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Community Needs Grants Program Accepting Applications for March 2021

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Organizations can receive general operating grants up to $10,000

Beginning Monday, March 8, at 8 a.m., Delaware nonprofits are invited to apply for general operating grants of up to $10,000 from the Community Needs Grants Program at the Delaware Community Foundation (DCF).

The Community Needs Grants Program is part of the Delaware COVID-19 Strategic Response Fund, a partnership of the DCF and Philanthropy Delaware. In this round, the program – which awarded more than $3 million in pandemic-related grants in 2020 – will award a total of approximately $250,000 in grants to small and mid-sized organizations serving Delaware communities.

Visit delcf.org/covid-grants to apply. The deadline is 5 p.m., Thurs., April 1, with recipients announced by early May.

To be eligible:

  • Organization must be actively providing services.
  • In 2020, the organization must have had operating expenses of at least $25,000, but not more than $750,000.
  • Organization must be a 501(c)(3) public charity in good standing.
  • 100% of the requested amount must benefit Delaware communities.
  • Organizations are eligible to apply even if they received funding previously from the Delaware COVID-19 Strategic Response Fund from March 2020 to Sept. 2020.

The following types of nonprofit organizations are not eligible for this program:

  • Sports clubs, leagues or facilities.
  • Public or tuition-based educational institutions.
  • Fundraising entities for programs and organizations that are primarily supported through government funding.
  • Endowments.
  • Religious organizations for their sectarian purposes. Projects that serve the entire community, regardless of religious affiliation, are eligible to apply.

Priority consideration will be given to smaller organizations and those with a board of directors that represents the diversity and demographics of the clients and communities they serve.

About the Delaware COVID-19 Strategic Response Fund

A partnership of the DCF and PD, the Delaware COVID-19 Strategic Response Fund was established to address the state’s emerging and evolving needs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fund, which launched on March 18, 2020 has awarded $3.4 million to more than 150 Delaware nonprofits so far through its Community Needs Grants Program and Vision Grants Program.

The fund includes generous gifts from the Longwood Foundation ($2 million), Barclays ($700,000), New Castle County ($500,000), Welfare Foundation ($300,000), CSC ($100,000), Crestlea Foundation ($100,000), Fund for Women ($100,000), Highmark ($100,000), Jess Ball Du Pont Fund ($100,000), Laffey-McHugh ($100,000), Discover ($100,000), DCF ($75,000), DuPont ($75,000), Gates Foundation ($65,000), Jeff and Rhonda Banning Foundation ($50,000), Comenity Bank ($50,000), M&T ($50,000), WSFS Bank ($50,000), Fulton Bank ($35,000), JP Morgan Chase ($30,000), Bank of America ($25,000), TD Bank ($25,000), Capital One ($25,000) and others. The fund also includes $135,000 from more than 275 individual donors.

The DCF also has waived all administrative fees for this fund, so that 100 percent of the funds are going to organizations helping people in need. 

The Delaware COVID-19 Strategic Response Fund is part of the Delaware COVID-19 Emergency Response Initiative, a nonprofit collaborative response to the coronavirus pandemic. The DCF, Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement (DANA), PD and United Way of Delaware are partnering to coordinate charitable resources to maximize impact statewide during this crisis.

To contribute, visit delcf.org/covid19-fund.