Independence Foundation Grant

The Independence Foundation Grant supports organizations in healthcare, human services, legal aid, and the arts, focusing on promoting well-being and cultural change in Philadelphia and surrounding areas. It provides unrestricted funding to enhance operational flexibility for nonprofits, aiming to strengthen community engagement and service delivery. Particular emphasis is placed on arts access, health care initiatives, and legal services for underserved populations, ensuring comprehensive support for diverse community needs.

Independence Foundation primarily provides unrestricted funding to nonprofits to best help them achieve their missions. Our general operating support offers flexibility to our grantees by allowing funds to be used when and where they’re most needed.
Arts And Culture
Independence Foundation believes in bolstering the well-being of the region by supporting a variety of opportunities for involvement and participation in the arts. The arts can bind people through shared experience and understanding. Art plays a transformative role in society, one that enriches community and connects people. The Foundation supports programs in the arts that enhance the common artistic spirit through creation or performance.
Programs which connect the arts with non-traditional participants and increase both access to and awareness of the arts, are of special interest. The Foundation awards general operating grants aimed at strengthening organizations by supporting creative work and administrative capacity, based on community involvement, artistic merit, and leadership in the field. With the exception of organizations currently funded, we do not give grants to dance, music, media arts or broadcasting, museums or historical societies, though we do continue to fund individual artists in some of these disciplines through our Fellowships in the Arts.
Health Care
Independence Foundation believes that high quality, comprehensive primary care and related services result in better health, improved quality of life, reduction in health disparities, and lower costs to the health care system.
Funding within the health care initiative focuses on the following:
Existing nurse-managed health care centers undertaking capacity building projects to expand and/or improve the provision of primary care and related servicesPrograms that support health policies and/or infrastructure for nurse-managed and other safety net providersProjects designed to inform health care-related planningClinical, community, and/or educational programs designed to improve the health of older adults
Human Services
Independence Foundation believes that the health of a community can only be as strong as the well-being of its citizens. Our region faces many challenges and continually changing demographics have contributed to increased demand for services, while local and federal funding for these services has declined. Community-based organizations fill in the gaps by providing much needed outreach and support.
The Foundation supports organizations that provide direct services to people who do not ordinarily have access to them for the most basic of needs. The current Human Services funding agenda focuses primarily on programs that address the following areas:
adequate food and food distributionaffordable housing and access to shelter by homeless personsservices which support independence for people living with disabilities
Legal Aid
The Independence Foundation is committed to the support of free legal services for the underserved of the Philadelphia region. Grants provide core operating support to strengthen the administrative capacity and the direct service programs of those agencies that deliver critical legal services.
Agencies funded under the Public Interest Legal Aid Initiative address civil legal issues confronting individuals from diverse populations who do not traditionally have adequate access to legal representation, including the indigent, the elderly, the disabled, and the homeless.
Reentry, Recidivism & Restorative Justice
The Foundation funds community-based organizations doing the following - either by directly assisting individuals, or working to change systems that cause or contribute to the harm addressed:
Providing supports to families and individuals involved with and affected by the criminal justice systemWorking to reduce the number of people who imminently face incarceration or a return to prisonProviding resources to formerly incarcerated individuals that help them become integrated and contributing members once they are released back into societyWorking to reduce harm to families and neighborhoods caused by incarceration

Eligibility

Who should submit?
All organizations not previously or recently funded should submit a Letter of Inquiry. Returning grantees who went through the full proposal process for their current grant and are seeking renewal funding will be contacted by a member of our team prior to their current grant term end date about next steps for proposal submission. Nonprofit charitable organizations that are exempt from federal taxes under section 501(c) (3) of the IRS Revenue Code can apply for grant.
Please note that the Independence Foundation’s funding area is restricted to Philadelphia and its surrounding Pennsylvania counties: Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery.

Ineligibility

Independence Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals. Organizations not previously or recently funded by Independence Foundation are encouraged to send a two page Letter of Inquiry including organizational background information, amount being requested and description of the program/services for which the funds will be used.