Ruth Mott Foundation Grants

_NOTE: We strongly encourage you to talk to a program officer before applying._

What We Fund

We focus on the key priorities identified by north Flint residents.

We held a series of community forums that engaged hundreds of north Flint residents to help us understand their priorities. Based on that input, proposals for grants or impact investments must address Youth, Public Safety, Economic Opportunity, or Neighborhoods — and specifically the themes within them that residents identified as most important.

• Youth
  • Youth development programs outside of school hours
  • Job training/ employment
  • \\Two-generation approaches, when applicable
• Public Safety
  • Blight elimination
  • Resident engagement
• Economic Opportunity
  • Small business supports
  • Job training
  • Returning citizen supports
• Neighborhoods
  • Neighborhood hubs
  • Neighborhood engagement supports
  • Housing

We are committed to improving outcomes related to these priorities. We also highly value community engagement and successful applicants will demonstrate how they are doing projects “with” rather than “to” the north Flint community.

Our Strategies

• Finding and fostering place-based interventions, including social innovation, and coordinating and leveraging the resources of other organizations. We expect grantees will draw on their first-hand knowledge of Flint and promising practices from the field as they do their work and help us leverage resources to support opportunities in north Flint.
• Shaping partnerships in service of the goals of north Flint residents and in consideration of the Flint Master Plan. A critical element of our strategy is to involve the residents of north Flint in shaping the solutions we support – by listening to them, connecting with them, and integrating their ideas into our activities. We want to work with grantees who share this commitment.
• Drawing on Applewood in the normal course of working in the community, along with grantmaking and other Foundation strategies. Applewood is rooted in the Mott legacy of philanthropy and civic participation, and embodies the family’s commitment to Flint. We are open to grantees’ ideas about how Applewood and its staff expertise can be of help to community projects.
• Aligning operations, policies and resources, investing wisely, and measuring and supporting the advancement of the Strategic Plan. As such, grant funded programs and organizations will be expected to measure their efforts and report on their results.

Types of Grants

In addition to considering requests for one-year and project-specific grants, we will strive to maximize grantee capacity through general operating support and capacity building grants, multiyear grants that provide grantees the opportunity to plan ahead, and capital grants when such tools seem appropriate and show promise for improving impact. When warranted, we will also employ matching or challenge grants as tools.

Eligibility

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

• Grants are awarded to non-profit 501(c)3 organizations and to other qualifying tax-exempt institutions such as schools, units of government, hospitals, and religious institutions.
  • If your organization does not have 501(c)3 status but wishes to propose a project, talk to one of our program team members to learn about your options.
• Proposed projects must serve north Flint residents.
  • To be a strong candidate for funding, a proposal must demonstrate both geographic fit (that is, serving residents of north Flint) and effectiveness.
  • Effectiveness refers to the ability of the organization to carry out its proposed work as well as the success of the project/organization in contributing to positive outcomes identified as priorities by north Flint residents.

Ineligibility

• We do not make grants to individuals.