The Indianapolis Foundation, in collaboration with local and regional funders, has developed the Indiana Climate and Democracy Catalyst Fund to accelerate environmental equity, decarbonization, and an inclusive democracy throughout the state of Indiana. This fund will seek co-investments from other Indiana based environmental and democracy supporting philanthropic organizations and donors with a goal to create collaborative effort to maximize impact in our state. This co-investment will progress environmental equity and inclusive democracy through grants to non-profit organizations leading this work in their communities.
Grant Guidelines
The Indiana Climate and Democracy Catalyst Fund prioritizes funding for 501c3 non-profits with a focus on frontline communities, place-based organizations, tribal governments, rural communities, and rural governments. This fund aims to support grassroots, newly developing organizations, and/or organizations and places that want to develop relationships with funders in Indiana.
Organizations must be centered in Indiana, led by Indiana communities and/or center community voice in work, and have measurable community outcomes.
Eligible Projects
The Indiana Climate and Democracy Catalyst Fund provides statewide support for the following:
- Nonprofit staff for current organizational scope of work
- New or existing programs and/or projects
- Pay for services such as consultants, technical assistance, or contractors
- Convening, collaboration, and coalition-building
Examples (These are meant to be examples, not parameters on what the fund would consider)
Inclusive Democracy: Get Out the Vote activities, voter registration, organizer training, voting access, and voting rights protection.
Climate: Community convening on an environmental equity solution, consultant to develop a grant proposal, data collection for environmental challenges, citizen science projects.
Scopes of work that are not aligned:
- Programs that focus on individual behavior change vs systems change, convening, or advocacy
- Land conservation
- Hunger relief
- Recycling programs
- Animal welfare
If you have questions about your organization’s eligibility or project eligibility, please follow the inquiry process below.
General Grant Information
- Open application process, although it is recommended that you follow the inquiry process below.
- Rolling application with funding decisions quarterly. See grant timeline.
- Award range from $5,000 -$100,000.
- Organizations with annual budgets under $25,000 may request up to $15,000.
- Organizations with annual budgets under $50,000 may request up to $30,000.
- Organizations with budgets above $50,000 may request up to 50% of their annual organizational budget.
- Single-year and multi-year award opportunities.
- To be eligible for a multi-year award, an organization must have filed a 990-tax return for at least three years previous.
- Multi-year awards are to support the building of programs, initiatives, or systems and the proposal must emphasize why multi-year funding is crucial for success.
- Applications are submitted through the Indianapolis Foundation via the Grants Portal powered by SmartSimple. For guidance on setting up an account and navigating an applicant profile, please refer to the Grants Portal 101 resource for guidance or send a request for support to GrantSupport@cicf.org.
Grant Timeline
The Indiana Climate and Democracy Catalyst Fund application portal will remain open through the close of Round 4. Proposals will be reviewed on a quarterly basis.
Inquiry Process
If you have questions about whether your organization is qualified or if a project is aligned, please respond via email to Indianapolis Foundation Senior Community Leadership Officer Jamie Valentine, with a few brief points describing your goals for the funding.
- What is your organization’s focus?
- Describe the program for which you are seeking funding (if different from question above).
- How does this program or your organization address inequities in climate equity and/or democracy in Indiana?
- Who will be served? How many will be served?
- What is your organization's annual budget?
The Executive Committee will review your response, and the Indianapolis Foundation will provide feedback regarding alignment. Due to a volume of requests, Indianapolis Foundation might not be able to meet with every inquiring organization.
Fund Purpose
While environmental funders in Indiana have strong relationships, there has not been a formal co-investment strategy to catalyze climate action and inclusive democracy work across the state. To leverage expertise and impact, The Indianapolis Foundation will convene a committee consisting of philanthropic investors to:
- Leverage funding opportunities to attract additional philanthropic investments in Indiana
- Strengthen relationships between environmental, democracy, and climate funders in the state
- Maximize the impact of funding beyond what any one funder could achieve alone
- Strengthen organizing capacity in Indiana toward power-building, climate justice, and democracy
Fund Values
- Center equity in process, funding priorities, and organizational outcomes
- Community-based solutions as the path to climate justice and democracy
- Transparent systems that foster trust-based philanthropy
- Return learnings to leaders and frontline communities
Fund Members
The Indiana Climate and Democracy Catalyst Fund Members include:
- Crown Family Philanthropies
- McKnight Foundation
- McKinney Family Foundation
- Indianapolis Foundation
- Herbert Simon Family Foundation