Community Partner Grants

Community Partner Grants

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: The Community Foundation of Will County
Last Updated: April 15, 2025

Summary

The Community Foundation of Will County offers Community Partner Grants to enhance quality of life through strategic partnerships with not-for-profits. The grants focus on collaborative projects that address critical community needs, improve organizational capacity, and promote sustainable fundraising efforts. This initiative seeks to foster a culture of philanthropy across diverse groups within Will County, ensuring that resources are effectively utilized to benefit the community at large.

Overview

Grant making is at the heart of The Community Foundation of Will County’s work to enhance the quality of life in Will County. We award grants annually to not-for-profits for a broad array of charitable purposes in the area such as healthcare, human services, education and cultural arts. Our Strategy Our Strategic plan is built on three key priorities that meet our mission: Building awareness regionally to advance a Culture of Philanthropy throughout Will County.Raising the “right kinds” of funds to both sustain ourselves and achieve our grant-making mission without being in competition with those we serve.Service, professional development, building partnerships and referrals with community stakeholders who are aligned with our mission. Our Community Partner Grant Priorities With our Community Partner Grants, we seek to be a responsive and proactive community partner with the not-for-profit sector. We do not provide general funding for daily operations, but may provide essential administrative costs to launch or conduct the project. Instead, our grants seek to address larger issues of importance in our community, especially those which: reflect a strategic collaborative partnership – not-for-profits working together to address a wider need;address a critical need impacting a wide segment of the community;build the organizational capacity of a nonprofit to be more effective and efficient in how they do their work. Our Priorities Priority I: Communicating our mission to advance a Culture of Philanthropy throughout Will County Rationale: Will County is comprised of multiple geographic regions with strong independent identities, infrastructure and sense of “community.” People also belong to a variety of groups that are relationally-based, and which are valued and cherished. These groups have shown generosity in supporting the causes which benefit their “community.” To advance philanthropy across Will County, we must work to reach as many groups to communicate and build relationships that reflect an understanding of that community. Priority II: Strategically target fundraising to build the non-profit sectors’ sustainability while supporting our mission Rationale: Funding agencies that align with our mission and seek sustainability, at the conclusion of that grant, will result in an organization that is stronger in focus and finances in five years. Priority III: Service to the community Rationale: The multi-faceted work of a community foundation creates a variety of constituent groups and investors. With each group there are different ways of engaging them, which results in a unique set of needs for service within each group.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website.