2025: Youth Service Improvement Grants Program in the US

Deadline: 2-Apr-25

The William T. Grant Foundation has launched the Youth Service Improvement Grants Program to support activities to improve the quality of direct services for young people ages 5 to 25 in the five boroughs of New York City.

The goal is to strengthen existing services by helping youth-serving nonprofit organizations address challenges or remedy problems at the point of service, where staff and youth interact.

The YSIG program is aligned with the Foundation’s broader focus on reducing inequality in youth outcomes. Inequality in New York City is reflected in racial and economic segregation across boroughs and neighborhoods, in inadequate services for Mexican-descent youth and LGBTQ+ youth, and in a lack of racial, ethnic, gender identity, and sexual-orientation diversity among executive directors and CEOs of youth-serving organizations. They seek to help improve the quality of direct service programs provided by youth-serving non-profit organizations that confront these challenges.

Funding Information

• Awards are $25,000 each and support projects lasting one year, starting on September 1 of the award year.

Eligibility Criteria

• Note: The YSIG program awards grants only to youth-serving community-based nonprofit organizations physically located in any of the five boroughs of New York City whose staff have direct programmatic contact with youth at the point of service. Applicants must meet all organizational criteria to be eligible. Organizations previously funded under either of the Foundation’s Youth Service Grant programs cannot apply again for at least 18 months after the end of their award.
• Organizational criteria 
  • Applicants must meet all of the following criteria:
    • Serve youth ages 5 to 25 years.
      • At least 80 percent of youth participating in the direct service program targeted for improvement must be in this age range.
      • The applicant’s staff must have direct contact with youth at the point of service.
    • Have their own 501(c)(3) tax-exemption.
    • The applying organization (not the fiscal sponsor) must have an operating budget between $250,000 and $5 million in the prior year (i.e., 2024), if the organization serves youth only.
    • Have audited financial statements or certified financial statements, ideally 2024 or 2023, from the applying organization or from the fiscal sponsor if the organization is operating under fiscal sponsorship.
    • Have a 990 for the applying organization (or explain your exemption). Or, if operating under fiscal sponsorship, the fiscal sponsor much have a 990.

Ineligibility Criteria

• The YSIG program does not support:
  • General operations.
  • Planning, needs assessment, and evaluation proposals.
  • Program improvement activities not focused on changes at the point-of-service, such as board development or financial system updates.
  • Capital fund projects, scholarships, endowments, lobbying, real estate purchases, or awards to individuals.
  • Expansions or additions to programming, including changes that simply increase the number of slots in a program or result in new programming.

For more information, visit William T. Grant Foundation.