ASF Program Grants

ASF Program Grants

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: American Savings Foundation
Last Updated: December 22, 2025

Summary

The American Savings Foundation offers ASF Program Grants to support programs enhancing life quality for children, youth, and families, especially in New Britain and Waterbury. Emphasizing education, human services, and arts & culture, the foundation funds established and innovative programs that address community needs. Grants are awarded once per year per program, requiring organizations to be 501(c)(3) tax-exempt. Ineligible entities include individuals, religious institutions, and political advocacy groups.

Overview

American Savings Foundation American Savings Foundation supports programs and organizations that improve the quality of life for residents of the communities we serve. The Foundation is a broad-based funder with a special emphasis on the needs of children, youth and families. Our three priorities areas are education, human services and arts & culture. Funding Priorities The Foundation is a broad-based funder, with a special emphasis on the needs of children, youth and families. Our general funding priorities are Education, Human Services and Arts & Culture. These are not rigid categories, and many of our grants overlap more than one. We focus on direct service programs that help those with highest need, and where our funding can make a direct, measurable impact. Our Grant History helps grantseekers understand our priorities. Program Grants - What We Fund The American Savings Foundation is a broad-based funder with a special emphasis on the needs of children, youth and families. Our three priorities areas are education, human services and arts & culture. With a primary focus in New Britain and Waterbury, program grants support direct services where our funding can make a measurable impact, especially for those with the greatest need. The Foundation considers support for established programs that have been demonstrated to make a meaningful difference in the community and in the lives of those they serve. We also consider funding for new, innovative programs that fill an unmet need in the community, and where there is evidence of broad local support. We are interested in funding collaborative programs, and also in providing matching funds to leverage new dollars into the community.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. We make a grant to a specific program only once in a 12 month period, and renewals are never automatic.Typically, we fund only one program at an agency in a given year.Organization must be tax exempt under IRS section 501(c)(3).Requests may include administrative overhead. We do not have a set formula; however, we apply an industry rule-of-thumb of about 10-15%.

Ineligibility

Multi-year program grant commitments are not made.Ineligible for funding:Political advocacy and lobbyingReligious institutions, except for non-sectarian activities that benefit the community at-largeIndividualsAnnual campaignsEndowment fundsTravel (e.g. sports teams, field trips).Event sponsorships (e.g. golf, galas)Private FoundationsAlso, because the Foundation operates a large college scholarship program (see Scholarships), it does not provide funding for scholarship programs operated by schools or other nonprofit organizations.With very few exceptions, we do not fund:General operating support or unrestricted grantsWe consider the term "general operating support" to refer to "unrestricted grants", which we will not provide. We only fund direct service programs.Primary or secondary schools—public, private independent, or parochial—or colleges and universitiesFunding to replace municipal, state or federal funding