OPPORTUNITY GRANTS (UP TO $5,000)
Opportunity grants provide organizations with smaller, targeted funding aligned with our strategic plan goals. These grants can help strengthen capacity, leverage other funds, or catalyze a special project or event.
We intend the application and reporting process to be a smaller effort for grantees, and we make decisions within 3 weeks. We consider applications on a rolling basis until the funds have been dispersed that fiscal year.
Some opportunity grant funds have been set aside to support organizations in greater Snohomish County; depending on the organization’s needs, these can be general operating funds.
Grant recipients will be requested to briefly share results in the form of stories (and photos if possible!) when the program is completed. As part of our efforts toward equitable grantmaking, we consider organizational and audience diversity in funding decisions.
Please email Maura Sullivan with any grant-related questions.
2022 Opportunity Grants
Please note that a number of these grants address more than one goal area. Snohomish County Fund grants are noted with an asterisk.
| Organization | Description | Geography Served |
|---|---|---|
| Leadership Tomorrow | The Foundation provided sponsorship for Leadership Tomorrow’s Leadership Lab event. Board Member and Fellow Priya Saxena represented the Foundation at the event, and shared about civic engagement and values-based leadership. | Greater Seattle |
| Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) | The Foundation provided funds toward MOHAI’s 2022 Innovation Exchange event, which explored environmental sustainability and the global climate crisis. The program featured leading-edge climate innovators, including Fellow Lylianna Allala who co-founded the Growing Old Project. Foundation funds provided stipends for the innovators. | Greater Seattle |
| Braver Angels | The Foundation provided funds to support Braver Angels’ new program called Braver Politics, which aims to restore the norms of deliberation, trust, and cooperation across the aisle. Rather than reaching out to the general public, Braver Politics focuses on political candidates, elected officials, and their staff at all levels of government. Foundation funding will be used towards Braver Politics’ 2022 activities in Washington state, including hosting candidate debates, workshops, and skills training sessions. Lessons learned will be integrated into its 2024 efforts in Washington state and nationally. | Washington State |
| *Leadership Launch | This organization engages student leaders in building and practicing leadership skills to enact change in their local communities. Working with students from 9th grade through their first year of college or certification program, it strives to empower, equip, and engage student leaders from a place of equity. Leadership Launch teaches and models a leadership curriculum created with a trauma-informed lens, and helps to pave equitable pathways to college. The Foundation provided general operating support. | Snohomish County |
| *Van Valey House, Everett Museum of History | The Foundation provided funds towards materials to establish the Henry M. Jackson Room, which Anna Marie Laurence curated. The historic room features elements of Senator Jackson’s life and highlights his role as a leader and statesman. The funds were not granted directly to the Everett Museum of History. | Snohomish County |
| *Washington School Principals Education Foundation | The Foundation provided a grant toward efforts to create inclusive, equitable access to outdoor experiences for all public middle school students in Washington. The program aims to reduce barriers to students’ participation in residential outdoor school, to build capacity for educators to enhance the quality of the programming, and to increase public awareness of the importance and benefits of outdoor education, including environmental stewardship. | Washington State |
| 2050 Project | The Jackson Foundation provided funds for the 2050 Project to award to winning teams of its Clean Buildings Case Competition at the University of Washington. 2050 Project held this event in conjunction with ReThink, a student club at the UW Foster School of Business. The event challenged student teams to create improved communication strategies to make it easier for commercial buildings to lower carbon emissions. 2050 Project co-founder John Kennedy was a Jackson Environmental Fellow at the UW Evans School. | Greater Seattle |
| Housing Development Consortium | The Foundation provided a grant to the Housing Development Consortium towards its sustainable buildings programming, which includes promoting exemplary sustainable design for new multifamily buildings and providing models for resilient retrofits. These efforts aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption towards meeting Washington state’s climate targets. | Greater Seattle |
| Seattle 2030 District | The Foundation provided funds for the creation of a promotional video for the new Bellevue 2030 District. The organization helps property owners and managers accelerate the building decarbonization process and create more sustainable buildings. The video will be used to attract new members and inform the community about this opportunity to impact our region. | Greater Seattle and Eastside |
| Boy Scouts of America, Troop 008 | Fellow Brandon Hersey serves as Scoutmaster for this troop based in the Rainer Valley community. The Foundation contributed $500 to its annual fundraiser, which supports the Troop’s activities for the year including summer camp, food and transportation costs, and an epic adventure to Philmont Ranch in 2023. | Greater Seattle |
| EarthCorps | The Foundation granted funds to EarthCorps to support its Corps Program, which provides 40-50 young leaders ages 18-28 with leadership development and green-jobs training through hands-on environmental restoration of natural areas across the Puget Sound region, including Snohomish County. EarthCorps invests in and develops environmental leaders who spark change to create a world where all people and nature thrive together, through healing environmental injustices and centering the communities most affected by environmental degradation and climate change. | Greater Seattle |
| *North Cascades Institute | The Foundation provided funds to NCI towards tuition subsidies for its Mountain School program. NCI strongly emphasizes equity in its programming and strives to reduce barriers for students of all races, cultures, socio-economic classes, and backgrounds to experience nature together. NCI brings 5th graders—many for their first visit to North Cascades National Park—to the Environmental Learning Center where students experience three days and two nights of immersion in nature, time away from the virtual world, and have space to connect with their classmates and the outdoors. | Greater Snohomish County |
| *Glacier Peak Institute | The Foundation provided operating funds toward this organization that empowers youth to build resilient and sustainable rural communities and healthy ecosystems across the Glacier Peak region of Western Washington through innovative, action-based education programs integrating Science, Technology, recreation, Engineering, art, Mathematics, and skill-building. | Greater Snohomish County |
| Seattle Foundation | The Foundation donated to the Seattle Refugee Fund. Housed at the Seattle Foundation, the fund was created by Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, King County Executive Dow Constantine, and 36 other King County mayors to raise money for Ukrainian refugees in Europe and King County, as well as other refugees in need in King County. Most of the Seattle Refugee Funds (70%) will help Ukrainians in Europe and Seattle-King County through the International Rescue Committee and the Ukrainian Community Center of Washington; the remaining funds (30%) will provide services to other refugees in need in Seattle-King County. | Greater Seattle and Europe |
| Freedom House | The Foundation donated $4,000 to Freedom House’s Ukraine Aid Program, which supports Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarussian human rights defenders and civil society organizations. It also helps ensure the safety of journalists and media organizations given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Activities include helping partners to relocate and adapt to new locations, improving the safety of human rights defenders that remain in the region, and advocating for their protection. | Europe |
| Operation Snow Leopard | This NGO formed in response to the Taliban coming to power last year in Afghanistan. In order to evacuate vulnerable Afghans, the group established an underground railroad that safely houses at-risk Afghans in Afghanistan, procures necessary documents, provides transportation across borders, and sustains the evacuees until their final resettlement. The Foundation made a grant toward its mission to evacuate about 20 Afghans for permanent resettlement in Argentina, including female doctors, medical students, and a vision-impaired journalist. | Afghanistan |
| Pacific Model United Nations | The Foundation granted funds to its two-day conference, which provides a realistic and engaging simulation of the United Nations’ work. PACMUN’s event gathers about 600 students from the Pacific Northwest, Canada, Mexico, and other countries to participate; students learn about global affairs, international relations, and diplomacy. Foundation funds went toward student financial scholarships to broaden access. | Pacific Northwest |
How to Apply
The Foundation has an online application system. Select the option for Opportunity Grants Application. Choose which goal area(s) the program will address, indicate if the organization is based in greater Snohomish County, enter the project’s name, and attach a 1-2 page LOI with this information:
- Organization’s description
- Summary of program
- Rationale and purpose
- Amount requested and how funds will be used
- Program goals, expected impacts and outcomes
- Activities, audience, implementation strategy
- How this ties into the Jackson Foundation strategic plan goals and outcomes
- Anticipated timeline