Washtenaw Community College

The Michigan Women's Foundation promotes economic self-sufficiency and personal well-being for women and girls to positively impact their lives and their futures. The foundation awards three grants which may be applicable to programs that WCC offers. They are:

1. Social Impact Grants - programs that have impact beyond the local community and involve multiple sites or communities. Amount: 10,000 - 50,000. Deadline: TBA

2. Young Women for Change - Programs that serve girls/young women. Amount: 1,000 - 5,000

3. Mini-grants - Organizations providing service to a new or underserved population. Amount: 1,000 - 5,000 Deadline: TBA

You may wish to review the Michigan Women's Foundation website for more information about these funding areas and examples of past grantees.

Dates for upcoming deadlines have not been announced.

For more information visit: Michigan Women's Foundation Homepage

The Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (AAACF) awards grants that make a powerful and positive difference to our community. They have two grant cycles a year. The following AAACF funds are making grants for the October 3 deadline:

Youth Council - supports programs for youth ages 5 - 18 that focus on: education, diversity awareness, job skills, teen stress. It is important that youth have a role in developing proposed program.

General grantmaking - the foundation provides grants for general purposes, with an emphasis on: education, arts and culture, seniors, health/wellness.

Priority is given to grants that demonstrate the following characteristics: be preventative in nature, offer new solutions to community problems, foster collaboration between organizations, avoid duplication of services, promote personal achievement/independence, encourage volunteerism and community involvement.

Ypsilanti Area Community Fund - Grants for projects that serve the residents of the Ypsilanti area.

Healty Youth/Healty Seniors - Grants to improve the health and well-being of youth and seniors in Washtenaw County.

For more information visit: Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation

The Challenge America: Reaching Every Community Fast-Track Review Grants category offers support primarily to small and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations -- those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability. Age alone (e.g., youth, seniors) does not qualify a group as underserved; at least one of the underserved characteristics noted here also must be present. This category, as an essential component of the Arts Endowment's goal of providing wide access to artistic excellence, supports local projects that can have significant effects within communities. Grants are available for professional arts programming and for projects that emphasize the potential of the arts in community development.

Partnerships can be valuable to the success of these projects. While not required, applicants are encouraged to consider partnerships among organizations, both in and outside of the arts, as appropriate to their project.

These Fast-Track Review Grants:
- Extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations.
- Are limited to the specific types of projects outlined below.
- Are for ,000 each.
- Receive an expedited application review. Organizations are notified whether they have been recommended for a grant approximately six months after they apply; projects may start shortly thereafter.

For more information visit: Challenge America grant information

The NEH loves community colleges! Some of the grant programs they've announced for 2008 are:

1. America's Historical and Cultural Organizations grants. Deadline: August 27, 2008. These grants support traveling or long-term museum exhibitions, library-based projects, interpretation of historic places or areas, interpretive Web sites, or other project formats that creatively engage audiences in exploring humanities ideas and questions.

Planning grants can be used to plan, refine, and develop the content and interpretive approach of a project. Applicants should have already conducted preliminary consultation with scholars to help shape the humanities content of the project and with other programming advisers appropriate to the project's format.

Applications that make innovative use of emerging technologies are encouraged. Projects should do more than simply provide a digital archive of material. They should offer new ways of contextualizing and interpreting information that engages public audiences interactively in exploring humanities ideas and questions.

2. Teaching and Learning Resources and Curriculum Development. Deadline: October 1, 2008. These grants support projects that improve specific areas of humanities education and serve as national models of excellence. Projects must draw upon scholarship in the humanities and use scholars and teachers as advisers.

3. Summer Stipends. Deadline: October 1, 2008. These stipends of 6,000
support individuals pursuing advanced research that contributes to scholarly knowledge or to the public's understanding of the humanities. Recipients usually produce scholarly articles, monographs on specialized subjects, books on broad topics, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly tools.

Summer Stipends support full-time work on a humanities project for a period of two months. Applicants may be faculty or staff members of colleges, universities, or primary or secondary schools, or they may be independent scholars or writers. Summer Stipends are awarded to individual scholars. Organizations are not eligible to apply.

And much, much more....The NEH has other long-standing grant programs that welcome and encourage applications from two-year colleges! Please feel free to call anyone at the NEH with questions. They look forward to hearing from you!

For more information visit: National Endowment for the Humanities