YOUR TOWN ALABAMA NEEDS YOU!!! We're looking for examples of excellent gateways to Alabama communities. Does your community have an outstanding example of a gateway? Or, maybe you've seen a bad example. Send us either good or bad examples! 
Available Grants
Grants Encourage Social Action
The Case Foundation: Make It Your Own Awards
The mission of the Case Foundation is to achieve sustainable solutions to complex social problems by investing in collaboration, leadership, and entrepreneurship. The Foundation’s Make It Your Own Awards challenge individuals to join together to create innovative ideas and solutions that can lay the groundwork for long-term social change. The awards will be presented to passionate individuals, or individuals working with local organizations, who develop ideas to transform their communities. Eligible applicants must reside in one of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico. Twenty finalists will each receive a $10,000 grant to help make their ideas into reality. The final four (chosen by the votes of the online community) will receive an additional $25,000 grant. The top 100 finalists will get $100 from the Case Foundation to jump-start their ideas. Brief applications will be accepted online through August 8, 2007. Visit the website listed above for more information.
Funds for Youth Service Projects Worldwide
Youth Service America: Disney Minnie Grants
The Disney Minnie Grants, sponsored by the Walt Disney Company and administered by Youth Service America, encourage youth-led service projects worldwide. These grants of up to $500 support youth (ages 5-14) in planning and implementing service projects in their community. Projects can address themes such as the environment, disaster relief, public health, hunger, literacy, or any issue that youth identify as a community need. Teachers, youth-leaders, and youth-serving organizations are also eligible to apply, provided that they engage younger youth in planning and implementing the service. Projects should take place between October 1 and November 26, 2007. Applications are welcome from all countries, although applications will only be accepted in English. Applicants from China, India, and Russia are especially encouraged to apply. The application deadline is August 30, 2007. Visit the website listed above for application guidelines and forms.
Animal Welfare Programs in the U.S. and Canada Funded
Build-A-Bear Workshop: Bear Hugs Foundation Pet Program Grants
The Build-A-Bear Workshop Bear Hugs Foundation Pet Program Grants support local domestic pet programs throughout the United States and Canada. Funding categories include animal shelters, stray pet rescue and rehabilitation organizations, therapeutic programs, and educational pet programs. Priority is given to communities where Build-A-Bear Workshop has stores. Applications may be submitted at any time, and are reviewed on a quarterly basis. Visit the website listed above for grant application guidelines and forms.
Grants Target Public Interest Media Projects
The Arca Foundation
The Arca Foundation is dedicated to the pursuit of social equity and justice, particularly given the growing disparities in the world. The Foundation is currently focusing on media and democracy in order to ensure a future in which media structures are open, content is diverse, and civic participation is maximized. Support is provided for projects that promote a diverse, democratic, and competitive media that serves the public interest and provides avenues for expression of our First Amendment rights. Funding is provided for both public policy and content projects. The next application deadline is September 1, 2007. Visit the website listed above for more information on the Foundation’s priorities as well as application guidelines.
Grants Foster Local Habitat Protection
Patagonia Environmental Grant Program
The Patagonia Environmental Grant Program provides support for environmental work to small, grassroots activist organizations with direct-action agendas, working on multi-pronged campaigns to preserve and protect our environment. Patagonia primarily funds local groups working to protect local habitat. The company's philosophy is that the individual battles to protect a specific stand of forest, stretch of river, or indigenous wild species are the most effective in raising more complicated issues – particularly those of biodiversity and ecosystem protection – in the public mind. Proposals will be accepted at the Patagonia corporate office during the month of August, and must be postmarked by August 31, 2007. Visit the website listed above for more information.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Immunization Grants and Vaccines for Children Program This program supports efforts to plan, develop, and maintain a public health infrastructure that helps assure high immunization coverage levels and low incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases.
Department of Education: Charter Schools Program This program seeks to increase national understanding of the charter school model and to expand the number of high-quality charter schools available to students across the nation by providing financial assistance for the planning, program design, and initial implementation of charter schools, and to evaluate the effects of charter schools, including their effects on students, student academic achievement, staff, and parents.
Indian Health Service: Tribal Management Grant Program. This program assists tribal governments and organizations in assuming all or part of existing Indian Health Services programs, services, functions, and activities through a Title I contract.
National Endowment for the Arts: Grants for Arts Projects/Access to Artistic Excellence Grants.gov or NEA This program encourages and supports artistic creativity, preserves our diverse cultural heritage, and makes the arts more widely available in communities throughout the country.
National Science Foundation: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion ProgramThis program seeks to increase the number of students receiving associate or baccalaureate degrees in established or emerging fields within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Innovative Visual Arts Programs Supported: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts' objective is to foster innovative artistic expression by supporting cultural organizations that, in turn, support artists and their work. The Foundation is focused primarily on supporting work of a challenging and often experimental nature. Grants are made on a project basis to curatorial programs at museums, artists' organizations, and other cultural institutions to originate innovative and scholarly presentations of contemporary visual arts. Projects may include exhibitions, catalogues, and other organizational activities directly related to these programs. The Foundation also supports efforts to strengthen areas that directly affect the context in which artists work -- such as freedom of artistic expression and equitable access to resources. The next application deadline is September 1, 2007. Visit the website listed above for more information. http://www.warholfoundation.org/
