Van Beuren Foundation: Major Construction and Landscape Grants - Planning Grants

The Van Beuren Foundation offers planning grants for major construction and landscape projects, focusing on community impact, particularly in Aquidneck Island and Newport County. These grants help organizations assess project feasibility, engage stakeholders, and define project requirements. The Foundation encourages innovative proposals that align with its priorities in education, health, economic growth, and community infrastructure. The application process is rolling, and first-time applicants are advised to schedule a call with a Program Assistant.

NOTE:
For first time applicants and major construction and landscape grant applications you will need to contact Program Assistant before applying to setup an introductory call. Planning applications are considered on a rolling basis.
Our Approach
Our grant making priorities focus on the impact we aspire to make in the community.
We recognize that communities are part of larger systems and economies and we welcome proposals from outside this region that can make a clear case for the benefit to our target communities.
These grant priority areas are intentionally designed to recognize the connections between education, health, economic development, and place. Emphasis in the grant consideration process will be on the impact the proposed activities will have on one or more of these grant priority areas. The Foundation is open to innovative and collaborative approaches, encouraging proposals in the discovery, planning and pilot stages.
Additionally, we invest in strengthening organizations. Through our programming and grant making, we seek to advance our community’s capacity for leadership and best practices needed to thrive and to sustain high-performing nonprofits.
Grant Priorities
The Difference We Want to Make: At every age children are ready and engaged learners, supported by their family, schools, and community.Our Point of View: Investing in the success of our children is fundamental to the community’s future. Healthy minds and bodies maximize learning. A reputation for excellence in education will both retain and attract families to our community.Healthy Lifestyles:Our Goal: Residents experience health throughout their lives.
The Difference We Want to Make: The community offers access to quality health care as well as positive social and physical environments where residents can make healthy choices.Our Point of View: Health improves learning, workforce productivity, and the ability of residents to contribute to family and civic life. Healthy places support healthy choices. Communities known for outstanding health care and healthy lifestyles are attractive to both employers and talented workers.Community Prosperity:Our Goal: Regional economic growth creates opportunities for residents and enterprises.
The Difference We Want to Make: The regional economy is home to a skilled workforce and thriving enterprises, and continues to foster a strong sense of place.Our Point of View: A diverse regional economy supports job growth, improves wages, and raises the standard of living for residents.
Well-designed natural and built environments enhance the local community and economy--they are physically and socially connected, welcoming, and vibrant. Robust planning processes and thoughtful design lead to quality facilities and landscapes that support program excellence.
And three types of Major Construction and Landscape Grants, typically for building renovations and upgrades, new construction, and major landscape redesign and improvement.
Because large capital projects can be complex and happen infrequently enough that organizations may have had limited experience with them, we’ve found it helpful to break the process into several phases, based on MASS Design’s Planning for Impact Toolkit. A proposed project doesn’t necessarily have to fit neatly into one of these phases, but thinking about them in this way does offer a framework that can help organizations work through projects, anticipate challenges and opportunities, clarify, and inform important decisions, and ultimately yield projects that better meet their needs and aspirations. Phasing also allows organizations to adapt project designs based on what they learn along the way. What’s more, even smaller-scale capital projects can benefit from this approach.
These grants are designed to support one of three phases of construction and landscape projects:
Planning Grants help organizations answer critical questions about whether to proceed with a capital project, and how. Specifically, they support activities that help organizations:Further refine the purpose and need for the project

Engage stakeholders
Define the programmatic and financial requirements of the project
Assess the feasibility of the project and the organization’s readiness to take it onTypical outputs from planning grants include:A case statement clearly articulating need and the goals that define success,
A design brief to inform architectural services and site selection, and
A project scope (budget, schedule, fundraising plan, project team).
If you are requesting funding for equipment (e.g. computers, furniture, tools, etc.) that is not part of a major building project, please use our project/program grant application.

Eligibility

vBCF provides funding to nonprofit organizations and public institutions for projects and activities that advance its mission and priorities. While our interests center on Aquidneck Island and surrounding communities, we welcome proposals from outside the region that will benefit its people and places.

Ineligibility

The Foundation does not make grants to individuals, for general operating purposes (except on occasion for longstanding partners), to support lobbying, or to attempt to influence legislation.