The Steele-Reese Foundation makes grants only to federally tax-exempt entities for work in rural Idaho and Montana communities, and in Native nations with whom they share this geography.
Donor Name: Steele-Reese Foundation
State: Idaho and Montana
City: Selected Cities
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/31/2023
Size of the Grant: $5,000
Details:
The Foundation will only consider requests that benefit rural communities in Idaho, Montana, and in Native nations with whom they share this geography. They will not consider requests for work benefiting urban or suburban areas, or those more rural areas immediately adjacent, or in close proximity, to an urbanized area. In Idaho, urban areas include the Boise-Nampa Metropolitan Statistical Area, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Coeur d’Alene, Twin Falls, Lewiston, Post Falls, Rexburg, Moscow, and their suburbs. In Montana, urban areas include Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, Bozeman, Butte, Helena, Kalispell, and their suburbs.
The Foundation gives priority to organizations based in rural communities who are working in rural areas, including Native-led organizations. They will also consider inquiries from organizations based in urban areas for proposed work in a rural community with whom they can demonstrate an existing high level of engagement.
Program Areas
In its Idaho and Montana Grant Program, the Foundation supports projects that affect people in rural areas in Idaho, Montana, and in Native nations that share the geography in the following program areas:
- Rural Education
- Rural Human/Social Services
- Rural Conservation and Preservation
- Rural Health
- Rural Arts and Humanities projects
- Capital Improvements and Campaigns
- In all program areas, the Foundation makes a limited number of grants for capital improvements, fixtures, and remodeling, retrofitting, and building new structures. In projects involving the building of a new facility or other large-scale capital endeavors, they typically make these grants only during the closing phases when a substantial portion of the required funds are already in hand.
The Idaho and Montana Grant Program also supports projects in each of these program areas in and around Native nations that share the geography: Projects in Indian Country.
Funding Information
The minimum grant awarded by the Foundation is $5,000. They rarely make grants of up to $50,000 for a single year or make multi-year grants.
Eligibility Criteria
The Foundation considers requests from 501(c) 3 organizations and from governmental entities or agencies such as schools, fire departments, and libraries.
Overall Guidelines
The criteria that follow relate to each of the program areas listed above and offer guidance to prospective applicants. Proposed projects should:
- Serve rural areas
- Help people to help themselves
- Be modest and direct in aim
- Be narrow in function
- Be based on experience
- Demonstrate community financial, in-kind, or other support
- Be essential, rather than merely desirable
- Yield a direct and measurable, rather than a remote, benefit to people
- Be conducted by competent, practical organizations and managers and demonstrate strong leadership capacity at both the organizational and program level
For more information, visit Steele-Reese Foundation.
