Community Fund

                                                                                            Photo Credit: Free Library of Philadelphia, Nourishing Literacy Program (Philadelphia, PA)


About the Program

The Claneil Foundation seeks to support non-profit organizations in the Philadelphia region with multi-year general operating support while addressing the broad range of issues that impact the health and livelihood of communities.

Type of Support and Geographic Eligibility

The Community Fund provides three-year general operating grants totaling $90,000 ($30,000 annually) to organizations working in or serving communities in the following Pennsylvania counties: Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia. In addition, each grantee organization has access to $10,000 in professional development/wellness funds to support the executive director and/or organization. The Community Fund will prioritize organizations that have deep roots in the communities they serve and are working with annual budgets of $1 million or less.

Issue Areas

Funding will be provided on a rotating yearly schedule to organizations working in the Foundation's areas of interest: Hunger, Nutrition and Food System; Environment; Education, and Health and Human Services. Organizations working in these areas are invited to apply using the following schedule:

 

How to Apply: The application process begins with a letter of intent submission. Please contact Senior Program Officer Andrea Bretting (abretting@claneil.org or 610-941-1140) if there are questions. Due to high levels of interest, please be mindful of the deadlines below.   

Important Deadlines and Timeline
Please note: these deadlines remain the same each year. If a deadline date falls on a holiday or weekend, the deadline is automatically moved to the next business day. All submissions must be made by 5:00 p.m. EST.

Letter of Intent Submissions Accepted: November 1 through December 1
All letters of intent must be submitted through the Foundation’s online portal. Click here to submit a letter of intent (please note: the form will not be accessible until November 1.)

Letter of Intent Decision Notifications: January 31
Organizations will be notified by email. Invited applicants will receive a link to the proposal form.

Proposal Deadline for Invited Applicants: March 1

Grant Decisions and Notifications: June
 

Current and Previous Community Fund Grantees

2022

215 People's Alliance Education Fund (2022): 215 People’s Alliance is a multi-racial collaborative dedicated to fighting for equity and justice in Philadelphia – at the ballot box, and in the streets.

Double Trellis Food Initiative (2022): Double Trellis Food Initiative provides prepared meals and grocery distribution for marginalized and housing insecure communities in Philadelphia.

Fair Amount Food Forest (2022): Fair Amount Food Forest's mission is, through collective and connective efforts, to foster a community-based, publicly-accessible, and educational food forest garden on public land.

Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger (2022): Founded in 1996, the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger strives to build a community where all people have the food they need to lead healthy lives. 

Martha's Choice Marketplace (2022): Martha’s Choice Marketplace, sponsored by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, is the largest, most visited food pantry in Montgomery County, serving more than 1000 families & 3500 individuals each month, while distributing over 1 million lbs. of food yearly. 

MontCo Anti-Hunger Network (2022): MontCo Anti-Hunger Network (MAHN) provides resources to food pantries supporting the emergency food system of Montgomery County, PA.
 
Neighbors Helping Neighbors on the Main Line (2022): Neighbors Helping Neighbors on the Main Line is a nonprofit organization that serves as a continual source of support to some of the most vulnerable residents in Lower Merion Township and the immediate vicinity.

Northwest Mutual Aid Collective Inc (2022): Northwest Mutual Aid Collective, Inc. is a grassroots non-profit organization located in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.

People's Kitchen (2022): The People's Kitchen is a collaborative of chefs, students, and community members responding to Philadelphia’s chronic issues while growing and cooking free, delicious meals. 

Philadelphia Orchard Project (2022): The Philadelphia Orchard Project is a nonprofit organization that plants and supports community orchards in the city of Philadelphia.

Rolling Harvest Food Rescue (2022): Since 2010, Rolling Harvest has been focused on partnering with local farmers, making it easy for them to share their fresh, healthy produce with the food-insecure communities in which they live.

Urban Tree Connection (2022): The Urban Tree Connection (UTC) is a 501(c)(3) community-based organization, and our mission is to build a neighborhood-rooted food and land system through community leadership development and land-based strategies in West Philadelphia.
 

2020

C.B. Community Schools (2020): C.B. Community Schools (CBCS) is the only high school in the nation dedicated to serving young people living in foster care.

Children First (formerly Public Citizens for Children and Youth) (2020): For 40 years, Children First (formerly Public Citizens for Children and Youth) has advocated on behalf of low-income children and families to protect healthcare coverage for children, organize free days of dental and vison care, and provide an insurance Helpline.

Feast of Justice (2020): The organization serves the low-income neighborhoods in Northeast Philadelphia and is one of the largest food and community programs in the area.

Mighty Writers (2020): This organization seeks to create a culture of health by teaching kids the cognitive skills to think clearly, the expressive skills to write with clarity, and the emotional skills of resilience, conscientiousness and openness. 

Norris Square Neighborhood Project (2020): Norris Square Neighborhood Project (NSNP) seeks to unite and inspire youth and families through the strengths of community, such as shared cultural wisdom, creative energies, and environmental spaces and experiences. 

Pennypack Farm & Education Center (2020): Founded in 2003, Pennypack Farm & Education Center began as an unsustainable and overworked cornfield in eastern Montgomery County. They now feed more than 3,500 individuals, growing vegetables using organic practices year-round to support its over 350-member Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), and in 2019 they gave 13,000 pounds of farm-fresh produce to local hunger relief organizations.



2019

Awbury Arboretum Association (2019): The mission of the Awbury Arboretum Association is to preserve and interpret Awbury’s historic house and landscape, thereby connecting an urban community with nature and history.

Face to Face (2019): Face to Face is dedicated to improving the health, well-being, and stability of the community it serves.

Free Library of Philadelphia (2019): The Library’s Culinary Literacy Center (CLC), opened in 2014, is the first program of its kind in any library in the United States and serves as a model for libraries worldwide.

John Bartram Association (2019): The John Bartram Association’s mission is to protect and enhance the landmark Bartram’s Garden and House; advance the Bartram legacy of discovery, gardening, and art; and inspire audiences of all ages to care for the natural world. It supports free community-driven programming focused on wellness, food sovereignty and connections with nature in Southwest Philadelphia.

Manna on Main Street (2019): Manna on Main Street is dedicated to feeding and caring for individuals in the North Penn region and throughout Montgomery County. It is committed to ending hunger by providing food, fulfilling social services and education needs, and conducting community outreach.

Nationalities Service Center (2019): Nationalities Service Center serves more than 5,000 immigrants and refugees each year from 120 countries around the world, ensuring that individuals and families new to the country are afforded every opportunity to thrive. It provides services in the areas of language access and proficiency, legal protections, access to food, health and wellness, and job readiness training to immigrants and refugees.

Maternal and Child Health Consortium (2019): Maternal and Child Health Consortium’s mission is to empower families to build a healthier and brighter future for their children by overcoming the social and environmental barriers that lead to poor health conditions in communities.

PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center (2019): PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center is dedicated to protecting Pennsylvania's air, water, and open spaces. Its priority campaigns focus on important topics intersecting issues related to public health and the environment. 

Public Interest Law Center (in cooperation with Soil Generation) (2019): Public Interest Law Center uses high-impact legal strategies to advance the civil, social, and economic rights of communities in the Philadelphia region facing discrimination, inequality, and poverty. 

Rebel Ventures (2019): Rebel Ventures’ products are created by Philly students for Philly students. This youth-driven social enterprise model creates healthy food products and project-based learning opportunities for young people, and engages youth as healthy food entrepreneurs through experimental education.



2018

African Family Health Organization (2018): The African Family Health Organization helps members of the African and Caribbean immigrant and refugee communities in the Philadelphia and Delaware Counties with accessing health and wellness services, nutrition education, maternal child health programs, and other needed services. 

Healthy NewsWorks (2018): Healthy NewsWorks empowers student journalists to transform the health of their communities. 

Mill Creek Farm (2018): Mill Creek Farm seeks to increase access to nutritious, affordable foods and provide food system education for low income people in Philadelphia.

Neighborhood Gardens Trust (NGT) (2018): In Philadelphia, there are over 300 community gardens, many of which have been cultivated in historically-disinvested neighborhoods or on abandoned land through the cooperative efforts of neighborhood residents.

New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC) (2018): Founded in 1985, The New Kensington Community Development Corporation strives to strengthen the
physical, social and economic fabric of the Fishtown, Kensington, and Port Richmond neighborhoods in Philadelphia. 

Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP) (2018): The Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP) seeks to develop a more sustainable, equitable, and ethical local food system. Currently, POP works with community groups and volunteers to plant and maintain close to 60 orchards filled with useful and edible plants.

Rolling Harvest Food Rescue (2018): With a small staff and more than 250 volunteers, Rolling Harvest Food Rescue conducts daily pick-ups from 43 local farms and food
producers, assists with weekly distributions to more than 70 hunger relief sites, and harvests fresh food from participating farms.  

Sunday Suppers (2018): Sunday Suppers Philadelphia provides family-based, healthy meal preparation and facilitated dining experiences for families in Philadelphia’s hungriest neighborhoods

Urban Creators (2018): The Urban Creators is a grassroots organization based in North Philadelphia. The mission of the Urban Creators is to use food, art & celebration, and political education as tools to nurture resilience, self-determination, equity, and youth empowerment in frontline communities.

Urban Tree Connection (2018): Urban Tree Connection’s mission is to work with residents in Philadelphia’s historically-marginalized urban communities to transform abandoned open spaces into safe and functional places that inspire and promote positive human interaction.

Youth United for Change (2018): Youth United for Change has been at the forefront of youth organizing in Philadelphia for many years, and is dedicated to developing young leaders in Philadelphia with political, historical, and economical understanding of society so they can improve lives and communities.

2017

Broad Street Ministry (2017): Broad Street Ministry addresses the needs of the most vulnerable Philadelphians with a proven model of care that mitigates the traumatic effects of living with chronic scarcity.

Catholic Social Services - Martha's Choice Marketplace (2017): Martha’s Choice Marketplace is the largest food pantry in Montgomery County, serving an average of 900 families each month.

Cloud 9 Rooftop Farm (2017): Cloud 9 fosters community and environmental stewardship by partnering with organizations and buildings to design, build, and support the growth of community-led rooftop and urban gardens.

Delaware Riverkeeper Network (2017): The Delaware Riverkeeper Network champions the rights of our communities to a Delaware River and tributary streams that are free-flowing, clean, healthy, and abundant with a diversity of life.

Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger (2017): The Coalition Against Hunger strives to build a community where all people have the food they need to lead healthy lives. 

La Comunidad Hispana (2017): LCH (La Comunidad Hispana) is a diverse, bilingual team that is dedicated to helping adults, teens, and children to be healthy and stay healthy in Southern Chester County, PA. As a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center, LCH provides quality, integrated, Person-Centered care that supports whole-health change for all through its health centers, social assistance services, and education and workforce development programs. 

The Trust for Public Land (2017): The Trust for Public Land creates parks and protects land for people, ensuring healthy livable communities for generations to come. 

VietLead (2017): VietLead collaborates with the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia and the Bhutanese American Organization of Philadelphia to address the critical needs of the region’s Southeast Asian community.

Village of Arts and Humanities (2017): The Village of Arts and Humanities brings together the arts and environment to improve community health.