Mini Grants for Local Community Demonstration Projects

Community Entrepreneurship Challenge Grants

The Community Vitality Center Board has approved a Call for Proposals for a 2011 Mini Grant Program to provide matching funds typically up to $10,000 for community demonstration projects that involve

1. community-based entrepreneurship/microenterprise development and/or community philanthropy capacity development efforts,
2. strategic opportunities to enhance community vitality, leverage resources, and promote collaboration, or
3. innovative concepts for generating community vitality or that extend lessons learned from innovative demonstrations models to other communities.

All Iowa communities are eligible. Projects are typically selected so as to provide geographic diversity and wide variety in institutions or circumstances so as to enhance discovery, analysis, and lessons learned from the proposals submitted.

The 3 items below are designed to assist applicants in the proposal submission process. Various programs have various additional criteria and deadlines that are reported publicly in the monthly CVC Newsletter: Community Vitality Update.

• Request for proposals (.pdf file, New for 2011)
• 2-page Project Proposal Form (MS Word file, New for 2011)
• CVC Mini-Grant Guidelines (.pdf file, New for 2011)
• Sample mini grant budget spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel file, shows the level of budget detail required for USDA approval)