Youth Literacy Grants

The Dollar General Literacy Foundation Youth Literacy Grants support literacy and education initiatives for K-12 students who are below grade level or experiencing difficulty reading. The Dollar General Literacy Foundation was established in 1993 by Cal Turner and Cal Turner Jr. to honor Dollar General co-founder J.L. Turner, who had only a third-grade education. The Foundation describes its broader mission as helping individuals of all ages pursue educational goals by investing in programs that help students learn to read, prepare for high school equivalency testing, or learn English. Its literacy investments are intended to increase access, enhance the quality of instruction, and inspire and advance innovation in literacy and education. Youth Literacy Grants specifically serve organizations helping K-12 students who are below grade level or having trouble reading. The source identifies schools, public libraries, and nonprofit organizations as eligible applicants. The Foundation's broader grant-program requirements also establish a geographic service restriction: funded organizations must be located within a 15-mile radius of a Dollar General store in a state in which Dollar General operates. The supplied material does not enumerate the individual eligible states or identify specific eligible cities, counties, or ZIP codes, so prospective applicants must consider the stated Dollar General store-radius requirement when determining geographic eligibility. Grant funding may be used to implement new literacy programs or expand existing literacy programs. Funding may also support the purchase of new technology or equipment for literacy initiatives and the purchase of books, materials, or software for literacy programs. These uses reflect the Foundation's focus on increasing access to literacy services and strengthening the resources available to learners and literacy providers. The supplied source does not state an individual award minimum, individual award maximum, total amount of funding available, expected number of awards, required cost share, or matching contribution. It also does not provide a period of performance, indirect-cost policy, subaward policy, or additional spending restrictions for the Youth Literacy Grants. The supplied material does not provide detailed application mechanics or identify a required letter of intent, concept paper, pre-proposal, notice of intent, or other pre-application gating step. It does not identify an application portal, application form, required narratives, required attachments, financial documents, supporting documentation, application questions, or evaluation and scoring criteria. No application opening date or exact application closing date is stated in the supplied material. The source instead explicitly reports that the open solicitation period for the 2026 Youth Literacy Grants has closed and thanks organizations that applied. Therefore, applications are no longer being accepted for the referenced solicitation. Youth Literacy Grant recipients are scheduled to be announced on September 10, 2026. The Foundation states that a list of winners will be posted on its website and that email notifications will be sent to all organizations that applied. This establishes the award or recipient-notification milestone for the closed solicitation, but the supplied material does not state when funded activities would begin, how long awards would remain active, or when grant-funded activities must be completed. The supplied material also does not explicitly state that the Youth Literacy Grants recur annually or provide an opening date or deadline for a subsequent funding cycle, so no future application cycle is established from the provided information. The supplied material does not name an individual program contact or provide a grant-specific email address or telephone number for the Youth Literacy Grants. The Dollar General Literacy Foundation website includes a Contact Us link, but the supplied text does not provide contact details from that page. Applicants and interested organizations can consult the Foundation's official website for program information, including its Grant Programs and Program Locator resources. Based strictly on the supplied information, the central eligibility considerations are service to K-12 students who are below grade level or having trouble reading, qualification as a school, public library, or nonprofit organization, and location within 15 miles of a Dollar General store in a state where Dollar General operates.

Align the request with literacy support for K-12 students who are below grade level or having trouble reading and with the stated funding uses: implementing or expanding literacy programs, purchasing technology or equipment, or purchasing books, materials or software.