Best Grants for 501(c)(3) in Wisconsin

The Farmers Market Grant Program by Compeer Financial supports farmers by enhancing their marketing and technology capabilities. Grants can be utilized for branding, website creation, and payment technologies, as well as essential equipment like scales and tents. This initiative aims to promote direct consumer engagement and strengthen local food systems, ensuring fresh produce accessibility while fostering economic growth in rural communities. Eligible applicants must be Compeer clients actively participating in verified farmers markets.

The All of Us Research Program seeks to advance its mission by enabling access to biospecimens stored in the All of Us supported Biobank for researchers to conduct assays to evaluate associations between biomarkers and chronic diseases and add data to the All of Us resource for broad use by researchers. Biomarker analysis includes, but is not limited to, biomarker discovery; biomarker validation; novel disease stratification; and multiomics integration for disease risk, diagnosis, and prognosis, in support of advancing precision medicine. The All of Us Research Program is a historic effort to enroll 1 million participants who share data to accelerate research and medical breakthroughs, and enable individualized prevention, treatment, and care. Researchers use data from the program to learn more about how individual differences in lifestyle, environment, and genetics can influence health and disease.Grant authorities that allow the All of Us Research Program to forecast this opportunity are as follows: 42 USC 241 and 284.

NRA Range Grant Program

General Provisions

The following guidelines govern the award of all grants made under the auspices of the NRA Range Grant Program. Please read this entire document prior to completing a grant application. The NRA Range Grant Program was established in September 2000 by a resolution of the NRA Board of Directors. This resolution also dissolved a separate account established by the Board of Directors known as the Range Loan Fund. A portion of the endowment's earnings are used to award grants for purposes consistent with the endowment's objectives. The amount distributed annually is limited to the lesser of the endowment's prior year's net earnings or 5% of the endowment's fair value as of December 31 of the previous year. Range Grant funds are made available at the NRA's sole discretion to qualifying NRA-affiliated clubs and associations by approval of the Range Development Committee - a standing committee of the NRA Board of Directors.

The Social Psychology Program at NSF advances knowledge in social psychology by supporting innovative research and infrastructure. It encourages diverse projects that enhance understanding of human social behavior, addressing topics such as social cognition, group dynamics, and emotions. Proposals must demonstrate intellectual merit and broader societal impacts, with a focus on interdisciplinary approaches. The program prioritizes research that benefits society and strengthens national security, while also ensuring representation across various demographics.

About

Originally conceived by Dr Bruce Mesara in 1990 as a means to carry on his philanthropic efforts beyond his lifetime, the Mesara Family Foundation was re-envisioned by his two children Amy and Douglas in 2014, and received their 501(c)(3) status from the IRS in 2015. Amy and Douglas sought out the assistance of their cousins to build upon the charitable principals on their parents, aunts and uncles.

The foundation is headquartered in Kalamazoo Michigan.

Mission

The mission of the Mesara Family Foundation is to honor the philanthropic principles of the Mesara and Pauch families by supporting carefully selected organizations that share similar values. Our focus is to provide support toward education, conservation and other causes of special family interest where our funding will make a genuine difference.

The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People Grant supports partnerships with economically disadvantaged groups in the U.S. It aims to empower these communities to take control of their lives and address systemic issues of poverty and oppression. This initiative encourages sustainable change through community-led programs that advocate for justice, human dignity, and economic equity, fostering a transformative impact on their local environments.

The Tommy Wilson Memorial Grant, established by Dr. George T. Wilson and his wife Irene, honors their son Tommy, who had cerebral palsy. This grant supports recreational programs for individuals with disabilities and aims to positively impact their lives. Applicants must be nonprofit organizations with a successful history of programming for individuals with disabilities. The grant prioritizes programs serving economically disadvantaged individuals and may only fund applicants once every five years.

The Warren Alpert Foundation aims to enhance public health by funding medical research, education, and basic human services. With grants under $25,000, it supports initiatives that advance medical treatments and health education. The foundation is committed to fostering innovative research and solutions in healthcare, making a significant impact on community health and well-being.

The Robanna Fund, established in 1992 by Robert and Deanna Levy, supports students pursuing careers in healthcare. Administered by the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, the fund awards scholarships averaging $6,000, depending on various factors such as the number of qualified applicants and donor preferences. Eligible applicants must maintain a minimum GPA of 2.0, reside in Hawai‘i, intend to major in a health-related field, and demonstrate financial need. This initiative aims to cultivate future healthcare professionals in the community.

The Outstanding Earth Science Teacher (OEST) Award recognizes exceptional K-12 educators for their contributions to Earth Science education. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, the award aims to stimulate interest in Earth Sciences among students. Eight national finalists are chosen annually, ensuring broad recognition and encouraging teaching excellence. Nominees can apply themselves or be nominated by colleagues, allowing for two awards in an educator's career to honor both early and late career achievements.

Appleton Education Foundation

The Appleton Education Foundation, a supporting organization of the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, has been working since 1997 to develop a steady source of support for grants now, and for many future generations of Appleton children.

Mission: We raise and direct private funds to strengthen and enhance education in our community.

AEF Grants

AEF favors grant projects that:

• Demonstrate educational innovation
• Promote original, creative ideas
• Focus on content enrichment and skills development
• Are not supported through normal school budgets
• Have measurable indicators of success
• Address one or more academic standards set by AASD

General Guidelines & Restrictions

• AEF typically provides seed money for creative projects and should not be considered a resource for ongoing funding.
• Murals: AEF gives funding priority to Artists in Residence programs over standalone mural projects.
• AEF places low-priority on funding: computer software, classroom sets of books, furniture, and food.
• Any proposed software must go through AASD’s software approval process before the grant is submitted.
• Grantees should carefully track expenses and save receipts for use of grant funds. Any unused grant funding ($20 or more) should be returned to the AEF.
• Grant recipients will be required to submit a final report to help the AEF ensure effective grant making and data collection.
• Submitting a final report is necessary to remain eligible for future grants.

AEF Professional Development Grant

Description

• AEF will look favorably at requests for funds to bring speakers to the AASD (in-person or virtual) to address a group of educators on a particular topic of interest.
• And for requests that follow the “train the trainer” model.
• AEF does NOT fund conference fees or expenses related to district staff attending professional development programming.

The NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) fosters innovative educational initiatives aimed at pre-college students, promoting their interest in STEM fields, especially in biomedical and behavioral sciences. This program supports both classroom projects and informal science education activities, such as after-school programs and library events. Emphasizing the development of quantitative and computational skills, SEPA seeks to inspire the next generation of scientists and thinkers through engaging educational experiences.

Cherokee Nation Foundation

The Cherokee Nation Foundation is a nonprofit organization serving the Cherokee Nation, a federally recognized tribe of more than 470,000 citizens. Its mission is to provide educational opportunities to Cherokee students so they can reach their full potential. The Cherokee Nation Foundation is a tax-exempt charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Cherokee Nation Allied Health Scholarship

The purpose of the Cherokee Nation Allied Health Scholarship is to provide financial assistance to Cherokee Nation citizens pursuing college degrees in health care fields to support their readiness to contribute to and grow within the Cherokee Nation reservation labor market. This scholarship is competitive and subject to availability of funding.

The foundation also offers a Nursing Scholarship and if funding allows, scholarships will be available for degrees in health fields other than nursing to meet any current workforce need in the Cherokee Nation Health Services department.

The National Urban Indian Health Program aims to enhance behavioral health services for Urban Indian communities by fostering awareness, advocacy, and collaboration across the nation. By providing technical assistance and training to Urban Indian Organizations, the program seeks to improve access to culturally relevant behavioral health care for American Indian and Alaska Native populations residing in urban areas, ultimately leading to better health outcomes and community support.

The Garden Club of Houston, established in 1924, promotes gardening and environmental conservation through various community initiatives. Their funding supports nonprofit organizations and government entities, focusing on projects that enhance public landscapes, educational resources, and community gardens. Grants are not awarded for operating funds or endowments, with preference given to projects within the greater Houston area. This commitment to civic improvement underscores their mission to foster a love of gardening and environmental stewardship.

The Creation & Development Fund, administered by the National Performance Network, supports the creation and mobility of artistic works that promote racial and cultural justice. It fosters collaboration between artists and communities through financial support, enabling artists to develop meaningful relationships and present their work. The fund emphasizes equity, access, and the importance of public engagement, ensuring that diverse voices are represented while addressing systemic injustices in the arts.

Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society

Alpha Omega Alpha, founded in 1902, is the national medical honor society. Its mission is:

• Alpha Omega Alpha — dedicated to the belief that in the profession of medicine we will improve care for all by:
• recognizing high educational achievement;
• honoring gifted teaching;
• encouraging the development of leaders in academia and the community;
• supporting the ideals of humanism; and
• promoting service to others.

Helen H. Glaser Student Essay Award

To encourage medical students to write scholarly essays relevant to medicine. Winning essays will be published in an issue of The Pharos.

Only one entry may be submitted per student.

Requirements

• Essays must be written while the student is in medical school, must be the work of a single author, and must be an original work. The essay must not be offered to, or published by, any other journal or entered in any other contest prior to submission or during, the AΩA selection process.
• The essay must be related to medicine.
• Essays should not be fictional or written in first person, but academic/scientific in theme.
• The essay must not exceed 15 double-spaced pages of 12-point type with minimum 1-inch margins, exclusive of reference listing. The author’s name and essay title must be on each page, and all pages must be numbered.
• Unique references, numbered consecutively, should be limited to 20. (Reference citation of a website is not acceptable unless a site is the sole source of the information or has official academic credentials. Examples of acceptable sites are official government web pages such as that of the National Institutes of Health.)
• The Pharos Editorial Board suggests that authors review George Orwell’s “6 Rules for Writing”.
• Essays that are not selected as award recipients may be submitted to other contests/publications after the winners are announced.
• Essays not meeting all requirements will not be considered.

Dr. Jill Biden Scholarship - Biden Breast Health Initiative

Essay:

• Why have you chosen a career in health care or education, and why do you feel it is important to encourage others to adopt a healthy lifestyle?

Awards:

• One time award of $2,500; one award per county. 

The John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History, awarded by the American Historical Association, recognizes exceptional scholarly work in the history of East Asia, particularly focusing on books published after 1800. Eligible works must demonstrate high literary merit and can be nominated by authors or publishers. The prize aims to highlight significant contributions to the historical disciplines, with recipients announced in October 2025 and honored at the January 2026 AHA annual meeting in Chicago.

The Safety, Security, and Privacy for Open-Source Ecosystems (Safe-OSE) program, launched by the National Science Foundation (NSF), addresses vulnerabilities in open-source products and their development infrastructure. It invites proposals to enhance safety, security, and privacy across various types of open-source ecosystems. The program aims to support initiatives that improve resilience against risks, attacks, and breaches, ensuring that OSEs can effectively manage current and future challenges.

Investing in research and healthcare to prevent, treat, and heal firearm-related harms

Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education

Kaiser Permanente established this Center in 2022 to scale its longstanding commitment to help communities prevent, treat, and heal from firearm-related injuries or death. The Center’s focus on violence prevention is rooted in healthcare, care delivery, and clinical interventions.

The Center is coordinated in collaboration with the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (HAVI).

Research to support more effective health interventions

The Center funds research to test and expand health interventions that treat and prevent firearm injuries and deaths. This approach uses the same rigor and expertise that has helped treat and prevent other leading health concerns and causes of death, such as stroke, cancer, and heart disease. Funding supports projects to:

• Identify and evaluate health system strategies to address firearm injury and death, especially in communities that are most impacted.
• Test clinical interventions to prevent, treat, and heal trauma caused by firearm injuries and death.
• Assess pathways to implement and scale clinical interventions for firearm injury prevention in various healthcare settings.
• Improve healthcare identification and engagement of individuals at high risk of firearm injury or death.

Since its inception, the Center has awarded more than $8.5 million through 49 grants across 25 states and Washington, D.C., to advance research, capacity building, narrative change, and education.

Funding Opportunity

The call is open to applicants at varying stages of the research continuum. It is expected that central to all proposed initiatives are efforts to meaningfully engage communities that have been the most impacted by firearm violence.

What Work Will Be Considered for Funding?

Funding is currently available in two categories: Category 1 - Research Capacity Building; Category 2 - Pilot or Formative Healthcare Research

Category 2 - Pilot or Formative Healthcare Research

Up to two (2) projects will be selected, each receiving up to $250,000 over two (2) years.

Expand or pilot new research on evidence-informed healthcare practice or clinical care models that address firearm violence or firearm suicide.

Better World Scholarship Fund

The scholarship encourages women to acquire a degree in a science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) field. The donor’s bachelor’s degree is in mathematics, followed 15 years later with a master’s degree in business administration. Her degree in mathematics provided opportunities for jobs in software development and application, medical research, technical documentation, organizational education and training, scientific research, and business. Her career was challenging, dynamic, encouraged creativity, never boring, offered schedule flexibility that allowed her to parent her four children, provided career choice independence, and was lucrative. Go STEM Girls!

Award Amount:

• Minimum $1,000

The Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation

SIR Foundation is a scientific foundation dedicated to fostering research in interventional radiology for the purposes of advancing scientific knowledge, increasing the number of skilled investigators, and developing innovative therapies that lead to improved patient care and quality of life. The foundation is committed to fostering the development and enhancement of innovative, minimally invasive, image-guided therapies from inception to mature clinical application and to conduct educational programs in the service of its mission.

Giving Circle for the Advancement of Women (GCAW) Award

Provide career development opportunities for women in interventional radiology. GCAW is dedicated to engaging all generations of women in interventional radiology through the power of community philanthropy.

The MPS Physics Research Programs, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), support transformative research in various fields of physics. This includes experimental and theoretical work in atomic and molecular physics, particle physics, gravitational physics, and more. The NSF aims to promote ambitious projects without the need for immediate commercialization, focusing instead on foundational advancements that push the boundaries of our understanding of the universe.

About Us

Rotary Club of Madison is part of a worldwide organization with over 1.4 million members that participate in more than 46,000 clubs. We’re making an impact not only here at home but also around the world. As one of the 10 largest clubs within Rotary International, Rotary Club of Madison offers its members the opportunity to expand business and social networks, to join together with some of the most active local leaders to exchange ideas and foster understanding, and to serve locally or globally.

Rotary is a service organization of community leaders and global citizens who are united for the common good. Rotarians provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help build peace in the world. Rotary is dedicated to promoting truth, enhancing goodwill and friendships and being beneficial and fair to all concerned. There are over 1 million Rotarians who belong to over 34,000 Rotary clubs around the world. Membership is by invitation and reflects a cross section of community representation. The Rotary Club of Madison has over 400 members and is one of the top ten largest Rotary clubs in the world.

There is approximately $148,000 available which will be distributed to up to 5 local nonprofits or public schools. 

Excellence in Education Grants

Our Madison Rotary Foundation's Excellence in Education Grants Program is aimed at fostering educational parity and empowering students from all backgrounds. Our organization firmly believes that every student deserves equal access to quality education, regardless of their socioeconomic background, race, or any other factor. Through this grant program, we aim to support nonprofits that share this vision and are actively working to eliminate educational disparities. This grant offers an opportunity for organizations to expand or enhance an existing program to increase the impact on the lives of underserved students in our community. The grant funds can be utilized to expand, enhance, or create partnerships for existing innovative educational programs. Funds can be used to enhance infrastructure, implement teacher training initiatives, provide resources, or any other endeavor that promotes equity for all in education.  

Investing in research and healthcare to prevent, treat, and heal firearm-related harms

Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education

Kaiser Permanente established this Center in 2022 to scale its longstanding commitment to help communities prevent, treat, and heal from firearm-related injuries or death. The Center’s focus on violence prevention is rooted in healthcare, care delivery, and clinical interventions.

The Center is coordinated in collaboration with the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (HAVI).

Research to support more effective health interventions

The Center funds research to test and expand health interventions that treat and prevent firearm injuries and deaths. This approach uses the same rigor and expertise that has helped treat and prevent other leading health concerns and causes of death, such as stroke, cancer, and heart disease. Funding supports projects to:

• Identify and evaluate health system strategies to address firearm injury and death, especially in communities that are most impacted.
• Test clinical interventions to prevent, treat, and heal trauma caused by firearm injuries and death.
• Assess pathways to implement and scale clinical interventions for firearm injury prevention in various healthcare settings.
• Improve healthcare identification and engagement of individuals at high risk of firearm injury or death.

Since its inception, the Center has awarded more than $8.5 million through 49 grants across 25 states and Washington, D.C., to advance research, capacity building, narrative change, and education.

Funding Opportunity

The call is open to applicants at varying stages of the research continuum. It is expected that central to all proposed initiatives are efforts to meaningfully engage communities that have been the most impacted by firearm violence.

What Work Will Be Considered for Funding?

Funding is currently available in two categories: Category 1 - Research Capacity Building; Category 2 - Pilot or Formative Healthcare Research

Category 1: Research Capacity Building

Up to two (2) projects will be selected, each receiving up to $100,000 over two (2) years.

Build capacity within the organization, institution, and/or clinical care setting to conduct research on healthcare approaches to addressing firearm violence or firearm suicide.

The AWWA Scholarship Program, specifically the Neptune Technology Group Scholarship, offers a $5,000 award to undergraduate students pursuing degrees in mechanical, electrical, computer, or software engineering. This initiative, supported by the American Water Works Association, highlights the importance of investing in the future workforce of the water industry, fostering education and innovation among aspiring professionals.