We understand that financing intentional communities by grants can feel daunting for founders. We hope our free lists of foundations with aligned funding priorities gives you a place to start. Also, our experienced grant writing consultants may help. Unless otherwise noted, the lists on this page are mainly foundations that indicated individuals or groups might be funded without having non-profit status.
Partners for Financing Intentional Communities by Grants
Non-profit fiscal sponsors: These can act as important partners in grant-funding. You might find a local certified non-profit willing to receive a portion of funding as the administrator of your grant funds. If not, this link can point you to organizations that are ready to provide this service for aligned projects. The umbrella organization will expect some remuneration for the paperwork involved. Open Collective Foundation, for example, requires 5% of a grant but offers several additional services.
Partnership Grants: Team up with a certified religious institution, college or other school, or local municipality to act as an umbrella organization under which you can apply for additional grants. The umbrella organization will expect to receive some of the funding for administrative costs.
Publicly-funded support: Adding residential slots for vulnerable populations could add more than just grant eligibility to your community. Ideas for service offerings eligible for grant funding can be found in the descriptions of intentional communities that provide care and a social safety net.
Grant writers: Our grant writing consultants may be able to help you identify grants you are eligible for and fine tune your applications. See also the link in the Further Reading section to tips for DIY grantwriters.
Foundations May Fund Project Initiation and Operational Costs
Some foundations don’t send out requests for proposals. Instead, you can write a brief letter of inquiry to ask if they are open to a proposal. If you find one that seems promising but you don’t feel up to the task, our listed grant writers may be able to help.
Organizations with non-profit (NP) status are eligible for a greater number of grants. Where the lists note grant availability for individuals, this could include IC founders’ groups or businesses. Those without NP designation indicate where we looked for foundations that don’t require non-profit status or other partnership to apply (see the note on partnership grants in the prior section).
We’ve tried to not list the same foundations in more than one list, so that grants that are local to a state or province will not also be found in the national list. Likewise, if you are looking for affordable housing grants specifically for refugees, the foundations interested to fund general affordable housing should not be included in that list.
Foundations Funding Affordable Housing
- affordable housing projects (in U.S.)
- affordable housing projects (in U.S.) (NP = most require non-profit status)
- homeless or housing-insecure families (in U.S.)
- homeless or housing-insecure families (non-U.S.)
Foundations Funding Ecological Sustainability and Food Security
- farm & ecological projects in BC (some require non-profit status)
- farm & ecological projects in Canada (some require non-profit status)
- farms (in U.S.)
- individuals for small agriculture projects (in U.S.)
- individuals for small agriculture projects (outside U.S.)
- ecological projects (in U.S.)
- scholarships for forest management (in U.S.)
- international agriculture (non-U.S.&Canada)
- food security (in U.S.)
Potentially Vulnerable Populations
- elderly in the U.S.
- elderly homeless U.S. (NP = most require non-profit status)
- elderly homeless non-U.S. (NP)
- homeless veterans U.S. NP (NP)
- abused populations in the U.S.
- foster children in the U.S.
- homeless youth (NP) organized by location
- homeless youth (NP) organized by grant frequency
- refugees in the U.S.
- homeless populations in the U.S.
- addicted populations in the U.S.
- LGBTQ+ projects in the U.S.
Historically Marginalized Ethnic Groups
- Indigenous American heritage in the U.S.
- Latin American heritage in the U.S.
- African American heritage in the U.S.
- Asian and India heritage in the U.S.
Arts & Culture
- arts & culture Canada (some require non-profit status)
- arts & culture U.S.
General Grants
- general International (some require non-profit status)
- Colorado relevant to human services and housing (some require non-profit status)
Further Reading
Tips for grant writing: These instructions for beginners include links to more info sources.
Other financing options: This parent page may have got you to the current page.
About foundations: Give them a reason to fund you, a reason better than parking their wealth elsewhere.
Apply for U.S. non-profit status: This page shows where to find the forms you would need.