Opportunities Grants

$300,000 is avail­able for Oppor­tu­ni­ties Grants in 2024. We expect a total appli­cant pool request that exceeds what is avail­able to grant, mak­ing the appli­ca­tion process high­ly com­pet­i­tive. There is no spec­i­fied minimum/​maximum request; exam­ples of past Oppor­tu­ni­ties Grants (see below) offer a ball­park range. 

Cri­te­ria

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

• Address­es a broad, cross-cut­ting com­mu­ni­ty need or issue 
• 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 

Email programservices@​cfjacksonhole.​org with ques­tions about a pro­pos­al con­cept you’re con­sid­er­ing. We can help you deter­mine if Oppor­tu­ni­ties 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 pro­pos­als that bring inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to com­plex com­mu­ni­ty issues.

While Oppor­tu­ni­ties Grants is a new­ly-for­mal­ized pro­gram, sev­er­al grants of this ilk have been award­ed in the past. Exam­ples include: 

• $75,000 for a col­lab­o­ra­tive oper­a­tions plan to ensure a sus­tain­able home for local arts orga­ni­za­tions. Grantee: Cen­ter for the Arts, in part­ner­ship with 20 res­i­dent organizations 
• $40,000 to address emer­gent water qual­i­ty needs in Hoback Junc­tion. Grantee: Pro­tect Our Water JH, in part­ner­ship with the res­i­dents of Hoback Junction 
• $47,000 to sup­port col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts to devel­op an inte­grat­ed food access sys­tems mod­el. Grantee: One22 Resource Cen­ter, in part­ner­ship with Hole Food Res­cue, Fund for Pub­lic Edu­ca­tion, Slow Food in the Tetons, and the Food Access Col­lab­o­ra­tors work­ing group 
• $75,000 for the devel­op­ment of a Cli­mate Dash­board to col­lect, syn­the­size, and dis­play region­al spe­cif­ic cli­mate and resilience data with the goal of stream­lin­ing data-dri­ven deci­sion mak­ing and mon­i­tor­ing progress. Grantee: Lega­cy Works Group, in part­ner­ship with the 13 cross-sec­tor mem­bers of the Teton Cli­mate Action Plan­ning Group 
• $10,000 to sup­port Sys­tems of Con­ser­va­tion in devel­op­ing ecosys­tem stew­ard­ship strate­gies in the face of immense envi­ron­men­tal pres­sures. Grantee: JH Con­ser­va­tion Alliance, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with 20+ mem­ber net­work of envi­ron­men­tal and con­ser­va­tion organizations 
• $80,000 to devel­op com­pre­hen­sive infra­struc­ture to address a dra­mat­ic rise in domes­tic vio­lence ser­vice needs, both dur­ing and since the pan­dem­ic. Grantee: Com­mu­ni­ty Safe­ty Network
• $15,000 to sup­port Bridger-Teton Nation­al For­est NEPA plan­ning process, which will have a gen­er­a­tional impact on for­est ser­vice access and use. Grantee: Wyoming Wildlife Asso­ci­a­tion, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with a work­ing group of 20+ con­ser­va­tion organizations 

Eli­gi­ble orga­ni­za­tions with pro­pos­als that meet Oppor­tu­ni­ties Grant cri­te­ria may sub­mit Expres­sions of Inter­est Sep­tem­ber 23 through Sep­tem­ber 30 at 5pm MDT. Expres­sions of Inter­est will be reviewed for Oppor­tu­ni­ties Grants align­ment and antic­i­pat­ed 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.

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.

Oppor­tu­ni­ties Grants are fund­ed by gen­er­ous pri­vate donors in sup­port of cat­alyt­ic com­mu­ni­ty advance­ments. A por­tion of fund­ing also comes from Old Bill’s CoChallengers.