Initiatives Grants

The Foun­da­tion’s three Ini­tia­tives are in vary­ing stages of evo­lu­tion, hav­ing been launched at dif­fer­ent times post-pan­dem­ic. Fol­low­ing are def­i­n­i­tions and goals relat­ed to each effort. The basis of each Ini­tia­tive is a col­lab­o­ra­tive work­ing group that has con­tributed to the devel­op­ment the ideals below.

Behav­ioral Health Ini­tia­tive
The fol­low­ing was adopt­ed by the Teton Behav­ioral Health Alliance in 2023.

• Pur­pose, Vision, Mis­sion, and Values
• Def­i­n­i­tions and Goals

Hous­ing Solu­tions Initiative

• Pur­pose. The Hous­ing Ini­tia­tive cham­pi­ons col­lab­o­ra­tive hous­ing solu­tions that increase the avail­abil­i­ty and vari­ety of afford­able hous­ing sup­port ser­vices across diverse seg­ments of our community.
• Goals. From the recent Hous­ing Dash­board project, col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly cre­at­ed by com­mu­ni­ty invest­ed part­ners and sup­port­ed by the CFJH Hous­ing Solu­tions Ini­tia­tive, the fol­low­ing goals are prioritized:
  • Address hous­ing needs by expand­ing or trans­form­ing exist­ing pro­grams to cre­ate hous­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that address crit­i­cal gaps in services.
  • Enhance strate­gic part­ner­ships between hous­ing part­ners and oth­er sectors.
  • Advance pro­grams address­ing the needs of com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers who are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect­ed by the dearth of safe and afford­able housing.
  • Fos­ter shared learn­ing that pro­motes com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment and advances col­lab­o­ra­tive hous­ing solutions.
• Approach. The Hous­ing Solu­tions Ini­tia­tive aims to sup­port afford­able hous­ing efforts through a cross-sec­tor approach that includes lever­ag­ing part­ner­ships to build a Hous­ing Col­lec­tive of com­mu­ni­ty part­ners who col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly advance hous­ing solu­tions by learn­ing togeth­er, align­ing goals, and inte­grat­ing actions.
• Note: 2024 Hous­ing Solu­tions Ini­tia­tives Grants will not fund land acqui­si­tion or con­struc­tion (e.g. labor, mate­ri­als). The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion is cur­rent­ly devel­op­ing impact invest­ing tools to help sup­port these needs. 

Edu­ca­tion & Fam­i­lies Ini­tia­tive
The fol­low­ing is under devel­op­ment by Sys­tems of Education.

• Pur­pose. Through Sys­tems of Edu­ca­tion, the Edu­ca­tion & Fam­i­lies Ini­tia­tive works to ensure every learn­er can expe­ri­ence suc­cess as a young adult by mak­ing out-of-school learn­ing, from ear­ly child­hood through 12^th grade, more equi­table, acces­si­ble, and enrich­ing for all young peo­ple in Teton Coun­ty, Wyoming.
• Goals.
  • Build capac­i­ty to meet the expand­ed learn­ing needs of Teton Coun­ty youth by iden­ti­fy­ing and address­ing gaps in services.
  • Iden­ti­fy and address bar­ri­ers to access that per­pet­u­ate inequities with­in our community.
  • Pro­mote the recruit­ment, train­ing, and reten­tion of edu­ca­tors to pro­vide the high­est qual­i­ty expand­ed learn­ing experiences.
  • Estab­lish access points and path­ways to make the expand­ed learn­ing land­scape eas­i­er to navigate.
• Approach
  • Fos­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties and address chal­lenges for out-of-school time through col­lec­tive action.
  • Break down silos and pro­mote col­lab­o­ra­tion to ensure we are learn­ing with and from each oth­er and our community.
  • Impact learn­ers through pro­gram­ming and by engag­ing with the broad­er con­text that sup­ports their suc­cess, includ­ing edu­ca­tors, insti­tu­tions, families.
  • Ground this work in data, sto­ries, and the wis­dom and expe­ri­ences of com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to ensure equi­table access to out-of-school learning. 

There is no spec­i­fied request range for Ini­tia­tives Grants. Exam­ples of past Ini­tia­tives Grants (see below) offer a ball­park range. Appli­cants should be aware that funds are lim­it­ed, and the appli­ca­tion process is high­ly competitive. 

Cri­te­ria

Pro­posed work must have 2 of 3 of the fol­low­ing characteristics: 

• Address­es a broad, cross-cut­ting com­mu­ni­ty need or issue relat­ed to behav­ioral health, hous­ing, or out-of-school learning 
• Sig­nif­i­cant­ly ben­e­fits a dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect­ed group 
• Mean­ing­ful­ly expands orga­ni­za­tion­al capac­i­ty and ben­e­fits the community 

Pref­er­ences and Con­sid­er­a­tions

While not required, strong appli­ca­tions will meet addi­tion­al considerations: 

• CFJH Strate­gic Plan and Val­ues alignment 
• Com­pelling strat­e­gy for change and inno­va­tion, sup­port­ed by data if available 
• Strong like­li­hood of yield­ing mean­ing­ful impact 
• Strate­gic partnerships 
• Diver­si­ty of fund­ing sources and a plan for ongo­ing funding 
• Appli­cant has orga­ni­za­tion­al capac­i­ty, sta­bil­i­ty, respon­si­ble lead­er­ship, and a track record of pro­gram­mat­ic success 
• Encour­aged but not required: par­tic­i­pa­tion in Ini­tia­tive-spe­cif­ic work­ing groups – Teton Behav­ioral Health Alliance, Hous­ing Dash­board Work­ing Group, and/​or Sys­tems of Education 

Email programservices@​cfjacksonhole.​org with ques­tions about a pro­pos­al con­cept you’re con­sid­er­ing. We can help you deter­mine if Ini­tia­tives Grants is the best fit.

• High-impact pro­gram­ming focused on sig­nif­i­cant com­mu­ni­ty issues (large num­bers or dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect­ed pop­u­la­tions served)
• Cap­i­tal expen­di­tures for orga­ni­za­tions effec­tive­ly address­ing crit­i­cal com­mu­ni­ty needs (expen­di­ture must have broad and endur­ing com­mu­ni­ty ben­e­fit, or sig­nif­i­cant­ly sup­port pop­u­la­tions in need)
• Imple­men­ta­tion of strate­gic plan­ning (not strate­gic plan­ning itself – think ​“Series B” funding) 
• Non­prof­it merg­ers that will increase effi­cien­cy and impact in crit­i­cal ser­vice areas 

This is not a com­pre­hen­sive list. The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion wel­comes cre­ative pro­pos­als that mean­ing­ful­ly advance Ini­tia­tives’ goals. 

While this is a new­ly-for­mal­ized pro­gram, sev­er­al grants of this nature were award­ed in a fall 2023 Ini­tia­tives Grants pilot pro­gram. Fol­low­ing are exam­ples of sup­port­ed requests:

Hous­ing

• $32,000 for tar­get­ed and per­son­al­ized out­reach with immi­grant com­mu­ni­ties to ensure that tra­di­tion­al­ly mar­gin­al­ized house­holds are reg­is­tered to apply for upcom­ing afford­able hous­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties through the Jackson/​Teton Coun­ty Afford­able Hous­ing Depart­ment. Grantee: Voic­esJH in part­ner­ship with Jackson/​Teton Coun­ty Afford­able Hous­ing Department
• $35,000 for a local needs assess­ment on dis­abil­i­ty-inclu­sive and acces­si­ble hous­ing, pol­i­cy change rec­om­men­da­tions for incen­tiviz­ing ser­vice-ready hous­ing, and tech­ni­cal assis­tance to the local devel­op­ment sec­tor on the ben­e­fits of inte­grat­ing dis­abil­i­ty-for­ward hous­ing ele­ments into the cur­rent Afford­able and Work­force hous­ing pipeline. Grantee: Jackson/​Teton Coun­ty Afford­able Hous­ing Depart­ment, in part­ner­ship with The Kelsey, Senior Cen­ter of JH, Ver­ti­cal Har­vest, Com­mu­ni­ty Entry Ser­vices, and par­ents of adults liv­ing with disabilities
• $30,000 to sup­port long-term plan­ning and strate­gic imple­men­ta­tion of TCSD employ­ee hous­ing. Grantee: Fund for Pub­lic Education

Behav­ioral Health

• $35,000 to estab­lish the Lati­na Empow­er­ment Cir­cle as an annu­al pre­ven­tion pro­gram. Grantee: Com­mu­ni­ty Safe­ty Net­work, in part­ner­ship with Voic­esJH and Teton Coun­ty Health Department
• $65,000 to sup­port and expand access to providers of gen­der-affirm­ing men­tal health ser­vices. Grantee: Gen­der Spec­trum, in part­ner­ship with Teton Well­ness Affiliates
• $50,000 to help youth strug­gling with behav­ioral issues, sub­stance use dis­or­der and/​or oth­er men­tal health chal­lenges through a day treat­ment and after­noon sup­port group. Grantee: Teton Youth and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices in part­ner­ship with Men­tal Health and Recov­ery Ser­vices, Teton Coun­ty School Dis­trict #1, and 20+ state and non­prof­it agencies

Edu­ca­tion & Families

While Edu­ca­tion & Fam­i­lies Grants are new, this past Oppor­tu­ni­ties Grant is an exam­ple of what an Edu­ca­tion & Fam­i­lies Grant might look like:

• $100,000 toward a ​“for­ev­er home,” increas­ing orga­ni­za­tion­al capac­i­ty to pro­vide afford­able, acces­si­ble after­school and sum­mer pro­grams serv­ing 1,200+ local K‑5 stu­dents annu­al­ly. Grantee: JH Children’s Museum

Eli­gi­ble orga­ni­za­tions with a pro­pos­al that meets Ini­tia­tives Grants cri­te­ria may sub­mit Expres­sions of Inter­est between Sep­tem­ber 23 – 30. The Expres­sion of Inter­est form, to be post­ed here in mid-Sep­tem­ber, offers prospec­tive appli­cants the oppor­tu­ni­ty to share a syn­op­sis of their pro­pos­al. Expres­sions of Inter­est will be reviewed for Ini­tia­tives Grants align­ment and impact, and a select num­ber of orga­ni­za­tions will be invit­ed to pro­ceed with writ­ten appli­ca­tions between Octo­ber 11 – 25. Appli­cants may be invit­ed to present to review com­mit­tees between Decem­ber 3 – 6. Grant­i­ng deci­sions will be shared the week of Decem­ber 9. Fur­ther process and time­line details to be shared in September.

Grantees are asked to sub­mit a report after com­ple­tion of their grant-fund­ed work. Report­ing dates are cus­tomized to indi­vid­ual project time­lines. The Grant Report form focus­es on impact, eval­u­a­tion strate­gies, and bud­get alignment.

Grantees must adhere to the Foundation’s Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Guide­lines For Grant Recip­i­ents.

Ini­tia­tives Grants are fund­ed by gen­er­ous pri­vate donors seek­ing cat­alyt­ic com­mu­ni­ty advance­ments in the areas of behav­ioral health, hous­ing, and youth out-of-school learning.