Brief Description:

While Minnesota and Olmsted County consistently report high voter turnout, some parts of our community still face barriers to full participation in civic engagement beyond just casting a vote. United Way of Olmsted County knows communities hold the solutions to the problems they face. As such, culturally specific organizations play a critical role in building power for their communities to participate in civic life. These organizations are ideally situated to understand the cultural norms, beliefs, and traditions of the people they serve; effectively engage community members; interpret and remove barriers that impede access to services; and bridge norms between communities and institutions.

United Way of Olmsted County’s Civic Engagement RFP is designed to build the capacity of Olmsted County’s cultural communities to advocate for self-determined solutions to the challenges they face by supporting civic engagement, providing education on roles and responsibilities of elected officials, and facilitating stronger connections between communities and local government.

We are issuing this Request for Proposals to establish partnerships and offer financial support for civic engagement activities. We will prioritize proposals from agencies serving and led by Black, Indigenous, people of color, and immigrant/refugee communities. Proposals from other communities disproportionately impacted by barriers to civic engagement are also eligible to apply.

Description:

Brief Description

(Please see detailed RFP here for more specific application information)

Grant Purpose: We plan to award Civic Engagement grants to agencies serving and led by communities that experience barriers to and currently have lower levels of civic participation. Grants are intended to support programs and activities that have the goal of increasing civic participation. All activities must be non-partisan.

Grant Award: $5,000 (We anticipate investing $25,000 total into the community)

Grant Timeline:

Proposals due May 16th, 2022
Awards will be announced May 23rd
Funds disbursed no later than June 30th

Eligibility Requirements:

Serve primarily low-income residents of Olmsted County
Culturally specific organization that serves and is led by people from communities disproportionately impacted by barriers to civic engagement (We will prioritize proposals from agencies serving and led by Black, Indigenous, people of color, and immigrant/refugee communities. Proposals from other communities disproportionately impacted by barriers to civic engagement are also eligible to apply.)
Be an eligible nonprofit agency

Eligible nonprofit organizations include:

Agencies designated as a 501(c)3
Faith-based organizations, provided they can demonstrate that there will be no explicitly faith-related content included in their programming and that there are no discriminatory restrictions on service recipients
Unincorporated community groups, provided they can document their relationship with a proper fiscal sponsor.

Contact Information:

For questions about this application, please contact Zeni Aly at zenia@uwolmsted.org

Begin Accepting Applications Date:

4/26/2024

Deadline Date (CST Time Zone) :

5/15/2024 11:59 PM

APPLY HERE