21 Mar The Community Grants proposal phase has officially closed… Whats Next?

The Community Grants proposal phase has officially closed. Thank you, Miami, for showing up for yourself! Now, it’s our turn to tap in…

We see you, Miami nonprofits, and we heard you loud and clear. Community Grants are our opportunity to lift up the voices of our local organizations. The changes we made this cycle– including moving to multi-year, general operating support grants have been long overdue for The Miami Foundation and for philanthropy. The bold adjustments we implemented are in direct response to the hundreds of conversations we had with our local nonprofit leaders.

Our Community Grants portal officially closed on Friday, March 10 at 11:59 p.m. We are so excited to share that we received 697 proposals representing every inch of our wonderful Miami-Dade! Since opening the proposal on January 23, we have been able to connect with an incredible array of leaders through;

• 230 1:1 virtual office hour sessions with the Community Engagement Team.  
• 426 attendees and 382 views of our Feb 2 Info Session.  
• 100 attendees and 303 views for the grant writing workshop held by Radical Partners. 
• 30 hours of individual grant writing coaching sessions held with Radical Partners. 

 

A large piece of the work has been about bringing the community to the table – and wow did you show up! Through the above offerings, we were able to build new relationships, strengthen and reinvigorate some existing ones, and add more color to what we already know about our community. We were more than happy to welcome you and, for many, introduce you to our work and vice versa.  

We made major shifts to our program because of what we’ve heard from our nonprofit partners. We also took the time to re-introduce ourselves to anyone who would listen. It was equally important for us to show up alongside our work and live out our commitment towards strengthening our community. It’s not just about us making decisions…it’s about us learning, distilling trends, educating donors, recruiting funders to join in, matchmaking, connecting, AND by the way, we also will get to give out some funding too. 

This cycle of Community Grants was designed to be a call to action for all nonprofits across our magical Miami-Dade County. We’ve realized that there is so much more we can do but to be a true resource for our ecosystem of changemakers, we must learn more about what the needs are and who is working to address them. The proposals we’ve received will help inform our funding community, across all funding areas, and help us think through how else we can contribute more to Miami, for everyone.  

We are grateful to you for the opportunity to meet you and learn about who is out there, every day, doing great things for Miami. 

So what happens now?  

Now we go through the process of reading and rating each proposal received. Across our six funding categories, we’ve recruited 35 incredible community leaders to help us. Recruitment occurred across our networks, and we promoted on our social media platforms to ensure that all were invited and encouraged to apply. From that process, we got to meet so many talented leaders excited to volunteer their time to help us read every proposal. Committed to our goal of serving a program with, by, and for our community, we are proud to move the program forward with their knowledge and enthusiasm. The advisors have been divided across the categories according to their expertise, to ensure that our investments remain community informed, focused, and driven. Click on this link to see who is serving as a Community Advisor this cycle.  

It’s time for us to put our heads down and carefully read the 697 proposals we received. We really appreciate your patience and understanding during this time as our team carefully goes through every submission. We’ll resurface with updates in early summer when we have them, but for now, we just want to say thank you. Thank you, Miami, for showing up for yourself! We are so proud of you and all you do for our community! 

 

Onward Community Grants!