Community Fund Grants: Civic Affairs

The Akron Community Foundation's Community Fund Grants for Civic Affairs support nonprofits in Summit County to enhance community well-being through citizen engagement and quality-of-life programs. Grants promote organizational strength, systemic impact, accountability, and inclusiveness, ensuring that funded initiatives address immediate needs while fostering long-term improvements. Eligible applicants must be approved 501(c)(3) organizations serving the region, while ineligible requests include endowments, scholarships, and direct financial support to individuals.

NOTE: Akron Community Foundation requests all first-time grant applicants to please complete the Tell Us About Your Program form and contact the director of community investment before submitting your grant application.
Akron Community Foundation’s competitive grantmaking combines local resources with community knowledge to help nonprofits improve life in Summit County.
We make grants to strengthen our neighborhoods, infrastructure and economy through programs that engage residents, improve our environment, promote recreation, and attract people and businesses to our region.
What We Fund
It is the unique responsibility of a community foundation to fund a range of quality-of-life programs throughout a geographic location.
​Thus, Akron Community Foundation’s grants are as diverse as Summit County itself. While unique in their programming, all Akron Community Foundation grantees have things in common:

• Organizational strength

We support efficient and effective nonprofit organizations with the capacity to significantly improve the community. We value organizations that demonstrate sustainability, honesty and transparency, and those that remain true to their mission.
Accountability
We serve as stewards of our donors’ community investments. As a result, we hold ourselves and our grantees to the highest standards of ethics, integrity, service and fiduciary responsibility.
Strengthened capacity of the nonprofit sector
We support efforts that build governance, management, financial and organizational capacities of nonprofit agencies and the sector as a whole. We also strive to create partnerships that reduce duplicative and ineffective programs.
Inclusiveness
We honor the diverse strengths, needs, voices and backgrounds within our community, and we support organizations whose missions promote equality and inclusiveness.

Eligibility

Approved 501(c)(3) organization serving Summit county.

Ineligibility

We do not make grants for:EndowmentsScholarshipsDirect financial support to individualsReligious organizations for religious purposesPrivate non-operating foundationsIn accordance with our grant-making priorities, we generally do not fund:Newly established nonprofit organizations that duplicate existing servicesCurriculum for schoolsDisease-specific programsEconomic development initiatives already being addressed by the Fund for Our Economic FuturePrograms at parochial schools that benefit only their studentsMulti-year grants