August 30, 2023

Deaconess Foundation has a new strategic framework and funding opportunities which include a multilayered community-driven approach to seeding, creating, and fostering conditions where liberation is the lived reality within seven generations. 

Our new Seeding the Future Grants cycle is now open. Funding supports an intergenerational approach to the improved health and wellness of people in Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois. Nonprofit organizations whose proposals align with our priorities are invited to submit a request for proposal.

Learn more about our strategy and open funding opportunity below.

Systems Transformation & Racial Liberation

As an institutional advocate focused on health justice and social justice, Deaconess Foundation is orienting its abundant relationships and resources in pursuit of liberation within the next seven generations. 

Deaconess recognizes that the following significant gaps in civic and community infrastructure need to be addressed in order to realize systems transformation and racial liberation:  

1. Multidisciplinary (cross-sector) coordinated long-term measures to anchor and center individual and community healing and wellness, restoration, and reconciliation;  
2. Community member-led redistribution of wealth;   
3. Coordinated year-round base- and coalition-building; and   
4. Shared narrative strategy.   

Deaconess aims to act boldly with its power, influence and resources to pursue liberation within seven generations. This is an intentional and conscious movement in which our community freely exists, dreams and thrives in the absence of oppressive systems in a culture of solidarity, respect and dignity. 

Our Strategy Components

Beloved Community

We build a beloved community through: 

1. intentional undoing and unlearning of internal and external practices and processes rooted in white supremacy culture to create a more anti-racist, intersectional, equitable and democratic workplace which mirrors the ways Deaconess Foundation shows up and exists in community and the broader ecosystem, and 
2. elevating, celebrating, and inspiring the ecosystem in Missouri and Illinois by lifting up the liberated behaviors that are creating the conditions that lead to individual and community wellness and liberation.  

Power Building

We will build power through: 

1. investing in the bistate area to support strong enduring civic agency and engagement for equitable participation in the democratic process to public policy, 
2. catalyzing the local, regenerative economy based on reflective, responsive, and reciprocal relationships,  
3. brokering interdisciplinary multigenerational collaboration, and 
4. positioning Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being as public square and public good for community members. 

Additional Resources

For more detail about resources that are informing our work, see: 

• The Innovation Ambition Continuum
• Social Change Ecosystem Map 

Seeding the Future Grants

These grants are for general operating funds to advance an organization's efforts to promote health justice and social justice through coalition and base-building, grassroots advocacy, community organizing and/or public policy development/change while aiming to improve conditions for community-level well-being. Seeding the Future Grants are designed to be responsive to systems-change partners’ efforts and propel our work in alignment with our vision for the next seven generations. 

Awards

Grants will be awarded for one year, ranging from $15,000 to $20,000 per specified partner.

Dates & Submission

2023

The online portal is now open and requests for proposals may be submitted on a rolling basis. To be considered for the monthly review, proposals must be submitted by 11:59 pm on the following dates: 

• Friday, September 22, 2023 
• Friday, October 20, 2023 
• Friday, November 10, 2023 

2024

Beginning in 2024, Seeding the Future Grant funding proposals will be due quarterly via the online portal on the following dates: 

• Friday, February 23, 2024 
• Friday, May 31, 2024 
• Friday, August 30, 2024 
• Friday, November 1, 2024 

Special Note

Organizations that previously submitted a 2023 Policy Campaign/Collaborative Grant proposal that desire to be considered for a 2023 Seeding the Future Grant do not need to submit a new application. Please email granthelp@deaconess.org denoting your interest. A grantmaking team member will be in contact with you for an interview to capture any updates on the breadth and scale of your efforts.

More Information

For more information about Deaconess Foundation's funding guidelines and future funding opportunities, please visit our website here. 

We are excited to share a new strategic framework. Join us as we share the results of our multilayered community-driven approach to seeding, creating, and fostering conditions where liberation is the lived reality within seven generations.

This event will be held in-person only on Tuesday, September 12. MindsEye will be providing audio description at the events for individuals who are blind or partially sighted and audio amplification for individuals who are hard of hearing. LAMP Interpreters will be providing American Sign Language (ASL) for those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Please call (314) 356-2588 or email info@deaconess.org if you would like to request further accommodations.

Register to join us! Additional session dates will be announced soon and opportunities to learn more about our strategy will be available on our website this fall.

If you have grant questions or would like assistance, please contact Program Manager Deleshā George via email at deleshag@deaconess.org.