The Citi Foundation has issued a request for proposals for its 2025 Global Innovation Challenge, which provides philanthropic support for community organizations to pilot or scale solutions to social and economic issues around the world.

According to the foundation, despite recent progress, young people globally continue to experience challenges in their pursuit of employment, including skills mismatch and gaining access to quality jobs. This year’s Global Innovation Challenge is focused on youth employability, and the foundation invites proposals from community organizations developing innovative employment solutions for low-income youth primarily between ages 15-24.

These innovative solutions could include, but are not limited to: 1) technical and vocational training programs that upskill or reskill low-income youth and move them into employment, which could include paid internships, apprenticeships or formal employment; 2) entrepreneurship programming that specifically focuses on the incubation or scaling of youth-led enterprises to increase job creation and access to self-generated income; and 3) efforts to embed financial education programming into workforce development initiatives equipping low-income youth with financial skills and access to safe and affordable financials tools.

Through the initiative, the foundation plans to award grants of $500,000 over two years to 50 community organizations working in select communities where Citi has a presence. Grants are meant to be catalytic in nature, supporting the piloting or expansion of ideas and projects in the field of youth employability. In addition to grant funds, the foundation aims to support the selected grantees through volunteerism and host learning opportunities to promote shared lessons and best practices.

To be eligible, applicants must be registered as nonprofit entities under local law. For U.S. entities, applicants need to be tax-exempt public charities as per section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Applicants must be able to submit their most recent externally audited financial statements, including auditor’s notes, covering some part of calendar year 2023 or a subsequent year.

Organizations must first register and confirm they meet the eligibility requirements to gain access to the foundation’s grantmaking portal. Eligible applicants will receive access to the portal within three business days. The registration deadline is March 4, 2025, at 12:00 noon ET. Applicant organizations must submit completed applications by March 18, 2025, at 12:00 noon ET.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Citi Foundation website.

Deadline: March 4, 2025 at 12 noon ET (Registration)

The Citi Foundation has announced the inaugural Global Innovation Challenge to help scale the impact of worldwide nonprofits developing innovative solutions to improve food security.

Through the challenge, a collective $25 million will be awarded to 50 organizations working to pilot or expand ideas and projects designed to improve food security and strengthen the financial health of low-income families and communities.

Grants of $500,000 over two years will be awarded to support projects in the following four areas:

Access: Efforts that increase access to affordable and healthy food in low-income communities.

Affordability: Efforts to improve food affordability through community finance efforts that help reduce the financial burden placed on low-income communities.

Availability: Projects to address challenges in the food supply chain that lead to positive community benefits, such as creating new jobs and businesses.

Resilience: Projects to increase the available resources that enable low-income communities to prepare for and respond to disruptions in food security during crises more effectively.

Grants are meant to be catalytic, supporting the piloting or expanding ideas and projects in food security. In addition, the Citi Foundation will offer post-funding support by connecting grantees to Citi subject matter experts and employee volunteers and hosting learning opportunities to promote shared lessons and best practices on food security. Proposed programs must align with the foundation’s mission of supporting low-income communities as defined by local standards and definitions. The applicant’s proposed program covers one or more of the target geographies.

Applicants must be tax-exempt as defined by section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code to be eligible. They must be able to submit at least one year of externally audited financial statements covering all or part of the calendar year 2021.

A registration form is due March 22, 2023, at 4:00 p.m. ET.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Citi Foundation website.

Deadline: March 22, 2023 at 4:00 p.m. ET (Registration form)

The Citi Foundation has announced a $50 million request for ideas to support the next level of growth for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to catalyze and expand their work in building assets and wealth for low-income and diverse communities.

The Community Finance Innovation Fund will support intermediary-like nonprofit organizations with the ability to provide technical assistance and capacity-building innovations to multiple CDFIs working on a national or regional basis. The Citi Foundation will invite promising concepts to submit grant applications for funding from the ideas submitted.

Through this national RFI, the foundation aims to solicit breakthrough innovations to advance the field of community development finance in four key areas that include human capital and talent development, financial and risk-sharing models, technology and operational efficiencies, and thought leadership and research. Applicant organizations must be able to demonstrate a successful track record of advancing the field of community development finance, specifically in conjunction with CDFIs, and be able to demonstrate that their idea has the ability and/or intent on achieving regional or national scale, impacting low- and moderate-income and underserved communities.

Priority will be given to ideas that address an identified and measurable gap in the field of community development finance that directly affects CDFIs. In addition, priority will be given to organizations that demonstrate a strong commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and intentionality to apply a racial equity lens to community development finance. In addition to ideas that have the ability and/or intent to achieve regional or national scale, the foundation has a strong interest in ideas that impact low- and moderate-income and underserved communities within Citi Foundation’s strategic U.S. markets of California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, South Dakota, Virginia, and Washington D.C.

To be eligible, applicant organizations or their fiscal sponsors must be tax-exempt public charities as defined by section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Initial ideas are due May 24, 2022, at 4:00 p.m. ET. A sub-set of organizations that submit ideas will be contacted for further information on a ruling basis.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Citi Foundation website.

Deadline: May 24, 2022 4:00 p.m. ET (Initial ideas)

The Citi Foundation has announced a $15 million open request for proposals to support Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) serving small businesses owned by people of color and low- and moderate-income individuals and communities.

Under the RFP, the foundation will provide unrestricted grant support of up to $500,000 to select CDFIs working in the following geographies: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

The deadline to apply is July 30, 2020 at 4:00PM EDT.

The foundation will host a webinar on July 9 at 2:00 p.m. EDT to review the application process and to answer questions from potential applicants about this opportunity. (Registration required.) Organizations are invited to send questions in advance of the webinar to citifoundationcdfi@citi.com.

For more information and to apply, visit the Citi Foundation website.

Learn more and apply: http://citifoundation.com/cdfi