Deadline: 15-Dec-21
The Akron Community Foundation is pleased to announce the Gay Community Endowment Fund (GCEF) to advance a lived equality for all LGBTQ+ people in Greater Akron.
The Gay Community Endowment Fund support programs that improve the health and well-being of the LGBTQ+ community and Greater Akron as a whole.
Since its establishment, the Gay Community Endowment Fund has invested more than $630,000 into local causes that change the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the community. Recent grants have created safer environments for LGBTQ+ youth, combated phobias of the LGBTQ+ community, and supported mental health and suicide prevention programs for LGBTQ+ people.
Focus Areas
Areas of focus include programs that:
- create safer environments for LGBTQ+ youth,
- combat phobias of the LGBTQ+ community, and
- support mental health and suicide prevention programs for LGBTQ+ people, among other issues.
What the Foundation will Fund?
While their programming differs, all Akron Community Foundation grantees have things in common:
- Organizational strength: They support efficient and effective nonprofit organizations with the capacity to significantly improve the community. They value organizations that demonstrate sustainability, honesty and transparency while remaining true to their mission.
- Systemic impact: They support collaborative efforts that help individuals, families and neighborhoods thrive by addressing immediate needs while creating holistic improvement within Summit County. They prefer to fund organizations that address the underlying cause of a problem and make a lasting improvement.
- Accountability: They serve as stewards of their donors’ community investments. They honor the charitable intentions of these donors to help them meet current and future needs of the community. As a result, they hold their selves and their grantees to the highest standards of ethics, integrity, service and fiduciary responsibility.
- Strengthened capacity of the nonprofit sector: They support efforts that build governance, management, financial and organizational capacities of nonprofit agencies and the sector as a whole. They also strive to create partnerships that reduce duplicative and ineffective programs.
- Inclusiveness: They honor the diverse strengths, needs, voices and backgrounds within the community, and they support organizations whose missions promote equity and inclusiveness.
What the Foundation does not Fund?
- The Community Fund grants improve life for all residents of Summit County. Therefore, they do not make grants for:
- Endowments
- Scholarships
- Direct financial support to individuals
- Religious organizations for religious purposes
- Private non-operating foundations
- In accordance with the grantmaking priorities, they generally do not fund:
- Newly established nonprofit organizations that duplicate existing services
- Curriculum for schools
- Disease-specific programs
- Economic development initiatives already being addressed by the Fund for the Economic Future
- Programs at parochial schools that benefit only their students
- Multi-year grants
For more information, visit https://www.akroncf.org/grantmaking-initiatives/overview/competitive-grants/