The Elmo Foundation Grants

The Elmo Foundation Grants is sponsored by The Elmo Foundation. Provides grants to organizations in areas including education, environment, health, and public media.

Elmo Foundation | Inside Philanthropy OVERVIEW: The Elmo Foundation makes grants related to environmental causes, health, mental health and human services. Charlottesville, where it is based, appears to be a priority. IP TAKE: Without a public presence, it may be difficult for grantseekers to get Elmo’s attention.

The foundation tends to support the same foundations year after year, making it difficult for new grantees to get through the door. The foundation’s giving has shifted over the past several years away from global initiatives and toward smaller organizations that are closer to home, especially in the Charlottesville area of Virginia. Local organizations may want to reach out and explore opportunities here.

PROFILE: Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Elmo Foundation has existed since the mid-2000s. Since it does not maintain a public profile or website, it remains off the radar of most global health and mental health grant seekers. However, Elmo supports several health projects in the U.S. and abroad.

Grants for the Environmental Conservation and Climate Change The Elmo Foundation does not appear to have visible grantmaking programs, but rather broad interests, among them the environment and climate change. The foundation’s largest grantmaking priority has evolved and now centers on the environment. Though it does not have a dedicated program addressing the environment, its taxes reveal an emphasis on climate change.

Climate-change grantees include U.S. Climate Action, which has received most of the foundation’s climate-related grants over the years. Other environment and climate-related funding has gone to organizations including Clean Wisconsin, Ecoaddendum Inc., the Citizens Climate Education Corp. of California and the Michigan Climate Action Network.

Grants for Public Health and Mental Health While this funder’s past giving emphasized global health and mental health in underserved global communities, giving appears to have shifted its focus to health and mental health service in the U.S., especially in Virginia, where the foundation is based.

The foundation provides ongoing support to the Charlottesville Free Clinic, And in mental health, the foundation has made grants to Virginia’s Women’s Initiative and the Haven, a Charlottesville organization that works with the homeless.

Grants to Global Health and Humanitarian Aid Elmo has decreased its global health grantmaking in the past several years years and appears to prioritize health interventions in times of crisis or extreme need.

Health and humanitarian aid grants have supported organizations including Calcutta Kids, Doctors without Borders, H20 for Life and One Heart World-Wide, which provides maternal and neonatal health services in underserved and rural areas of Nepal. Multiyear support has gone to Strong Minds, a New Jersey-based organization that supports mental health programs in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Elmo’s grants range in size from about $5,000 to $30,000, and it made over $600,000 in grants in a recent year. The foundation’s median grant size is about $10,000. The foundation does not otherwise appear to impose geographic restrictions on its grantmaking; however, its awards tend to cluster around where it is headquartered in Virginia.

This funder tends to support the same grantees year after year. Recently, the foundation’s grantmaking has remained closer to home, supporting more organizations in the U.S. than in the past. The Elmo Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant proposals.

But this should not necessarily deter grantseekers from reaching out. It does not provide a way to get in touch, but an address and phone number are provided below. Charlottesville, VA 22902 Enable JavaScript to continue This site uses JavaScript to verify your account, display articles, and provide other features.

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