Apply for a Grant
Please note that the application period for our 2010 Community Impact Grants is closed. We will begin accepting applications for Community Impact Grants in January 2011. Read our press release for details about 2010 Community Impact Grant recipients.
The ConAgra Foods Foundation initiates grants for national and local partnerships, and coordindates an employee nominated grant process called Nourish our Communities. On an annual basis, the ConAgra Foods Foundation invites qualified chartitable organizations to apply for its Community Impact Grants program.
Potential grantees should carefully review our program overview, funding guidelines and criteria to determine if your project or program matches the Foundation's funding priorities for charitable investments. The Foundation's grant program is competitive and organizations that best align with our goals and objectives in our core focus areas have the greatest opportunity to be awarded a grant.
The ConAgra Foods Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals and will only consider requests submitted through the Community Impact Grant program at the designated time annually.
Community Impact Grants
The Community Impact Grants program awards grants between $10,000 and $100,000 to impactful, grassroots organizations that leverage innovation and creativity to address child hunger and nutrition needs in communities where ConAgra Foods' employees live and work or states where 20 percent or more of children are food insecure. Each year, eligible states are announced and included in updated Community Impact Grants guidelines.
The Community Impact Grants program is a two-step, competitive process that first requires the submission of an online Letter of Interest and the subsequent completion of a full application if invited to apply for a grant.
The application period for this year’s Community Impact Grants program is now closed. We will reopen the application period in January 2011 for eligible organizations to submit a Letter of Interest.
For more detailed program information and guidelines please download the Community Impact Grants Program Overview, and then proceed to Step 2 to begin the eligibility survey.
While ConAgra Foods makes significant in-kind donations to Feeding America throughout the year, in-kind donations are not part of the Community Impact Grants program. Please see below for additional information about ConAgra Foods in-kind donations.
Step 1: Grant Guidelines
Grantee Eligibility
All grant recipients must be nonprofit, charitable organizations tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Religious organizations such as churches, mosques and synagogues may qualify only if their outreach programs are offered to the general population regardless of religious affiliation AND they have established a separate 501(c)(3) organization to operate the funded program(s).
ConAgra Foods Foundation does not fund:
Organizations that lack a 501(c)(3) designation
Social, labor, alumni or fraternal organizations (e.g., higher education alumni groups, sororities, fraternities, workers' unions, exclusive membership clubs limited to a specific constituency, etc.)
Professional or amateur sports organizations and teams, or athletic events and programs
Political organizations
Terrorist organizations or those not compliant with the USA Patriot Act
Fundraising events (e.g. galas, golf tournaments, annual awards ceremonies, raffles, telethons, walk-a-thons or auctions)*
Emergency funding
Loans, debt reduction or operating deficits
Individuals
Endowments
Capital campaigns (unless solicited at the funder's discretion)
Memorial campaigns
Elementary and secondary education
*Corporate sponsorship of fundraising events is awarded at the discretion of the company.
Funding Priorities
ConAgra Foods Foundation seeks to support leading nonprofits in the following areas:
Direct Services—Helping organizations implement high-impact, innovative feeding, hunger relief, and nutrition education programs. ConAgra Foods Foundation supports organizations and programs that:
Strive to provide hungry and food insecure children with meals that meet their nutritional needs.
Increase families' ability to access healthy, balanced food options.
Teach children and families about good nutrition, healthy habits and ways to prevent diseases or problems related to malnutrition, food insecurity, and obesity.
Encourage physical activity as a supplemental component to a program largely focused on feeding children or providing them with nutrition education.
Capacity Building—Strengthening the internal capabilities, operations, and expertise of organizations to reach as many hungry and food insecure children as possible in the quickest, most effective way. ConAgra Foods Foundation supports efforts to:
Strengthen an organization's ability to enhance infrastructure, procedures, processes and organizational systems that will help to sustain the expansion and replication of high-quality programs.
Foster collaboration and partnership among service providers to minimize duplication, streamline service offerings, and increase the number of children served.
Support current leadership and foster the future leadership of the hunger field.
Strengthen an organization's ability to collect, analyze and demonstrate the impact of its programs and services in the community.
Provide an effective, systematic approach to providing nutrition education and related food skills to children in need and their families.
Advocacy—Mobilizing resources to heighten public awareness and understanding of the interrelated issues, root causes and effects of child hunger and poor nutrition. ConAgra Foods Foundation supports organizations and programs that:
Raise awareness to change the way child hunger and nutrition are viewed in the United States.
Activate stakeholders in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors toward action, greater impact, and increased funding for eliminating child hunger and improving the nutritional health of children.
Research and report on best practices, root causes and effects, and issues and challenges that impact the fields of child hunger and nutrition.
In-Kind Donations
The ConAgra Foods Foundation only provides product donations to our national partner Feeding America, the nation's leading hunger relief organization. The Foundation is proud of its partnership with Feeding America, its network of more than 200 food banks and 63,000 agencies which has effectively identified, transported and distributed nearly 247 million pounds of food from our plants, distributions centers, mixing centers, third-party warehouses, and retail customer locations during the course of our more than 16-year partnership. In addition, this provides a simplified way to engage multiple facilities across the country and ensure the safety of products distributed to provide meals to children. Organizations interested in receiving product donations should contact their local Feeding America food bank.
Evaluation Criteria
The ConAgra Foods Foundation evaluates all potential partners using the following set of criteria. Organizations or programs must:
Have a wide and diverse reach across lines of age, gender, ethnicity, and/or geography.
Provide programs or projects that align with ConAgra's funding priorities of child hunger and nutrition.
Possess a detailed and clear strategy for achieving stated program goals.
Demonstrate alignment with research-based nutrition frameworks or guidelines such as the United States Department of Agriculture's Dietary Guidelines and MyPyramid.
Be a leader in its field and the community.
Have strong leadership and an active board.
Seek to partner or collaborate with other service providers to enhance service offerings and minimize duplication.
Offer opportunities for ConAgra's key stakeholders — employees, executives, consumers, and customers — to get involved.
Have a proven track record of working with corporate funders.
Track and measure impact and actively use the information to refine and enhance the organization's programs or projects. Organizations that receive funding are expected to participate in the Foundation’s evaluation process to measure the effectiveness and results of its charitable investment.
Be fiscally strong and have a stable and diverse funding base.
Present a strong sustainability plan. Please note: Organizations that can demonstrate their ability to replicate and sustain high-impact programs are preferred partners of the Foundation. One-time events or programs are not a priority for the Foundation's charitable investment strategy.
Supplemental Documentation
As part of an organization's funding application, the following materials will either be requested in the application itself or be a required attachment:
A list of key project staff members including short biographies and roles and responsibilities. Please do not send resumes.
A brief bio of senior staff members (e.g. executive director).
A list of current organization board members, including their affiliations.
A copy of your organization's most recent audited financial statements.
A copy of your organization's operational budget for the grant year.
Step 2: Eligibility Survey
The Community Impact Grant program has closed for 2010. It will open again in January 2011.
The Hunger Quiz
Test your knowledge. Find out how much you know about child hunger in America.
Hunger In America
Even though we may not see it, hunger lives in our classrooms, playgrounds, neighborhoods and our own backyards. It may affect our friends, our co-workers or children in our neighborhoods. Our interactive map shows where hunger lives in America.
Apply for a Grant
Want to apply for a grant from the ConAgra Foods Foundation? Learn about the application process and the criteria the ConAgra Foods Foundation uses to evaluate grant applications here.
