Who we are
Community Connections Grant Program is a participatory grantmaking platform with 17 years of experience spearheading multiple grantmaking initiatives. Community Connections has supported over one thousand five hundred innovative, community-driven projects. Many find it revolutionary that we provide grants to regular folks – our expanding network of hundreds of frontline responders such as grassroots and community groups, teachers, childcare providers, and other public servants are grant recipients.
Residents of the community are the grantmakers. They lead decisions on grantmaking and meet monthly to award funds. We actively outreach and provide technical assistance to neighborhood groups in order to support a wide variety of applicants. We provide capacity-building opportunities to grant reviewers and grantees, keeping them informed and informing others about trends in the field. Grantees are convened regularly for networking, collaboration, and resource sharing.
Community Connections is a tool for civic engagement, identifying and supporting resident leadership, and inspiring bottom-up systems change. Continuous learning and evaluation are integrated into the fabric of the program. Problems and solutions are processed through a lens of equity in order to positively impact the most vulnerable.
Leaders in our network demonstrate first-hand how resourcing dreams for an equitable future can unleash talent and possibilities far exceeding the investment. These programs recognize and respond to the reality that marginalized and oppressed communities have been denied monetary resources, training and education, and access to power and decision-making.
We would like to express sincere gratitude to the Hudson Webber Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the McGregor Fund, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for their support and partnership in this important work.
