Deadline: 15-Sep-23
The Roundhouse Foundation is pleased to announce a call for proposals for its grant program.
Focus Areas
- Arts & Culture
- Arts and culture bring people together, expand hearts and minds and build vibrant communities. They cultivate, enhance and sustain a sense of community by helping people understand and respect who they are, who their neighbors are and the unique place they call home. Arts and culture also support the creative economy, providing important economic impact in rural communities.
- They look for opportunities that harness the power and potential of arts and culture to build better rural citizens, communities and economies. They want to hear and amplify the voices of the rural communities, which they know can often be best heard and shared through art.
- Education
- Education opens doors, changes lives and strengthens the rural communities.
- They support innovative educational programming, including programs for the children who are not best served in traditional educational settings and in career-technical areas that build skills of the builders, mechanics, craftspeople, plumbers and others they depend on to keep the rural communities working. They also support strategies that create equitable rural access to higher education, as well as youth literacy, libraries, and civic education.
- Environmental Stewardship
- The future of rural Oregon’s people and places are tightly intertwined. They depend on the environment to provide the water and food, nurture the spirits and offer them recreation. The wise, steady and innovative stewardship, always paramount, holds increasing importance for the quality of life as the climate changes.
- From watershed and ocean health to sustainable agriculture, fisheries and food systems to accessible outdoor experiences, they invest in opportunities that build collective responsibility for and/or improve the health of the life-sustaining environment.
- Social Services
- Rural Oregonians know that they depend on one another and how they take care of each other matters deeply. They understand that people cannot reach their full potential, contribute their best or be creative when they are in pain, hungry or don’t have a safe, stable home.
- They fund efforts that support rural Oregonians in meeting their basic needs so that they are better positioned to pursue their passions, creativity and life dreams.
Funding Information
- Grant requests between $2,501 and $50,000. Median award is approx. $20,000.
- Preferred proposals span 12-18 months.
Eligibility Criteria
- They support rural Oregon communities, including Tribal communities. All proposals, regardless of an applicant’s location, must have a clear and compelling benefit to rural Oregon.
- Fiscally-sponsored nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply for funding, but must be actively in pursuit of 501(c)(3) status.
- They seek partners who:
- are IRS-designated 501(c)3 non-profits, a government entity (including special districts) or a Tribal government.
- share the passion for and commitment to rural Oregon.
- demonstrate a broad network of community support.
- advance one or more of the focus areas and understand how these areas are interconnected.
- approach opportunities and challenges with innovation, creativity and collaborative spirit.
- have clear goals and clear outcomes that advance work toward solutions.
- demonstrate thoughtful planning.
- demonstrate they are doing the work to develop and apply racial equity and DEI lenses to their work.
- value community and believe strengthening community connections is foundational to their work.
- demonstrate solid organizational stewardship.
- want to engage with Roundhouse and those within the network as partners.
- They are especially interested in opportunities that:
- stimulate rural economies, foster economic resilience and/or advance efforts outside of traditional economies.
- remove barriers to access services, whether real or perceived.
- bring great, new ideas at a time when Foundation support can act as a catalyst.
- engage and mobilize young people.
- engage a mix of lived experiences at every level, including across generations.
- celebrate rural landscapes.
- support sustainable food production and distribution.
- have the potential to leverage additional investment in rural Oregon.
- They rarely consider requests for/from:
- faith-based organizations.
- This includes regional YMCA and Habitat for Humanity branches.
- organizations outside of the United States.
- endowments, or for multi-year commitments exceeding four (4) years.
- private, independent, tuition-based or charter elementary or secondary schools.
- or from organizations with a history of (or currently experiencing) intense public scrutiny, public litigation, or other activity that would jeopardize/conflict with the Mission or Values of the Roundhouse Foundation.
- faith-based organizations.
Ineligibility Criteria
- They are unable to consider requests for/from:
- propagandizing or for influencing legislation and elections.
- institutions, who — in policy or practice — unlawfully discriminate against persons for their race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, religion, ability, socioeconomic status, age, or other individual identities.
- individuals unauthorized to act on behalf of a qualified tax-exempt organizations.
- individuals for their personal benefit.
- loan, debt, or operational deficits of any kind.
- organizations that are not IRS-recognized public charities or qualifying government or Tribal government entities.
For more information, visit The Roundhouse Foundation.
