The City of Iowa City is accepting applications for a grant program designed to advance social justice and racial equity in the community starting in December.

This grant opportunity is available to Iowa City-based organizations, both none and for profit, with the purpose of encouraging, empowering, and engaging social justice and racial equity initiatives through programs, activities, or services that help eliminate inequities in the Iowa City community.

Programs that address one or more of the six priority service areas will receive preference: education, building community, housing, criminal justice, health, and employment.

Funding Information

• The City Council has approved $75,000 for fiscal year 2020, which will be split among the recipients.
• An organization cannot request more than $25,000 for a project in a grant funding cycle.

Requirements

• To be eligible for funding, the organization must be principally and physically located in Iowa City.
• Proposals should seek to eliminate an inequity in the community (individual, institutional, or structural), and be a new project that assists individuals or groups that have been marginalized in Iowa City.
• Governments, public schools, public colleges and public universities cannot be a primary applicant. Organizations associated or affiliated with a government, public school, public college or public university can apply as a primary applicant, for example, a student organization or a parent teacher association.
• Whether an organization has received or will receive funding from the City of Iowa City should be considered and weighted by each Commissioner when evaluating an application. The look back period is 5 years.
• An organization will be allowed to use up to 25% of its funding for operational costs. Operational Costs are defined as expenses which are related to the operation of a business, or to the operation of a device, component, piece of equipment or facility. They are the cost of resources used by an organization just to maintain its existence. Examples include but are not limited to: salaries or wages of personnel, advertising, raw materials, license or equivalent fees (such as Corporation yearly registration fees) imposed by a government, real estate expenses (like rent or lease payments), furniture and equipment, utilities (such as telephone service, internet connectivity, etc.), maintenance of equipment, office supplies and consumables, and insurance premiums.

For more information, visit City of Iowa.