October 2005

In This Issue

• Disaster Relief Funding
• Private Foundation Funding
• Funding Tip

Disaster Relief Funding

• Katrina Funding Clearinghouse
  http://www.grantstation.com/katrina/index.html
  

  GrantStation, an interactive Web site that allows grantseekers to identify potential funding sources, has developed a clearinghouse for current grant announcements, resources and other related information for those organizations, educational institutions and government agencies helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

• AARP Foundation
  Grant Applications Guidelines
  Deadline: November 4, 2005
  

  The AARP Foundation is offering grants to nonprofit and governmental organizations that are providing assistance for older victims of the recent hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. Grants will be made to agencies providing health, long term care, housing assistance, employment assistance, transportation, legal assistance or other necessary services for older victims. Priority will be given to direct service agencies in locations where need is greatest based on numbers of displaced, evacuated or homeless persons aged 50 or over.

• Disability Funders Network
  http://www.disabilityfunders.org/
  Applications are accepted throughout the year
  

  In the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Disability Funders Network (DFN) has launched a Rapid Response Fund to help nonprofit organizations meet the immediate and long-term needs of people with disabilities in the Gulf region as a result of hurricanes, storms, and other severe weather conditions.

  The Rapid Response Fund is offering mini-grants to nonprofit organizations to meet specific needs that include, but are not limited to, transportation, shelter, medication, medical equipment, and assistive technology.

  Grants from the fund will be disbursed directly to non-profit organizations with the capacity to affect the greatest need among hurricane victims and/or evacuees with disabilities. Initially, grants will focus on immediate needs of the targeted population, but it is anticipated that future awards will be made to address long-term needs as well. Grants will continue to be awarded until funds are depleted. The maximum grant amount is $5,000.

Private Foundation Funding

• U.S. Human Rights Fund
  http://www.ushumanrightsfund.org/
  Deadline: November 7, 2005
  

  The U.S. Human Rights Fund is accepting Letters of Inquiry from domestic social justice organizations actively engaged in U.S.-based human rights work with relationships to the U.S. rights community more generally.

  The U.S. Human Rights Fund is housed at Public Interest Projects, a 501(c)(3) public charity that operates grantmaking, technical assistance, and strategic planning programs for institutional and individual donors interested in social justice and human rights issues. The fund, a field-building initiative dedicated to the full realization of human rights in the United States, seeks to strengthen the U.S. human rights movement as a whole by supporting four currently under-funded strategies: capacity-building, collaboration, communications, and applied legal and policy research.

  In this initial grantmaking cycle, the fund will place particular emphasis on capacity building and collaboration/networking. Organizations interested in applying for funding must have 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, or have a tax-exempt fiscal sponsor.

  Grants will generally range from $50,000 to $75,000 per year, for up to three years, although exceptional grants of as much as $100,000 per year may be awarded. However, total grantmaking during the first grantmaking cycle will not exceed $1.5 million. The fund expects to award between ten and fifteen grants, some of which will be multi-year.

  Letters of Inquiry must be submitted online at the program's Web site.

• Alston/Bannerman Program
  http://www.alstonbannerman.org/generalinformation.html
  Deadline: December 1, 2005
  

  The Alston/Bannerman Program recognizes that working for social change usually means long hours at low pay, with few tangible rewards and few escapes from the day-to-day pressures. Without time to stop and reflect, the pressures can prove overwhelming, but without resources, it is impossible to take the time. Therefore, the Fellowship Program gives long-time activists of color the financial support and freedom to take a break and recharge.

  Each year, 10 people of color are awarded the Alston/Bannerman Fellowship. They receive $15,000 to take sabbaticals of three months or more. People of color means of African, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American or Arab descent.

• Brookdale Foundation
  http://www.brookdalefoundation.org/relativesasparents.htm
  Deadline: January 12, 2006 (local proposals); February 9, 2006 (state proposals)
  

  The Brookdale Foundation has announced the Relatives as Parents Program (RAPP) Local and State Seed Grant Initiatives for the year 2006. RAPP is designed to encourage and promote the creation or expansion of services for grandparents and other relatives who have taken on the responsibility of surrogate parenting when the biological parents are unable to do so.

  RAPP awards seed grants of $10,000 over a two-year period in two categories: local agencies and state public agencies. Selected applicants will be notified in April and be required to attend the National Orientation and Training Conference to be held June 2006 in Denver, Colorado.

• Cingular Wireless Charitable Contributions
  http://www.cingular.com/about/community_involvement
  Applications are accepted throughout the year
  

  Cingular Wireless primarily supports community-based programs and organizations that address educational, cultural, and social issues that affect the quality of life in the communities where the company has a presence. The company's areas of focus include assisting victims of domestic abuse and helping in times of disaster. Proposals should be project-specific rather than requests to underwrite operating, capital, or endowment budgets.

  Regional Grants

  
  
• Appalachian Community Fund
  http://www.appalachiancommunityfund.org/
  Deadline: November 1, 2005
  

  The Appalachian Community Fund (ACF) was founded in 1987 to bring new resources and provide grants to groups for community organizing and social change in the Central region of Appalachia (East Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky, Southwest Virginia, and all of West Virginia). Grants are given to community-based organizations that address underlying causes of the economic and social distress of the region, and are targeted to organizations and communities with little or no access to other funding.

  ACF's grantmaking program supports organizations where people are organizing themselves to address problems in their own communities and neighborhoods and the organizations themselves are vehicles for change. Examples of the areas of social justice work that ACF funds include, but are not limited to, racial justice; education; access to health care; issues of gender and sexual orientation; domestic violence; youth leadership; workers' rights; environmental justice; alternative arts and media; low-income and working-class rights; disability rights; grassroots coalition and networking; economic development and job creation; and criminal justice.

• Taproot Foundation
  http://taprootfoundation.org/
  Deadline: December 1, 2005; March 1 and June 1, 2006
  

  The Taproot Foundation, which connects America's business professionals with nonprofits who need their talents and experience, has announced a new Annual Report Service Grant. The program will provide a nonprofit organization with the processes and tools to produce an annual report each year, as well an initial version for the first year.

  The grant is designed to serve an organization that needs a professionally designed and written annual report and is committed to publishing annual reports regularly. The program is a good fit for a nonprofit that has a strong name and visual identity to use as the foundation for the positioning and design; the existing capacity to produce publish-ready financial statements; and a need for a finished annual report no sooner than twelve months after the application deadline for the grant.

  To be eligible for the grant, an organization must be tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or operate under the fiscal sponsorship of a 501(c)(3). Applicant organizations must also provide direct benefits primarily or entirely to residents in the foundation's service area: the five boroughs of New York City (Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, and Brooklyn) and the six counties of the San Francisco Bay Area (Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Marin, and Contra Costa). Organizations must also have their headquarters within the foundation's service area.

Funding Tip

Technology Grant News provides a source for one-stop information on technology grants, free technology resources, technology partnerships, strategic alliances and technology advancement. Their Grants for Non-Profits Index summarizes grants recently made available to non-profits to support their missions, increase technology innovation, and promote efficiency through technology. They offer a subscription package of one year of Technology Grant News electronically, with access to the Grants for Non-Profits Index, for $35.

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