Mt. Pleasant Area Community Foundation

For good. For ever.

Our mission is to enhance the quality of life for all citizens of Isabella County, now and for generations to come, by attracting and holding permanent endowed funds from a wide range of donors, addressing needs through grant making and providing leadership on key community issues.

Apply for a Grant

The Mt. Pleasant Area Community Foundation manages more than 300 permanently endowed funds. These funds were created by families, individuals, businesses and organizations to address a particular charitable purpose in our community. Because these funds reflect the diverse interests of our community, they are able to provide grants to a wide variety of community programs. Community Foundation staff will match your request with those endowed funds whose charitable purpose would be served by awarding a grant to your program or project. Sometimes, representatives of these funds will review your application and make grant recommendations to the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. (You should not directly solicit any particular fund or fund representative.) The Board has the sole authority to authorize grants from the Mt. Pleasant Area Community Foundation. Monies for a single grant may come from more than one of the Community Foundation’s endowed funds.

2024 Grant Application Deadlines:

New in 2024: All eligible organizations are able to submit ONLY two proposals for each competitive grant cycle.

  • May 15, 2024 by Midnight.

    • Letter of Intent is due May 8, 2024 by Midnight.

  • September 11, 2024 by Midnight.

    • Letter of Intent is due September 4, 2024 by Midnight.

  • Youth Mini-Grant Applications Accepted Anytime

    • Letter of Intent is not needed for Youth Mini-Grant Applications

2024 GRANTmaking priorities:

Though all proposal types are encouraged, the Mt. Pleasant Area Community Foundation’s Board of Trustees will currently give priority to:

  1. Mental Health; and

  2. Innovative Opportunities for Community Growth.

How to apply:

  1. Review the Frequently Asked Questions and our Grant Guidelines.

  2. Download the sample grant application questions or sample youth mini-grant application questions. These will give you an idea of the fields you will need to fill in and the support materials you will need to provide online.

  3. Connect to our Grant Application System to create an account and begin the online application. All applications must be submitted using this system. Applicants will NOT be able to proceed to the Grant Application until a Letter of Intent is filled out and approved by our Program Officer. The Letter of Intent must be submitted through the Grant Application System. Our job is to make certain you are providing the most complete information within your application as possible. An organization may submit more than one application in any given grant cycle.

  4. In several sections of the online application, you will be asked to upload supporting documents as attachments to your application. Attachments are only accepted in PDF format, sized to 8-1/2" x 11". Download instructions on PDF creation if you're not yet familiar with how to save documents in this format.

  5. We encourage you to download and utilize our budget template to submit with your online grant application. The second tab of this Excel file even shows you a sample budget! Don't forget to save the Excel file as new on your computer. Then it will be much easier to create a PDF of your budget document (see #4).

  6. Have questions? Contact our Program Officer, but please don't wait until the application deadline. Thank you!