Sol Shulman Jewish Education and Life Grants

The Sol Shulman Jewish Education and Life Grants are supported by the Sol Shulman Jewish Education and Life Endowment of the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation. The endowment was created in 2012 through the generosity of Sol Shulman, with a 500000 dollar endowment established to support organizations enriching Jewish education and life in Central Illinois. Shulman was a longtime member of Moses Montefiore Temple in Bloomington and an educator and scientist whose life reflected a strong commitment to education, learning, music, and cultural life. The endowed fund continues that legacy through annual grantmaking for nonprofit programs serving communities in Central Illinois. The grants support nonprofit programs that provide educational programs and materials, Jewish-themed arts, music, and theater programs, and Jewish cultural enrichment programs. Supported programs must operate in McLean, DeWitt, Livingston, and/or Logan counties in Illinois and must be open to all. The source therefore establishes both a specific geographic focus and a public-access expectation for funded programming. The stated grant purposes support Jewish education and cultural life through educational, artistic, musical, theatrical, and broader cultural enrichment activities. No additional allowable expense categories, prohibited expense categories, award tiers, minimum or maximum grant amounts, total funding pool, or required cost share or matching contribution are stated in the provided material. The source describes the endowment as annually awarding funding to nonprofit programs. This supports nonprofit eligibility, while the supplied material does not provide enough information to establish additional applicant categories or detailed organizational requirements such as a specific federal tax-exempt classification, fiscal sponsorship rules, organizational size, operating history, or financial capacity standards. Programs must serve McLean, DeWitt, Livingston, and/or Logan counties and fit the stated educational, Jewish-themed arts, music, theater, or Jewish cultural enrichment purposes. They must also be open to all. Applicants should additionally consult the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation criteria common to all grant types, although the contents of those criteria are not included in the supplied source and therefore are not added here. Applications are handled through an online grant application portal. The source states that Grant Agreements and Grant Final Reports will also be available through that portal. Applicants are directed to the Foundation's criteria common to all grant types and its tips for submitting an effective grant application. The supplied material does not identify specific application questions, narrative sections, required financial documents, attachments, letters of intent, concept papers, pre-proposals, or other pre-application gating requirements. Applicants who want to view an application submitted in a previous year are instructed to contact Michele Evans, Programs Manager. The source does not provide formal scoring criteria, weighted evaluation factors, a review schedule, or an award notification date. Program fit can nevertheless be identified directly from the stated purpose: proposed nonprofit programs should provide educational programs or materials, Jewish-themed arts, music, or theater programming, and/or Jewish cultural enrichment programming within the specified four-county area, and programming must be open to all. The Foundation separately directs applicants to its grant-writing tips, but the actual contents of those tips are not included in the supplied material and therefore cannot be treated as stated evaluation criteria. The next identified application cycle is for 2027, with applications stated to be accepted in February 2027. No exact opening day or closing deadline is provided. Grant funding is for the period from June 1 through May 31 of the following year. Because the endowment is described as awarding annually and a future February 2027 application period is explicitly announced, the opportunity is recurring and is currently in an early engagement stage rather than accepting applications as of August 14, 2026. Questions about the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation grant process may be directed to Michele Evans, Programs Manager, at mevans@ilprairiecf.org or 309-662-4477. The Foundation is located at 915 E. Washington St., Ste. 2, Bloomington, Illinois 61701.

Ensure the proposed nonprofit program fits the stated focus on educational programs and materials, Jewish-themed arts, music, and theater programs, and/or Jewish cultural enrichment; ensure the program operates in McLean, DeWitt, Livingston, and/or Logan counties; ensure the program is open to all; review the funder's common grant criteria and grant-writing tips; contact Michele Evans to request a prior-year application for reference.