The Youth Service Improvement Grants (YSIG) program supports activities to improve the quality of direct services for young people ages 5 to 25 in the five boroughs of New York City.
Donor Name: William T. Grant Foundation
State: New York
City: Bronx, Brooklyn, New York City
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 04/03/2024
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The goal is to strengthen existing services by helping youth-serving nonprofit organizations address challenges or remedy problems at the point of service, where staff and youth interact.
YSIG urges applicants not only to discuss their organizations’ promise and potential, but to identify gaps or challenges in the services they provide. They ask applicants to be critical and reflective, to consider why and how complications exist, and to articulate how they intend to improve the ability of their programming to provide positive impact on youth.
Examples of problem areas for improvement include: inadequate curriculum, gaps in the service skills of frontline staff, or a limitation in current services that adversely affects participants’ experiences. Beyond these examples, they welcome other compelling needs for service improvement.
Funding Information
Awards are $25,000 each.
Eligibility Criteria
The YSIG program awards grants only to youth-serving community-based nonprofit organizations physically located in any of the five boroughs of New York City whose staff have direct programmatic contact with youth at the point of service. Applicants must meet all organizational criteria to be eligible. Organizations previously funded under either of the Foundation’s Youth Service Grant programs cannot apply again for at least 18 months after the end of their award.
Organizational Criteria
Applicants must meet all of the following criteria:
- Serve youth ages 5 to 25 years.
- At least 80 percent of youth participating in the direct service program targeted for improvement must be in this age range.
- The applicant’s staff must have direct contact with youth at the point of service.
- Have their own 501(c)(3) tax-exemption.
- If operating under fiscal sponsorship, confirmation of fiscal sponsorship agreement is required.
- If an applying organization is separately incorporated but tax-exempt through a group ruling (religious institutions), the applicant should supply the 501(c) (3) letter of the parent organization and documentation that is part of the group.
- The applying organization (not the fiscal sponsor) must have an operating budget between $250,000 and $5 million in the prior year (e.g., 2023), if the organization serves youth only. ○ If the applying organization serves youth and other populations, its operating budget must be less than $20 million and its youth services budget must be between $250,000 and $5 million.
- Have audited financial statements or certified financial statements, ideally 2023 or 2022, from the applying organization or from the fiscal sponsor if the organization is operating under fiscal sponsorship.
- Have a 990 for the applying organization (or explain your exemption). Or, if operating under fiscal sponsorship, the fiscal sponsor much have a 990.
Additional Considerations: Reducing Inequality Criteria
The YSIG program is aligned with the Foundation’s broader focus on reducing inequality in youth outcomes. Inequality in New York City is reflected in racial and economic segregation across boroughs and neighborhoods, in inadequate services for Mexican-descent youth and LGBTQ+ youth, and in a lack of racial, ethnic, gender identity, and sexual-orientation diversity among executive directors and CEOs of youth-serving organizations. We seek to help improve the quality of direct service programs provided by youth-serving non-profit organizations that confront these challenges.
Meeting the criteria below is not a requirement for funding. However, applicants who fulfill at least one reducing inequality criteria in addition to all organizational criteria described above will receive priority consideration.
Currently provide youth services in one of the eleven community districts identified as having the highest community risk to child well-being by the Citizens’ Committee for Children:
Bronx
- CD 1 – Mott Haven
- CD 2 – Hunts Point
- CD 3 – Morrisania
- CD 4 – Concourse/Highbridge
- CD 5 – University Heights
- CD 6 – East Tremont
- CD 7 – Bedford Park
- CD 9 – Union Port/Soundview
- CD 12- Williamsbridge
Brooklyn:
- CD 5 – East New York
- CD 16 – Brownsville
The YSIG program does not support
- General operations.
- Planning, needs assessment, and evaluation proposals.
- Program improvement activities not focused on changes at the point-of-service, such as board development or financial system updates.
- Capital fund projects, scholarships, endowments, lobbying, real estate purchases, or awards to individuals.
- Expansions or additions to programming, including changes that simply increase the number of slots in a program or result in new programming.
- Public and private schools.
- Organizations that are based outside the five boroughs of New York City.
For more information, visit WTGF.
