Helping Today, Shaping Tomorrow Grant

The Community Foundation of North Florida is a private charitable foundation whose mission is to enhance quality of life in the North Florida community through the promotion and support of charitable giving. Its vision is to illuminate community needs while connecting donors with charitable causes they care about supporting. The Foundation created the Helping Today, Shaping Tomorrow grant program to strengthen nonprofit organizations across Florida's Big Bend region. The program was developed in response to feedback from nonprofits, fundholders, and community stakeholders concerning pressing community needs. For the current funding cycle, the Foundation's priorities are Education, specifically birth through 5th grade, and Basic Needs. These priorities were selected by the Foundation's Board of Directors after reviewing surveys and stakeholder input identifying them as critical regional needs. Helping Today, Shaping Tomorrow supports nonprofit programs and services addressing community challenges with the potential for lasting impact. Each year, the Community Foundation of North Florida awards ten grants of $5,000 each, representing $50,000 in awards based on the stated number and amount of grants. Priority consideration is given to applicants that demonstrate programs or services that can be scaled or replicated, collaborative partnerships with other nonprofits that improve approaches to community needs, opportunities for the grant to build organizational capacity, clear benchmarks for measuring success, accessible programs and services, and an ability to leverage the grant to obtain or build upon other funding. Eligible applicants must be nonprofit organizations established in Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Jackson, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Taylor, or Wakulla County, Florida. Organizations established outside these counties are not eligible even when they provide services within an eligible county, and an applicant must have a physical presence in at least one eligible county. Applicants must provide direct services to residents in one or more eligible counties and have at least two years of operating history in one or more of those counties. They must have active programs or services addressing Education, from birth through 5th grade, or Basic Needs. Eligible organizations must have 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, operate with a fiscal sponsor that has tax-exempt status, or qualify as a 509(a)(1) or 509(a)(2) organization with a determination letter. Grant funds cannot support capital infrastructure projects such as bricks-and-mortar work, ongoing annual operating expenses such as rent or utilities, fundraising campaigns or fundraising events, grants to individuals, memberships, annual campaigns, endowments, memorials, deficit reduction, or expenses incurred before the grant date. Organizations that discriminate against a person or group based on religious belief, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, national origin, race, disability, gender, or age are also excluded. No matching or cost-share requirement is stated in the provided grant materials. The 2026 application asks for organization and location information, counties served, organizational background, staffing level, annual operating budget, tax-exempt status, and contact information. Narrative responses address the organization's mission and alignment with Education and Basic Needs, significant achievements in those priority areas, number of people served, programs or services supporting brain injury, nonprofit collaborations, opportunities to leverage additional funding, benchmarks used to measure success, and the proposed use and organizational impact of the grant. Applicants must upload Metric and Outcome Benchmarks, their most recent Form 990, and a current Board of Directors list. Applicants also certify that the organization has existed for at least two years, that the application meets an Education or Basic Needs eligibility requirement, and that they understand incomplete, late, or insufficiently documented applications will not be accepted. The online application allows applicants to save their progress and return before submitting. Applications open September 1, 2026 and close September 30, 2026. No separate letter of intent, concept paper, pre-proposal, or other pre-application gating deadline is stated. Grant award notification is scheduled for November 2026. The grant period covers 12 months beginning with the selection notification date. Selected organizations must submit a one-page summary report to the Community Foundation of North Florida explaining how their work compared with established benchmarks during the 12-month period, with the report due December 30, 2027. The Foundation lists its general telephone number as (850) 222-2899; no named program contact or program email address is provided in the supplied application materials. The program is described as making awards each year, supporting treatment of the opportunity as recurring annually.

Emphasize programs or services that can be scaled or replicated; describe collaborative nonprofit partnerships that improve efficiency in addressing priority needs; explain how the award will build capacity; provide clear measurable benchmarks; demonstrate that services are accessible to the communities served; explain how the grant will leverage or build upon other funding.