Deadline: 8-Mar-23
The William T. Grant Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of its Youth Service Improvement Grant 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.
Examples of problem areas for improvement include: inadequate curriculum, gaps in the service skills of frontline staff, or a limitation in current services that adversely affects participants’ experiences. Beyond these examples, they welcome other compelling needs for service improvement.
Themes
- Inequality corresponds with geography, with poverty rates well over 40 percent in some neighborhoods and too little of Foundation grant dollars going to those communities;
- A purely place-based approach to grantmaking would neglect under-resources communities that are more geographically dispersed. Mexicans, now the third largest immigrant group in the city, have high rates of poverty but few established organizations tailored to their needs. LGBTQ+ youth are another group that is too often overlooked and whose well-being demands greater support;
- There is a notable lack of racial, ethnic, gender identity and sexual-orientation diversity among executive directors and CEOs of youth serving organizations. Today’s Youth Service Improvement Grants program capitalizes on these insights by prioritizing applications from organizations that provide direct services to youth in eleven community districts identified as having the highest risk to child well-being by the Citizens’ Committee for Children, have existing programming tailored specifically to Mexican-descent or LGBTQ+ youth, or are led by people of color or members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Award Information
- Awards are $25,000 each and support projects lasting one year, starting on September 1 of the award year.
- The Foundation will award up to six new Youth Service Improvement Grants annually.
- They are also willing to co-fund larger improvement efforts with other funders.
What they do not support?
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;
- Public and private schools;
- Organizations that utilize fiscal sponsors/conduits;
- Organizations that are based outside the five boroughs of New York City.
Eligibility Criteria
- Organizational criteria
- Serve youth ages 5 to 25. At least 80 percent of youth participating in the services 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 tax-exemption. If an applying organization is separately incorporated but tax-exempt through a group ruling (religious institutions), the applicant should supply the 501c3 letter of the parent organization and documentation that it is part of the group;
- Have an operating budget between $250,000 and $5 million, if the organization serves youth only. If the applying organization serves youth and other populations, its operating budget must be less than $20 million and its youth services budget must be between $250,000 and $5 million;
- Have most recent financial statements reviewed by an auditor, per New York State law requirement. If the organization’s annual budget is under $750,000, then certified public accountants reviewed financial statements are required;
- Have filed IRS Form 990.
For more information, visit William T. Grant Foundation.
