Ujima Legacy Fund Grants

To be eligible to apply for a Ujima Legacy Fund grant, your organization must be a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that serves the residents of the City of Richmond, and/or the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, Goochland and/or Powhatan.

We encourage organizations to have a complete and up-to-date Gold Level profile on GuideStar by the time of application submission. Follow this link to see all requirements to reach the GuideStar Gold Seal, including:

• Current board list
• Most recent 990

We regret that we cannot accept applications from:

• Individual religious institutions
• Private foundations
• Colleges and universities
• Individuals or scholarship applicants

We also cannot accept applications to support:

• Debt reduction or operational deficits
• Endowments or memorials
• Bridge funding or interim financing
• Partisan, political or legislative activities
• Legal expenses

Ujima Legacy Fund seeks to support nonprofits that empower youth through education related initiatives.This may include, but is not limited to:

• After-school and out-of-school time programming
• Career development
• College preparation
• Entrepreneurship
• Financial literacy
• Literacy
• Mentoring
• Technology training
• Tutoring

Funding may be used for program support or specific projects. Consideration will also be given to capacity building requests to strengthen the infrastructure and increase the program capacity of start-up or established organizations that serve the target demographic. Capacity building requests may include:

• Planning activities: e.g., organizational assessments; strategic planning; or business planning for social enterprise
• Improving financial management or fund development
• Training for staff and/or volunteers
• Technology improvements that will have a significant impact on internal efficiency and allow for new ways of doing business

It is anticipated that at least two grants of approximately $20,000 will be awarded.

Application Process: Application will open on Monday, August 22, 2022.  All grant proposals must be received by the Community Foundation by 5:00 p.m., Monday, September 19, 2022.

Review Process: A volunteer committee of Ujima Legacy Fund will review requests and conduct site visits with selected organizations in October and November. Approximately five finalists will be invited to present at a meeting of full membership.

Selection Process and Announcement: The award decision will be finalized through a live vote of Ujima members following the finalist presentations. The award will be announced and celebrated at an annual celebration event.