The Michelson 20MM Foundation is seeking applications for its Student Basic Needs Spark Grants.
Donor Name: Michelson 20MM Foundation
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 12/15/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
Focus Areas
For the 2025 funding cycle, projects should address at least one of the following focus areas:
- Systemic approaches and actionable strategies for higher education systems to address student housing and food insecurity. These can include but aren’t limited to:
- Implementing and integrating policies, such as AB 79 (Basic Needs Implementation and Data Coordination) and similar legislation addressing student housing, food security, and financial stability
- Innovative approaches that facilitate the transfer of public benefits, housing supports, and other resources when students move between institutions
- Innovative and scalable financing and partnership models that address student housing and food insecurity
- Policy advocacy efforts that systematically address housing and food insecurity
- Innovative approaches that strengthen equitable economic mobility and long-term student stability. These can include but aren’t limited to:
- Expanding workforce development pipelines that promote economic mobility for low-income and first-generation students (including those that strategically leverage work study)
- Supporting post-graduation housing and employment transition programs that extend basic needs support beyond college completion
- Models that move basic needs operations from grant-based to sustainable, institutionalized systems with skilled, permanent staff (including innovative approaches that mitigate the impact of recent federal policy shifts)
- Policy advocacy efforts that strengthen economic mobility and long-term student stability
- Innovative and scalable financing and partnership models that strengthen economic mobility and long-term student stability
- Systematic approaches that address basic needs insecurity via innovative Emergency Student Aid models. These can include but aren’t limited to:
- Evaluating and scaling emergency aid and direct financial assistance programs to assess and ensure their long-term impact on retention, degree completion, and post-graduation stability
- Scalable Strategies to Support Students Ineligible for State or Federal Aid
- Innovative financing and partnership models that help scale and sustain emergency student aid
- Policy advocacy efforts that systematically address emergency student aid.
The Spark Principles
- Scalability
- Pilot Program Support
- Rapid Response.
Funding Information
Grant Award up to $25,000.
Eligibility Criteria
For the Spark Grant cycles, they generally focus the impact on organizations doing work in California. Organizations whose work does not impact California are likely ineligible, but please review the call for proposals each cycle.
For more information, visit Michelson 20MM Foundation.
