Minnesota Council of Nonprofits is excited to offer grants to Minnesota nonprofits to promote voter engagement in the mid-term 2022 elections
Donor Name: Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
State: Minnesota
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 07/06/2022
Grant Size: $10,000-$25,000
Details:
They have two grant funding opportunities available to nonprofits.
- Category 1 grants are designed for nonprofits that are able to do critical elections engagement work in their communities, whether that organization has done voter engagement work in the past or whether this will be their first foray into the work. These grants are for $5,000. They expect most applicants to request the full $5,000, but are allowing for smaller grants if an organization wouldn’t be able to use the full $5,000. MCN expects to award 22 of these grants.
- Category 2 grants are designed for nonprofits that have a history of organizing their communities around voter engagement or other important community issues (such as Census, issue-based advocacy, etc). Organizations who apply for this grant will need to illustrate past community organizing efforts. Organizations can apply for an amount between $10,000-$25,000. They anticipate granting 4-8 Category 2 awards, depending on proposal amounts.
They are particularly interested in funding:
- Culturally-specific organizations, which are defined for these grants as organizations whose mission is specific to and rooted in an ethnic, racial, or cultural community or communities that has/have been historically marginalized, and whose broadly defined leadership (board and staff) largely reflects the constituents they work with and are rooted in historically disenfranchised communities.
- Organizations focused on people in rural areas of Minnesota.
Eligibility Criteria
- Organization must be an IRS tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, or be fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)(3) organization.
- 501(c)(3) organizations: Submit a copy of your IRS Tax-Exempt Letter certifying your status as a 501(c)(3) with this application by emailing that document to Ileana Mejia.
- Fiscally sponsored organizations: Submit your fiscal sponsor’s 501(c)(3) IRS Tax-Exempt Letter, and your written, signed fiscal sponsorship agreement with the fiscal sponsor by emailing those two documents to Ileana Mejia. If a fiscally sponsored organization is awarded a Nonprofit Voter Engagement Grant, the fiscal sponsor will be the grantee. For this reason, a fiscal sponsor is eligible to receive more than one grant.
- Organization must engage with voters who historically have not been included in voting engagement efforts. These communities include: Black, Indigenous, and communities of color, immigrants who have become citizens, people with disabilities, people who are renters, college students, LGBTQ, low income, persons formerly not eligible to vote due to involvement with judicial system, people experiencing homelessness, and residents of rural Minnesota.
For more information, visit Minnesota Council of Nonprofits.