Mielke Family Foundation Grant

The Mielke Family Foundation Grant supports innovative educational initiatives that enhance the lives of individuals in the Appleton and Shawano areas, focusing on health care, arts, and intergenerational programs. Grants are awarded annually through a responsive cycle, emphasizing proposals that engage local individuals, particularly in the fields of youth development and aging. The foundation actively seeks to empower its communities through education and creativity.

Purpose
Through education, the Mielke Family Foundation seeks to encourage innovative ideas that elevate and impact individuals in the Appleton and Shawano areas related to health care, the arts, and care for the young and aging.
Education is not limited merely to schooling, but more broadly defined as follows:
“Education has to do with discovery – that learning of the culture, the meanings assigned, the rarefied techniques that have come out of life experiences of people.
The Mielke Family Foundation was established in 1963 by Dr. Edward F. Mielke and his wife, Beulah (Bee), together with sisters Ruth and Sarah Mielke. The Mielke Family Foundation existed as a private foundation before becoming a separately governed Supporting Organization within the Community Foundation in 1996.
What We Fund
The Mielke Family Foundation accepts applications through an open Responsive grant cycle once a year, and awards other types of grants proactively throughout the year by invitation only.
A successful Responsive grant proposal will:
Be educational at its core and address one or more of the Mielke Family Foundation focus areas of health, arts, children & youth, or aging.Focus on individuals residing within the Appleton or Shawano areas, except for school-based grants, which would be limited to the Appleton and Shawano school districts.Consider collaborative, intergenerational and/or two-generation models (preferred but not required).Be designed with belonging in mind. The Mielke Family Foundation seeks grant-funded activities to be reflective of the demographics present in the communities we serve.

Eligibility

Organizations eligible to receive grants from the Foundation are generally those determined by the IRS to be public charities. Such organizations include: Most charitable, scientific, social service, educational, and religious organizations described in Section 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1), (a)(2), or (a)(3) of the tax code, as well as private operating foundations. (The Foundation will not typically make grants to private non-operating foundations.) Grants may also be made to government entities and instrumentalities (this includes schools, municipalities, and Native American tribal governments) for public purposes.  Organizations that do not fall in these categories are generally ineligible unless they apply through a fiscal sponsor, (see the Fiscal Sponsorship Policy) or meet other eligibility requirements. In some circumstances, grants may be made to other types of organizations as long as the grant is restricted and structured for charitable purposes.

Ineligibility

What We Don't FundInitiatives that don’t serve the communities of Appleton and/or Shawano.Requests from school districts other than the Shawano or Appleton school districts will not be accepted.Requests for general operating support.Requests for Bricks & mortar projects. (Capital campaigns aligning with the focus areas may be considered by the Mielke Family Foundation Board. Contact staff directly to inquire.)