Culture Connect Legacy Fund

Culture Connect Legacy Fund

The Culture Connect Legacy Fund grant program was established to carry forward the mission of the Atlanta-based social enterprise, Culture Connect. Culture Connect fostered cultural fluency between immigrants and the broader community by focusing on three core areas: ensuring language access in schools and hospitals, cultivating culturally competent and welcoming communities, and promoting economic empowerment and entrepreneurship.

This one-time grant opportunity, funded by the Culture Connect Legacy Fund, is to support nonprofit organizations serving immigrant and refugee populations that demonstrate a commitment to language access and cultural competency. Organizations are eligible to apply for project or general operating support funding for grants up to $150,000 or 100% of the last fiscal year annual budget (whichever is less).

The Culture Connect Legacy Fund is a Donor-Advised Fund of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and all funding decisions are made by Culture Connect.

Projects/Areas of Work Categories

Example projects / areas of work are shown below, but are not exhaustive of all that will be considered.

• Language Access - interpretation, translation and English education
  • Examples
  • Training professional interpreters
  • Funds to access professional interpreters or leverage professionally translated materials
  • Translated documents to improve language access to critical community services
  • Linguistically and culturally appropriate English classes to improve literacy
• Access to Public Benefits and Services
  • Examples
  • Translated eligibility or application materials to public benefits or services (food security/SNAP/Food stamps, healthcare, Medicaid, school enrollments and IEP)
  • In-language navigators for public benefits (assistance accessing, enrolling, or handling denial of benefits)
  • Training for professional interpreters serving education, court and other public benefits settings
  • Improving health outcomes for immigrant and refugee individuals and their families
• Economic Empowerment and Entrepreneurship
  • Examples
  • Implement job training and placement programs that focus on high-demand skills and industries
  • Programs that enable immigrant and refugee leaders to become entrepreneurs (solo practitioner or cottage industry included)
  • Programs that increase economic mobility of immigrant or refugee individuals
  • Programs that unlock new opportunities within companies for immigrant and refugee individuals
  • Establish microloan programs and small business grants to support entrepreneurial initiatives within the communities
  • Develop affordable, community-based childcare centers that offer flexible hours to accommodate working parents
• Affordable and Accessible Healthcare
  • Examples
  • Programs that train, deploy and equip healthcare navigation
  • Translated materials to improve health outcomes
  • Cultural competency training for healthcare professionals to reduce unintended miscommunication and therefore poor health outcomes
  • Community health clinics or health fairs with culturally competent and multilingual staff
  • Offer culturally sensitive mental health services, including counseling and support groups, to address stigma and provide care

Eligibility

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

• This grant can be used for seed funding, project support, or general operating support.
• To be eligible, the applying organization must:
  • Have intentionally served US-based immigrant and refugee populations meaningfully and consistently in the last 12 months
  • Be classified, or have a fiscal sponsor that is classified, by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service under Section 501(c)(3) of the I.R.S. code as a nonprofit, tax- exempt organization, donations to which are deductible as charitable contributions under Section 170 (c)(2) and the I.R.S. determination must be current

Ineligibility

• Excluded from Language Access
  • Programs that encourage the use of untrained interpreters or family members
  • Programs that do not incorporate in-language materials or cultural competency
• Excluded from Access to Public Benefits and Services
  • Any program that requires fees to assist in enrollment or takes a portion of benefits
• Excluded from Economic Empowerment
  • Programs that do not incorporate in-language materials and cultural competency