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Manuel Ramirez and Cecilia Ulibarri in front of a mural painted by Cecilia in the new headquarters of Positive Street Art in Nashua. Read more.

Manuel Ramirez and Cecilia Ulibarri in front of a mural painted by Cecilia in the new headquarters of Positive Street Art in Nashua. Read more.

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New Hampshire's nonprofit organizations help make New Hampshire a great place to live.
Thanks to the generosity of hundreds of New Hampshire citizens, the Foundation awards thousands of grants every year to organizations doing critical work in our communities, and improving quality of life for all. Together, we are doing great things.

What we fund

Through our competitive grant programs, we fund programs and operations of qualified nonprofits working in the areas of health and well-being, civic engagement, education, economic development, environmental protection and arts and culture.

We also make grants to nonprofit partners working in specific areas of strategic Foundation priorities – like fighting substance use disorders and increasing youth opportunity.

And we work closely with generous donors to connect them with funding opportunities that match their areas of interest in fulfilling community needs. Please create an organizational profile on GrantSource to help us connect your work with donor interest, and to have funding needs listed on Greater Giving, our online giving platform for donors.

Explore our grant opportunities for nonprofit organizations

  • Community Grants Program - Express Grants Please check back at the end of February for 2023 deadline

    This competitive grant program awards project support (for a set of activities conducted during a specified period of time) of $10,000 or less to nonprofit organizations working in New Hampshire and selected communities in Maine and Vermont.

    Learn more

  • Community Grants Program - Unrestricted Grants Please check back at the end of February for 2023 deadline

    This competitive grants program awards unrestricted grants that support an organization’s general operations as a whole rather than a particular project or capacity-building effort. This program was formerly called ‘Operating Grants.’

    Learn more

  • Greater Rochester Community Health Foundation - Small Grants Program Please check back for 2023 deadline

    This grantmaking program is open to nonprofit organizations that serve Strafford County residents and work on access to care challenges. Access to care may include: mental health, substance use disorder, food security, housing, senior services, transportation and logistics, culturally appropriate care, awareness of services, care coordination and patient motivation.

    Learn more

  • Mary Gale Foundation We are not accepting new applicants at this time. Current grantees may request renewal grants for 2023.

    The Mary Gale Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation that supports housing, health and other in-home services and programs for low-income women age 65 and older living in the Greater Manchester area.

    Learn more

  • Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund - Dash-Grants Program Deadline: Rolling

    The Dash–Grants Program supports projects that focus on sustainable community and economic development in Coös County, NH and communities in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont and the MRC De Coaticook in Québec, Canada that share a border with Coös County.

    Learn more

  • Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund - Empower Coös Youth Grants Program Deadline: January 18, 2023

    The Empower Coös Youth Grants Program supports programs in Coös County, NH and Essex County, VT and surrounding communities in both states that focus supporting environmental initiatives that involve youth; increasing extracurricular activities for youth; strengthening community engagement, and addressing gaps in need. This grant program awards support of up to $10,000 to eligible organizations.

    Learn more

  • Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund - Local Grants Program Deadline: January 18, 2023 or July 19, 2023

    The Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund supports projects in Coös County, NH and communities in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont and the MRC De Coaticook in Québec, Canada that share a border with Coös County. This grant program awards support of $20,000 or less to eligible organizations.

    Learn more

  • Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund - Large Grants Program Deadline: Rolling

    The Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund supports projects in Coös County, NH and communities in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont and the MRC De Coaticook in Québec, Canada that share a border with Coös County. This grant program awards support of $20,000 to $300,000 to eligible organizations.

    Learn more

  • New Hampshire Library Technology Grant Program Deadline: Rolling

    The New Hampshire Library Technology Grant Program awards grants of up to $10,000 to community libraries to support online access, technology upgrades, distance learning and staff development.

    Learn more

  • Nonprofit Loan Program Deadline: Rolling

    The Nonprofit Loan Program is focused on strengthening nonprofits, helping them have greater impact in the community, through sound financial management and greater access to working capital.

    Learn more

  • Upper Connecticut River Mitigation and Enhancement Fund Please check back for 2023 deadline

    The fund supports restoration, protection, and enhancement of the river, wetlands, and shore lands within the Connecticut River watershed upstream of the confluence of the White River and the Connecticut River at White River Junction, VT and West Lebanon, NH.

    Learn more

  • Wellborn Ecology Fund - School-based Project Grants Deadline: Rolling through December 15, 2022

    The Wellborn Ecology Fund is dedicated to using “the power of place” to increase environmental and ecological science knowledge in the Upper Valley. Since 2013, the Foundation has been focusing Wellborn resources to increase access to place-based ecology education for children and youth, with particular emphasis on K-12 and early childhood education centers in underserved communities.

    Learn more

Grants for teachers, artists and public officials

  • Caroline and Martin Gross Fellowship Deadline: February 10, 2023

    The Caroline and Martin Gross Fellowship honors individuals for their extraordinary work in public service.

    Learn more

  • Christa McAuliffe Sabbatical Deadline: February 10, 2023

    Each year, the Christa McAuliffe Sabbatical awards a year-long leave of absence to an exceptional New Hampshire public school teacher.

    Learn more

  • David M. Brooks Music Fund Deadline: Rolling

    The David M. Brooks Music Fund supports music education in New Hampshire’s public schools.

    Learn more

  • Louise Tillotson Teaching Fellowship Deadline: May 2, 2022

    The Louise Tillotson Teaching Fellowship program strives to raise public awareness about the value of excellence in education and to retain good public teachers in the New Hampshire’s North Country and in Essex County, VT.

    Learn more

  • Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund - Community Practitioners Network Please check back for 2023 application deadline

    The Community Practitioners Network is an 18-month program designed to advance the resiliency of Coös County and surrounding communities in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine by cultivating the leadership and networking skills of 15 talented local residents.

    Learn more

  • Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund - Empower Coös Youth Grants Committee Member Deadline: April 14, 2023

    The Empower Coös Youth Grants Program seeks area high-school students from Coös County and surrounding communities in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont to decide how to award up to $50,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations that focus on reducing carbon emissions; increasing extracurricular activities; and strengthening community engagement.

    Learn more

  • Piscataqua Region Artist Advancement Grant Deadline: May 1, 2023

    The Artist Advancement Grant Program provides financial support to individual visual artists and craftspeople in the Piscataqua Region to promote their artistic growth.

    Learn more

Explore our interactive map to see where New Hampshire generosity is making a difference.

Search Foundation grantmaking by region, interest area, initiative and more.

Nonprofit Resources

Webinars and presentations

Grantee press kit

CEP Grantee Perception Survey

Final and interim grant reports

Fiscal sponsorship agreement form

Grant change request form

 

Guidance for tracking and reporting lobbying grants

New Hampshire Eligibility Checklist

Strategic Plans



Grants in Action

A grant from the Library Technology program helped the Conway Public Library to buy and install a privacy pod. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Grants help libraries keep up with tech needs

Thanks to a generous donation, the Charitable Foundation was able to develop the New Hampshire Library Technology Grant Program to help rural and under-resourced libraries meet the increasing need for online access by supporting technology upgrades, distance learning and staff training.

Stafford Meals on Wheels volunteer driver, Don. (Courtesy photo.)

Greater Rochester Community Health Foundation awards $80k in inaugural grants

New Foundation awards first grants to improve health and well-being of people in Strafford County.

Gardeners at a Grow Nashua community garden. (Courtesy photo.)

Charitable Foundation awards $3.8 million in operating support to nonprofits

Recent funding from Foundation's Community Grants program provides multiyear operating support to more than 80 nonprofits working across New Hampshire.

Traci Fowler, the Charitable Foundation’s director of behavioral health, co-chairs the Budget Task Force of the Governor’s Commission on Alcohol and Other Drugs and is a member of New Hampshire’s Opioid Abatement Commission and Children’s System of Care Advisory Council. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Reason to hope

Traci Fowler, the Charitable Foundation’s director of behavioral health, on the current substance use crisis, why an integrated approach to addressing mental health and substance use makes sense, and promising practices that offer reason for hope.

Photo by Mara Hoplamazian, courtesy of NHPR.

Truly local foods

The Abenaki Seeds Project is producing flint corn for cornmeal, Abenaki rose corn, skunk pole beans, true red cranberry beans and crookneck squash. The food is being shared through the Abenaki Helping Abenaki food pantry.

Waypoint staff and community members celebrate Waypoint’s new emergency overnight shelter in Manchester at an event in October. (Courtesy photo.)

New services for young people experiencing homelessness

Waypoint estimates that as many as 14,000 people between the ages of 12 and 24 experience homelessness in New Hampshire in a year’s time. Waypoint is expanding services for young people experiencing homelessness in New Hampshire, with new resource centers in Rochester and Concord and an expansion to provide emergency overnight shelter in Manchester.

Raude Raychel waves the Indonesian flag at the 2022 Somersworth Indonesian Festival. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

This benefits the whole community

The nonprofit Indonesia Community Connect is working to create the country’s only Little Indonesia district in Somersworth — drawing business and tourism, while driving community strength and connection.

Poll workers are sworn in for duty on Election Day in Milford. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Tending to our civic health

“For everything else to work, the civic health of our communities needs to be robust.”
Read about how people and nonprofits around the state — from Milford election workers to Seacoast teenagers and outreach educators in Manchester and Nashua — are tending to our civic health and nurturing democracy.

UpReach Therapeutic Equestrian Center has made a profound difference in the life of Kim and Steve Tiller's son Ty, who has Down syndrome, and been riding horses at UpReach for 8 years. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Improving lives with the help of horses

A New Hampshire Charitable Foundation field-of-interest fund, created by a generous donor, supports equine services and other animal therapy in New Hampshire.

Bethlehem Trails Association is able to continue building a mountain bike skills park in Bethlehem, NH thanks to a grant from the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund. (Courtesy photo.)

Tillotson Fund awards more than $1.9 million for North Country communities

Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund grants support essential needs for individuals and families, a healthy workforce ecosystem, environmental stewardship, and more.

Stable Connections will use their Neil and Tillotson grant award to support design and engineering costs for a year-round indoor arena to offer equine-assisted therapy programs. (Courtesy photo.)

Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund awards more than $350,000 to support North Country efforts

Funding from application grant programs in third and fourth quarters provides support to more than 55 organizations serving Coös County and bordering communities. 

Rick Fox of Kittery, ME, winner of the 2022 Piscataqua Region Artist Advancement Grant. (Photo by Tammy Byron.)

Rick Fox awarded 2022 Artist Advancement Grant

Kittery artist awarded grant that helps cultivate the Piscataqua Region’s arts community, boost artists’ careers and helps keep them living and working in the area.


We're here to help

  • Wendy Cahill
  • Senior Community Grants Associate