JSF People with Disabilities Grant

The JSF People with Disabilities Grant supports organizations that empower students with disabilities through education and employment opportunities. With a focus on scholarships and mentorship, the Foundation addresses barriers that hinder access to higher education. It has established partnerships with universities and schools, including Gallaudet University, to create impactful programs. Additionally, it funds initiatives that help transition individuals into the workforce, ensuring inclusivity in educational and professional settings.

The Foundation makes grants to organizations that educate, mentor or otherwise support students with disabilities. It funds scholarships for students with disabilities at each campus of the State University System of Florida as well as schools throughout the United States and Canada that specifically focus on those populations.
Since the early 1990s the Foundation has funded scholarships for students with disabilities at each State University System of Florida campus and has developed close ties with the disability service offices at each of the 12 campuses. The Foundation also provides scholarships for students with disabilities at Gallaudet University. As in other areas of its programing, the Foundation supports early education, which is especially important for deaf and hard-of-hearing students and blind students. Since inception, the Foundation has made an annual grant to Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, and in recent years it has made grants to Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech and Perkins School for the Blind.
The Foundation makes grants to organizations that educate, mentor or otherwise support students with learning differences. Examples of these are Landmark East School, Mount Allison University and Landmark College.
The Foundation also focuses on employment for people with disabilities. Even with good educational qualifications, people with disabilities still have difficulty entering the work force. Therefore the Foundation has developed a portfolio of grants to transition-oriented programs that are designed to help people with disabilities obtain traction in the workplace. These grants are riskier than scholarships but, when they work, often have great social impact. They also resonate with the Foundation’s desire to identify niche areas which may have been overlooked by other educational funders.
JSF Grant Making Strategy
The Johnson Scholarship Foundation makes grants to organizations that help people overcome barriers to higher education. Addressing these barriers enables them to graduate and find good jobs, thereby contributing to and enriching their communities.
The Foundation provides grants for scholarships and other support to nonprofit organizations that serve students with disabilities, students Indigenous to Canada and the United States, and students from low-income families.
What We Fund
We view our grantees as partners and work with them to develop sustainable proposals that will catalyze change and growth in their organization and in the individuals served. Grantee partners are usually required to leverage Foundation grants by obtaining matching funds from other sources. The amount of matching money varies according to the circumstances and is negotiated with the grantee partner in each case.

Eligibility

Organizations that help people overcome barriers to education and employment.

Ineligibility

We do not make the following types of grants:Scholarships to individualsTravel projects or fellowshipsCapital improvement projectsRoutine operating expensesTo pay off deficits or pre-existing debtsPolitical advocacyPrograms outside of the United States and Canada