RAHF Community Development Initiative Grants

The Roy A. Hunt Foundation offers Community Development Initiative Grants aimed at enhancing the quality of life in Pittsburgh and Boston. With a focus on economic development, neighborhood revitalization, and partnerships, these grants support programs that address community needs through innovative solutions. Grants typically range from $15,000 to $250,000, promoting best practices and collaboration. The foundation prioritizes proposals that align with regional goals and have the potential for replicability, especially in underserved areas.

Since inception, our mission has been to support organizations that strive to improve the quality of life through proposals invited by the trustees and through the Foundation’s four main special initiatives.
The Trustees work in committees to invite and review proposals for larger grants focused on specific results in Community Development, the Environment, Youth Violence Prevention, and International Development, Community Farming and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The Community Development and Youth Violence Prevention Initiatives prefer programs based on national best practice models with potential for replicability, and primarily serve Pittsburgh and Boston (with occasional exceptions). The Environment Initiative focuses on partnering with organizations working on a national scale. The International Development Initiative focuses on countries in sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia that are rebuilding after economic collapse, war, natural disaster, and/or political strife, and whose residents live in extreme poverty (e.g. Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Myanmar). Initiative grants are typically in the range of $15,000-$50,000. (Please see the Initiatives’ individual pages for their specific guidelines.)
Priorities
Geographies: Dorchester, Roxbury, and their contiguous neighborhoods in Boston, MA; the Hill and East End in Pittsburgh, PA. The Foundation occasionally considers grants in other neighborhoods in those cities and for city-wide projects.
Strategies: Proposals with clear and measurable objectives to serve those geographies through one or more of these strategies:
Economic Development:  Expanding economic opportunity for low-income and disadvantaged people through workforce readiness and retention, entrepreneurship and business development, and wealth creation and asset development.
Neighborhood Revitalization: Bringing hope, vitality, and economic benefits to disadvantaged areas through renovating or building new community centers, commercial areas, and public amenities.
Partnerships: Working closely with other funders with deep connections to those geographies and/or finding opportunities to align work with the Foundation’s Youth Violence Prevention Initiative.
All proposals should closely connect with a neighborhood-approved vision or plan and/or regional economic development plan.
Types of Support
The Foundation considers proposals for programs, projects, facilities, and public amenities. The Foundation annually awards 3-6 grants. Grants for programs and projects range from $25,000 to $75,000. Grants for facilities and public amenities range from $50,000 to $250,000. The Foundation makes multi-year grants on a selective basis. The Foundation may act as early risk capital when the applicant shows a method for assessing risk, adapting along the way, and learning from any changes or failure.

Eligibility

Dorchester, Roxbury, and their contiguous neighborhoods in Boston, MA; the Hill and East End in Pittsburgh, PAThe Foundation occasionally considers grants in other neighborhoods in those cities and for city-wide projects.