Youth Service Improvement Grants (YSIG)

About this program

The William T. Grant Foundation’s Youth Service Improvement Grants (YSIG) fund one-year projects to strengthen the quality of direct services for young people ages 5–25 in New York City’s five boroughs, providing $25,000 awards (starting September 1) plus technical assistance and cohort learning opportunities; the Foundation plans to fund approximately six grants annually. Applicants must be community-based nonprofit organizations physically located in NYC whose staff have direct programmatic contact with youth, and must hold 501(c)(3) status or operate under a fiscal sponsor. Eligible organizations must have a youth services operating budget between $250,000 and $5 million (or an overall budget under $20 million if serving other populations), provide audited/certified financial statements and a Form 990 (or fiscal sponsor’s 990), and may not have received Foundation youth service funding within the prior 18 months. Proposed projects must address point-of-service improvements (not general operations, expansions, schools, capital projects, or evaluations); priority consideration is given to organizations serving specified high-risk community districts or with programming for Mexican-descent or LGBTQ+ youth.