Mobilizing Grants

Eligibility Criteria

• Organizations must be a nonprofit 501(c)(3), registered religious institution or public entity (i.e., governmental agency, public school, educational institution, city council, public library, municipal office, etc.), or a project with a current eligible fiscal sponsor.
• Organizations must connect to at least one of KZCF’s WHEN priorities.
• The organization or its programming must be located in Kalamazoo County.

Selected projects or strategies will meet at least five of the following criteria:

• Must be highly aligned with at least one of KZCF’s Community Impact WHEN priorities, ideally demonstrating impact across multiple priorities.
• Must include strong community data and input from community members, content experts and funded partners, affirming the need for the request.
• Must provide an opportunity to enhance or scale existing collaborative efforts.
• Must utilize evidence-based or innovative approaches that show promise in the area(s) of focus.
• Must demonstrate high potential for leveraging additional funds at the local, state or federal level.
• Must positively impact Kalamazoo County at large.

What KZCF Grants Do NOT Fund

• Projects that intervene in any election or support or oppose political candidates for voter registration or lobbying purposes as outlined by the applicable IRS code
• Annual appeals or event sponsorships (See KZCF sponsorship opportunities.)
• Episodic and/or one-time programs and events (See KZCF sponsorship opportunities.)
• Direct funding for individuals
• Educational scholarships and academic research (See KZCF scholarship opportunities.)

Additional restrictions for this grant type include:

• Organizations can apply once per year.
• Funding commitment could be subject to change based on annual availability of KZCF funds.

Funding Opportunity & Amounts

$1 million is available each year to fund:

• A project or existing effort that matches our focus for the year.
• An invitation-only strategy that the community is seeking to initiate.

KZCF staff and volunteer leadership will determine the focus of our Mobilizing Grant each year, and a multiyear commitment of funds can be considered depending on the scale and scope of the selected focus area.

Annual Reporting

Funded partners must engage in an annual reporting process each year during the three-year grant period. The annual report will include two components:

• An opportunity to engage in a grant reflection conversation with a Community Impact officer (CIO) prompted by the CIO.
• A submission of summarized data through a provided form.

Required information to be submitted includes:

• Total number of individuals served across the grant year.
• Combined geographical information for those served, collected by either township/city, zip code or school district. This information will be collected in a percentage format.
• Combined racial/ethnic demographics for those served, collected in commonly utilized categories. This information will be collected in a percentage format.
• Actual outputs and outcomes for relevant data points that the applicant identifies within the application. See the Reporting section for details.