Mini-Grants:
Empowering Grassroots Change
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Is your grassroots organization working to make an impact for
those who are hungry or homeless in the communities you serve?
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Our Mini-Grant program provides up to $2,000 in funding to grassroots organizations and community projects that address hunger, homelessness, and poverty across Central and Upstate New York. These small but mighty grants help local heroes meet urgent needs, launch new ideas, and sustain the vital work happening right in our neighborhoods—where compassion meets action.
Mini-grants are made possible with support from Stanley Law.
Should you apply?
Does your organization work with the homeless and hungry populations of
Central New York? Do you have an innovative project you have been wanting to implement, but lack the funds to get it off the ground? Look no further than
Music for the Mission’s Mini-Grants
What we fund:
Food pantries in particular are encouraged to apply. However, any organization where $500,$1000, $1,500, or $2,000 makes the world of difference to the impact you need and want to create in your community, as it specifically relates to hunger and homelessness, are also encouraged to apply. By comparison to many grant processes, our grant application and process is simple and straightforward. If you have any questions at all during the application as you're filling it out, please don't hesitate to email MusicForMission@gmail.com. We're here to help!
Who can apply?
Registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations that assists homeless and hungry populations in Central New York. See “selection process” for more details on eligibility, preferred projects, and more.
How much can I apply for?
Music for the Mission’s Mini-Grants allow nonprofit organizations to apply for up to $2,000 in funding. There is no preference for larger or smaller requests and we will not give priority to more modest requests; we will award Mini-Grants to the strongest applicants, regardless of costs.
Program Status:
We are now currently accepting applications:
Guidelines:
We accepted applications for 2025 Mini-Grants through Friday, January 31.
Mini-Grant projects must be executed within the calendar year they are awarded
The recipient organization must submit a typed report within one month of its project’s completion. The report should describe the project/event in detail, including such items as the time, date, number of people, final costs, success/failures of the event, etc. (approximately 1 page). In addition, the recipient organization must include a 300-500 word blog post, with photographs of the project/event in its report.
Mini-Grants are contingent on available funds
Selection Process
Eligibility
Must be a registered 501(c)3
Focus on assisting homeless and/or hungry populations
Direct provider of services to a targeted group
Located and operating in Central New York
Preferred Projects:
Innovative approaches to mitigating the negative effects of homelessness and hunger (e.g., creative housing solutions, community gardens in food insecure neighborhoods, laundry services)
Relatively small operating budget, compared to other organizations offering similar services
Located near Binghamton, Syracuse, and Watertown
Projects will be primarily evaluated based on the feasibility of obtaining their expected benefits. Implementation, costs, and reporting strategies will be a large part of the evaluation process, too. Projects with lower funding requests will not be given preference. We want to fund the best, most impactful projects possible (up to $1,000, given available funding), not simply the least expensive; that being said, as part of our evaluation of your project’s costs, we will look for demonstrations of financial prudence.
As Music for the Mission continues to improve its fundraising efforts, we hope to award Mini-Grants more frequently than once a year. Currently, we do not have another disbursement date chosen, but we encourage you to stay tuned for updates from us about the next Mini-Grant application cycle.
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All organizations, even those who have received a Mini-Grant in a previous cycle, are eligible to apply again. If you have received a Mini-Grant in the past, your organization will not be at a disadvantage compared to non-recipients; instead, we will evaluate each organization against one another and select those with the strongest proposals during a given cycle.
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If your organization wants to apply for operating funds (e.g., a food pantry applying for support to bolster its inventory), we still encourage you to apply. We are open to any and all “projects”, but will give first priority to small, innovative projects because grants supporting those initiatives are less numerous.
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For questions or comments, please contact our Executive Director, Joanna Jewett, at musicformission@gmail.com.
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Apply for a Mini-Grant (up to $2,000)
In February of 2021, after receiving and reviewing a record number of applications, awarded grants to the following 16 area organizations. Each received $1000 mini-grants in support of their efforts:
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Our Community Meal, United Presbyterian Church of Binghamton
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Saint Jane Johnson Memorial UMC (Binghamton)
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Christ the King Church (Liverpool)
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Blvd. Methodist Church (Binghamton)
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SS Peter & John Soup Kitchen (Auburn)
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Bellevue Heights United Methodist ad Robinson Memorial Presbyterian Churches’ Weekend Feeding Program for Delaware Academy (Syracuse)
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Natural Bridge SDA Church (Natural Bridge)
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St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Caring Pantry (Syracuse)
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Endwell United Methodist Church (Endwell)
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Catholic Charities of Oswego County
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St. Michael’s Community Meal Program (Binghamton)
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Gwen’s Food Pantry (LaFargeville)
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Outer Comstock Neighborhood Association (Syracuse)
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Jefferson Community College Food Pantry (Watertown)
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Faith Lutheran Food Pantry (Cicero)
2019 Recipients
Recourse Center of Candor
Soup & Sandwich Saturday (Endwell)
Project Neighbor of Newark Valley
Deposit Food Pantry (Deposit)
Blessings in a Backpack (Liverpool Chapter)
Open Door Mission Outreach (Tioga)
Meals on Wheels of Western Broome (Binghamton)