Each year, we award a variety of grants to fabulous organizations throughout our community.
Our community grants are strategic and responsive, allowing us to partner with organizations and programs meeting critical local needs. Applications for community grants are accepted twice each year and align with one of our three focus areas—community and economic development, education, and poverty to prosperity—and are more competitive when they fall within our general grantmaking guidelines.
General Community Grants
General grants are available to nonprofit agencies seeking to increase their organizational strength. General operating support, matching grants, and projects that address community needs outside our focus areas fall under general grantmaking. In order for the Community Foundation to maximize grant dollars to reach our goals, programs that are strategic and aligned with our focus areas are given funding priority.
View our general grantmaking guidelines.
Community and Economic Development
Through collaboration and grantmaking, our goal is to reduce the local unemployment rate below the national average while preserving our rural character. We do this by focusing on development of small business, entrepreneurship, and workforce as well as the capacity of local partners and promoting natural resources.
View our community and economic grantmaking guidelines.
Education
It is our goal to increase the proportion of Newaygo County residents with high-quality degrees, technical certificates, or other credentials to 60 percent by the year 2025. Our education grants focus on early childhood investments, STEAM education, literacy, remediation, and creating a positive college and career-oriented culture.
View our education grantmaking guidelines.
Other education grant resources:
Poverty to Prosperity
We want to help more local people move upward and out of poverty, reducing the poverty rate in Newaygo County to below the national average over the next 10 years. We do this by providing grant support in the areas of self-sufficiency, asset development, and social capital and empowerment.
Community Grant Timeline
| Application deadline* | March 1 | September 1 |
| Staff review | April | October |
| Committee review | May | November |
| Board of Trustees review | June | December |
| Grant notifications | June | December |
*If a deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, grant applications will be due on the next business day.
Measuring Impact
We believe a coordinated measurement tool can empower communities to begin strategic change and build collective action. We use data from the Newaygo County Area Dashboard to work with our community partners to prioritize resources, reach goals, and assess impact. Grantees are strongly encouraged to use the dashboard indicators when developing grant applications designed to drive impact.
Newaygo County Area Dashboard
The dashboard is currently undergoing updates, which may result in error messages when clicking links for more details. These updates will include the latest local data and should be finished soon.
Learn more about our focus area measures.
Grant evaluations can be completed online on Grant Central.
