facility is violating minimum wage and forced labor laws by forcing detainees to work for just a dollar a day. 
• In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the city and county destroy the property of unhoused individuals and conduct 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.

The California Environmental Grassroots Fund supports small and emerging local groups across California that are building climate resilience and advancing environmental justice. Grassroots Fund grantees tackle the toughest environmental problems facing their communities from toxic pollution, urban sprawl, sustainable agriculture, and climate advocacy, to the environmental degradation of our rivers and wild places and the health of our communities. They are rooted in the communities they serve and committed to building the environmental movement through broad outreach, engagement, and organizing.

Priorities

Movement–building: Preference is given to groups building broad community support and engaging in effective public outreach. 

Impacted and Underserved Communities: The fund prioritizes groups that serve and represent historically marginalized or impacted communities, especially BIPOC, frontline, immigrant, and low-income communities.

Community-Oriented with a Big Picture Vision: Priority is given to organizations grounded in the communities they serve and addressing important local problems, but who are also thinking strategically about how their work fits into the larger landscape of environmental challenges we face today. 

Climate Resilience and Environmental Justice: We see these as the priority issues of our time, and they are deeply interconnected. The same extractive systems that have caused our climate crisis have heaped disproportionate harms on marginalized communities. Sustainable solutions must come from the communities that have born the most harm. On a practical level, these priority areas encompass a wide scope of work, from fighting to protect our forests and natural biodiversity, planning for sustainable and equitable management of our water resources, reimagining our food and transportation systems, and addressing the disproportionate effects of pollution and climate impacts on poor, BIPOC, and immigrant communities.

S. Mark Taper Foundation

The S. Mark Taper Foundation, founded in 1989, is a private family foundation dedicated to enhancing the quality of people's lives by supporting nonprofit organizations and their work in our communities.

Funding Areas

The S. Mark Taper Foundation is a responsive grantmaker that typically provides funding in the following areas:

• Arts
• Civic Affairs
• Education
• Environment
• Health
• Social Services

Types of Grant Funding Provided

• General Operating Support (GOS): unrestricted, core operating support that bolsters an organization's overall mission and can be allocated as the organization sees fit.
• Program: funding is allocated to a specific program or project within the organization.
• Capital: funding is allocated to a physical project, such as the purchase of a building and/or land, renovating an existing building, constructing a new building, or purchasing equipment.
  • Capital funding is currently restricted to Los Angeles County-based nonprofit organizations and for capital projects based in and serving Los Angeles County only.

Grant Sizes

The S. Mark Taper Foundation has three size categories as follows:

These categories are meant to serve as a guide to assist organizations in determining an appropriate request amount. We encourage each organization to request an amount that is proportionate to the size of its past grants from other foundations and the size of its overall fundraising and budget.Due to the scope of the capital grant application process, the minimum request amount for a capital grant is  $100,000. If the planned request amount is under  $100,000, we recommend applying for General Operating or Program support. Category Grant Size Small Up to $50,000 Medium $50,001-$100,000 Large $100,001 and above

What does this program do?

This program is designed to provide technical assistance and training for small rural businesses. Small means that the business has fewer than 50 new workers and less than $1 million in gross revenue.

What is an eligible area?

Rural Business Development Grant money must be used for projects that benefit rural areas or towns outside the urbanized periphery of any city with a population of 50,000 or more. Check eligible areas. 

What kind of funding is available?

There is no maximum grant amount; however, smaller requests are given higher priority. There is no cost sharing requirement. There are two types of RBDG projects, Opportunity grants and Enterprise grants.

• Opportunity type grants are limited to up to 10 percent of the total Rural Business Development Grant annual funding.
• Enterprise type grants must be used on projects to benefit small and emerging businesses in rural areas as specified in the grant application.

How may Enterprise type funds be used?

Enterprise grants must be used on projects to benefit small and emerging businesses in rural areas as specified in the grant application. Uses may include:

• Training and technical assistance, such as project planning, business counseling and training, market research, feasibility studies, professional or/technical reports, or producer service improvements.
• Acquisition or development of land, easements, or rights of way; construction, conversion, renovation of buildings; plants, machinery, equipment, access for streets and roads; parking areas and utilities.
• Pollution control and abatement.
• The capitalization of revolving loan funds, including funds that will make loans for start-ups and working capital.
• Rural distance learning for job training and advancement for adult students.
• Rural transportation improvement.
• Community economic development.
• Technology-based economic development.
• Feasibility studies and business plans.
• Leadership and entrepreneur training.
• Rural business incubators.
• Long-term business strategic planning.

How may Opportunity type funds be used?

• Community economic development.
• Technology-based economic development.
• Feasibility studies and business plans.
• Leadership and entrepreneur training.
• Rural business incubators.
• Long-term business strategic planning.

About Mini-Grants

We award Mini-Grants for individual readings ($150 to $450 per session) and/or workshops ($200 to $300 per session) that may or may not be part of a larger reading series or festival. Mini-grants are paid by P&W directly to the individual writer. The entity organizing or hosting the event must act as the lead sponsor and must submit an application for support. As part of the application, please be prepared to provide the name of the participating writer, proposed event date(s), and amount requested, per the ranges listed above. 

New York State and California organizations that sponsor readings and workshops may apply for Mini-Grants to pay writers for their participation. All grants are paid by P&W directly to the writer. Due to a mandate from our funders, grants for events outside of New York City (i.e. New York, Kings, Queens, Bronx, and Richmond counties) are restricted to writers who are New York State residents; there is no restriction in California.

If a grant is awarded, payments are sent directly to the writer approximately two to four weeks after the event. To support as many literary events as possible, we generally grant no more than $3,000 to organizations during our fiscal year (July 1 to June 30), and across all grant opportunities; in California, the annual cap per organization per year is $1,500.

Decisions on maximum grant amounts are based on the availability of funds and are made at the discretion of Poets & Writers. These caps fluctuate depending on the availability of funds in each jurisdiction and the number of applications we receive.

Organizations are strongly encouraged to match P&W’s payment to the writer. However, if an organization is not able to match or add to the writer’s fee, we will still consider the application.

Funding Priorities

As part of our belief that literature is vital to sustaining a vibrant culture and our mission to help create an environment in which literature can be appreciated by the widest possible public, priority is given to organizations that:

• serve a culturally diverse audience
• feature culturally diverse writers
• feature writers who have not previously presented at that venue
• present programs in rural or other underserved areas
• have not previously received R&W support (If an organization has received R&W funding in the past, we consider whether it has followed the grant guidelines and returned reports in a timely manner.)
• are able to match R&W's payment to the writer (not including in-kind contributions such as meals, lodging, and travel)
• have a publicity and marketing plan to draw audience, and a track record of attracting audiences to past events.

Deadlines

• New York & California- June 1, 2025
• New York- August 31, 2025 ; November 30, 2025 ; March 1, 2026

City of Berkeley Festival Grant 

The Civic Arts program supports a culturally vibrant and diverse arts ecosystem within the City of Berkeley by funding grants to artists, arts organizations, and festivals.

The purpose of Community Festivals grant is to fund community festivals and special events that:

• celebrate and preserve a rich variety of cultural opportunities for Berkeley’s residents;
• bolster Berkeley’s vitality;
• increase Berkeley’s reputation as a vibrant destination for visitors;
• create meaningful, accessible engagement with the public.

Community Festival grants support a range of events throughout the City from small-scale and first-time events to large-scale and established festivals. Community Festival Grant program-funded events must be open to the entire public and have a free component.

Please note: This grant is for festivals that are one or multi-day events, but generally events that occur one time per year. This grant is not intended to fund ongoing programming.

Festival Definition

A festival is defined as a public event that celebrates a community, neighborhood, historically significant day, or shared cultural interest. These may include arts fairs, celebrations of cultural heritage, and other events.

Grant Amounts

All applicants may request up to $7,000 for festival-related expenses.

The Trinity Trust makes grants exclusively for the benefit of the residents of Trinity County California.

The Trust is an affiliate of the Humboldt Area Foundation, who manages The Trinity Trust Endowment and administers Trinity Trust grants. Grant decisions are made by a committee of Trinity County residents who have shown long-term interest in community betterment.

Community Response Grants

The Trinity Trust’s Community Response Grant Program is designed to respond to urgent, unexpected or one-time needs where a small investment can make a lasting difference to our community.  

Grants will be made for projects that do one or more of the following:

• Build ~ collaborative relationships and partnerships
• Integrate ~ youth in ways that build their commitment to community and civic responsibility,
• Engage ~ community members who will benefit in the planning,
• Develop ~ community leadership,
• Leverage ~ matching funding or resources for the organization
• Increase ~ the long-term capacity of an organization to improve or expand their services.

Standard Grants Program

The Standard Grants Program supports projects that promote safe, clean drinking water, water conservation, flood protection, and environmental stewardship in Santa Clara County. This program offers $1.87 million in funding for diverse project types that serve residents, empowering communities to address local water and environmental challenges through education, planning, and stewardship.

Whether you are a public agency, government entity, nonprofit organization, or educational institution, this program provides the financial resources needed to create meaningful impacts.

Stewardship Grants

Stewardship grants provide funds for a wide variety of projects that will advance Safe, Clean Water Program priorities and support Valley Water’s mission. The Stewardship Grant opportunity is Valley Water’s broadest grant category and can encompass many different activities and multi-benefit elements related to Valley Water’s mission. These projects must demonstrate public benefits and require a 15% funding match.

Activities could include smaller-scale implementation projects such as litter/pollution cleanups, community gardens, minor habitat restoration (under 5 acres), minor construction of structures/facilities, or alteration/improvement to existing facilities (such as structures, walls, small park amenities, museum exhibits, etc.).

Under the Stewardship Grant category, projects with educational or planning elements that include implementation activities, such as soil removal, small-scale construction, and plantings, can apply. 

Proposed Stewardship Grant projects must demonstrate support for Valley Water’s mission. Example projects may include, but are not limited:

• Water conservation projects that provide, enhance, or install innovative water conservation technologies in public spaces, such as parks, gardens, government facilities, schools, utility facilities, and community buildings.
• Pollution prevention projects that reduce contaminants, including emerging contaminants, in surface or groundwater, such as public education and technical assistance to help growers protect groundwater and keep agricultural pollutants away from surface water, and partnerships to reduce litter and graffiti.
• Volunteer cleanup and stewardship projects that support creek cleanup and litter removal, or that provide hands-on watershed stewardship activities.
• Small-scale wildlife habitat projects that support, restore, and/or conserve native plant and wildlife habitat; protecting special status species; removing non-native/invasive plant species; and planting native species.

Match Requirement

Matching funds of fifteen percent (15%) are required for Stewardship Grants.

• Matching funds may include staff hours, cash or in-kind services, other non-Valley Water grants, or partnerships with other organizations.
• Matching funds must not include other Valley Water resources, such as grants, volunteer programs, supplies, contracts, agreements, etc.
• To calculate the in-kind value of volunteer hours, please use the Independent Sector’s estimated hourly rate for volunteer time.
  • In 2023, the California volunteer value was estimated at $38.61 per hour, per person. Please visit the website here:

Our Mission

As a community of donors, we inspire others to join us in alleviating poverty in East Asia by empowering small, but high-impact NGOs to be sustainable and transparent.

Who We Are

Transparent Fish Fund is a 501(c)(3) US nonprofit organization founded in 2011 in Palo Alto, California. We partner with hand-selected NGOs that effectively focus on poverty alleviation in East Asia. With financial support from our board members, who cover all our administrative costs, we are able to provide these NGOs with financial aid, capacity building resources, and reporting requirements to increase transparency and sustainability. We connect donors in the West with these credible NGOs to spread a global spirit of philanthropy. 

What We Do

Empowering East Asian NGOs: We identify the most promising NGOs to partner with and develop them by:

• Providing capacity building resources and fundraising support from the West
• Facilitating financial accountability and transparency, even to the level of ensuring the recipient uses the contributions properly
• Serving programs run by members of the Asian American community and/or focus on work in Asia or the Asian American community
• Focus areas: basic needs, direct needs, poverty relief, medical intervention, health, education in underserved areas of rural China and Southeast Asia

TFish Fund Grant

We inspire others to join us in alleviating poverty in East Asia by empowering small, but high-impact NGOs to be sustainable and transparent.

Focus in East Asia

• There is a large gap between the rich and the poor, especially as economies grow in this region.
• Nonprofit work is newly developing here, and we want to provide a framework to promote philanthropy and address complex social issues.
• Local nonprofits in East Asia often lack transparency. Unless they are held accountable, it is difficult to know whether well-meaning donations ever reach the intended recipients.

Our Vision & Mission

Our vision is for every resident of California to enjoy good health and experience wellness. Our mission is to protect and improve the health and wellness of the people of California by increasing access to health care, quality education, good jobs, healthy environments and safe neighborhoods.

Our Work

• We use our resources to advance our mission through grantmaking, investments, sharing our learning and lifting our voice.
• We fund direct services that address the urgent needs people are facing in their communities, particularly the needs of low-income individuals, people of color, youth and residents of rural areas.
• We recognize, encourage and strengthen leaders to be powerful agents of change.
• We support advocacy and civic engagement so that communities can build power and create public policies that reflect their vision, will and needs.
• We trust and invest in nonprofit organizations so that they can operate at full capacity.
• We partner with community-led organizations, philanthropic organizations, businesses, government and individuals who want to improve health and wellness for Californians.

What We Fund

Our vision is that every person in California enjoys health and wellness. That means living in a safe and healthy community. Having access to quality education and good jobs. Drinking clean water. And having access to healthy foods.

But we know that a lot gets in the way of people enjoying health and wellness. The barriers are many and they are systemic. Wellness is directly affected by our race, class, gender and disability. By our zip code. By our family history. By our immigration status and past involvement with the criminal justice system.

That’s why we partner with community organizations to remove barriers to individual and community wellness. And to put in place more equitable processes and systems that improve individual and community wellness.

Through our grantmaking program—Advancing Wellness—we support organizations that are increasing access to health care. Innovative organizations that are advocating for quality education. Organizations big and small that are fighting for good jobs with fair wages and benefits. Local organizations that are working to make our streets and neighborhoods safe.

Equity in Access Fund

All people deserve to be healthy and experience wellness. And all Californians should be able to receive the health benefits and services they need to live healthy lives. We believe that health care is a human right. While California has made significant progress in expanding quality, affordable health care coverage and access, we recognize that due to systemic racism, persistent health disparities remain for people of color. Therefore, we center racial justice in our work as we work toward high-quality universal health care that expands the ability of all Californians, especially people of color, to obtain necessary health care and related services.

Our Equity in Access portfolio champions health care coverage and access for all and defends the rights of immigrants to enjoy access to health services, coverage and other benefits. All people, regardless of immigration status, deserve access to public benefits. Our portfolio also supports the rights of women to access comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services.

We will support:

Universal coverage and access to care

All Californians should have the ability to see a medical provider when and how they need to. But there are currently many barriers in place that make it difficult for people of color and immigrants to access needed high-quality health care. And universal coverage means more than seeing a doctor once a year. It means having the access to comprehensive services for staying healthy, such as oral and behavioral health services, as well as having medical providers close by — whether in person or via telemedicine — and the means to get to them. We are one of the -few funders in the country investing in oral health care for low-income adults and seniors, despite the critical importance of oral health to overall physical well-being. Finally, people without health insurance need to know their options for getting coverage, and how to use their benefits once they’re enrolled. That’s why we invest in organizations that reach out to communities to both educate and help eligible people sign up for health insurance, help patients retain coverage from year to year, and facilitate full use of benefits.

System transformation

To realize our vision, we will have to help transform the health care system. But what does transforming the health care system require? It requires designing and implementing new models of health care that take a whole-person view while integrating the patients’ clinical and social needs. This also includes intentionally allocating resources and interventions to improve health and wellness for Black, Brown, and indigenous communities that are due justice for past systemic harm. Transforming the health care system also means improving the programs currently in place, such as making Medi-Cal and Covered California easier to access for those who need it. Transformation also requires reimagining how direct service providers collaborate and partner to better meet the needs of community residents . Government health coverage programs, community-based organizations and safety-net health care providers all need to work better together to improve health and equity for vulnerable populations.

Priority Populations

We want to overturn decades of injustice so that communities too long ignored receive both the health care and social services they need. And we want to see communities of color, immigrants, and low-income communities treated with respect and dignity by all governmental and private institutions, including health care institutions.

Because California is a border state and home to the highest number of immigrants, it is important that we pay attention to immigrants’ needs. We’re determined to champion the rights of immigrants. That means supporting organizations that are working to advance and defend immigrant rights, beating back deportation efforts, helping to counter the surge in negative narratives about immigrants, and challenging the rise in racially charged attacks and threats against immigrants.

In this portfolio, we also support the rights of women to access comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services, which have been under intense attack during the past few years. In particular, we strive to ensure that women of color have access to the care they need.

Please note we currently are not accepting unsolicited letters of interest for the priority populations goal of this portfolio.

Mission

Our mission is to help expand artists’ access to resources by supporting organizations working to make creative expression, experimentation, public programming, and discourse accessible to all people, artists and non-artists alike. By supporting creative organizations and arts programming in diverse communities across the country, we hope to expand artistic practices of all kinds, deepen community engagement, further creative collaboration, and improve the quality of life of artists and all people.

We believe that equality, diversity, democracy, and environmental wellbeing are fundamental components of a healthy society and these tenants are what drive our work. We believe that self expression and creative collaboration not only empower people to better understand themselves, but that art is a powerful tool for representing diverse voices, experiences, cultures, and opinions.

The Foundation’s grantmaking practices focus on funding nonprofit arts organizations of all types and sizes. The Foundation is interested in organizations and programming that similarly prioritize diversity, inclusiveness, community, and freedom of speech. We’re especially interested in organizations that utilize art and programming to engage diverse, marginalized, at-risk, or underserved communities of all kinds. We strive to help secure the longevity of creative organizations, their staff, creative practices, programming, and community resources, particularly in areas where gentrification and/or Covid-19 has forced the displacement of artists, nonprofit art spaces, and other marginalized peoples.

The Wilhelm Family Foundation is a continuation of the philanthropic spirit of our founder, Donald Wilhelm, who believed that art has the power to transform humanity through individual self expression.

Grants

For this grant cycle, we will prioritize funding organizations and projects that use art to engage with issues related to the environment and/or climate change. This might manifest in any number of ways, such as activating community through programming that addresses climate issues in your area, ecology and sustainability in art projects and practice, just to name a few.

We strive to support organizations that align with our mission and values, that are community focused, and embody intersectional practices and disciplines. As such, we frequently support general operations, programming, and other broader grant types.

Generally, the Foundation’s grants are given to small (<$1.5 million annual budget) nonprofit organizations that use their staff, programming & resources to further dialog around creativity, cultural, environmental and social justice issues, towards the benefit of artists, as well as the communities in which they operate.

Our Mission

Land O'Lakes, Inc. and the Land O'Lakes Foundation are dedicated to serving the rural and urban communities where our cooperative has members owners, employees, and facilities. Support is focused on organizations dedicated to Hunger Relief, Advancing Education, and Community Vitality.

Region Grants Program

The Region Grants Program is specifically for Land O’Lakes dairy communities in the East and West Regions of our member footprint. The purpose is to improve the vibrancy of the regions where our member-owners are located.

Funds are awarded through two grant rounds: Hunger Relief and Community Vitality.

Funding

• $125,000 total is awarded to both the East and West regions per grant round.
• Total annual program investment is $500,000.
• Organizations may apply for grants ranging from $1,000 to $20,000.
  • Generally, between 10-20 grantees are funded per grant round.
  • Average grant award is between $5,000 to $10,000.
• Funds are for local programs or projects supporting Land O’Lakes member-owner rural communities and their populations.

Region Grants Open Grant Round: Hunger Relief

Organizations committed to fighting food insecurity and increasing food accessibility:

• Food banks
• Food shelves/pantries
• Prepared meals and meal delivery services
• School meal programs
• Community gardens and local food systems

Levitt Music Series Grants - AMP

Levitt AMP is a multi-year matching grant opportunity bringing the joy of free, live music to small to mid-sized towns and cities.

Geared to towns and cities with populations under 250,000, Levitt AMP grantees reflect the three goals of the Levitt AMP program: Amplify community pride and a city’s unique character; enrich lives through the power of free, live Music; and illustrate the importance of inclusive and vibrant public Places. From rural Alaska to Appalachian Main Streets and Midwestern locales, the Levitt AMP Music Series is a catalytic opportunity engaging a wide range of towns and cities across America to realize a shared mission—building community through music to create a healthy and thriving future for all.

In addition to financial support, the Levitt Foundation provides grant recipients with valuable resources including best practices, program frameworks, toolkits, and trainings to deepen impact in their communities.

Launched in 2015, the Levitt Foundation has provided funding to more than 50 communities coast to coast through the Levitt AMP program, activating underused public spaces, ensuring access to the arts and strengthening the social fabric of communities through creative placemaking, bringing people together of all ages and backgrounds through free, outdoor concert series.

Special Music Series Grant - Tennessee-Based Nonprofits

The Levitt Foundation is thrilled to announce its partnership with the Tennessee Entertainment Commission to award up to six communities based in Tennessee with multi-year Levitt AMP matching grants, with support from the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development and the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. This project marks the Levitt Foundation’s first joint partnership with a specific state.

Through this partnership, the State and the Foundation together will be awarding matching grants of up to $40K per year to small to mid-sized cities throughout Tennessee in through the next 3 years. The funding will go toward presenting free outdoor concerts featuring high-caliber entertainment in a broad array of music genres, amplifying stages across the state with up to 180 free concerts for Tennesseans of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy.

This partnership applies to the Levitt AMP grant opportunity only. There is no separate application process to be considered and interested Tennessee-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits should proceed with completing their online application on the Levitt Foundation website. Levitt AMP grant applicants from Tennessee that advance to the public voting phase will be in the running with other Tennessee-based Levitt AMP grant applicants only. Nonprofits based in Tennessee that are interested in applying for the Levitt VIBE or Levitt BLOC grant opportunity may still submit an online application, though if advanced to the public voting phase will be in the running with applicants from across the country.

Funding

U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits are eligible to receive a three-year matching grant of up to $40K/year (up to $120K total) to bring 7-10 free concerts to your community each year!

Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, incorporated in California in 1905, is one of the largest utility companies in the United States. Based in Oakland, the company is part of PG&E Corporation. There are approximately 23,000 employees who carry out Pacific Gas and Electric Company's primary business—the transmission and delivery of energy. The company provides natural gas and electric service to approximately 16 million people throughout a 70,000-square-mile service area in northern and central California.

PG&E Corporation Foundation (Giving Locally)

We are dedicated to building safer and more resilient communities. Through our charitable giving program, we invest in:

• Emergency preparedness; safety and resiliency; food insecurity; and justice and inclusion
• Climate resiliency; environmental stewardship; and land, air and water quality
• STEM education, workforce development and support for small business

In 2024, we made nearly 1,000 grants to nonprofit organizations and schools, totaling more than $36 million. Our coworkers volunteered over 43,000 hours while donating nearly $3 million themselves to organizations in their communities.

Better Together Nature Positive Innovation Grant program

PG&E will begin accepting applications for their 2025 Better Together Nature Positive Innovation Grant program on May 21, 2025. For the fourth year, the PG&E Corporation Foundation will award $100,000 to a project in each of PG&E's five regions. Grant proposals should address one of the following environmental focus areas:

• Land stewardship
• Air quality
• Water stewardship

Priority will be given to projects that address the needs of disadvantaged and/or vulnerable communities. Strategies and solutions resulting from the grants will be made available to the public.

One grantee will be selected from each region. Grants can cover any stage of a project, including but not limited to planning, construction, design, education, and coordination. 

Our Vision & Mission

Our vision is for every resident of California to enjoy good health and experience wellness. Our mission is to protect and improve the health and wellness of the people of California by increasing access to health care, quality education, good jobs, healthy environments and safe neighborhoods.

Our Work

• We use our resources to advance our mission through grantmaking, investments, sharing our learning and lifting our voice.
• We fund direct services that address the urgent needs people are facing in their communities, particularly the needs of low-income individuals, people of color, youth and residents of rural areas.
• We recognize, encourage and strengthen leaders to be powerful agents of change.
• We support advocacy and civic engagement so that communities can build power and create public policies that reflect their vision, will and needs.
• We trust and invest in nonprofit organizations so that they can operate at full capacity.
• We partner with community-led organizations, philanthropic organizations, businesses, government and individuals who want to improve health and wellness for Californians.

What We Fund

Our vision is that every person in California enjoys health and wellness. That means living in a safe and healthy community. Having access to quality education and good jobs. Drinking clean water. And having access to healthy foods.

But we know that a lot gets in the way of people enjoying health and wellness. The barriers are many and they are systemic. Wellness is directly affected by our race, class, gender and disability. By our zip code. By our family history. By our immigration status and past involvement with the criminal justice system.

That’s why we partner with community organizations to remove barriers to individual and community wellness. And to put in place more equitable processes and systems that improve individual and community wellness.

Through our grantmaking program—Advancing Wellness—we support organizations that are increasing access to health care. Innovative organizations that are advocating for quality education. Organizations big and small that are fighting for good jobs with fair wages and benefits. Local organizations that are working to make our streets and neighborhoods safe.

Leading for Power & Change Fund

We have been inspired by and invested in the vision of communities of color and organizations led by people of color. In addition, the events of 2020 have made all too clear that racism and structural inequities permeate every institution and system in our nation, resulting in disproportionate illness and death for people of color.

We are energized by the Black-led, multi-racial, multi-generational protests calling for racial and social justice at a scale we haven’t seen in a generation. Because dismantling racism and anti-Blackness requires coordinated and unified multi-racial coalitions for social justice and progressive change. And it requires powerful organizations that are led by people of color.

But leaders of color face many barriers to achieving their bold visions. Historically, philanthropy does a poor job of getting funds to these leaders and their organizations, which makes organizational financial stability very challenging. A Race to Lead report found that leaders of color have smaller organizational budgets than their White peers and have a difficult time accessing and raising funds from foundations, government and individual donors. Bridgespan and Echoing Green report that funders are subject to implicit bias that shows up as mistrust toward leaders of color – mistrust of their strategies and their vision. In addition, the nonprofit sector is overly represented by White leadership even though nonprofit organizations led by people of color are more likely to understand and strive to address systemic injustices through building power and making demands for policy and structural change. Yet only seven percent of nonprofit chief executives and 18 percent of nonprofit employees are people of color. And the percentage of people of color on nonprofit boards remains at just 15 percent, a number that has not changed in nearly two decades.

To advance systemic and progressive change while improving community outcomes and health, our Leading for Power and Change portfolio seeks to amplify the voices, leadership, and power of people of color, and other people who have historically been excluded from full participation in civic society.

Equity in the Nonprofit Sector

We’ll support leadership development and capacity building that will help people of color-led organizations, and organizations with a racial justice analysis, to be stronger and more resilient. We’ll support organizations to increase their assets, and recruit and retain talented staff of color. For example, we will fund leaders to take sabbaticals while their organizations strengthen the next level of leadership.

Mobilizing Movements and Power Building ( not accepting Letter of Inquiry at thie time) 

We want to make sure that organizations have the resources to mobilize, advance health and racial equity, and hold public and private sector leaders and policymakers accountable. We’ll support integrated civic engagement, along with opportunities for people to organize, advocate and speak out for policies that affect their lives. 

Reimagining Social Justice

Initiatives and or/strategies to increase the inclusion of communities of color in fields that influence decision making in philanthropy and the sustainability and effectiveness of non-profit organizations including, finance, research and communications. 

Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund Program (CA)

The Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund (PAEPF) Program supports small nonprofit performing arts organizations (SNPAOs) in hiring and retaining employees by reimbursing a portion of their payroll costs.

Purpose & Priorities

CalOSBA is seeking an organization to serve as the Program Lead to lead this effort on behalf of the state of California. The Program Lead will be awarded up to $675,000.00 to work in tandem with CalOSBA to distribute $11,625,000.00 in grant awards; the develop a pre-application process to properly assess and evaluate prospective grant awardees, develop a timely and effective outreach and marketing plan to reach the intended target population, and provide technical assistance to prospective applicants which includes but is not limited to; direct grant pre- and post-award application support to eligible performing arts non-profit organizations applying for funds under this program, and other customer service support.

The Program Lead will serve as the “industry expert” on behalf of CalOSBA and therefore should play a significant role in the state’s creative arts industry.

Our Mission

Land O'Lakes, Inc. and the Land O'Lakes Foundation are dedicated to serving the rural and urban communities where our cooperative has members owners, employees, and facilities. Support is focused on organizations dedicated to Hunger Relief, Advancing Education, and Community Vitality.

Region Grants Program

The Region Grants Program is specifically for Land O’Lakes dairy communities in the East and West Regions of our member footprint. The purpose is to improve the vibrancy of the regions where our member-owners are located.

Funds are awarded through two grant rounds: Hunger Relief and Community Vitality.

Funding

• $125,000 total is awarded to both the East and West regions per grant round.
• Total annual program investment is $500,000.
• Organizations may apply for grants ranging from $1,000 to $20,000.
  • Generally, between 10-20 grantees are funded per grant round.
  • Average grant award is between $5,000 to $10,000.
• Funds are for local programs or projects supporting Land O’Lakes member-owner rural communities and their populations.

Region Grants Open Grant Round: Community Vitality

Organizations committed to strengthening community resources and opportunities, especially in rural areas:

• 4-H, FFA, and ag education programs
• Schools and educational institutions
• City improvement projects
• Fire/Ambulance departments
• Local United Way chapters
• Economic development programs

Organizational Grant Program

The Organizational Grant Program (OGP) provides Los Angeles County nonprofit arts organizations funding to address priority needs and ensures cultural services for the diverse communities that comprise LA County. These two-year grants support arts organizations whose services positively impact residents, neighborhoods and communities by providing direct access and increased opportunities for quality arts activities and programming that is often free or low cost.

Project Categories

OGP grants are two years in length. The program funds one or more specific events or activities, including operating activities that are described as having a purpose. See the OGP project category descriptions for examples of projects that are appropriate for each project category.

• A project may be a part of an applicant's regular season or activities.
  • Organizations that undertake a single short-term project in a year—a dance festival, for example—could apply for support for that event.
  • Alternatively, they could identify certain components of their operations, such as funds to secure rehearsal space, market projects, pay artists, and/or associated activities, as their project.
• Organizations may apply for any or all phases of a project, from its planning through its implementation.
  • Activities requested in year one, do not have to be the same as the activities that are requested in year two.
    • For example, an organization requesting support for an exhibition can request support for research and development activities in year one, and support for exhibition and outreach activities in year two.
• A project does not have to be a new activity. Existing projects can be just as competitive as new activities.
• Projects can be a combination of various types of activities.
• Projects do not need to serve large numbers of people. The Department of Arts and Culture welcomes small projects that can make a difference in a community or field.

Investing in Our Communities

At Bank of Marin:

• We believe that doing our part to build a stronger community for all is essential to our collective success
• We strive to support nonprofits that foster community and economic vitality, equitable access to educational resources and an enriched quality of life.
• We commit to working with local organization in a collaborative manner through focused leadership, volunteerism, giving and financial education.

Since opening our doors in 1990, we—along with our employees—have donated millions of dollars, served on hundreds of nonprofit boards/committees and volunteered thousands of hours to local philanthropic endeavors.

Bank of Marin has consistently been ranked one of the “Top Corporate Philanthropists” by San Francisco Business Times since 2003, was inducted into NorthBay Biz’s “Best of” Hall of Fame in 2024, and ranked top 10 in Sacramento Business Journal’s Corporate Direct Giving List for philanthropic efforts in 2023.

Grant Funding Priorities

Social & Economic Vitality:

Foster a thriving economy and community by supporting efforts to meet basic needs.

Organization and programs related to:

• Basic needs and social safety net programs,
• economic development,
• affordable housing, and
• small business support, especially BIPOC and women-owned business.

Education

Enable youth and adults to gain the skills to thrive personally and professionally.

Organization and programs related to:

• youth financial literacy
• youth and professional development programs,
• access gaps in education (especially S.T.E.A.M. education) and professional development, and
• youth mentorship, college preparedness and academic success.

Enrichment & Wellness

Enhance quality of life and provide access to health and wellness programs.

Organization and programs related to:

• access to arts and cultural experiences,
• animal rescue and animal-human therapy,
• programs and services for people with diverse abilities.
• environment and sustainability.

Fund Description

This grant supports the study of under-researched women photographers internationally, past and present, and under-researched Western American photographers through the Great Depression. Both individual researchers or nonprofit institutions conducting research in these fields may apply.  Funds must be used for research.

Background

Considered one of the most important photo historians of the 20th century, Peter E. Palmquist (1936 - 2003) had a keen interest in the photography of the American West, California, and Humboldt County before 1950, and the history of women in photography worldwide. He published over 60 books and 340 articles and was a strong proponent of the concept of the independent researcher-writer in the field of photohistory. With co-author Thomas Kailbourn, he won the Caroline Bancroft Western History Prize for their book, Pioneer Photographers of the Far West. Professor Martha Sandweiss, Princeton University, wrote, “He (Peter) established new ways of pursuing the history of photography, and with his collections and research notes soon to be accessible at Yale, he will be speaking to and inspiring new generations of students and researchers forever.” Established by Peter’s lifetime companion, Pam Mendelsohn, this fund supports the study of under-researched women photographers internationally, past and present, and under-researched Western American photographers through the Great Depression.

A small panel of outside consultants with professional expertise in the field of photohistory and/or grant reviewing will review the applications in order to determine the awards. Applications will be judged on the quality of the proposal, the ability of the applicant to carry out the project within the proposed budget and timeline, and the significance of the project to the field of photographic history. Each recipient of the award will agree to donate upon completion of the project a copy of the resulting work (i.e., published book, unpublished report, thesis, etc.) to the Humboldt Area Foundation to submit to the Peter Palmquist Archive at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and a report to Humboldt Area Foundation at the end of the grant period.