The Community Grants 2021 partners have been announced. Thank you for your unparalleled work to strengthen Greater Miami.
Every year through Community Grants, we apply funds endowed to our Foundation to address Greater Miami’s most pressing needs while honoring the intent of our donors. The COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice reckonings of 2020 led us to listen deeply and learn with our community about how best to collaborate with nonprofits in their work to build a stronger Greater Miami. Our revised Community Grants program seeks to honor this intention, guided by the collective wisdom of so many of our staff, board, grantees, and community partners. Read our full message to the community.
While the 2021 Community Grants program has passed, we invite you to review the materials to learn more about the Foundation’s signature annual community investment program. We welcome your feedback and outreach to learn more.
Meet the incredible group of advocates, creators, and leaders that make up our Community Grants partners this year. We invite you to get to know these organizations and join us in investing in them.
Please review our program guidelines for more information about the program.
We recommend reviewing this resource as a reference. Meet the 2021 Community Reviewers.
What we fund
In 2021, we invested $2.2 million across the categories below together with our local funding partners.
- Access to Health and Wellness | Improve health outcomes by connecting people to quality health resources and education, reducing health disparities, or tackling contributing social determinants of health
- Economic Stability | Improve residents’ ability to meet local affordability challenges by helping them secure affordable, stable housing, recover from financial crisis, and/or increase earning potential
- Inclusion of People with Diverse Abilities | Expand opportunities for people with disabilities to lead purposeful, productive lives and be increasingly integrated into all aspects of community life. See our summary of this funding category here.
- Sustainable Environment | Develop a healthier, more livable community by preserving our unique environment, building resiliency amid climate change, and expanding local awareness and stewardship
- Thriving Youth and Families | Expand opportunities for youth to excel from early childhood to career through high-quality education, enrichment experiences and personal development that build resilience, or work that ensures their safety and stability. This can include support for adult caregivers so the whole family can thrive. Note: We welcome approaches that include the arts and creative expression to advance personal development.
What we prioritize
Our priorities define how we evaluate a proposed program, project or community work. These priorities serve as criteria during our review processes.
- Advance equity of marginalized people and communities: We will prioritize working with marginalized communities. This includes approaches that tackle disparities around race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or other factors. We will focus attention on people of color and the organizations they lead, particularly to address Black racial equity and justice given their deep roots in historic racism.
- Focus on progress: We will support work guided by tangible indicators of growth and progress for people and communities that are best suited to the type of work – whether it is direct services or advocacy and organizing work to change institutions and systems. The results will have strong potential to create timely and impactful opportunities for individuals and communities to advance and thrive.
- Build solutions: We seek approaches that identify underlying barriers or challenges that hold people or communities back from their highest potential. Strong approaches will strive to address the barriers and challenges in ways that can improve peoples’ current situations and help equip them for the long-term.
- Collaborate with community: Authentic relationships with the people affected by issues and disparities are vital to inform and shape the most effective work. We will prioritize organizations that intentionally gather and apply community guidance or leadership to add valuable insight into solutions.
- Sustainability: We seek to support organizations’ goals for high-quality, viable work while also investing in what each nonprofit needs to be strong and healthy. We will look for proposals that reflect how the nonprofit envisions that funds can be best used to power its proposed goals while also supporting its capacity.
Eligibility & Use of Funds
Eligibility Requirements: Eligible applicants are nonprofits with an active 501(c)(3) status as a public charity or projects with an established fiscal sponsor that has this status. The proposed work must primarily serve Miami-Dade County residents. If you have a current grant through any Foundation program, you must be in compliance with that grant to apply.
Types of Funding: For greater flexibility, nonprofits can select from two options. For both types, nonprofits will have discretion in proposing how funds are used to advance their goals that align with the program guidelines.
- Program Support: Funds to support a particular program or initiative you propose to start, sustain or grow.
- Mission Building Support: Funds can be used more generally to advance organization-wide work and goals that drive your mission, rather than a specific program or project. Or, there may be some key aspect of your operations or infrastructure that is holding you back from achieving your overall mission and aspirations. Your proposed goals would focus on how you seek to be a stronger community resource. The funds can be used for more general expenses, but they should help you unlock your potential for greater community impact.
How to apply
Community Grants is a two-stage process: an initial Idea Stage and a Full Proposal Stage for invited applicants based on review of the submitted ideas. The Foundation engages full proposal review committees to guide grant selection to ensure rich perspectives from people with personal and professional experiences related to each funding category. Grant decisions for the 2021 program were shared in mid-June. The 2022 program is anticipated to open in January 2022.