Deadline: 15-Dec-21
The Akron Community Foundation is offering small grants under Vernon L. Odom Fund to promote ethnic and racial harmony in Greater Akron and improve the quality of life within its minority communities.
People of every race, ethnicity and background deserve the opportunity to achieve their goals. That was the philosophy of Vernon Odom, one of Akron’s most recognized civil rights leaders.
As president of the Akron Urban League for nearly 30 years, Odom spent much of his career improving the lives of Akron’s minority communities through education, advocacy and mentoring.
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 the 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/