For Nonprofits
Grants to nonprofits focus on Results Framework
Grants made through the Community Foundation’s competitive process support our Results Framework — Results and Strategies that helps us leverage all our work to drive positive change. In our annual grant process, we seek to have a profound impact on important areas of community life, including dramatic improvements in education and health, vibrant communities with robust arts and cultural opportunities and economic security for individuals and families.
Our experience in making grants and in listening to the community provided information and insight to develop the Results Framework. Within this guiding framework, we use our grants, leadership, funding and advocacy to reach our goals.
Community Funds provide a special resource
The grants we make to nonprofits in the Birmingham region come from a unique resource, the Community and Field of Interest Funds that make up one-third of our endowment. Donors past and present made unrestricted gifts to create and support these funds so that our community would always have maximum flexibility to respond to urgent needs and be proactive in seeking new opportunities for our community.
Today, through Community and Field of Interest Funds, the Community Foundation makes grants twice a year to nonprofit organizations serving people in Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Blount and Walker counties. Organizations that wish to apply for funding should focus proposals on specific Results within each grant cycle.
Read more about the process or contact James McCrary if you have immediate questions about how a nonprofit organization can apply for a grant.
The Community Foundation also serves nonprofit organizations by supporting:
- Alabama Association of Nonprofits, which we helped to found in 1996 to help build the capacity of this important sector.
- Charitable Real Estate Foundation which assists in processing gifts of real estate to benefit the Community Foundation and other local nonprofit organizations.
