Strategic Grants: Income and Asset Building

The Strategic Grants program by Fairfield County's Community Foundation focuses on Income and Asset Building to ensure equitable access to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for residents. Starting Fall 2025, organizations can apply for grants to support specific programs that drive systemic change and foster economic mobility. The initiative supports collaborative efforts aimed at addressing the root causes of inequity, with grant amounts ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on the type of support needed.

NOTE:
Beginning in Fall 2025 we will only have a fall cycle. If an existing grantee would not have been eligible to apply for a grant until spring 2026, we are making a one-time exception to apply in Fall 2025.Applications for those invited to apply will be due at the end of September.
Fairfield County's Community Foundation Strategic Grantmaking
Our Strategic Grantmaking is one way in which we partner with organizations that align with our Fairfield County Forward strategic plan goals. These grants aim to help meet the needs of Fairfield County residents who haven’t always been afforded the opportunity to thrive..
The Community Foundation’s competitive grant process has two stages. The first step in the process is an online Letter of intent (LOI). Throughout this process, you will be asked to identify the Result Area and Primary Strategy with which your proposal aligns best.
Economic Opportunity Fund
Support collaborative programs and policies that build shared prosperity in our region.
Our Economic Opportunity Fund invests in collaborative programs that increase economic mobility, identify paths to shared prosperity, foster career pathways, and strengthen Community-Based work.
Programs
Increase Economic MobilityFoster Career PathwaysIndentify Paths to shared ProsperityStrengthen Community-based works
Our Key Result Area addressing Income & Asset Building aims to ensure that all Fairfield County residents have equitable access to workforce, entrepreneurship, and employment skill-building opportunities to achieve and maintain financial self-sufficiency and build assets.
Develop & Support Inclusive Career Pathways in Local Growth SectorsServices designed to help low-to-moderate income BIPOC & Women invest and grow their businesses.Scaling of systems change solutions to grow workforce sector opportunities for BIPOC & Women.Increase access to capital for Women and BIPOC small business owners & entrepreneurs.
Type of Request
​​​​​​The Foundation awards two (2) types of competitive grants to Fairfield County nonprofits described below.
Program Support
Program Support seeks to support specific programs and services that contribute to one of our key result areas, and their corresponding strategies. The Community Foundation prioritizes requests from organizations that are centered in systems change, results-oriented, and have the capacity to measure/evaluate the impact of their work. Reporting will focus on the impact the program has on its primary beneficiaries. We recommend that first-time applicants apply for program support. The average grant size will be $10,000-$15,000.
General Operating Support
General Operating seeks to support highly effective organizations that are critical to the achievement of one or more of our key result areas, center systems-change work that addresses the root causes of inequity, and have a proven track record of effectiveness and impact. Reporting will focus on the organization's overall impact and effectiveness. We recommend that organizations previously funded by the Foundation apply for general operating support. Only those organizations that are highly aligned with FCCF's systems-change priority should apply for general operating support. The grant sizes will range up to $50,000.

Eligibility

In addition to matching the goals set in our strategic plan, applicants must use the funding to serve people who live in Fairfield County.Organizations must also be recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit or 509 (a) public charity, or working under a fiscal sponsor that is a registered 501(c)(3).Additionally, if an organization has received a grant from the Community Foundation, the work that was supported by those funds must be completed, and a final report must be submitted to us before we may consider a new grant application.

Ineligibility

The Community Foundation does not award grants for any of the following purposes:Persuading people to join/support a specific religion, political party, or candidateCapital campaigns or projects (e.g., major building repairs)Covering budget deficitsAnnual fundraising appealsHosting a fundraising eventPurchasing land as open spaceFor-profit, parochial, charter, private, or individual public schoolsNonprofit endowmentsHelping one specific person