Weekly Funding Opportunities Listing – December 6, 2011

Below are funding opportunities of interest that I have learned about/received RFP notifications about in the past week that I wanted to share. 

Arts

Our Town - NEA

Deadline: March 1, 2012

The Arts Endowment’s support of a project may start on September 1, 2012, or any time thereafter. A grant period of up to two years is allowed. Grant Program Description Art works to improve the lives of America’s citizens in many ways. Communities across our nation are engaging design and leveraging the arts to create livable, sustainable neighborhoods with enhanced quality of life, increased creative activity, distinct identities, a sense of place, and vibrant local economies that capitalize on existing local assets. The NEA defines these efforts as Creative Placemaking: "In creative placemaking, partners from public, private, nonprofit, and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood, town, tribe, city, or region around arts and cultural activities. Creative placemaking animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates structures and streetscapes, improves local business viability and public safety, and brings diverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired." 

Housing

Housing Counseling – HUD

Deadline: January 12, 2012

*Note: This funding was originally cut for 2012, so it’s exciting to see that it has been restored even if now running ~6 months behind.

This program supports the delivery of a wide variety of housing counseling services to homebuyers, homeowners, low- to moderate-income renters, and the homeless. The primary objectives of the program are to improve financial literacy, expand homeownership opportunities, improve access to affordable housing and preserve homeownership. Counselors provide guidance and advice to help families and individuals improve their housing conditions and meet the responsibilities of tenancy and homeownership. Additionally, counselors may provide counseling services to homeowners to prevent or resolve mortgage delinquency, default, and foreclosure, with the primary objective to preserve homeownership. Counselors provide guidance and advice to help families and individuals meet the responsibilities of homeownership and modify or refinance their loans. Counselors also help borrowers avoid inflated appraisals, unreasonably high interest rates, unaffordable repayment terms, and other conditions that can result in a loss of equity, increased debt, default, and eventually foreclosure. Counselors can also assist homeowners with inquiries related to mortgage scams, and reporting instances of potential mortgage scam victimization. Applicants funded through this program may also provide Reverse Mortgage Counseling to senior homeowners who seek to convert equity in their homes into income that can be used to pay for home improvements, medical costs, living expenses, or other expenses.

Libraries/Museums

Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries and Museums

Deadline: February 1, 2012

The Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries and Museums are a special funding opportunity within the IMLS National Leadership Grants program. These small grants encourage libraries, museums, and archives to test and evaluate specific innovations in the ways they operate and the services they provide. Sparks Grants support the deployment, testing, and evaluation of promising and groundbreaking new tools, products, services, or organizational practices. You may propose activities or approaches that involve risk, as long as the risk is balanced by significant potential for improvement in the ways libraries and museums serve their communities.

The Web conference schedule for the FY12 Sparks Grants program is as follows:

December 7, 2011, at 4:00-5:00 PM. Eastern Time
January 4, 2012, at 4:00-5:00 PM. Eastern Time

National Leadership Grants

Deadline: February 1, 2012

National Leadership Grants support projects that address challenges faced by the museum, library, and/or archive fields and that have the potential to advance practice in those fields. Successful proposals will seek innovative responses to the challenge(s) identified in the proposals, and will have national impact.

The National Leadership Grant program accepts applications under four main categories:

• Advancing Digital Resources—Support the creation, use, presentation, and preservation of significant digital resources as well as the development of tools to enhance access, use, and management of digital assets.
• Research—Support research that investigates key questions that are important to museum, library, and archival practice.
• Demonstration—Support projects that produce a replicable model or practice that is usable, adaptable, or scalable by other institutions for improving services and performance.
• Library Museum Collaboration Grants— Support collaborative projects (between museums and/or libraries and other community organizations) that address the educational, economic, cultural, or social needs of a community. In 2012, a funding priority will be projects that promote early learning.

The Web conference schedule for the FY12 National Leadership Grant program is as follows:

Wednesday, December 7, 2012, at 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM. Eastern Time
Wednesday, January 4, 2012, at 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM. Eastern Time

Women & Girls

AAUW - Community Action Grants

Deadline: January 15, 2012

Community Action grants provide funds to individuals, AAUW branches and AAUW state organizations as well as local community-based nonprofit organizations for innovative programs or non-degree research projects that promote education and equity for women and girls.  Applications are being accepted for both one and two year grants.

One-year grants
($2,000 – $7,000 over one year July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013)
One-year grants provide seed money for new projects. Topic areas are unrestricted, but should include a clearly defined activity that promotes education and equity for women and girls.

Two-year grants
($5,000 – $10,000 over two years July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2014)
Two-year grants provide start-up funds for longer-term programs that address the particular needs of the community and develop girls' sense of efficacy through leadership or advocacy opportunities. Topic areas are unrestricted, but should include a clearly defined activity that promotes education and equity for women and girls.

Please feel free to pass this listing along to your colleagues. It may also be viewed by visiting Grantwriter's Blog directly or in your email inbox by subscribing to the email feed. If you have any funding announcements that you think would be helpful to colleagues and would like to have listed in the weekly update, please pass them along!

Best wishes for continued success in your grant seeking efforts!

Diane