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Capacity Building grants

Capacity Building grants are designed to strengthen the organizational capacity of 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity organizations by fostering sound leadership, strong boards, professional development for staff, technology, evaluation, strategic planning, communications, and sustainability.

Capacity Building Grants

Funding amount:

$100,000 – $250,000

Funds disbursed: starting Dec. 13, 2024 | Application opens: twice annually


What are Capacity Building grants?

Capacity Building grants are designed to strengthen the organizational capacity of nonprofits by fostering sound leadership, strong boards, professional development for staff, technology, evaluation, strategic planning, communications, and sustainability.

Rather than funding a charity’s specific program or singular service, Capacity Building grants look for opportunities to support an organization’s focus on internal effectiveness and long-term stability. These one-time, short-term grants will be awarded to charities that demonstrate a specific capacity gap and who are aligned with our strategic priorities and focus areas.

Beginning in 2025, applications are open twice each year. Learn more about our grants cycle >


Capacity Building grant examples

The following list provides examples of broad categories and specific organizational needs that may be eligible for Capacity Building grants. This list is not meant to be exhaustive and additional capacity needs may qualify for these funds.

  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training 
  • Equity audits and assessments for Board, leadership and staff
  • Orientation and training development
  • Organizational structure and succession planning design
  • Performance management and coaching
  • Recruitment and pipeline development
  • Sabbatical for executive leader*
  • Succession planning and staff pipeline
  • Workplace training and skill building

*Sabbatical requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Organizations would generally need to have a sabbatical policy in place.

  • Cooperative mission alignment assessment
  • Facilitated co-creation amongst partners
  • Strategic partnership and coalition development
  • Branding, collateral development, and web redesign
  • Strategic communications development, including target audience analysis
  • Building case studies, reports, and lessons learned
  • Streamlining internal audit controls
  • Structuring data sets
  • Budget assessments and feasibility study execution
  • Fundraising strategy development
  • Revenue pipeline planning
  • Short-term and long-term financial forecasting
  • Culture and internal strengths and weaknesses evaluation
  • Human resources policies, process, and infrastructure assessment
  • Job classifications and compensation structures analysis
  • Audit of technology needs
  • Cybersecurity safeguard training
  • Database design 
  • Equipment and technology upgrades
  • Human resources, finance, or grant management software purchase and/or implementation
  • Infrastructure development
  • Legal compliance development
  • Material items, leasing space, and transportation purchasing
  • Community landscape and stakeholder needs assessment
  • Plan implementation


Capacity Building grantees

The first round of Capacity Building grantees has been selected. Read the announcement on Currents or visit the grantee page to learn more about the organizations receiving funding and the work that will be supported.