Search Through Affordable Housing Grants for Nonprofits in Washington in the U.S.

Overview

Founded in 2007 by Kat Taylor and Tom Steyer, Beneficial State Bank is a B Corp Certified community development bank with branches in California, Oregon, and Washington. One hundred percent of the economic rights of Beneficial State Bank are owned not by private shareholders, but by nonprofit organizations, including Beneficial State Foundation. As nonprofit shareholders, we reinvest all distributed bank profit back into communities to promote thriving people, a healthy economy and a prosperous planet. This ownership structure allows us to learn and develop new metrics and standards as Beneficial State Bank tests and implements equitable banking products and practices.

As of 2023, Beneficial State Bank is a $1.7 billion asset state-chartered, federally insured bank with branches in California, Oregon, and Washington. Learn more about the origins of Beneficial State Bank.

Supporting Our Communities With Sponsorships

From day one, Beneficial State Bank has been committed to supporting our community above and beyond our lending by providing sponsorships to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations each year. We provide sponsorships to 501(c)(3) organizations in California, Oregon, and Washington that are engaged in transformative social justice and environmental work in our target sectors:

Social:

• Affordable and Multi-family Housing
• Arts, Culture and Community Building
• Education and Youth Development
• Beneficial Financial Services
• Economic, Business and Job Development
• Making, Manufacturing and Production
• Social Justice

Environmental:

• Environmental Sustainability
• Health and Well-being (non-food)
• Healthy Food
• Other Mission Categories (Business Ownership, Structures and Practices)

Beneficial State Bank has a unique business model compared to other banks. As a mission-driven bank majority-owned by the nonprofit Beneficial State Foundation, we work to maximize prosperity for our communities and our customers instead of working to maximize shareholder profits. We structure our business practices to benefit our stakeholders, not just our shareholders, so our total sponsorship budget is smaller than what you’ll find at a large, national bank. Therefore, we are limited in the number of sponsorships we can approve each year.

Charitable Contributions

Costco Wholesale’s primary charitable efforts specifically focus on programs supporting children, education, and health and human services in the communities where we do business. Throughout the year we receive a large number of requests from nonprofit organizations striving to make a positive impact, and we are thankful to be able to provide support to a variety of organizations and causes. While we would like to respond favorably to all requests, understandably, the needs are far greater than our allocated resources and we are unable to accommodate them all.

Warehouse Donations:

Warehouse donations are handled at the warehouse level - please consult your local warehouse for up-to-date information regarding their donations contacts and review process.

Grant Applications

If the request is under consideration, you may be contacted by staff for any additional information needed. Applications are reviewed within 4-6 weeks, and decisions are made based on several factors, including: type of program; identified community need not otherwise available; indication that evidenced based data will establish measurable results of intended outcomes; community collaboration; broad base of financial support; project budget and operating expenses.

Who We Are

The Creag Foundation is a private grant making foundation established in 2009 in Woodinville, Washington.

The founders of the Creag Foundation believe that meaningful change can only be achieved through hard work, creativity and passion. They also understand the practical mechanisms that allow charitable organizations to succeed and grow. As a group, Creag Foundation principals are dedicated to helping today’s most innovative programs improve the human condition in a wide variety of ways.

Our Focus

The broad purpose of the Foundation is to support the efforts of nonprofit organizations who are innovators in the field of human services. Our particular focus is on smaller organizations that are starting out or established organizations that are looking for funding to take their organization in a new direction.

What We Fund

/ What We Fund

The Creag Foundation is focused on innovation in the industry. We will consider proposals from 501(c)(3) organizations that are finding new ways to address societal issues facing the nonprofit community. Applicants must have held 501(c)(3) status for one year before submitting. If your organization has held 501(c)(3) status for over a year, and your believe that your organization has a new approach to an existing social problem or is addressing a previously unaddressed social issue, you are welcome to contact us and request that we consider your organization for a funding opportunity.

Mission

The DanPaul Foundation will use its resources to help train teachers and parents in early childhood development, protect children from abuse and neglect, stimulate children's personal social responsibilities, and offer them opportunities for enrichment and growth.

The Foundation will also encourage children to be concerned and informed about the environment and the underprivileged, particularly with regard to clean air and water, and adequate housing and nutrition for all.

Beliefs

The DanPaul Foundation believes that children should have ample opportunities for enrichment in their lives, and thus strives to provide many different ways to enrich and expand children's minds through direct programs and monetary support to organizations doing similar work.

We have provided or currently provide grants related to the following program areas:

• Workshops, Conferences, + Seminars: We strive to offer educational workshops, conferences, and seminars for parents and teachers on topics related to early childhood development.
• Student Scholarships: We aim to help students attending post-secondary education institutions by providing need-based and academic scholarships.
• Scientific Endeavors: We desire to advance scientific endeavors which seek to improve the quality of life for everyone in the world.
• Clean Air + Water: We hope to pass on knowledge and practical life skills to youth regarding their personal responsibility to the environment, teaching them about issues surrounding clean air and water.
• Child Advocacy: We believe in protecting children from abuse and neglect and particularly love to support programs that provide education and assistance to children as well as organizations advocating or caring for vulnerable children.
• Homelessness: We want to encourage young people to take a personal interest in seeing that adequate housing and proper nutrition, especially for the underprivileged and homeless, are available.
• Poverty + Neglect: We seek to help those in poverty as well as educate youth about their responsibility to consider the underprivileged and take care of those most in need of life's basic essentials like adequate housing and proper nutrition.
• Refugee Enrichment: We wish to help refugee youth by supporting programs that provide them enrichment and help them transition to life in a new country.

The DanPaul Foundation provides grants to 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit organizations as defined by the IRS. The Foundation is interested in providing funding to programs that directly serve the health, education, development, and welfare of the world's youth.

Grants range from a few hundred dollars up to $15,000 per calendar year.

Background

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

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

Capacity

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

Capital

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

Community

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

What We Fund

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

What stage of growth does DRK Foundation typically fund?

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

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

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

Community Grants

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

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

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

Focus Areas

Safety Grants

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

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

Community Development

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

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

Education

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

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

Mission

The mission of the Hearst Foundations is to identify and fund outstanding nonprofits to ensure that people of all backgrounds in the United States can build healthy, productive and satisfying lives. Through its grantmaking, the Hearst Foundations support well-established nonprofit organizations that address significant issues within their major areas of focus—culture, education, health and social service—and that primarily serve large demographic and/or geographic constituencies. In each area of funding, the Foundations seek to identify those organizations achieving truly differentiated results relative to other organizations making similar efforts for similar populations. The Foundations also look for evidence of sustainability beyond their support.

Whether providing a scholarship to a deserving student, supporting a rural health clinic or bringing artists into schools so children can see firsthand the beauty of the arts, the Foundations’ focus is consistent: to help those in need, those underserved and those underrepresented in society. Since the Foundations were formed in the 1940s, the scale and capabilities of the grant making have changed, but the mission has not.

Culture Grant

The Hearst Foundations fund cultural institutions that offer meaningful programs in the arts and sciences, prioritizing those that enable engagement by young people and create a lasting and measurable impact. The Foundations also fund select programs nurturing and developing artistic talent. Supported organizations include arts schools, ballets, museums, operas, performing arts centers, symphonies and theaters.

Funding Priorities in Culture

In the recent past, 25% of total funding has been allocated to Culture. Organizations with budgets over $10 million have received 60% of the funding in Culture.

The Hearst Foundations are only able to fund approximately 25% of all grant requests, of which about 80% is directed to prior grantees and about 20% is targeted toward new grantees.

Types of Support

Program, capital and, on a limited basis, general and endowment support

Our  Mission

Driven by a commitment to overall health, our mission statement guides our work.

Kaiser Permanente exists to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve.

Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente is recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and nonprofit health plans. We currently serve members in 8 states and the District of Columbia.

Our care model enables our teams to think and work as one, coordinating your care seamlessly, so you don’t have to — and delivering better care when it matters most. Our members have access to care from Kaiser Permanente health care professionals by phone or video 24/7.

Care for members and patients focuses on their total health. Permanente Medical Group physicians, specialists, and teams of caregivers guide all care. Our medical teams are enabled by industry-leading technology and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, care delivery, and chronic disease management.

Washington Region - Community Health Grant

To better understand the needs of each community we serve, we conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment every 3 years. This strategic process informs our community investments and helps us make long-term, equitable, and sustainable changes. It also allows us to strengthen relationships with community organizations as we work together to improve community health.

Focus Areas

Current community health focus areas:

• Access to health care
• Mental and behavioral health
• Housing
• Efforts to dismantle structural racism
• Income and employment
• Food security

Creating healthier communities, together

Providence provides funding to community partners in support of our vision: Creating healthier communities, together. Sponsorships and grants offer opportunities for Providence to build new partnerships with organizations doing work for the people of Oregon and Southwest Washington.

Throughout the year, Providence through its Community Health Division, works to support community partners to address specific unmet needs.

Our decisions are largely based on our CHNA (Community Health Needs Assessment).

Event sponsorships

Types of requests accepted for consideration include, but are not limited to, community and fundraising events, conferences, health fairs and forums.

We accept requests for event sponsorships on an ongoing basis throughout the year. In order to ensure equity to all community partners, we request that you please submit only one event sponsorship request per year for your organization. We recommend that requests be submitted at least 90 days prior to your event.

Sponsorship awards typically range from $250-$2,500.

Program support

Examples of past awards for program support include, but are not limited to, fruit gleaning with low-income communities, dental and other services for homeless populations and scholarships to supplement conference registration costs.

We accept requests for program support on an ongoing basis throughout the year. We recommend that requests be submitted at least 120 days prior to needing the funds.

Maximum program support awards are $10,000, awards typically range from $1,000-$2,500.

Priorities

Providence is a member of the Catholic Health Association of the United States. As such, we have conducted Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNAs) every three years for the past 15. In line with the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, our most recent assessment was conducted at the individual hospital level. This led to hospital-specific Community Health Improvement Plans. These assessments and plans help shape grants, program support and event sponsorships included in our Community Benefit distribution. In keeping with our Mission, it is another way we are responsive to the needs of our communities.

All eight Oregon hospitals identified unmet needs and health improvement activities in the following general categories:

• Access to Care: Primary, dental or culturally-responsive care
• Behavioral Health: Mental health, substance use and treatment or adverse experiences, trauma prevention
• Chronic Conditions: Diabetes, obesity, hypertension
• Social Determinants of Health and Wellbeing: Affordable housing, healthy food, living wage jobs, transportation

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

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

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

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

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

Funding Areas

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

Higher Education

In 2022, the Foundation awarded $49 million to more than 35 educational organizations. Grantees included community colleges, private colleges, and public universities.

Human Services

The Foundation awarded $30 million to human service nonprofits in 2022, and many grants in this area went to groups that provide essential services to youth and families. Grantees included a range of youth-focused groups, including Reconciliation Services, the Nebraska Youth Justice Initiative in Omaha, Nebraska and the Sno-Valley Senior Center in Carnation, Washington. 

Arts and Culture

Arts and culture projects received $23 million in 2022, including grants to the Springfield Art Museum in Springfield, Missouri, the Omaha Zoo and the Seattle Aquarium in Seattle, Washington. Health Care and Hospitals.

Health Care and Hospitals

This is a growing area of need in many communities the Foundation serves. In 2022, $65 million was awarded to hospitals and health-care groups to build and improve their facilities.

WaFd Bank Foundation

The WaFd Bank Foundation's purpose is to facilitate direct giving to community-based nonprofits that primarily serve the needs of people with low- and-moderate incomes.

Community Impact Grants:

• Permanent, affordable, and sustainable housing: Creation of individual and multi-family housing for LMI populations.
• Economic development: Programs that promote economic development for businesses (primarily small business) that target LMI geo areas, size eligibility and gross revenue of $1million or less. Preference is given to businesses owned by women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, minority and immigrant individuals.
• Community revitalization: Programs that stabilize and recover communities by attracting or retaining jobs, businesses, and homes.
• Job development: Apprenticeships, job training and employment education programs that enable communities to revitalize their workforce and attract businesses that provide living wages.

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

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

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

Whidbey Affordable Housing Fund

About the Opportunity

In recognition of the challenges many individuals and families face with finding affordable housing on Whidbey Island, the Whidbey Affordable Housing Fund (WAHF) helps connect nonprofit organizations with donor dollars to support their work on affordable housing projects on Whidbey Island. The primary objective of the WAHF is to support the creation of more perpetually affordable dwellings on Whidbey Island by nonprofit entities.

The Fund was created by JADE Craftsman Builders and established with gifts from JADE and several of their clients and is held at Whidbey Community Foundation (WCF). Donations to the Fund are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by the law, and Whidbey Community Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit, EIN: 81-3860867.

Loans and Grants

WAHF prioritizes loans, and especially bridge loans where the repayment timeline is fairly short, in order to keep as much funding moving in our community as possible in support of affordable housing. While applicants who need a longer repayment period or who need a grant rather than a loan are welcome to submit a Letter of Interest (LOI), in the initial round of funding, grants are unlikely to be considered.

Project Focus

• WAHF provides bridge loans and, occasionally, grants to close the gap between where a project is and what it needs to reach its next level. The applicant with the greatest likelihood of success will be seeking support for mid-stage and late-stage projects, where $5,000 to $50,000 could provide meaningful support moving from one stage to another.
• WAHF funds many types of housing projects, including new construction, renovations, and conversions, so long as the project yields perpetually affordable housing.
• We will prioritize funding projects that align with WCF’s value of equity, and its dedication to the equitable allocation of resources to the diverse communities on Whidbey Island.

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.

Our Mission

To improve the quality of life in all communities throughout Grays Harbor County, Washington.

Our Vision Statement

To be the leading source directing charitable support to meet our current and future community needs.

Giving Priorities

Establish Quality Education and Learning Opportunities for all ages

• Programs that fully integrate on-site services of school districts and nonprofit organizations
• Tutoring and mentoring programs
• Learning efforts designed to reduce the preparation gap
• Dropout prevention at critical transition points and reconnect dropouts to school and employment via alternative education programs
• Efforts to involve parents and families in schools/education

• Efforts to promote and enhance positive self-worth within the community

• Programs that provide high quality career and technical education and training
• Efforts that teach students financial literacy
• Support systems for first-generation or returning, low-income college students
• Programs that promote literacy

Promote Health and Wellness

• Programs focused on addressing health disparities or disproportionately affected populations
• Programs that seek to reduce and/or prevent teen pregnancy, Tobacco use, Drugs and Alcohol, child abuse and/or Domestic Violence
• Treatment programs for substance abuse and mental illness
• Services for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse
• Organizations and projects that promote and encourage healthy lifestyles

Provide Broad Access to Arts, Culture and History

• Programs that encourage participation in the arts through schools and the broader community
• Programs to connect people to the historical culture of Grays Harbor
• Efforts to preserve community landmarks

Help Meet the Basic Needs of Residents

• Collaboration among food programs in order to better respond to hunger needs
• The infrastructure needs of food banks who consistently offer nutritious food and access to clean clothing
• Free, culturally appropriate meal programs for children year-round

• Efforts to transition people from homelessness by offering support services such as counseling, childcare and job training
• Organizational efforts to prevent homelessness
• Nonprofits working to keep housing affordable

Community Building Grants Program

The Grays Harbor Community Foundation addresses community needs by supporting nonprofit organizations throughout Grays Harbor County. The Foundation recognizes that the needs of our community are many. We support organizations in arts and culture, education, health and human services. Grant applications from all nonprofit organizations that meet our priorities and that are serving local residents are welcomed and encouraged.

The Grays Harbor Community Foundation offers a flexible granting cycle to address our community’s needs and immediate goals. We give high priority to investments that create positive, substantive change and attempt to resolve problems at their source.

Community Building Grant Details

Two Community Building Grant cycles occur twice annually, with an application deadline of February 1 and October 1. GHCF looks for proposals that show:

• The strength of the applicant organization.
• Address a community need.
• Fit well within the GHCF’s giving priorities.
• Show the ability to leverage other funding.
• Have a positive impact on persons and/or the community.
• Demonstrate the capacity to provide the necessary services using good administrative and financial management.

About First Fed Foundation:

First Fed Foundation (formerly First Federal Community Foundation) is a private 501(c)(3) charitable corporation launched in 2015 with a generous gift of stock and cash valued at nearly $12 million from the parent company of First Fed, when the bank was converted to a publicly traded company. This gift underscored First Fed’s commitment to continue its 100-year tradition of supporting the communities it serves.

In that same spirit, First Fed Foundation’s mission is to improve the quality of life in the communities in which First Fed maintains full-service branches.

Committed to creating broad impact, the Foundation has contributed more than $7.3 million since 2015 to qualified nonprofit, tribal, and government organizations that provide community support, address homelessness and the availability of and access to affordable housing, and deliver economic and community development projects in Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap, and Whatcom Counties and Bellevue, Washington.

What are the Foundation’s four funding priorities?

Community Support: We contribute to eligible community and human service organizations that improve the quality of life within the communities we serve. We give priority to programs and projects that build capacity to better serve the broader community, and that benefit low- to moderate-income, disadvantaged and/or marginalized persons or families.

Affordable Housing: We support programs and projects that build upon First Federal’s legacy of improving the availability of affordable workforce housing, and access to decent, safe, and affordable housing for low- and moderate-income, disadvantaged and/or marginalized persons and/or families in the communities we serve.

Economic Development: We fund initiatives that encourage and expand economic development and living-wage job opportunities in the communities we serve, with emphasis on collaborative and public/private initiatives sponsored by local organizations dedicated to economic development.

Community Development: We support capital projects that offer valuable benefits to broad segments of the communities we serve, with emphasis on collaborative and public/private initiatives featuring multiple funding sources. The Foundation appreciates naming rights on capital projects it supports.

AARP Community Challenge

The AARP Community Challenge grant program is part of the nationwide AARP Livable Communities initiative that helps communities become great places to live for residents of all ages. The program is intended to help communities make immediate improvements and jump-start long-term progress.

Since the program's debut in 2017, AARP has awarded $20.1 million through over 1,700 grants. Projects have been completed across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Flagship Grant

Flagship AARP Community Challenge grants have ranged from several hundred dollars for smaller, short-term activities to tens of thousands of dollars for larger projects. Since 2017, AARP has funded projects with an average grant amount of $10,000 to $12,000. Nine out of 10 grants (or 92 percent) are for $20,000 or less.

This year, grants will not exceed $25,000. AARP also reserves the right to award compelling projects of any dollar amount.

We are accepting applications for projects that benefit residents — especially those age 50 and older — in the following categories:

• Creating vibrant public places that improve open spaces, parks and access to other amenities.
• Delivering a range of transportation and mobility options that increase connectivity, walkability, bikeability and access to public and private transit
• Supporting a range of housing options that increases the availability of accessible and affordable choices
• Increasing digital connections and enhancing digital literacy skills of residents
• Supporting community resilience through investments that improve disaster management, preparedness and mitigation for residents

About our Grant Making

Ninety-nine girlfriends makes annual grants, called Impact Awards, in the Portland Metro/SW Washington region from a pool of money contributed by our members. Impact awards range from $50,000-$100,000 each year, depending on that year’s pool.

We fund equally in four focus areas, selecting nonprofits whose work is aligned with our vision of a more equitable future for all and our values of strength in diversity, collective action, and community impact.

Letters of Interest are due in early April. Then, we use our internal processes to select the ones that are most aligned with our vision and values. These organizations are invited to submit applications. During this time, our member-volunteer teams are learning about implicit bias, equity and inclusion, Trust-Based Philanthropy, and consensus building. 

Guiding Principles

In addition to our eligibility criteria, we apply the following principles and trust-based philanthropy to guide decision-making on grant applications.

Equity - Grant making must be grounded in equity.

Trust - We believe the organizations that apply for our grants are the experts in their field. We will lead with trust, respect, humility and curiosity.

Learning - At our heart, we are a learning organization. We value new approaches as much as experience, we recognize our missteps as learning opportunities, and we learn best together. 

Responsiveness and Transformative Impact - We fund organizations that respond to a critical need and/or are working to address the root causes of systemic issues.

Initiative and risk-taking - We believe that taking risks and exploring new ideas can lead to innovative solutions to complex societal problems.  

We engage women in a collaborative learning environment of inclusiveness and mutual respect, incorporating our collective voices, perspectives, talents, and skills. We educate ourselves about implicit bias, equitable grant making, and consensus-building, and we are embedding racial equity in our work. Each year is a new year of grantmaking at ninety-nine girlfriends. Community context changes as do our members, our grant review teams, and our annual Funding Priority. In the end, what we fund is determined by the votes of our members. 

Focus Areas

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to our work. Our vision is a more equitable community for all, therefore we prioritize funding that supports communities that are historically and/or currently underserved with respect to socioeconomic status, race, identity, or ability.

We seek to fund organizations working to improve educational equity, opportunity, or education-related services for children and youth from pre-K through high school in the areas of:

• Early childhood education and development
• Out-of-school time and summer learning
• Programs that work to close achievement and opportunity gaps
• Career and/or college readiness tools and skills for high school students
• Arts education, cultural education, and creative expression

We seek to fund organizations working to ensure everyone has equal access to resources and safe spaces, across environmental issues in the areas of:

• Access to environmental resources - healthy food, homes, water and green space
• Countering environmental burdens - pollution in air, water, and land
• Providing educational resources around sustainability and climate change preparedness
• Advancing participation in the green workforce
• Promoting systems change that includes meaningful and inclusive participation in the environmental decision-making process, that promotes environmental justice and equitable environmental policies

We seek to fund organizations delivering trauma-informed services that focus on housing solutions and home stability for families, youth, and adults in the areas of:

• Prevention of homelessness and helping people stabilize and keep their housing
• Emergency, temporary, and transitional housing and shelters
• Housing placement
• Resources and support that help prevent adverse childhood experiences or provide healing resources for families experiencing housing/home instability
• Wrap-around services that strengthen housing/home stability including mental and physical health services, recovery support, and domestic violence advocacy

We seek to fund organizations that advance the economic security and financial well-being of women by removing barriers to work in the areas of:

• Job readiness - including skills training, trades, and education
• Adult literacy and language proficiency
• Financial literacy
• College and post-secondary success
• Accessibility to affordable and reliable childcare
• Accessibility to safe and affordable healthcare including physical, mental, dental, and reproductive health

Ninety-nine girlfriends recognizes the complexities of gender identity and gender expression, and welcome cisgender women, transgender women, and gender non-binary, gender non-conforming, or gender queer persons.

Use of Funds

Funds may be used for general operating or project support to advance your mission. Awardees may choose to have funds disbursed in one payment in 2024, or in two payments: one in 2024 and one in 2025. 

Focus Grants

Our Focus Grants program provides place-based support to organizations that are disrupting the cycle of intergenerational poverty in southwest Washington. Our Focus Grant Program prioritizes investing in organizations working to disrupt the cycle of intergenerational poverty and create pathways for prosperity in the following populations with intersecting identities disproportionally impacted by economic, racial and/or social inequities in our region.

Focus Grant awards vary in size, typically ranging between $25,000 and $50,000, and go to organizations that demonstrate how they are disrupting the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

Intention of Focus Grant Program

We acknowledge the experience of intergenerational poverty is not shared equally in our community. Throughout history, policies have systemically excluded certain communities from the opportunities we all need to thrive, influencing their disproportionate experience of poverty. Through our strategic grantmaking, we are committed to reducing disparities in the following ways:

• Supporting organizations working to address the root causes of intergenerational poverty and create pathways for prosperity.
• Advancing policies and systems that center people with lived expertise.
• Prioritizing organizations led by members of the communities for which they serve.
• Reaching into local communities and actively engaging as a strategic partner to all the counties we serve.
• Increasing the capacity of organizations in the community whose work, mission and values align with our own.
• Investing in innovative, community-driven strategies to solve emerging and structural societal issues.

Our Impact Areas

We interrupt persistent poverty by addressing immediate needs and building stability for the long-term.

• Basic Human Needs: Many in our community are working to survive, and every day presents a challenge to find food, shelter and security. For this reason, we fund organizations and programs that fulfill the basic needs of underserved people, families and communities. This includes needs such as food security, rent and utility assistance, affordable housing, physical and mental health, caregiving, domestic violence services and more. By addressing these pressing needs as they arise, people are better able to plan for their futures.
• Educational Attainment: In today’s economy, a good job and upward mobility increasingly depend on educational attainment. Without access, inclusivity and strong social supports, even students with great potential can encounter barriers. We invest in efforts that provide equitable opportunities along the entire educational continuum from cradle to career, so that every child enters school ready to learn and is able to achieve their goals for post-secondary success.
• Asset Building: All southwest Washington residents should have the opportunity to achieve financial security. We fund efforts to improve the economic health of the people and communities who face the biggest barriers to mobility. These include asset- and wealth-building strategies, employment services, financial planning and credit repair, small business development, homeownership, community livability, economic development and more.

Community Impact Lens -The following priorities help guide our funding toward projects and programs that have the greatest potential for community impact.

• Community Need: The program or organization addresses an important community need in southwest Washington and is focused on dismantling disparities and increasing opportunities for historically underserved communities;
• Organization’s Mission:The proposed project or work is consistent with the organization’s mission, and the organization has the experience and knowledge to address the identified community need;
• Equity Commitment: The organization is committed to and can effectively demonstrate how it continues to advance diversity, equity and inclusion both internally, through its institutional practices and policies, and externally, through its partnerships and program delivery.
• Programatic Alignment: The program or organization is working to build awareness around intergenerational poverty and address its root causes;
• Best Practices: The organization’s programs are clearly defined, avoid duplication and are grounded in strength-based best practices in the field;
• Culturally Responsive: The organization seeks to include the voices and perspectives of the people and communities it serves during program development and conducts outreach and service delivery with cultural sensitivity;
• Community Relationships: The organization has established trusted community relationships and meaningful community partnerships;
• Collaboration: The organization seeks to collaborate and share, carrying out their work in coordination with partners or through coalition building efforts;
• Meaningful Impact: The outcomes and activities noted are realistic and the organization has demonstrated potential of future impact;
• Sustainability: The organization demonstrates competency in fiscal planning and management; the project budget and grant request are commensurate in size with the organization’s overall budget and with the proposed impact of the work; and additional support is sought from other funding sources.

Environmental Justice Giving Project Grant

What We Will Fund

The Giving Project will focus on Environmental Justice, making grants to support organizing work that aims to achieve equitable access to a clean and healthy environment for frontline communities most impacted by the climate crisis, environmental racism, and environmental injustice.

The “environment” in the context of the environmental justice movement is defined as the spaces where we live, work, learn, play, pray, and heal. This grant will fund rural and urban organizations working at the intersection of environmental, racial, and economic justice to create sustainable, self-determined and just communities.

We will prioritize funding organizations with Black, Indigenous, and/or POC leadership, and/or who conduct most of their work in reservation communities, and/or rural, small town communities.

Some examples of organizing work that is eligible for this grant include:

• Resource mobilization for affordable and healthy housing
• Organizing efforts supporting access to clean and healthy food, water, and air
• Leadership development programs for environmental justice and health equity
• Facilitating just transition and climate resilience work
• Developing community processes, practices, or civic engagement addressing neighborhood blight

Funding

Grant amount: 2-year grants of $50,000 ($25K/year)

Nominate a Nonprofit

The People Helping People Awards are a celebration of exceptional work within the communities we serve and provide us the opportunity to honor members and nonprofits that drive positive change through service to others.

Each year, BECU members can nominate local nonprofits for a People Helping People Award of up to $50,000 in grant funds.

So look around you for heroes who deserve recognition, and nominate a nonprofit for a BECU People Helping People Award today.

Giving Areas and Subcategories

Nonprofit work must be focused in any one of the following seven giving areas:

• Advancing education (Pre-K through college): Access to education, mentoring, educational materials and programming, classroom, school and PTSA funding for educational programs/materials/experiences.
• Arts and culture: Equitable access to art experiences, underrepresented art and cultural organizations, cultural programs.
• Creating economic opportunity: Living-wage jobs, small and startup businesses, job quality for low-wage workers.
• Preserving health and promoting wellness: Access to healthcare, illness prevention/cure, mental health, patient support, disabilities, veteran advocacy.
• Preserving or restoring the environment: Conservation, stewardship, sustainability.
• Providing for basic human needs: Affordable housing, homelessness, senior advocacy, infant and child advocacy, food/diaper/clothing banks.
• Strengthening local communities: Neighborhoods, public safety, search and rescue, outdoor spaces, rotary/chamber.

Pacific Power Foundation

The Pacific Power Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Pacific Power. Its mission, through charitable investments, is to support the growth and vitality of local communities.

Together with our foundation and employees, we've given $13 million to local communities since 2019 to lend a helping hand and spur economic development.

Grant Focus

The foundation manages its grants in four cycles. This helps the foundation carefully review similar requests to ensure maximum benefit.

Community Enhancement

Affordable housing, community resilience, community and recreation centers, economic development, libraries, monuments, memorials and science centers.

Environmental Respect

Animal and wildlife biodiversity; carbon and methane emissions; conservation of natural resources; environmental management systems; parks, trails and gardens; resource stewardship; waste management reduction, and water usage management.

Community Partnership Award

The Mutual of America Foundation Community Partnership Award recognizes outstanding nonprofit organizations in the United States that have shown exemplary leadership by facilitating partnerships with public, private or social sector leaders who are working together as equal partners, not as donors and recipients, to build a cohesive community that serves as a model for collaborating with others for the greater good.

Each year, the Mutual of America Foundation sponsors a national competition in which hundreds of organizations demonstrate the value of their partnership to the communities they serve, their ability to be replicated by others and their capacity to stimulate new approaches to addressing significant social issues.

Six organizations are selected by an independent committee to receive the Community Partnership Award.

• The Thomas J. Moran Award is given to the national award-winning program and includes $100,000 and a documentary video about the program.
• The Frances R. Hesselbein Award is given to a partnership that is addressing social challenges in more than one community, or which demonstrates the potential to be replicated in other communities. This recipient receives $75,000.
• Four other organizations are named Honorable Mention recipients for their programs, and each receives $50,000.

Since its inception in 1996, the Community Partnership Award has recognized 262 partnerships from cities and towns across America. Like so many of our clients working in the nonprofit community, Mutual of America is dedicated to having a direct, positive impact on society.

Program Focus:

The lack of quality, affordable housing options for adults who experience intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) has reached a crisis in the United States. The Transformation Grants for IDD Housing program reflects our commitment to investing in person-focused housing solutions for individuals who experience IDD. The program also provides funding for the exploration of new, inclusive, and community-based approaches that are affordable, scalable, and sustainable.

Transformation Grants: Advancing Housing for People Experiencing Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

• Grant period: One-year grants or multi-year grants up to three years 
• Funding range: Up to $300,000 per year
• Maximum funding request: $900,000 over a three-year period
• Indirect cost rate: 10 percent

Gupta Family Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, USA. Our mission is to support organizations that provide focused intervention in the lives of people who have been disadvantaged in some way to help them become self-reliant. We take a very broad view of “disadvantage” to include anything that holds a person back from realizing their potential, such as poverty, physical or mental disability, social alienation, etc. The foundation also supports relief agencies that serve people affected by emergencies such as natural disasters.

The foundation evaluates and awards annual and multi-year grants ranging from $5,000 to over $250,000 (USD). Our focus is on funding smaller organizations all around the world that are led by individuals with a deep personal commitment to their missions. 

Our selection criteria include:

• Mission alignment
• The organization is run by the founder or, if not, by a successor who embodies the original inspiration, passion and commitment of the founder.
• At least 90% of grant monies reaches the intended beneficiaries.
• The organization is non-sectarian, i.e.,
  • It does not, directly or indirectly, support or condone the proselytization of any religion,
  • It is not supported by or affiliated to a religious organization.

At Banner we care about the places where we work and live—the places we call home—and we appreciate your interest in our Banner Gives program.

Areas considered for Banner Gives grants include:

• Housing,
  • especially programs that address homelessness and opportunities to advance affordable housing such as home ownership counseling and projects creating and/or preserving access to affordable housing
• Youth
  • academic achievement, civic involvement, financial literacy (see below), as well as physical and emotional development
• Financial education
  • for youth and adults
• Economic development
  • with greatest emphasis on aiding small business and small farm development and lending, workforce development education, job creation and retention