EQUiTY & JUSTICE

VERMONT Grant Program

Each summer, the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation offers grants of up to $15,000, with an average grant size of $10,000, to Vermont-based, Vermont-focused, non-profit organizations working to address racial, economic, social, and environmental disparities and injustice in Vermont. We will seek out innovative programs that are working toward fundamental change in Vermont and that approach their work through the lens of social justice and equity.

We do not offer grants to organizations that seek funding solely for social services to support individuals. This grant program is highly competitive. Please be sure to read through all of the priorities to ensure a good fit. We have allocated a total of $300,000 annually to this program.

DEADLINE:
4:00 p.m., May 3rd, 2024

Priorities
Areas not funded
Requirements
Application Process
Deadlines
Faqs

PrioritIES

FUNDING PREFERENCE WILL BE GIVEN TO ORGANIZATIONS WHOSE AREAS OF INTEREST MAY INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

Equity in education and early childcare
Equity in access to safe and affordable housing
Criminal justice reform
Workers’ rights and
Equity in access to healthy and affordable food

We will prioritize programs that work to meaningfully engage and intentionally involve and give voice to those who are most impacted by the problem the organization seeks to address. Grant recipients may be invited to make a presentation to Ben & Jerry’s Employees at some time during the grant year.

Areas Not funded

Unfortunately, we cannot consider requests for:

Programs that solely provide direct services to individuals
Discretionary or emergency requests
Schools
Colleges or universities
Individuals or scholarship programs
Research, litigation or legal expenses
Capital or endowment campaigns
State agencies or government-sponsored programs
Businesses or business associations
Religious activities
One time events
Other foundations or regranting organizations
Organizations or programs that are focused or based outside the state of Vermont

Requirements

TO BE CONSIDERED FOR FUNDING, EACH APPLICANT ORGANIZATION MUST BE:

Located in Vermont AND
A Non-Profit 501(c)3 organization OR
Represented by a fiscal agent with 501(c)(3) status
Organizations with Total Annual Operating Budgets under $350,000

ApplicAtion Process

CAREFULLY REVIEW THE

Eligibility Requirements

TAKE NOTE OF ALL THE ITEMS LISTED ABOVE

TAKE THE

ELIGIBILITY QUESTIONnAIRE

GET STARTED ▸

CREATE AN ACCOUNT

OR LOGIN TO YOUR EXISTING ACCOUNT

APPLICATION SYSTEM LOGIN ▸

APPLY

Deadlines

OPEN:

Deadline:

MARCH 15

May 3

Frequently asked Questions

Due to staff limitations we are not able to meet with potential applicants. We encourage all potential applicants to review our grant partners page to better understand the type of organizations we fund and our typical giving amounts. If, after thoroughly reading all of the information detailed on this website, organizations have additional questions, they are welcome to email or call the Foundation directly.

The Vermont Equity & Justice grants are offered one cycle per year, so there is only one opportunity each year to apply. In addition, because the program is highly competitive, we limit funding through this program to three (3) cycles, after which we request that our grant partners take a two-year break from re-applying through this process.

No. We will only consider one application at a time across our grant program options, and thus recommend researching each program to ensure your organization applies to the most targeted program for your needs

This grant program is designed to support the equity and justice work that impacted communities are meaningfully engaged in, rather than the services that are rendered to assist individuals in need. Some elements of social service may appear within the scope of the organization’s programming, but this grant does not offer support to programs that are focused solely on those service-based activities.

All our grant decisions are recommended by teams of Ben & Jerry’s employees.

Yes, we will be in touch with every organization to share our decision, funded or not funded. Notifications are sent through the grant portal system. Please ensure your inbox has our contact information as a “Safe Sender.”

The deadline for this grant application is in May, however, due to the nature of this competitive process, we have many requests for our Employee Grantmaking Committee to review. We give them about 6 weeks to thoroughly read through all requests and allow for time to request any additional items that might be needed in their review.

The grantmaking meeting takes place in mid-June and we try to send out the notification of the decision by the end of June. If you haven’t heard from us by then, please feel free to reach out for a status update.

We do not accept mailed applications and support materials. All applications must be submitted online through our grants management system. You will need to first register your organization before applying online through the grant program. Please note that we do not accept additional support materials through the mail, as we do not have means to share it across the entire team. Please save your postage.

An organization should only be registered once in our online grant portal. If the organization does not have a record of their login details, please get in touch with the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation and we will add you to the list of contacts and provide you with a login. If you have already registered the organization and created an account and are worried that you cannot see the organization history, please contact us and we will connect you to the correct account. Please contact Dana Jeffery at 802-495-1378 or info@benandjerrysfoundation.org. We will attempt to resolve any issues during our usual business hours Mon-Fri 8am to 5pm, EST

The questionnaire may only be completed once per year. We encourage an organization to have assessed their own eligibility by reading the details regarding each grant programs’ funding priorities prior to taking the Eligibility Questionnaire. Questions may steer you to a program that has different eligibility criteria than that of the program you are intending to apply to, and therefore it is best to be mindful about which program you are wishing to get support from, as you complete the questionnaire.

If you completed the Eligibility Questionnaire, you can look at your Applicant Dashboard within the grant portal to view your submission. On the Active Requests tab, the top of the list shows your Eligibility Questionnaire, and by clicking on View Eligibility Questionnaire, you will see the responses you selected. If you do see that you answered something incorrectly, you will not be able to edit this questionnaire, but you may reach out to the Foundation to discuss your options.

If you are logged in and cannot see the grant process you had qualified for in the list of available programs, it is possible you may have missed a deadline. We do not use a code for the grant application, even though you may notice there is an option to add a code. We recommend that you review our program deadline schedule prior to applying for a grant.

From time to time applicants come across some browser issues, or experience some errors using the online grants management system. If you are familiar with clearing your cookies and cache on your browser or have tried using a different browser to complete the application and still encounter problems, please get in touch. If you have other technical issues, and continue to have difficulties, please contact Dana Jeffery at 802-495-1378 or info@benandjerrysfoundation.org. We will attempt to resolve any issues during our usual business hours Mon-Fri 8am to 5pm, EST.

We only accept applications submitted through our grant portal, although we have provided a copy of the application questions for your planning purposes.
Vermont Equity & Justice Full Proposal

The first step to the Renewal application process is to submit a Grant Report for your previous grant. Once your organization has submitted its Grant Report through our online portal, you will be directed to the Renewal application process.

We limit an organization’s grant funding through this program to three (3) cycles, after which we request that our grant partners take a two-year break from re-applying through this process. If your organization has been funded through this program three (3) times, you will not be eligible to reapply again until two (2) years have passed.

Grant Partner Highlights

PAST Grant Partners

The documents below feature lists, by year, of the organizations and programs we’ve funded in the past. Not only is it inspiring to see all of the impactful work happening around Vermont, reading through these brief descriptions is a great way to better understand the types of projects that qualify for Vermont Equity & Justice Program funding.