FEBRUARY 2005: SPECIAL FEATURE

Fundraising for Refugee-Serving Agencies - Part 3

FOUNDATIONS: GIVING TO REFUGEE & IMMIGRANT SERVICES

The December 2004 Special Feature opened our ongoing discussion of “Fundraising for Refugee-Serving Agencies”, providing an overview of recent funding trends for U.S. nonprofit organizations. These trends bode well for refugee-serving organizations seeking grant funding in the areas of education, health, and human services, where the share of foundation grant dollars rank high. Serving as one of several sources of revenue, foundation grants can provide an important contribution to your organization’s balanced funding mix.

Types of foundations include: smaller family and community foundations, larger private and company-sponsored foundations, and grantmaking public charities. Learn more about the differences among foundations on the Foundation Center’s Web site at http://fdncenter.org/getstarted/learnabout/foundations.html.

To search for information on which foundations offer grants for organizations like yours, there are a number of options, including:

• Visit your local public library. Many local libraries carry one or more hard-copy or on-line versions of major foundation directories. Organizations can search for a foundation funding match according to the following categories of information:
  

  • field of activity (subject or program area)
  • type of recipient organization (museum, school, etc.)
  • population groups served (minorities, children, etc.)
  • type of support awarded (general, capital, etc.)
  • geographic focus (domestic, foreign or international).

  For more on grants classification, see http://fdncenter.org/gainknowledge/grantsclass/index.html.
  
• Visit a nearby Foundation Center Library. They will have the most up-to-date information possible concerning foundation programs via their extensive hard-copy library and cutting edge, on-line search tools. Foundation Center Libraries are located in:
  

  • New York, NY - http://fdncenter.org/newyork/index.jhtml
  • Washington, DC - http://fdncenter.org/washington/index.jhtml
  • Atlanta, GA - http://fdncenter.org/atlanta/index.jhtml
  • Cleveland, OH - http://fdncenter.org/cleveland/index.jhtml
  • San Francisco, CA - http://fdncenter.org/sanfrancisco/index.jhtml.

• Visit a Foundation Center Cooperating Collection that could be closer to home. Cooperating Collections are greater in number than the Foundation Center Libraries, and they are located all across the United States. Cooperating Collections serve as free funding information centers and are located in libraries, community foundations, and other nonprofit resource centers. They provide a core collection of Foundation Center publications and a variety of supplementary materials and services in areas useful to grantseekers. You can find out more about the Foundation Center Cooperating Collections at http://fdncenter.org/collections/.
  
• Search the Internet for on-line directories of funding sources. For example, the Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) has “a core focus on the United States, [and] provides grantmakers with opportunities for learning, networking, and collaboration. GCIR seeks to move the philanthropic field to advance the contributions and address the needs of the world's growing and increasingly diverse immigrant and refugee populations.” The organization's Web site http://www.gcir.org/index.htm offers many resources for organizations seeking funding to serve refugees and immigrants including a listserv with related news and resources and the searchable Directory of Funders Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Issues which can be found at http://www.gcir.org/resources/funding_directory/index.htm.

The following list is a sample of foundations that have funded programs for refugee and immigrant families, especially in the areas of parenting education, child care, and family literacy. These foundation names and descriptive Web site excerpts are listed by foundation type. Remember that it is usually best to begin your search with local foundations - those who are invested in your geographic area and with whom you can develop a personal, on-going relationship.

Private Foundations

Public Welfare Foundation: “The Public Welfare Foundation is a non-governmental grant-making organization dedicated to supporting organizations that provide services to disadvantaged populations and work for lasting improvements in the delivery of services that meet basic human needs. Grants have been awarded in the areas of criminal justice, disadvantaged elderly and youth, environment, population, health, community and economic development, human rights and technology assistance.” From the foundation’s Web site at http://www.publicwelfare.org/grants/grants/2004_grants.asp.

Knight Foundation: In 2004, the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced an initiative to help immigrants in 26 communities where the foundation has an established presence become citizens, vote, and play an active role in community civic life (http://www.knightfdn.org/default.asp?story=/ventures/iii/backgrounder.html). The foundation is working with national nonprofits as well as local organizations in these communities to support efforts to increase rates of naturalization, improve English-language education, and strengthen the local and national network of immigrant-serving organizations. The foundation also will support the establishment of an American Dream Fund to provide operating support to local organizations working on immigrant integration. In addition to its own initiative, the Knight Foundation is working with the Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Open Society Institute, and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation to pool resources to strengthen organizations that serve immigrants and to revise public policy on citizenship.

The Knight Foundation has several on-going funding priorities. One, the Community Partners Program (http://www.knightfdn.org/default.asp?story=cpp/index.asp), targets Knight’s 26 communities, each of which has developed its own funding priorities, including education and the well-being of children and families. Recently, the foundation funded the Cambodian Association of America’s Family Literacy Program in Long Beach, CA, “which targets low-income Cambodian families with children ages 0 to 7 years.... The program includes English-as-a-second-language (ESL) classes for adults, early childhood education, parenting, and time for parents and children to learn together.” See http://www.knightfdn.org/default.asp?story=news_at_knight/releases/2004/2004_08_27_caa.html for a description of the program. Visit the foundation’s Web site at http://www.knightfdn.org/default.asp for more information.

Rosie’s For All Kids Foundation: “Rosie O'Donnell established her For All Kids Foundation, Inc. in 1997 to provide financial support to nonprofit programs serving economically disadvantaged and at-risk children and their families. Since its inception, the foundation has helped thousands of children across the country through grant awards to child care, after-school, education and other essential programs. The foundation's main focus is center-based child care, and first priority is given to programs serving low-income, urban areas, where many families struggle to find quality child care and early childhood education programs.” From the foundation’s Web site at http://www.forallkids.org/main.cfm.

Corporate Foundations

Hasbro Children's Foundation: “The Hasbro Children's Foundation and its board of
national experts and advisors work together to uncover and help resolve some of the toughest issues facing children today. The foundation's three levels of funding help to provide the support children need to grow up healthy and strong, bring innovative programs to children throughout the nation, and strive to resolve the issues that put children at risk in the first place:

• Innovative Programs with Local Impact -- Small grants are available to direct service programs that meet a need of disadvantaged children in a local community in an innovative way.
• National Replication/Adaptation/Expansion of Innovations -- Larger and sometimes multiyear grants are available for direct service programs that have the ability to bring their successful programs to other communities.
• Innovative Programs with National Impact -- Seed grants are available for programs that propose to meet the needs of vulnerable children and their families in a new way and have the potential for improving the quality of life for these children in every community across the nation.”

Most often, local grants for model community programs range from $500 to $35,000. From the foundation’s Web site at http://www.hasbro.org/default.cfm?page=grantmaking.

The UPS Foundation: “The UPS Foundation will consider high impact philanthropic programs and projects from organizations recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service code. … The UPS Foundation focuses on Hunger, Literacy and Volunteerism. By making grants and contributing other resources, like volunteers, technical assistance and our expertise, The Foundation enables not-for-profit organizations to serve communities more effectively around the world.” UPS has funded National Center for Family Literacy projects, focusing on literacy for job and career development for the entire family.
Visit the foundation’s Web site at http://www.community.ups.com/philanthropy/main.html.

The William Randolph Hearst Foundations: “Social Service” is one of four funding priorities. “The Hearst Foundations support human service agencies that foster effective solutions to social and economic problems. Preference is given to well-established organizations that provide comprehensive, direct-service programs that share one or more of the following goals:

• Helping individuals move from welfare dependence to economic independence
• Strengthening families and ensuring healthy childhood development
• Addressing the frequently interrelated problems of homelessness, drug addiction, and mental illness
• Fostering youth leadership
• Increasing access to affordable housing
• Creating socio-economic opportunities for women and girls
• Promoting literacy
• Capacity building for social service organizations

While the Foundations tend to favor organizations that work with large constituencies, we recognize that the demographics and service-delivery infrastructures of rural America are significantly different from those of the nation's urban and suburban regions. Therefore, those factors are considered when the Foundations review requests from rural organizations.” From the foundation’s Web site at http://www.hearstfdn.org/fp_socialservice.html.

Public Charities

United Way Community Grants: These grants are administered locally and may not be available in all United Way communities. For example:

• Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN: “United Way's Community Investment Fund provides one-time grants of up to $5,000 to fund grass-roots projects in the Twin Cities Metro Area. Grants are given to groups that help people in distinct communities (community is defined as a geographic neighborhood or common focus).” From the Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul United Way Web site at http://www.unitedwaytwincities.org.
• San Luis Obispo County, CA: “In order to achieve the greatest community impact through its investment of the Community Impact Fund, United Way supports programs that address targeted Community Investment Strategies, including Meeting Life's Basic Needs, Promoting Healthy Lives, Investing in Children and Youth, Supporting Work and Self-Sufficiency and Strengthening Our Community. Through these strategic initiatives and objectives, United Way utilizes the information provided in the ACTION for Healthy Communities assessment and other supporting information to effectuate positive change and increase the quality of life for San Luis Obispo County residents.” From the San Luis Obispo County United Way Web site at http://www.unitedwayslo.org/CommFundGrants.htm.
• United Way of Broward County, FL: “The Sun-Sentinel Diversity Venture Fund celebrates our diverse community by encouraging applications for effective programs that provide significant benefits to diverse communities. Diverse communities differ functionally, historically and culturally. In the Sun-Sentinel Diversity Venture Fund, the term diversity broadly refers to many demographic variables, including but not limited to: Gender, Age, Ethnicity, Race, National Origin, Geographic Origin, Sexual Orientation, Skills Characteristics, Educational Background, Religion, Physical/Mental Ability, Military/Veteran Status, Lifestyle, Immigrant Status, Language Facility, etc. The term venture refers to an undertaking that is risky and bold; something on which a gamble is taken, an investment; to take a chance.” From the United Way of Broward County Web site at http://www.unitedwaybroward.org/script/content.asp?contentID=38.

Soliciting grantmakers such as those listed above involves a careful process of learning more about the potential foundation then contacting the foundation personally in a variety of ways. Grant-seeking organizations should: