GRANT RESOURCES
Missouri Main Street Connection provides a curated list of grant opportunities to local Main Street programs who have an agreement with MMSC and MMSC investors.
The opportunities listed in the Grant Resource Directory email and on this page are not a complete list of possible funding resources for a local Main Street program. This list is meant to compliment an individual organization’s research; it does not replace it. Note: not every opportunity will be applicable to each organization or community. This list may include grants for government entities, other nonprofit organizations, etc. whose work supplements that of a Main Street organization.
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Asphalt Art Initiative
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Asphalt Art Initiative provides support for arts-driven street redesigns that improve safety, revitalize public spaces, and engage local communities. The Initiative’s current funding round will award ten grants of up to $100,000 each, as well as provide on-call technical assistance and impact evaluation support, to cities with populations of 50,000 or more. The focus is on large-scale projects that will make important streets safer and more accessible, create significant new public spaces, or enact other similarly transformative roadway redesigns.
Deadline: January 31, 2025
BNSF Railway Foundation
BSNF Railway
The Foundation is dedicated to supporting the communities BSNF Railway serves and in which their employees live, work, and volunteer. Organizations should exist in or serve a community near one of BNSF's rail lines to be eligible to apply for grants. Grants are offered for projects that fall into the categories of civic service, cultural, educational, health and human service, youth organizations, and federally recognized tribal governments.
Deadline: Openly Accepting Applications
Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund
Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority (EIERA) in cooperation with Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources
In 2005, the EIERA was awarded a $1 million grant to capitalize a revolving loan fund from which the EIERA will provide loans and sub-grants to support cleanup activities for sites contaminated with petroleum, hazardous, controlled substances, and mine-scarred lands.
Deadline: ongoing once outstanding loans are repaid
Business and Industry Loan Guarantee
USDA
This program offers loan guarantees to lenders for their loans to rural businesses. Lenders need the legal authority, financial strength, and sufficient experience to operate a successful lending program. This includes lenders that are subject to supervision and credit examination by the applicable agency of the United States or a State including: Federal and State-chartered banks; Savings and Loans; Farm Credit Banks with direct lending authority and Credit Unions. Eligible applicants include for-profit or non-profit businesses; Cooperatives; Public bodies and Individuals engaged or proposing to engage in a business. Eligible applicants must reside in an eligible rural area, not in a city or town with a population of more than 50,000 inhabitants; the borrower’s headquarters may be based within a larger city, as long as the project is located in an eligible rural area; The lender may be located anywhere in the United States; and Projects may be funded in either rural or urban areas under the Local and Regional Food System Initiative. Check eligible addresses for Business Programs.
Community Empowerment Grant Program
Missouri Main Street Connection
The Community Empowerment Grant (CEG) program is a two-year 70/30 matching service grant. To be eligible for this program, a community representative must attend a CEG workshop. Check our trainings & programs page for more information about the grant and upcoming grant workshops.
The CEG program includes hands-on training and guidance to help the community establish a local Main Street program.
Deadline: periodic
Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program
Missouri's Department of Agriculture - Forest Service:
The Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program (Community Forest Program) of the Forest Service offers a unique opportunity for communities to acquire and conserve forests that provide public access and recreational opportunities, protect vital water supplies and wildlife habitat, serve as demonstration sites for private forest landowners, and provide economic benefits from timber and non-timber products. Eligible applicants include local governments, tribal governments and qualified non-profit entities. The applicant must be on the full fee title acquisition, conservation easement projects are not eligible. Public access is required for the projects. Lands acquired through the program are actively managed in accordance with a community forest plan to provide community benefits.
Deadline: January 13, 2025.
Community Forestry Cost-Share
Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC)
This Cost-Share Program is designed to assist Missouri communities with improving their community forest. This cost-share program encourages communities to have a sustainable, balanced, and comprehensive community forestry program based on a current tree inventory and managed with the guidance of a community forestry professional. Lastly, Community Forestry Cost-Share is designed to promote community forest benefits through the proper management and care of trees. Cost-share opportunities available under the Community Forestry Cost-Share include municipal tree ordinance development, development of a written community tree management plan, or community readiness plan for addressing exotic insect disease outbreaks, community tree inventories, management of ash (Fraxinus sp.) trees, training of city employees and volunteers to improve community forestry, purchase of tree-care education materials, development and/or distribution of tree-care-related educational materials, removal of critical-risk trees, pruning, tree planting, and other opportunities to further community forestry. Deadline: Applications available beginning in July annually and funded on a first-come, first served basis.
Community Possible Grant Program
U.S. Bank Foundation
Through their Community Possible Grant Program, U.S. Bank is partnering with organizations that focus on economic and workforce advancement, safe and affordable housing, and communities connected through arts and culture. In 2021, they switched to an invitation-only grant application; moving away from three payout cycles and instead making quarterly payouts to provide funding when it is needed most. Nonprofit organizations new to U.S. Bank Foundation may submit a Letter of Interest so that the Community Affairs Managers may learn of funding needs in their areas. After reviewing the Letter of Interest, a Community Affairs Manager may reach out with a request for a full application. Grants may be awarded for operating expenses, program or project expenses, as well as a small number of capital grants. Letters of Interest accepted on an ongoing basis, grants awarded quarterly.
Deadline: Quarterly
Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas
U.S. Department of Energy
The Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas funding opportunity provides support for rural and remote communities (10,000 people or fewer) to build clean energy projects that benefit their communities. The goals of the program are to deliver measurable and sustained benefits to people who live in rural or remote areas by funding replicable clean energy projects that lower energy costs, improve energy access and resilience, increase economic opportunity, or reduce environmental harm; demonstrate effective rural or remote energy system approaches using climate-resilient technologies, business structures that promote economic resilience, accessible and appropriate financing mechanisms, or best practices in community leadership and engagement and workforce development; and build clean energy knowledge, experience, capacity, and self-reliance in rural and remote parts of America.
Deadline: Concept Paper due February 27, 2025 and application deadline is August 28, 2025.
Google Ad Grants
Google
The Google Ad Grants program supports nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and more than 50 additional countries that help to make the world a better place. Google Ad Grants is a unique in-kind advertising program that harnesses the power of the company's flagship advertising product, Google AdWords. Through the program, selected organizations receive $10,000 per month through in-kind AdWords advertising to promote their missions and initiatives on Google.com. The program has awarded AdWords advertising to a wide range of nonprofit organizations.
Deadline: revolving
Growing Rural Communities Fund
Rural Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
Rural LISC has developed an innovative new financing tool to provide low-interest loans to qualified commercial real estate projects in rural America. The Growing Rural Communities Fund will finance real estate acquisition and construction costs to spur job creation and economic revitalization in distressed communities.
Deadline: Ongoing
Heritage Site Protection Program
USDA Forest Service
The Heritage Site Protection program seeks assistance in the protection and management of significant cultural resources on public lands. This initiative aims to foster co-stewardship between USDA Forest Service and historic preservation-focused partners to assist the agency in managing, preserving, and sharing history for public enjoyment and professional use. Eligible applicants include for profit; non-profits, institutions of higher education, federal, state, local and Native American tribal governments, organizations and special purpose districts (public utility districts, fire districts, conservation districts, school districts, and ports).
Deadline: February 7, 2025.
Historic Preservation Fund Grants
Missouri State Historic Preservation Office
The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 authorizes a program of federal matching grants, known as the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) to assist various states in carrying out historic preservation activities. The program is sponsored by the Department of the Interior, National Park Service (NPS), and in Missouri, is administered through the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Under changes made to the Act in 1980, each state is required to earmark a minimum of ten percent (10%) of their Historic Preservation Fund monies for exclusive use by Certified Local Governments (CLGs). In this grant cycle, the Department expects to award approximately $200,000 in grants. Certified Local Governments are eligible to apply for this round of Historic Preservation Fund Grants. HPF grants fund projects that relate directly to the identification, evaluation or protection of historic properties. These are 60/40 matching grants.
Deadline: December 6, 2024
Hometown Grants
T-Mobile partnering with Main Street America and Smart Growth America
T-Mobile is investing big in small towns by awarding up to 100 towns a year with project funding—up to $50,000 each. The program will focus on revitalizing community spaces in towns with 50,000 people or less, and Main Street programs are encouraged to apply. Submit a proposal for a town project of your choice, and if selected, use the funds to get started. For example, you could implement tech upgrades at your library, refresh a local park, or break ground on a new place where neighbors can connect.
Deadline: Quarterly.
Jeffris Heartland Fund
Jeffris Family Foundation
The Jeffris Family Foundation invites applications for grants to support the development of important historic preservation projects in eight Midwestern states including Missouri. The decision to pursue a grant from the fund must be made in consultation with a Director of the foundation to discuss your project and request an application form. Grants will be made in the range of $5,000 to $50,000 with a 1:1 match by the recipient. The grant will cover 50% of the cost of an historic structure report. Eligible sites must be owned and governed by 501(c)3 non-profit organizations or units of government, be located in small towns or cities outside of major metropolitan areas and have statewide or national significance documented on their National Register of Historic Places nomination. Upon completion of a quality study in a timely manner, recipients may be invited to submit a proposal for a Capital Campaign Challenge Grant from the foundation.
Deadline: ongoing
