American Girl's Fund for Children
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| A magical place for outdoor adventure and learning, the Kids' Garden at CommunityGroundworks was built with support from American Girl's Fund for Children. |
American Girl’s Fund for Children is a catalyst for connecting cultural arts and environmental resources with our area children.
Since 1988, the Fund has awarded more than $11 million in grants to numerous Dane County organizations.
Funding is made possible through the Madison Children’s Museum Annual American Girl Benefit Sale of overstock and returned American Girl merchandise. To date, the children’s museum has received more than $13 million in sale proceeds, with the remaining portion returned to the Fund and then re-distributed back into the community to area nonprofits that provide arts, culture, and environmental programs for youth.
Grant Purpose:
The purpose of American Girl’s Fund For Children (FFC) is to support innovative programming for children ages 0–18 in Dane County. To that end, the Fund will entertain proposals for programs that:
- Expose children to excellence in arts, culture, entertainment or hands-on education related to arts or the environment;
- Illustrate collaboration with other local organizations and/or schools in Dane County;
- Support or complement classroom curriculum;
- Foster cooperation between children, parents, and educators;
- Serve primarily children in Dane County;
- Indicate that a grant from FFC may be leveraged to secure matching grants from other corporations, foundations, individuals, the County, State, or other funding sources.
We do not provide support for the following:
- Annual operations;
- Endowments, individuals or scholarships;
- Travel funds for staff or volunteers, benefit tickets, or courtesy advertising;
- Capital projects or equipment;
- Health and human services programs;
- Organizations that might in any way pose a conflict with the Fund's goals, as well as American Girl and Mattel initiatives, programs, products or employees.
Grant Guidelines
If an applicant organization is not a federally registered 501(c)(3), another organization must agree to serve as fiscal agent. A letter of agreement signed by both parties and a copy of the fiscal agent's 501(c)(3) must accompany the proposal.
All grant recipients are required to provide a Final Grant Evaluation including a detailed budget. Past grant recipients will be excluded from further grant consideration if an evaluation has not been completed for prior funding.
Timeline
Email grant applications to grants@madisongives.org by 4:30 p.m. on August 15, 2023. Please list your organization's name in the email subject line. Addititonally, a physical copy should mailed with a postmark of August 15, 2023, or earlier. You do not need to send it next-day or 2-day, as long as it is postmarked by the due date and an electronic copy was received the application will be processed. Award decisions will be announced by mid-November.
For more information about A Fund for Children’s grants, follow these links:
Grant Guidelines [PDF]
Grant Application [PDF]
Grant Evaluation Report [PDF]
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Tom Linfield
(608) 232-1763 Email Tom