The Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley has opened its 2025 grant opportunities. Grant criteria and submission instructions are listed under individual grant descriptions below.
Apply for a Grant
Please click the dropdown boxes to read full details and visit the Grantseeker Resources and Tutorials section at the bottom of this page for more information on navigating the grant portal.
Please check the dropdown box for each grant opportunity to view individual deadlines for the year.
Note: If you are applying for more than one opportunity at a time, you can utilize our software’s “copy” feature to copy and paste responses from one form to another. Please review the Grantseeker Resources and Tutorials section below for more information.
If you have any questions about grant opportunities for CFMV or our affiliated foundations, contact Sarah Lowry at slowry@cfmv.org.
Grantseeker Resources and Tutorials
Grantseeker's Guide
All applicants must review the Grantseeker’s Guide before submitting a request to the Community Foundation or its affiliated foundations. The guide contains information on eligibility, the application process, grant conditions and the non-discrimination policy for grantees.
Create an Account
If you’re submitting an application to us for the first time since we launched our new grant portal in Spring 2021, you’ll need to create a new account. We recommend you do this well in advance of an application deadline.
It’s a simple process, if you start with a few things prepared in advance:
- Contact information for the point person, and a username that is a frequently used email address (We will use this email address to communicate with you on your grant status.)
- Contact information for your organization, including your EIN/Tax ID number
- Contact information for your organization’s Executive Director
- Information on your leadership team and the equitable practices of your organization
Our online grants portal will allow you to track the status of your application, as well as file grant reports from your account, and you’ll be able to save, edit and submit applications.
Many of our grant rounds require different documentation, so depending on your organization’s status and the specific guidelines for the application you are working on, you may also be required to upload specific documents.
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Demographic Information
The Community Foundation’s mission is to improve the quality of life for all residents in the Mahoning Valley. Unfortunately, the funding community both here in the Mahoning Valley and across the nation has historically given favor to long-established and well-resourced organizations. This often leaves out organizations rooted in communities of color that are unable to overcome the requirement of having longevity and resources in order to obtain resources and longevity. Because our foundation has not been blameless in this harmful disparity, we are committed to emphasizing racial equity in all that we do and stand for. An important aspect of carrying out this commitment is revising the Community Foundation's grantmaking process.
To begin addressing these inequities, it is up to us at the Community Foundation not only to learn from those disadvantaged by our traditional practices and networks, but also to take significant strides toward building meaningful and authentic partnerships. We recognize that many leaders of color in our community have a unique understanding of the challenges their fellow community members face and how to address them.
One of the first steps we are taking in redesigning CFMV’s grantmaking processes is to begin collecting more data. Going forward, you will see questions on the demographics of leadership and equitable practices incorporated into our grant process to better understand who’s applying for funding from the Community Foundation and our affiliate organizations. This information is only seen by Community Foundation staff and will not automatically qualify or disqualify your application.
To fully examine where we have missed the mark, we are committed to ongoing dialogue throughout our community about what emphasizing equity looks like in action. We do not have all of the answers and we certainly welcome community feedback about the best way to achieve our equity goals. We urge you to join us on the journey to improve the lives of all Mahoning Valley residents.
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A Quick Guide to Financial Reports
Grant seekers, especially those new to submitting grant applications with the Community Foundation, may find the below materials helpful. When reviewing the attached packet, please keep in mind that these were prepared for a grant budget workshop CFMV held, where participants could ask questions and discuss their own organization's individual financial statements. If you have questions about your own organization's financials, please reach out to CFMV staff well before the grant deadline to which you are planning to submit an application.
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Grant Glossary
We recognize that numerous terms and phrases are used, particularly in our grant language, that you may not be familiar with or may have a different interpretation of than we do. In order to provide clarity to our words, we’ve provided definitions or explanations.
Video Tutorials
Submitting an application through our grant portal
How to copy answers across multiple applications:
Contact Us
If your grant application was denied, or you have any questions about the shifts to our grantmaking efforts or any of the above funding opportunities, contact Josh Medore at JMedore@CFMV.org to line up a meeting to review your request. We’ll provide as much feedback as we can to help improve your application.