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Grant guidelines

Please view our response to the COVID-19 pandemic for the latest information.

The Mardag Foundation makes grants to nonprofit organizations and public entities located within and serving residents of Minnesota. The geographic focus of our grantmaking is the East Metro area of Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties, as well as Greater Minnesota. 

We have established three priority focus areas and will consider proposals that address one or more of these areas.

Primary areas of interest:

• Improving the lives of low-income Children, Youth and Families that lack access to critical opportunities and resources that they need
• Supporting older adults across Minnesota who lack access or have barriers to critical opportunities to thrive and create community connections
• Building capacity to improve community vitality through Arts and Culture

Grant applications considered for:

• Multi-year funding in some situations, including:
  • Capital projects
  • Start-up costs for promising new programs that demonstrate sound management and clear goals relevant to community needs
• Support for established agencies with temporary or transitional needs
• Program expansion and special projects of a time-limited nature
• Funds to match contributions received from other sources or to provide a challenge to raise new contributions

Grant requests not accepted for:

• Programs exclusively serving Minneapolis and the surrounding West Metro area
• Scholarships and grants to individuals
• Ongoing annual operating expenses
• Sectarian religious programs
• Federated campaigns
• Events and conferences
• Capital campaigns of private secondary schools
• Capital and endowment campaigns of private colleges and universities