Opportunities Grants

Oppor­tu­ni­ties Grants fund solu­tions to com­plex com­mu­ni­ty prob­lems and empha­size strate­gic partnerships.

Oppor­tu­ni­ties Grants and Ini­tia­tives Grants are com­ple­men­tary pro­grams under the umbrel­la of Cat­a­lyst Grants. While both address com­plex com­mu­ni­ty chal­lenges, Oppor­tu­ni­ties Grants sup­port needs out­side the purview of Ini­tia­tives Grants (behav­ioral health, hous­ing, out-of-school learning).

Apply

The Cat­a­lyst Grants appli­ca­tion will re-open in fall 2025.

Ques­tions? Email grants@​cfjacksonhole.​org

Grant Pro­gram Details

  • Appli­cant must be a 501(c)(3) non­prof­it, gov­ern­ment enti­ty, or oth­er IRS-rec­og­nized char­i­ta­ble orga­ni­za­tion serv­ing Teton Coun­ty, Wyoming OR be fis­cal­ly-spon­sored by an enti­ty that meets these requirements 
  • Grant funds must be used exclu­sive­ly in Teton Coun­ty, Wyoming (note: in select sit­u­a­tions, grants may ben­e­fit peo­ple work­ing in Teton Coun­ty, Wyoming who live in neigh­bor­ing communities)
  • Funds may not be used for debt retire­ment or reli­gious or polit­i­cal activities 
  • Grant funds may not be used for work that has already been completed 

$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 grants@​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 

The next Cat­a­lyst Grants cycle will take place in fall 2025. Dates forth­com­ing sum­mer 2025.

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 Require­ments 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. 

  • Asto­ria Park Con­ser­van­cy | Wel­come Plaza | $45,000
  • Cam­i­na Con­mi­go, fis­cal­ly spon­sored by Coombs Out­doors | Cam­i­na Con­mi­go + Coombs Out­doors Merg­er | $50,000
  • Friends of Path­ways | Revis­it­ing E‑Bike Reg­u­la­tions in our E‑bike Crazy Com­mu­ni­ty | $40,000
  • Grand Teton Music Fes­ti­val | Pre­serv­ing Dig­ni­ty Through Acces­si­bil­i­ty: Enhanc­ing Walk Fes­ti­val Hall for All Audi­ences | $25,000
  • Hoback Junc­tion Water and Sew­er Dis­trict | Oper­at­ing Grant | $10,000
  • Hole Food Res­cue | For­ev­er Home and Sprout Hub | $50,000
  • Jack­son Hole Trout Unlim­it­ed | Snake Riv­er Head­wa­ters Water­shed Group: Facil­i­ta­tion and Pub­lic Engage­ment | $60,000
  • Teton Coun­ty Foun­da­tion for Pub­lic Health | Devel­op­ment and Pro­gram Imple­men­ta­tion | $20,000