Women’s Fund Success Grants

The Women's Fund Success Grants are offered by the Women's Fund of the Community Foundation of Central Illinois. Founded in 1993, the Women's Fund was established to promote female philanthropy and amplify the voices and needs of women. Its endowment now exceeds 1.5 million dollars, supported by more than 200 Founding Members and a transformational gift of more than 300,000 dollars from one individual Founding Member. The fund states that its endowment will provide more than 60,000 dollars in annual grants supporting initiatives that uplift and advocate for women and girls. To date, the Women's Fund has awarded more than 170 grants totaling more than half a million dollars and describes its work as creating lasting change throughout the region. The Women's Fund Success Grants are available to organizations with programs that uplift and advocate for women and girls. This focus reflects the Women's Fund's longstanding commitment to female philanthropy and empowerment. The source emphasizes investment in women and girls and notes that when women prosper, communities thrive. It also states that less than five percent of charitable contributions go toward programs specifically for women and girls. The information provided does not identify specific allowable or prohibited expense categories, cost-sharing requirements, matching requirements, organizational tax-status requirements, or a defined minimum or maximum request amount for the current grant cycle. The source describes the Women's Fund as serving central Illinois and states that its grants have helped create lasting change throughout the region. However, the supplied material does not provide a detailed geographic eligibility statement specifying eligible counties, cities, ZIP codes, or other service-area boundaries. It also does not expressly state whether applicants must be nonprofit organizations, governmental entities, schools, businesses, or another particular legal organization type. The stated applicant-level requirement is that organizations have programs that uplift and advocate for women and girls. Applicants should therefore review the opportunity details available after entering the grant portal for any additional organizational, geographic, financial, or programmatic eligibility requirements. The application period runs from July 1, 2026 through September 2, 2026, with applications due by 5:00 PM on September 2. New applicants must create an account and register as an organization in the Community Foundation of Central Illinois grant portal. Returning applicants should use their existing credentials. Organizations that believe they or someone within their organization are already registered are specifically instructed not to create a new account and instead to contact the Community Foundation of Central Illinois to retrieve the existing username. After logging into the grant portal, applicants must click Apply to view available grant opportunities and application details. The source also provides a Grant Portal Applicant Tutorial. The supplied information does not state that a letter of intent, concept paper, pre-proposal, notice of intent, or other pre-application submission is required. It also does not provide the current application questions, required uploads, evaluation or scoring criteria, award notification date, grant start date, performance period, reporting requirements, or current-cycle number of awards. Consequently, those details cannot be established from the supplied source. The prior recipient information does show that the 2025 Success Grant awards ranged from 5,000 dollars to 10,000 dollars, with eight listed grants totaling 62,200 dollars, but those historical awards do not establish the minimum, maximum, or total funding available for the current cycle. The 2026 application window is currently open and closes September 2, 2026. The source states that the Women's Fund will provide more than 60,000 dollars in annual grants and presents 2025 recipients alongside the 2026 application cycle, supporting treatment of the opportunity as recurring annually. Based on the current July opening month, the next cycle is expected around July 2027 unless the funder announces a different schedule. Questions about applying for a Community Foundation of Central Illinois grant may be directed to Amanda Fiske, Director of Grants and Community Initiatives, at amanda@communityfoundationci.org or 309.674.8730. Questions specifically about the Women's Fund may be directed to Sarah Fletcher, VP of Philanthropy, at sarah@communityfoundationci.org or 309.674.8730.

Ensure the proposed program clearly uplifts or advocates for women and girls; Do not create a duplicate portal account if the organization or someone from the organization is already registered; Contact CFCI to retrieve an existing username when needed