Opportunities for Funding

The Bess Spiva Timmons Foundation, a family foundation, was established by Mrs. Timmons in 1967, to enable her children and grandchildren to carry on an already existing program of assistance in the areas of education, health, medical research, the arts, and programs with emphasis to benefit minority groups, social services, and ecology. Consideration is also given to experimental ventures in these designated areas. Smaller tax-exempt organizations, which have limited financial assistance, are favored for grants.

The Foundation cannot consider requests from individuals or associations based in foreign countries, and does not normally support operating expenses, salaries, payroll, endowments, major building projects, or major acquisitions. The Foundation does not make permanent commitments of support.

Grants generally range from one to five thousand dollars.

The purpose of the General Fund grant is to provide technical and financial assistance to local agencies for the planning and construction of water recycling projects that promote the beneficial use of treated municipal wastewater in order to augment fresh water supplies in California.

Grants will be awarded for specific eligible activities, such as speaking on a panel, participating in a working group, or participation in other decision-making processes. The PP Grant Account cap per organization of $15,000 will ensure a proportional distribution of funds over time and across various organizations. Submissions for grant awards will be accepted on a rolling basis throughout the grant period and payment for these discrete engagements will be prompt.

The Public Participation (PP) Grant Account helps remove barriers to participation and provides compensation for organizations involved in CPUC activities and influence policy decisions. Grant account supports ESJ Action Plan by compensating Community-based organizations (CBOs) and Tribes for their contributions to CPUC.

Project Grants are competitive grants supporting public programming using the humanities to provide context, depth, and perspective to the Arizona experience and explore issues of significance to Arizonans. Organizations may request up to $10,000 to support their program implementation. Project Grants are awarded twice yearly and there is no annual budget limit for applicants. For more information please see the Arizona Humanities Grant Guidelines.

Throughout its existence, the success of Union Pacific's business has been inextricably linked to the economic and community wellbeing of cities and towns across the nation. We take pride in the role we have played in helping communities thrive and believe the impact we can have on local communities is greatest when it is authentic to our history and reflective of the diverse company we are today. As such, we have carefully aligned our Local Grants cause areas to our company's unique heritage, strengths, and assets. Specifically, we prioritize funding for direct services and efforts that build the capacity of organizations focused on the following causes within our local operating communities. Within each focus area, we aim to support programs and organizations working to advance the diversity, equity and inclusion of underrepresented populations within the local context and issue areas addressed. Find more information about our commitment to DEI in our FAQs.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program provides $8.8 million to 774 eligible Tribes, including Alaska Native Regional and Village corporations. EECBG Program funding can be used as seed funding that can grow into bigger projects, assisting communities to meet energy efficiency goals. Tribes can use EECBG Program funds to upgrade buildings, install renewable energy equipment, or develop climate and clean energy plans. The EECBG Program also has a voucher application option, intended to streamline the application and management process.

What We Fund
The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation makes grants in three priority areas: Conservation, Performing Arts and Social Impact.

Conservation
The ocean sustains life on earth. Marine ecosystems foster immense biodiversity that nourishes and provides livelihoods for human communities world-wide. Moreover, the ocean regulates crucial climate processes by absorbing and storing vast amounts of carbon dioxide while simultaneously producing oxygen. Tragically, however, the ocean’s ability to perform these vital functions is imperiled by a host of human-caused threats, including climate change, habitat destruction, overfishing, and pollution.

The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation (PMAFF) Conservation Program works to counteract these threats by supporting programs, projects, and organizations that conserve and protect marine biodiversity. In 2022-23, PMAFF carried out a strategic analysis to identify underfunded marine conservation fields where our investment could have the greatest impact. As a result, we focus our grantmaking on efforts to:

Implement sustainable and effective Marine Protected Areas;
Reform international fisheries governance;
Conserve coral reef ecosystems;
Conserve shark and ray species;
Increase legal capacity dedicated to marine conservation;
End plastic pollution; and
Combat climate change by decarbonizing maritime shipping and building international political will for climate action.

The PMAFF Conservation Program upholds these priorities by working closely with ocean-focused donor advised funds and funding collaboratives and by awarding grants for ocean conservation work via PMAFF’s open, bi-annual grantmaking process.

For more detailed information regarding our interests in these topics and our open, bi-annual grantmaking process, please review our PMFF Conservation Program Overview to learn more.

Performing Arts
The goal of the Performing Arts program is to support the presentation, perpetuation, and propagation of performing arts events, focusing on classical music and theater. Grantee organizations include professional performers, presenters, (including broadcasters) and educators. We are currently considering grants to the Chicago area, Cleveland, Detroit, and the Mid-Atlantic Region (from Washington, D.C. north to Philadelphia, PA). Please note that we currently do not fund dance or film. We also do not fund individual commissions.

Social Impact
The goal of the Foundation’s grantmaking in Social Impact is to promote equitable, safe, and thriving communities, particularly for low-income African, Latino/a, Asian, Arab and Native American (ALAANA). Achieving this goal requires long-term, comprehensive approaches led by those closest to the challenges and the possibilities.

The Foundation is committed to understanding and addressing the root causes of persistent inequities for ALAANA families and communities, including the profoundly harmful impacts of structural racism and white supremacy. The Foundation funds efforts that promote access to meaningful life opportunities, such as quality education, networks of support and healing, and financial assets and employment. The Foundation also supports antiracist education, organizing, and advocacy efforts that have strong potential to advance meaningful systemic change.

Public and private disinvestment has created unjust inequities in almost every realm of social, economic, and civic life of many ALAANA communities. At the same time, every neighborhood is home to creative and resilient individuals, families, businesses, and institutions. The Foundation’s grantmaking in Social Impact seeks to recognize both of these realities while it learns from and supports thoughtful and strategic changemakers. Priority areas are Education, Economic Empowerment, and Justice.

For more details, please read the foundation’s paper, “A New Grantmaking Model for Social Impact.”

*Please note, within Social Impact, we are currently only able to consider new grant requests within the Chicago metropolitan area. This does not apply to grant renewal requests.

TYPES OF SUPPORT
General Operating
This is the most flexible type of grant. Funds may be applied in any manner in which the organization sees fit, subject to its mission.
Program/Project Grants
These grants are targeted to a specific program or goal. Applicants must submit a program budget and narrative to support their applications.
Education
Education grants support programs which disseminate information crucial to the organization’s mission. They may include, but are not necessarily limited to: lectures, demonstrations, workshops, guided tours, exhibitions, and distribution of printed or online materials.

THE FOUNDATION WILL NOT PROVIDE GRANTS FOR:
Religious institutions or other nonprofit organizations affiliated with a religion.
Debt reduction
Fundraising events
Events that will have taken place before the determination of an award. The foundation does not fund in arrears. If applying for the Spring cycle, the date of events must begin after May 15th. For the Fall cycle, events must begin after December 1st.

Thank you for your interest in applying for a grant from the Fund for Wild Nature. The Fund provides small grants for North American campaigns to save native species and wild ecosystems, with particular emphasis on actions designed to defend threatened wilderness and biological diversity. We support biocentric goals that are premised on effective and intelligible strategies. We give special attention to ecological issues not currently receiving sufficient public attention and funding. We seek proposals with visionary and yet realistic goals to create tangible change. All proposals must be highly cost effective.

Examples of activities we fund include advocacy, litigation, public policy work, and similar endeavors. We do NOT fund basic scientific research, private land acquisition, for-profit enterprises, individual action or study, conferences, or organizations which receive government funding or support. Although we commend the work of wildlife sanctuaries, wildlife rehabilitation facilities, botanical gardens, zoos, learning centers, and habitat restoration, these are beyond the scope of our mission and for that reason we do not fund this type of work. We will only fund media projects that have a clear, significant strategic value to biodiversity and a concrete plan for dissemination of the final product. We strongly recommend reading about our grantees’ work to find parallels, if any, with your work. View recent grantees and past annual reports for more information.

The Fisheries Restoration and Irrigation Mitigation Act (FRIMA) (Public Law 106-502) of 2000 was established with the goals of decreasing fish mortality associated with the withdrawal of water for irrigation and other purposes without impairing the continued withdrawal of water for those purposes; and to decrease the incidence of juvenile and adult fish entering water supply systems. FRIMA is a voluntary fish screening and passage program targeted to Pacific Ocean drainage areas of Idaho, western Montana, Oregon, and Washington.

Eligible projects include fish screens, fish passage devices, and related inventories by the States. FRIMA was Reauthorized in FY2009. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 provided $5 million to the National Fish Passage Program (NFPP) for the implementation of FRIMA and added the Pacific Ocean drainage areas of California as eligible for FRIMA funds.The National Fish Passage Program (NFPP) is a voluntary program that provides direct technical and financial assistance to partners to remove instream barriers and restore aquatic organism passage and aquatic connectivity for the benefit of Federal trust resources. In doing so, NFPP aims to maintain or increase fish populations to improve ecosystem resiliency and provide quality fishing experiences for the American people. Funds provided to NFPP for the implementation of FRIMA will support the development, improvement, or installation of fish screens, fish passage devices and related features to mitigate impacts on fisheries associated with irrigation water system diversions in Pacific Ocean drainages in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, and California.

The NFPP is delivered through the Fish and Aquatic Conservation Program (FAC). We use our staff and cooperative partnerships to provide:
(1) information on habitat needs of fish and other aquatic species;
(2) methods for fish to bypass barriers;
(3) technical support to review project designs and recommend the most cost-effective techniques;
(4) assistance to partners in planning and prioritizing fish passage projects; and
(5) assistance in fulfilling environmental compliance requirements.

Activities proposed under this award for FRIMA:
(1) must be located in areas of California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, or western Montana that drain into the Pacific Ocean,
(2) participation must be voluntary,
(3) must have 35% Non-Federal cost share per Public Law 106-502. Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) funding can be applied to the Non-Federal cost share,
(4) project type must be voluntary irrigation diversion passage, screening, barrier inventories, and ‘related features’,
(5) project components that receive funding under this Act shall be ineligible to receive federal funds from any other source (with the exception of BPA funds) for the same purpose,
(6) the project will be agreeable to Federal and non-Federal entities with authority and responsibility for the project,
(7) award minimum will be $100,000; award maximum will be $1,000,000, and
(8) the non-Federal participants in any project carried out under the Program on land or at a facility that is not owned by the United States shall be responsible for all costs associated with operating, maintaining, repairing, rehabilitating, and replacing the project.