BLACK EMPOWERMENT WORKS GRANTS

• Geography: Located and providing services within the UWGC nine-county service region (Hamilton, Clermont and Brown counties in Ohio; Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties in Kentucky; Dearborn and Ohio counties in Indiana).
• Black Leadership and Labor: At least 60% of the leaders of the work (those empowered to make decisions on behalf of the group) identify as Black. The work has an intentional (though not necessarily exclusive) focus on advancing the well-being of Black people.
• Grassroots/Community-Based: Community members, especially those directly or indirectly impacted by the focus of your work, have and continue to shape the work you do. Example: staff leading this work have direct experiences with the challenges your work seeks to overcome.
• Community Benefit: The work benefits the community rather than benefitting any private individual, group or business. The work has a focus on individuals, families and/or communities with limited access to resources. 
• Actionable: The work is far enough along in development or execution that if provided funding, it could produce measurable results by September 2024.

• General business operating support.
  • This is not a traditional small-business grant. Applications must demonstrate a community benefit, aligned to one of the focus areas and beyond a benefit provided to employees and stakeholders of the business.  
• Capital campaigns (a targeted fundraising effort to raise a large amount of money in a specific timeframe for a large project, like securing or developing a property).  
• Political campaigns or partisan political work.  
• Debt reduction or work occurring prior to the grant period. 
• Work occurring outside of the UWGC nine-county service region. 

Yes. The Black Empowerment Works program is open to new work, existing work and existing work with a new twist.

No! Beyond existing nonprofits, we are open to funding for-profit social enterprises, individuals and community coalitions. For work not connected to a nonprofit 501(c)(3), leaders can either choose to be funded through a fiscal sponsor or assume the tax liability of the grant.

We are open to a diverse array of work. The focus areas you’ll be asked to select from are listed below. You can pick more than one.  

• Quality Early Child Care and Education (Ages 0-5)  
• Quality K-12 Education, including academic after-school time 
• Youth Social Emotional Skill Building and Leadership Development 
• Career and Post-Secondary Preparation, Exploration and Training  
• Financial Empowerment and Asset Building  
• Basic Needs and Housing  
• Birth Equity (assurance of optimal births)  
• Physical Health  
• Mental Health  
• Systems Change, Mobilizing and Movement Building  
• Community and Social Connectedness  
• Other (You will be asked to describe your focus area in the application.)  

Some of the qualities of a strong grant application include: 

• The proposed work is clear, defined.  
• The provided budget and timeline are clear and feasible.  
• With funding and other supports, the organization can demonstrate having sufficient capacity and resources to carry out the proposed work.  
• The work can produce measurable works within a year (September 2023 – September 2024)  
• The work demonstrates a strong alignment to the BEW eligibility criteria, especially the “community-based” and “community benefit” criteria.  
• The work demonstrates strong alignment to one of the focus areas identified or makes a strong case for another focus area.  

So long as the work is distinct and other members of the leadership team are different, your name can be attached to multiple applications.

We will invest in no fewer than 40 organizations for a total annual investment of no less than $1.6 million.

Yes!

All selected organizations will be required to submit necessary paperwork to receive the grant. Grantees will have no fewer than two check-in calls with UWGC staff annually. A final report will be due at the end of the grant year.

The application form itself is the same, but the applicant will take a different approach to answering the questions. All responses should amplify the collaboration. Additionally, collaboratives will be required to submit a “document of collaboration” describing the current state and structure of the collaborative, the distinct roles of the partners and an agreement to share resources. This could be a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among all partners, letters of commitment or partnership agreements. 

Not necessarily. We look at overall strength of the applications submitted. A strong single-entity application could be selected over a less-strong collaborative one. 

Collaboratives can request more in funds than single-entity applicants. We honor that it might take more resources to carry out intentionally with others.

We would work with the collaborative partners to determine modifications, which is the same strategy we take with single-entity applicants.

No. The collaborative application would count as the one submission of the year for all collaborative members listed.