By: TFN Staff
The Funders’ Network (TFN), in partnership with the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, is excited to announce the recipients of six Partners for Places Mini Grants, intended to help local governments, local foundations, and frontline community-led groups build relationships, align project ideas, and center racial equity in water, sustainability, and climate action work.
Partners for Places is a matching grant program that improves U.S. and Canadian communities by building partnerships between local government leaders, community groups, and place-based foundations. National funders invest in local projects developed through these partnerships to advance efforts to create communities that are sustainable, prosperous and just.
The Partners for Places Mini Grants, while not matching grants, are designed to spark new relationships or deepen existing connections that will hopefully help these communities develop a successful Partners for Places project proposal in the future. (To learn more about Partners for Places Mini Grants click here.)
These six communities have received Partners for Places Mini Grants:
Chicago, Ill:
Amount: ($7,500)
Project title: Space to Grow: Greening Chicago Schoolyards
Project description: The grant will be used to support the efforts of the partner organizations to develop a proposal that addresses key goals around sustainability and equity.
Frontline community-led group: Healthy Schools Campaign and Openlands
Funder partner: Hamill Family Foundation
Duluth, Minn.
Amount: $9,257
Project title: Lincoln Park Block-by-Block: Urban Sustainability Led from Equity
Project description: The mini grant will expand community engagement and partnership development through direct support of outreach materials, virtual engagement technology, participation incentives to residents, and project management.
Frontline community-led groups: Ecolibrium3
Funder partner: Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation
Knoxville, Tenn.
Amount: $9,257
Project title: Embedding Equity & Frontline Perspectives in Sustainability Planning
Project description: To convene and facilitate an equity working group to understand frontline community perspectives, apply an equity lens to proposed actions and develop equity implementation principles for a climate action plan.
Frontline community-led groups: Community Voices Coalition, Socially Equal Efficient Economic Development (SEEED), Centro Hispano, Three3, Inc.
Funder partner: East Tennessee Foundation
Maui County, Hawai’i
Amount: $8,857
Project title: Community Driven and Tech-supported Water Planning for Hawaiian Homesteads
Project description: The mini grant will support scoping meetings with Molokai homestead community members to identify how University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa technical resources might support community-driven water planning.
Frontline community-led group: Hoʻolehua Homestead Agriculture Association
Funder partner: Hawaiʻi Community Foundation
Memphis and Shelby counties, Tenn.
Amount: $7,017
Project title: Equitable Development Plan for the Memphis 3.0 Summer/National District
Project description: This grant will be used to assemble an equitable development task force to identify priorities for a Partners for Places matching grant proposal.
Frontline community-led group: Heights Community Development Corporation
Funder partner: Hyde Foundation
Racine, Wisc.
Amount: $8,557
Project title: Racine’s Resilient Community Centers
Project description: Organizers will conduct community needs assessments in public community centers to plan for resilience hubs, addressing environmental injustices related to water, climate change, housing and transportation.
Frontline community-led groups: Amigos de Cesar Chavez Community Center, Racine Voces de la Frontera and Youth Empowered in the Struggle, and Racine Black Legacy Project
Funder partner: Fund for Lake Michigan
About Partners for Places
Partners for Places general grant program is supported by The JPB Foundation, Kendeda Fund, The Kresge Foundation, New York Community Trust, the Pisces Foundation, The Summit Foundation, and Surdna Foundation.
To date, Partners for Places has awarded more than $7.4 million across North America in this successful matching grant program, leading to over $16 million in investments.
The next RFP for the Partners for Places matching grant program will be released this summer.
Please visit the Partners for Places webpage for more information.
For questions about the Partners for Places Mini Grants or matching grants program, please reach out to Ashley Quintana.
Bonus Reads
Learn about the Round 16 Partners for Places grantees, announced last week. (Grantee communities include Douglas County, Kan., featured in the top photo on this blog post.)
Partners for Places was recently featured in Inside Philanthropy. Read the full story here!