(The Center Square) – A new grant program for nonprofits working to end hunger and provide housing is in the works.
The Rhode Island Foundation’s $20 million grant program will be used to battle food insecurity and housing stability and homelessness, Gov. Dan McKee said. The Rhode Island ARPA Support grants program will also use funding to address behavioral health needs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Supporting local nonprofits that are working on housing, homelessness, hunger and behavioral health is crucial to maintaining Rhode Island’s momentum – that’s exactly why we created this program in our FY 2023 budget,” McKee said in a release. “These grant dollars will serve nonprofits that are in our communities across the state and are doing crucial work each and every day.”
According to the release, the program stems from McKee’s fiscal year 2023 budget, using a portion of the state’s $1.1 billion it received through the American Rescue Plan Act.
Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio, D-Providence, said a priority of the legislative body was to provide relief to those struggling amid inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These grants address services that often overlap for the impacted Rhode Islanders: hunger, housing, and behavioral health; and the Rhode Island Foundation is a valuable partner in the effort to get these funds where they are needed efficiently and effectively,” Ruggerio said in a release.
Grants for the program are expected to fall in the $50,000 to $150,000 range, according to the release, and applications will be accepted by the Rhode Island Foundation until the funding is expended. The program is the largest in the organization’s 106-year history.
“We will begin immediately to get this funding into the hands of the organizations that are doing the boots-on-the-ground work,” Neil D. Steinberg, the Foundation’s president and chief executive officer, said in a release. “We appreciate state leaders having confidence in our ability to provide this funding as these grants will give nonprofits across Rhode Island the resources to help their communities recover from COVID-19’s continuing impact on their daily lives.”
According to the release, priority goes to community-based nonprofit organizations in federally designated low-income communities.
According to the release, applicants are required to have a federal Employment Identification Number and must submit its most recent IRS Form 990, 990EZ, or 990N, along with a 501(c)3 letter from the IRS.
Information sessions, according to the release, will be scheduled by the Foundation, which has distributed more than $11.5 million in federal pandemic relief funding since 2020.
