The Chautauqua County Youth Bureau is requesting applications for its Youth Sports Funding to support programs for Chautauqua County youth ages 6-17.
Donor Name: Chautauqua County
State: New York
County: Chautauqua County (NY)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/09/2026
Size of the Grant: $1000 to $10,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
Priorities
- Youth Sports Education Funding (YSEF) – Programs that enable youth to be active and encourage physical fitness. OCFS encourages a wide and flexible definition of sports that includes organized activities with movement, including physical fitness activitiessuch as, but not limited to yoga, hiking, dance, and active outdoor pursuits.
- Youth Team Sports (YTS) – Programs that support an organized physical activity. OCFS defines “team sport” as an organized physical activity in which groups of two or more individuals compete with two or more opposing individuals. Sporting activities where individuals engage in competition on behalf of an organized group including, but not limited to, team tennis, team golf, or racing sports such as swimming or skiing, are included in this definition.
Principles
Awards are guided by the following principles:
- Sports are effective tools in positive youth development and family engagement.
- Sports improve the lives of young people by promoting positive social, emotional, health and educational outcomes and have important life-long effects.
- Sports enable opportunities for young people to thrive through leadership roles.
- Coaching education greatly improves young people’s sports experience and development outcomes.
Funding Information
Each applicant may request up to $10,000 in funding to support programming.
Grant Period
October 1, 2026, and September 30, 2027.
Uses of Funds
Municipal youth bureaus will contract with local organizations, municipalities and/or local or municipal youth bureaus directly. Funding may provide general operating dollars to give programs flexibility to efficiently allocate resources for quality programming. Line-item budgets should focus on programming costs, including but not limited to the following:
- Coaches/instructors/direct service staff/mentors (including training/professional development)
- Infrastructure improvements (repave courts/reseed fields, new nets, storage for equipment.)
- Permits/fees, including access to fields, courts, etc.)
- Equipment, gear, uniforms
- Scholarship/offset cost of youth registration
- Educational programming costs (first aid, supplies, snacks, etc.)
- Costs associated with adaptability/making the activity accessible for youth with disabilities
- Facility/field and/or space cost.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants eligible for funding through this RFP must meet the following criteria:
- Community-based organizations incorporated as a not-for-profit entity
- Chautauqua County Municipality
- Certified as tax-exempt entities under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code
- Incorporated through the NYS Department of State or registered with the Attorney General Charities Bureau
- Provide structured sports programs for Chautauqua County youth ages 6-17
- Demonstrate basic competency in the areas of governance, monitoring and evaluation, partnership and financial stewardship
- Have a child protection policy in place that includes adherence to locality, agency, school district and state child protection guidelines
- Collect registration data, including participant demographic information, as required by OCFS in a manner that allows for accurate reporting of anonymized aggregate dat
- Administer a participant and/or parent satisfaction survey at least once during the program period and provide summary results with final reporting
- Have a scholarship or tiered-cost system firmly in place. (No youth may be turned away based on the inability of a youth’s family to afford membership fees associated with program participation).
Ineligibility
Organizations and activities NOT eligible for funding are the following:
- For-profit organizations or businesses
- Private foundations, as defined in section 509(a) of the U.S. Internal RevenueCode
- Organizations that discriminate based on age, ethnicity/race, political affiliation, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, physical or other disability, national origin or any protected characteristic under local, state and/or federal law
- Research or project planning activities
- Support for elite or private sports camps, programs, orteams
- Endowments, memorials, budget deficits, or fundraising activities
- Religious organizations whose sports programs do not have a secular and community focus
- Lobbying, political, or fraternal activities
- Capital projects
For more information, visit Chautauqua County.
