Nonprofit Capacity Building Mini-Grants

Nonprofit Capacity Building Mini-Grants is sponsored by Community Foundation for Mississippi. Offers financial assistance for professional development courses or training to strengthen internal systems and organizational management for nonprofits.

Community Foundation for Mississippi | Inside Philanthropy OVERVIEW: The Community Foundation for Mississippi supports community development, children and families, education, arts and culture, LGBTQ communities, nonprofit capacity building and other charitable causes, primarily in central and southwest Mississippi. The foundation also administers donor-directed funds, scholarships and other charitable funds.

Grantseekers should distinguish these opportunities from CFM’s donor-directed grantmaking. CFM says its grantmaking takes three forms: donor-directed grants, competitive grants administered by CFM itself, and competitive grants administered by individual CFM funds. Consequently, a grant appearing in CFM’s tax records does not necessarily represent a foundation-wide funding priority or an opportunity open to applications.

PROFILE: Established in 1994, the Community Foundation for Mississippi (CFM) is a community foundation based in Jackson, Mississippi. Originally founded as the “Community Foundation of Greater Jackson,” CFM rebranded in 2017 to represent its growth as a central point of philanthropy for 22 counties in central and southwest regions of the state.

CFM organizes much of its funding around four broad focus areas: Placemaking, Children and Families, Community Partnerships, and Capacity Building . These four focus areas should not be confused with the foundation’s annual Community Impact Project Grants, which currently fund projects in three categories: Placemaking, Children and Families, and Community Partnerships. Capacity building has a separate, year-round grant mechanism.

CFM also administers donor-advised, designated, field-of-interest, endowment and other charitable funds. Its current grants page distinguishes between donor-directed grants , competitive grants by CFM , and competitive grants by CFM funds , whose criteria are established by individual fund advisors or advisory groups.

Grants for Community Development, Children and Families The Community Impact Project Grants are CFM’s largest annual competitive grant program. Grants of up to $5,000 support defined projects in three areas: Placemaking , including activation of underused spaces, beautification, trail improvements, tactical urbanism, blight removal, local storytelling and other efforts intended to improve community livability.

Children and Families , including literacy, physical and mental health, financial health, prevention and early intervention, and other measurable projects benefiting families. Community Partnerships , with an emphasis on collaboration between nonprofits or across sectors, inclusive stakeholder engagement, civic participation and community voice. For the 2026 cycle , applications opened August 1 and are due September 1, 2026 at 11:59 p.

m. CFM’s cycle announcement says eligible applicants include 501(c)(3) nonprofits, organizations working through a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor and governmental entities such as municipalities serving the foundation’s 22-county area. No match is required, although projects demonstrating community support receive priority.

Community Impact funding is generally intended for discrete projects rather than operating support alone. Projects must have measurable goals and run for no more than one year. CFM does not fund individuals or businesses through this program, work outside its service area, lobbying expenses and certain other costs.

Recent Community Impact grants illustrate the program’s breadth.

The 2025 cycle supported family literacy work by Community Students Learning Center, youth leadership through Bridge Builders Leadership Initiative, family substance-use resources from End It For Good, workforce training through Bean Path, programming for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities through The Lily Pad, and placemaking projects in Brandon, Natchez and Canton. Fourteen organizations received 2025 grants.

Grants for Nonprofit Capacity Building Not every award takes the form of a cash grant. CFM says most capacity-building awards provide discounted or free participation in workshops and training, although nonprofits may also seek financial help for a predetermined training program or a vetted consultant. CFM staff may provide some assistance directly in areas such as grant writing, endowment building and storytelling.

Applications are accepted through CFM’s grant portal. The Rural Leveraging Matching Grants program is open year-round to qualifying organizations and municipalities based in or serving CFM’s rural footprint.

Applicants in counties with populations below 50,000 may submit a letter of interest requesting support for up to 50% of the required match associated with an anticipated, awarded or obligated grant, including state or federal funding. This is a particularly strong opportunity for rural organizations that have secured or are pursuing public or philanthropic funding but face difficulty assembling the required local match.

CFM says the program is intended to help community-supported projects that might otherwise fail because of such funding gaps. Education appears across several CFM funding mechanisms rather than through a single general education grant program. Community Impact Grants may support childhood literacy, youth development, STEAM and related family-focused work.

The 2025 Community Impact cohort, for example, included family literacy programming, youth leadership, STEAM education and workforce-readiness projects. CFM also administers numerous scholarship and award funds. The foundation announced 55 scholarship and award recipients in 2026 , supporting students across a range of academic and career interests.

Education also receives significant funding through CFM’s broader portfolio of donor-directed and restricted funds. Its most recent grant records include large awards to organizations such as the Mississippi Charter Schools Association and University Press of Mississippi.

However, these grants should not be interpreted automatically as foundation-directed competitive funding because CFM’s tax return does not identify the particular donor-directed, designated or other fund responsible for each Schedule I grant. Grants for Arts and Culture Arts and culture receive support through several CFM mechanisms, including donor-directed and endowed funds as well as competitive opportunities. The John F.

and Lucy Shackelford Fund accepts applications year-round for work intended to make long-term improvements to the livability of downtown Jackson. Eligible applicants include charitable organizations and government entities located downtown or whose proposed work directly serves downtown Jackson. Requests may involve physical structures, programs and projects, events or other activities connected to downtown livability.

Applicants headquartered outside downtown must demonstrate direct impact there. The Shackelford Fund has made unusually large grants compared with CFM’s Community Impact program. In 2025, it awarded the Foundation for Mississippi History $1 million toward development of Margaret Ann Crigler Park near the Two Mississippi Museums.

Earlier Shackelford investments included $750,000 for the Museum of Mississippi History and $1 million toward renovation of the Jackson Planetarium. CFM also houses the Friends of Andrew Bucci Fund Art Supply Grant , which supports Mississippi visual-art teachers. The 2026 cycle offered grants of up to $500 to art teachers at public, parochial and private schools for PreK-12 art supplies.

The 2026 deadline was August 21; prospective applicants should check for future cycles. CFM’s tax records also reflect significant arts giving through its broader fund portfolio. For example, the latest available Schedule I data includes a $551,573 grant to the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra Association.

Because CFM administers numerous types of funds, such grants should be treated as evidence of CFM-hosted arts philanthropy rather than evidence that the same amount or application process is available through an open CFM program.

Grants for LGBTQ Communities The LGBTQ Fund of Mississippi at the Community Foundation for Mississippi is the state’s first grantmaking fund specifically focused on organizations working to improve the quality of life for LGBTQ Mississippians. The fund supports organizations throughout Mississippi rather than only within CFM’s 22-county general service area.

For the 2026-2027 grant cycle , funding supports three types of requests: Planning grants of up to $5,000 Research grants of up to $10,000 General operating grants of up to $15,000. The fund prioritizes work serving underserved LGBTQ communities, including communities of color, youth, seniors and rural residents; intersectional programs addressing faith and acceptance; and efforts serving transgender and gender-nonconforming people.

Eligible applicants include nonprofits, local governments, research centers, institutions of higher education and federally recognized tribes. Applicants must be based in Mississippi or provide services with a direct positive impact on LGBTQ Mississippians. The fund provides several routes for emerging organizations.

Non-501(c)(3) organizations may be considered in limited circumstances, and groups may also apply through an existing nonprofit fiscal sponsor. The guidelines additionally direct startup groups to the Campaign for Southern Equality’s Southern Equality Fund. The 2026-2027 proposal form is currently open .

The fund also permits emergency proposals to be submitted outside the ordinary RFP period and offers pre-application assistance to prospective applicants. In 2025, the LGBTQ Fund announced more than $133,000 in funding commitments .

Grantees included Big House Books, Five Horizons Health Services, Grace House, Harrison County Library System, Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, My Brother’s Keeper, South Mississippi AIDS Task Force, The Spectrum Center, the TRANS Program and Tupelo Mutual Aid Project. CFM has worked at the intersection of philanthropy and journalism in Mississippi since 2018.

Its current public-facing initiative focuses on Constructive Journalism , an approach that seeks to help communities identify solutions and common ground while still addressing serious public problems. The initiative has received support from the W. K.

Kellogg Foundation and Microsoft’s Democracy Forward initiative. CFM now directs visitors interested in this work toward Constructive South. I found no current general journalism grant RFP , so grantseekers should not assume that journalism organizations can submit proposals through a standing media-specific funding program.

Journalism organizations may nevertheless receive support through donor-directed or other CFM-held funds. CFM does not currently advertise a dedicated competitive faith-based grant program. Religious organizations can, however, participate in the foundation’s broader community work.

For example, CFM’s Community Partnerships focus area explicitly contemplates collaboration involving nonprofits, churches, associations and organizations from different sectors. CFM’s broader donor-directed portfolio may also support eligible religious charities. Grantseekers should therefore distinguish faith-related grants appearing in CFM’s historical tax records from a formal, foundation-wide faith funding strategy.

CFM is more accessible to unsolicited applicants than many community foundations. Its current grantmaking structure includes several open or recurring competitive opportunities: In recent years, CFM has awarded between $5-6 million in total grants annually, which does not include its support via DAFs.

CFM serves 22 counties in central and southwest Mississippi : Adams, Amite, Attala, Claiborne, Copiah, Franklin, Hinds, Holmes, Jefferson, Lawrence, Leake, Lincoln, Madison, Pike, Rankin, Scott, Simpson, Smith, Walthall, Warren, Wilkinson and Yazoo. This foundation accepts unsolicited grant applications from nonprofits for its annual competitive cycle.

Nonprofits should contact the foundation directly to learn about upcoming deadlines and guidelines. Direct general questions to the staff atinfo@formississippi. org or (601) 974-6044.

Disaster Relief and Recovery Enable JavaScript to continue This site uses JavaScript to verify your account, display articles, and provide other features. Please enable JavaScript or allow scripts for Inside Philanthropy, then reload the page. Chrome: Open Chrome Settings, then go to Privacy and security > Site settings > JavaScript, and select “Sites can use JavaScript.

” Safari: Open Safari Settings, then check the Security settings for JavaScript. Make sure JavaScript is enabled, then reload this page. Brave: Click the Brave Shields lion icon in the address bar and allow scripts for this site.

If scripts are blocked, article access and account verification may not work. Full Brave Shields instructions Last updated on March 11, 2025