With a grant making capacity of $1.2 billion over a 20-year period, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, which operates in southeast Michigan and western New York, has launched an online portal and website to open up the grant application process to interested nonprofit organizations.
“With the last several months focused on planning, hiring, and developing our operating policies and grant guidelines, we’re excited to be ‘open for business,’” says David Egner, who joined the foundation in January as president and CEO. “We have a great executive team now in place who have already hit the ground running, exploring opportunities for investment and collaboration in both communities.”
Specific funding areas of the foundation, which has been operational since 2015, include projects and organizations focused on children and youth, young adults and working class families, caregiving, and healthy communities.
Grant applications are being accepted through the website on an ongoing basis, and Egner says the web-based application will allow for an easy, transparent, and efficient grant making process from start to finish.
The southeast Michigan and western New York regions were the home and adopted home of the foundation’s namesake and founder, the late Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., a Detroit area native and life-long resident, and the founder and long-time owner of the Buffalo Bills professional football team.
So far, the foundation has awarded more than $60 million in grants to a number of local community organizations. The foundation has also identified and recently funded a small number of projects that fell within its core funding areas, and has worked with partner organizations to commission studies and field inquires within some of its areas of interest.
For more information visit rcwjrf.org.
