The Office of Neighborhood Involvement and Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc. Small Grants Program was a response to the lack of funding available to neighborhoods and community organizations in order to carry out projects. The concept of offering seed money for community projects has proven to be a successful investment, not only in strengthening the communities and increasing diversity by building effective working relationships between community members and long term partnerships with local businesses as well as schools, but also by keeping neighborhoods connected and engaged. The work done by these projects; which are run by nonprofits, engaged citizens and energetic volunteers, and supported by the neighborhoods small grant program, allow for the management of a greater diversity of projects that the neighborhood coalitions and city could not carry out alone.

 

The Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc. (SWNI) Small Grants Program focuses on ten community building project categories; outreach mobilization, targeted outreach strategies, relationship building, accessibility, community beautification, community design, crime prevention, cultural enrichment and diversity, education and public health. These categories for improvement are meant to identify ways to transform neighborhoods into maximally safe, healthy, unified, diverse and inviting communities.

 

For more information you may visit the Office of Neighborhood Involvement Small Grants Program website.

 

 

The SWNI Small Grants Program seeks to support non-profit organizations that aim to foster a culture of community enrichment based on the ten community building project categories.

 

SWNI will evaluate project proposals based on each project’s ability to demonstrate how it will improve their community based on the optimization of six factors.

 

1.      The health of the community                                                                            

2.      The identity of the community

3.      The level of safety within the neighborhood

4.      Community involvement strong partnerships

5.      An appreciation for diversity

6.      Self-sustainability and leveraged funds

 

 

Self-sustainability and leveraged funds/donated services are important because they demonstrate a projects ability to grow and become less dependent on one source funding. Projects that strive to engage local businesses and organizations, build strong and functional partnerships and show a potential for future growth and adaptability are more likely to get funded.

 

Projects are evaluated based on the type of project category they fit into. To see a list of the types of community building project categories please click on the link. Your project may fit into one category type or overlap into several areas, both of which are acceptable. If you are not clear on which project category you fit into, please contact us. You do not need to identify which project category your project fits into for your Small Grants application. These categories are simply meant to help you clarify your project goals and to allow us to track what kinds of projects are being submitted.