Takoma Foundation Accepts Grant Proposals

The Takoma Foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds projects that seek to improve the quality of life in and around the Takoma Park area, is accepting applications for its fall funding cycle.

 The foundation will fund projects that benefit the residents of the larger Takoma Park, Md. community including parts of Silver Spring and Takoma, D.C., said Franca Brilliant, the chairwoman of the foundation's grants committee. Grant applications are due by the end of October, and awards will be made in December, she said, adding the next grants cycle will be in the spring of 2011.

 Since 1989, the foundation has awarded nearly $300,000. Most grants range from $500 to $2,500, but the foundation did fund a round of "capacity building grants" that reached $5,000 within the last two years, she said. The grants seek to support projects and groups "that encourage participation in community life; builds connections between people and groups; empowers small groups to respond to community concerns (particularly through new, or innovative projects), and provide opportunities that would not be available otherwise," she said.

Examples of the projects funded by the foundation include providing an elementary school with the money to purchase a book cart that would move through the school's hallways every morning and offer the students reading material, Brilliant said. "The kids were entering the school and buzzing around; they didn't have anything to do. With the book cart there, they are able to borrow a book giving them a chance to read, improve their English, and it gives them something to do," she said.

 The foundation also funded a program that involved an elementary school, and provided members of the Latino community with an opportunity to gain "food safety certification training," Brilliant said. The foundation is aware that many people in the Latino community work in the food service field, and if those workers have food safety certification, it increases their employment opportunities, she said.

 In addition, the foundation supports the arts, especially public art, and it provided $2,000 for teen crafters to install mosaics of trains in the train underpass on Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, Brilliant said. Public art is one of the foundation's priorities, "we think it [art] enriches the community, so we supported the mosaics project," she said. At the underpass, the foundation is among six organizations listed on a bronze marker cited for funding the mosaics.

 Grant applicants can increase their chances of winning a foundation grant by focusing on four areas in their applications, Brilliant said. Their applications should show the applicants have whatever experience is needed; that they are hooked into community networks; that they have a plan that is realistic; and that it is something that is feasible to do, she said.

In addition, the foundation is "looking for something (to fund) that has a creative spark," Brilliant said. For example, the food safety certification program hit a number of different things at once, including serving a relatively poor population for whom English is likely not a first language, so it served a population that is already somewhat disadvantaged, she said.

The foundation also likes local organizations that partner on a project, as well as projects that seek to innovatively "plug in" members of the community who may already be interested in an area, and the project seeks to "give them (the community member) a stronger foothold."

More information on the grants—including guidelines and an application form—is available at the foundation website, www.takomafoundation.org.