ABSC Foundation Grants

The Anna B. Stearns Charitable Foundation provides grants to support projects enhancing education, independence, and well-being for women and children, particularly focusing on girls. With an emphasis on preventive measures, it funds programs in education, job training, and community services. The foundation seeks to empower organizations demonstrating significant impact through measurable outcomes. Grants typically range from $15,000 to $20,000 annually, aimed at fostering long-term self-sufficiency and addressing environmental and advocacy needs.

The Anna B. Stearns Charitable Foundation supports projects and organizations that address one or more of the Foundation’s major interests:

• To strengthen the education, independence, and capabilities of young people, especially girls, and of women+ and their children;
• To support the healthy development of girls+ as the Foundation for their adult lives; and
• To protect and preserve the natural environment.
• Types of Support

The Trustees support organizations and programs that offer opportunities and services that lead to independence and self-sufficiency for women+, children, and youth. The Foundation looks for efforts that stress prevention rather than remediation.
It funds programs in education, job training, social services, economic self-sufficiency, and community organizing which will enable women+ to provide for themselves and for their children. The Trustees are particularly interested in funding organizations that can demonstrate through clear program evaluation that they have a significant impact on the lives of women+ and children in a cost-effective manner.
Because the Trustees have a special focus on supporting programs and services for girls+, the Foundation is particularly interested in all-girls+ programs in education, enrichment, mentoring, peer leadership, sports and fitness, civic participation, teen pregnancy prevention, and avoidance of domestic violence. Mixed-gender youth programs that can establish an understanding of, and the ability to meet girls’ needs will also be considered.
With the exception of grants to environmental organizations in geographic areas supported by the Foundation’s benefactor, the Trustees strongly prefer to fund environmental or arts projects that also include other priorities of the Foundation, such as opportunities for girls+, education, employment, or community service opportunities for low-income urban youth.
The Trustees recognize the importance of advocacy, both as a technique for obtaining services for underserved individuals and groups and as a means of changing public policy. In general, the Foundation chooses to fund advocacy when it is a natural outgrowth of direct services, or where it is directly tied to the major interests of the Foundation.
One-time and multiple-year grants average $15,000-$20,000 per year to private. Awards are normally made for program support, special projects, technical assistance, staff development, and general operating support on the basis of clear organizational objectives, including future financial goals.

Eligibility

Collaborative programs including schools as partners with other organizations are eligible.501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations

Ineligibility

The Trustees also have identified areas where, because of limited funds, the Foundation is not able to provide support: individual day care programs, family preservation programs, housing development, and medical services. We recognize the importance of these services for women and their families and encourage applicants to seek other public and private funding sources.
The Foundation does not fund the core educational programs or staff of public, private, parochial, or charter schools.The Foundation does not fund arts programs that bring performances or exhibitions to schools, or that take students to galleries or performances.
The Foundation normally does not support capital campaigns or endowments.