May 13, 2024
ReImagine Appalachia is working to promote the many federal funding opportunities available because of legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. We know that so often low-resourced and rural communities in Appalachia are left behind, when those communities are the most in-need. However, we wanted to make sure our partners don’t forget the multitude of other funding opportunities within the region. These funding partners have been engaged in our region for decades, and have a unique understanding of the challenges – and the potential – of our Appalachian communities.
We’ve compiled a list of some of the funders prioritizing sustainability needs in Appalachia and encourage you to check them out!
*Please note this is not a comprehensive list, just ones that we have seen or heard of – feel free to share of other funders that should be included by contacting me at [email protected]
Appalachian Funders Network– The Appalachia Funders Network creates catalytic opportunities for funders to collaborate, connect, and drive progress across the Appalachian region
Members of the Appalachian Funders Network include:
- The Alleghany Foundation: Awarding grants and engaging with the community in the Alleghany Highlands of Virginia.
- Appalachian Community Fund: Funds and encourages grassroots social change in Central Appalachia.
- Appalachian Solar Finance Fund: Catalyzes solar development in coal-impacted communities across Central Appalachia.
- Berea College Appalachian Fund: Supports nonprofit organizations working to improve the quality of life in central Appalachia through the priority areas of: health, education, social services, and folk arts and cultures.
- The Chorus Foundation: Support communities on the frontlines of the fossil fuel economy, as we work together for a just transition to a fair and sustainable new economy.
- Coalfield Water Development Fund
- Dogwood Health Trust: Dedicated to dramatically improving the health and well-being of all people and communities of Western North Carolina.
- Fahe: Facilitates collaboration across sectors to increase health outcomes and reduce healthcare costs in Appalachia.
- Foundation for Appalachian Ohio: Creating opportunities for Appalachian Ohio’s citizens and communities by inspiring and supporting philanthropy.
- The Greater Clark Foundation: Provides aspirational leadership to the Clark County region by inspiring vision and action for a compelling future.
- The HealthPath Foundation of Ohio: Working to improve the health of Ohio’s communities.
- Invest Appalachia: Collaborative impact investment platform created by and for the people of Central Appalachia.
- Kentucky Foundation for Women: Promoting positive social change by supporting varied feminist expression in the arts.
- Mercy Investment Services: Recognizes the moral imperative of work for a just and sustainable world, and embraces socially responsible investing.
- Primary Care Development Corporation: Provides capital financing, expertise, and advocacy to expand primary care access and advance health equity in communities that need it most.
- Rural LISC: supports resilient and inclusive rural communities as great places to live, work, and innovate. Rural LISC strives to identify priorities and opportunities and deliver the most appropriate support to meet local needs. They achieve this through integrated strategies and programs focused on five pillars of rural community development: Creative Capital, Broadband + Digital Inclusion, Workforce + Financial Prosperity, Housing, and Disaster Solutions.
- Sisters Health Foundation: Champions health with over $21.7M in grants. Continuing St. Joseph’s legacy.
- Sugar Bush Foundation: Fund partnerships between Ohio University and community organizations that restore the environment, strengthen local food systems, and grow a resilient economy.
- Truist Foundation: Investing in organizations, programs, and initiatives that help systematically disadvantaged workers navigate the employment journey.
- West Virginia Humanities Council: Promoting a vigorous program in the humanities statewide in West Virginia.
- Appalachian College Association: Provides resources for collaborative programs that exceed what a single campus can accomplish by enhancing our students’ educational experiences and ensuring optimal use of institutional resources.
- Appalachian Impact Fund: Reshaping investment strategy in the region by creating conditions for social enterprises, nonprofits, and community projects to succeed.
- CareQuest Institute for Oral Health Advancement: Championing a more equitable future where every person can reach their full potential through excellent health.
- Community Heart & Soul: Builds stronger, healthier, and more economically vibrant small cities and towns across the United States through the Community Heart & Soul model.
- Educational Foundation of America: Advancing progressive change through support for creative initiatives working toward sustainability, justice, and equity.
- Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond: Conducts research to support policymaking and thought leadership on issues important to the Federal Reserve and the Fifth District.
- Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky: Working to address the unmet health needs of Kentuckians.
- Anne and Gene Worrell Foundation: Committed to supporting initiatives and organizations that align with our mission to cultivate resilient communities and ecosystems in the places the Worrells called home.
- The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation: Helps donors, nonprofits, and other collaborative partners strengthen our community so all of the people and places we serve have the opportunity to thrive.
- The Innovate Fund: Transform communities by supporting the creation of quality jobs and improving health and wellness for our region’s low-income residents.
- James Graham Brown Foundation: Cultivates progress and civic pride through philanthropic investments that promote the image of Kentucky and Louisville and the well‐being of its citizens.
- Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies: Provide meaningful assistance and support to society, the arts, and the environment.
- Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation: Supports artists, presenters, and organizations through unique programming, grant support, partnerships, and information sharing.
- The Nature Conservancy: Working to create a world where people and nature can thrive.
- Parkersburg Area Community Foundation: Provides leadership and develop philanthropic resources to meet the needs of an 11-county service area.
- Sacharuna Foundation: Giving primarily for conservation, environmental, and wildlife organizations, and indigenous peoples’ issues; some support for education, and historic and cultural preservation
- Sisters of St Joseph Health and Wellness Foundation: Supporting the holistic health of West Virginia’s children and their families through trust-based philanthropy.
- Sugarbush Valley Impact Investments
- Tennessee Arts Commission: Stimulate and encourage the presentation of the visual, literary, music and performing arts and to encourage public interest in the cultural heritage of Tennessee.
- Virginia Community Capital: Their mission is to offer innovative, flexible financial products designed to support housing and community development ventures, increase jobs and build sustainable communities. VCC offers loan capital that is broader than bank lending to projects that have a positive community impact in low- to moderate-income communities in underserved geographies and markets.
- WNC Bridge Foundation: Connecting our communities to a healthier future and creating lasting change through local partnerships.
- Appalachian Community Capital: Increase small business lending by providing under-served communities with new sources of capital.
- Athens County Foundation: Enhances the quality of life for the people of our region through building endowments, awarding grants, and providing leadership on key community issues now and for generations to come.
- Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation: Encourages human development in West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania through strategically placed charitable resources.
- Connect humanity: Invests in community-focused ISPs to close the digital divide
- Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky: Pursues relationships with startups, initiatives, and organizations that celebrate Appalachian culture and grow local economies.
- Grant Ready Kentucky: Illuminate barriers that Kentucky communities face when seeking grant funding and advocate for the system changes necessary to remove them.
- The Harvest Foundation: Works to create a vibrant Martinsville / Henry County for all citizens.
- Interact for Health: Works with communities to improve mental health and well-being, to support community power building and to change policies and systems.
- Just Transition Fund: Partners with community-based organizations working to strengthen and diversify their local economies.
- Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation: Partners with organizations and networks working to alleviate poverty and increase social and economic justice in 11 Southern states.
- Mountain Association: Working toward an economy that is more diverse, sustainable, equitable and resilient.
- National Rural Health Leadership Foundation: Advance, publicize, and solve rural health issues and challenges.
- New York Community Trust: Connects past, present, and future generous New Yorkers with vital nonprofits working to make a healthy, equitable, and thriving community for all.
- Ohio Arts Council: Strengthening Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically.
- Partner Community Capital: gives entrepreneurs who can’t get a “yes” from traditional lenders the capital and strategic advice they need to grow. We support businesses and non-profits located in underserved communities across Central Appalachia and the Southeast.
- Redbud Financial Alternatives: Provides an alternative to predatory lenders that take advantage of individuals, families, and communities facing hard times.
- Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR): Supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses in our region will help combat poverty.
- South Arts: Advancing Southern vitality through the arts.
- Tamarack Foundation: Helping to grow West Virginia’s creative economy by providing essential programs that equip Mountain State artists and creative entrepreneurs with the skills necessary to succeed and thrive in the place they call home.
- Thompson Charitable Foundation: Works to improve the quality of life for individuals and communities in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia.
- Waymakers collective: Appalachian Futurists & radical grantmakers in the heart of Appalachia.
Additional Foundations:
- Doris Duke Foundation: Building a more creative, equitable and sustainable future.
- Galen Foundation: Inspire and empower individuals and communities to take action and protect the environment for the benefit of all.
- Laurel Foundation: Laurel Foundation concentrates its grantmaking in Pittsburgh and Southwestern Pennsylvania with focuses in arts & culture, education, environment, and public & society benefit.
- Three Rivers Community Foundation: Key issue areas this foundation focuses on are: Disability Rights; Economic Justice; Environmental Justice; LGBTQ Rights (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning); Racial Justice; and Women, Youth, and Families. TRCF makes grants of up to $4,000 primarily in these areas.
- Nathan Cummings Foundation: Multigenerational family foundation, rooted in the Jewish tradition of social justice, working to help create a more just, vibrant, sustainable, and democratic society. We partner with social change organizations that have creative and catalytic solutions to climate change and inequality.
- Heinz Endowments: Seeks to help our region thrive as a whole and just community and, through that work, to model solutions to major national and global challenges.
- McKnight Foundation: Advance a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive
- Mosaic Foundation: Systemically building the connectivity, alignment, and power the environmental movement needs to win the biggest victories.
- Families and Workers Fund: Foster large-scale collaboration and make philanthropic investments to deliver good jobs and increase access to more inclusive public benefits. To date, they have committed more than $42 million to nonprofits and other strategic partners on the frontlines of change and, together, have increased opportunity for hundreds of thousands of workers and families.
- Git Lab Foundation: Improve lifetime earnings through access to opportunities.
- Dunn Foundation: Enhance and expand the resources of West Virginians actively working toward a sustainable future by empowering citizens to work for social justice, a cleaner environment, and population stability.
- Rockefeller Family Fund: Initiates, cultivates, and funds strategic efforts to promote a sustainable, just, free, and participatory society.
- MacArthur Foundation: Supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.
- Cornell Douglas Foundation: Provide grants to organizations which promote the vision of the foundation: advocating for environmental health and justice, encouraging stewardship of the environment, and furthering respect for sustainability of resources.
- Community Foundation for the Alleghenies: Empower all people to make a permanent impact and leave a lasting legacy in our region.
- The Campbell Foundation: Believes in strategic infusions of funding, we dedicate nearly 100% of our grant dollars to the environment.
- Marguerite Casey Foundation: Helps community leaders gain the freedom they need to lead. We support leaders, scholars and initiatives focused on shifting the balance of power.
- William Randolph Hearst Foundation: National philanthropic resources for organizations working in the fields of culture, education, health and social services.
- Opportunity Finance Network: increases capital flow, strengthens CDFIs, and amplifies the voice of the CDFI industry. We partner with investors, funders, and policymakers to align capital with opportunity.
- Schmidt Family Foundation: Supports people, projects, and tools to accelerate positive global impact through science and technology.
- Energy Foundation: Helps build a strong, clean energy economy.
- Alex Honnold Foundation: Building a brighter & more equitable world.
- Mountain Philanthropies: Guided by principles of fairness, accountability, and environmental sustainability.
- Tides Foundation: Dedicated to advancing social justice.
- Colcom Foundation: Funding interests include carrying capacity, local environment, and local community.
- High Tide Foundation: Intends for their funding to have a genuine impact on the future by working to keep the global temperature rise to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius.