The Omaha Community Foundation awarded $467,918 in Fund for Omaha grants to 24 local nonprofits focused on broadening essential services, fostering economic stability, and enhancing overall well-being.
The demand for flexible grant funding remains high. This year, the Foundation received over $2.9 million in requests across 136 applications. These grants address community priorities such as economic opportunity, maternal health and birth outcomes, housing and neighborhoods, and mental and behavioral health. Applicants can request up to $25,000 for general operating support.
Since its inception 37 years ago, the Fund for Omaha has granted more than $10 million to local nonprofits, making it the largest grant program funded by the Foundation in partnership with local philanthropists.
2025 Grant Recipients
- 100 Black Men of Omaha – Provides a variety of programming to mentor and support African-American men in areas like education, community, and emotional well-being. Programs intentionally foster personal growth, academic achievement, leadership development, and successful post-secondary transitions through long-term mentoring relationships and targeted enrichment activities. ($25,000)
- African Immigrant Family Services – Empowers African immigrant and refugee families through health, education, and family support services. AIFS delivers linguistically and culturally appropriate programs, including maternal health, youth development, and community wellness. ($20,000)
- Bluebird Cultural Initiative – Offers youth and family programs that promote healing and healthy futures through Native arts and traditions, supporting cultural preservation and community well-being. Bluebird also provides professional development for educators, healthcare providers, and other institutions to deepen cultural understanding and responsiveness. ($25,000)
- Eastern Nebraska Community Action Partnership – Partners with individuals and families facing poverty to provide emergency assistance, food access, and financial empowerment. ($25,000)
- For All Counseling Services – Increases access to mental health care for immigrants and asylum seekers by providing evaluations that ensure critical psychological factors are considered in legal cases and creating viable pathways to ongoing therapy. ($10,000)
- Generation Diamond – Offers transitional services like tattoo removal, peer support, emergency essentials, and skill development to adults facing employment instability, system involvement, or acute life disruption. ($16,000)
- Girls Inc. of Omaha – Offers holistic, research-based after-school and summer programming for nearly 800 girls, along with a college and career preparatory program for teens. Girls Inc. supports young women ages 19-24 through an alumni network, mentoring program, and transitional living program. ($20,000)
- Healing Ribbons – Fosters intergenerational healing, cultural revitalization, and community wellness for Native women, two-spirit relatives, and their families through programs like the Art of Healing, regalia-making workshops, and cultural gatherings. ($10,000)
- Heartland Workers Center – Develops immigrant leaders, promotes workers’ rights, and fosters civic engagement by supporting immigrant families through safety planning, leadership training, workforce development, and education. ($25,000)
- IBBG – Builds economic opportunity, political power, and improved maternal health through community-led leadership. ($25,000)
- inCOMMON Community Development – Works alongside local residents to help neighbors overcome poverty through programs that build economic self-sufficiency and community connections. They invest in affordable housing, neighborhood revitalization, and engagement initiatives. ($22,000)
- Latino Center of the Midlands – Guides middle/high school students, young adults exploring careers, and adult learners through education, opportunity and wellness. ($25,000)
- Learning For ALL – Provides free English language classes, Adult Basic Education, GED preparation, one-on-one tutoring, and conversation classes to adults across Omaha for people who face barriers to education. ($15,418)
- Lending Link – Combats predatory lending practices through its low-interest loan fund and provides educational programming, strengthening the regional economy and promoting greater financial stability in Omaha. ($25,000)
- Midlands African Chamber – Provides a mechanism to establish, administer and finance programs that enhance the robust African and African American communities’ crucial needs, in line with the goals of the Midlands African Chamber. ($25,000)
- MOMentum – Secures career opportunities for un/underemployed moms through career coaching and support services like transportation, housing, or childcare. ($10,000)
- No More Empty Pots – Addresses food security, education, and economic opportunity. They connect people to improve self-sufficiency, regional food security, and economic resilience through advocacy and action. ($25,000)
- Omaha Bridges Out of Poverty – Equips individuals with tools to more confidently budget for day-to-day and housing expenses, become self-assured in navigating unexpected costs, and learn to build on their support systems. ($25,000)
- One Omaha – Engages communities and their leaders by providing education, facilitation services including brainstorming, visioning sessions, budget planning, and technical application assistance. ($10,000)
- Project Houseworks – Provides essential home repairs, accessibility modifications, and revitalization services for low-income homeowners, focusing on older adults, immigrant and refugee families, and low to middle-income families seeking homeownership. ($17,500)
- Refugee Women Rising – Empowers refugee and immigrant women through culturally grounded programs in three core areas: driving and transportation, culinary opportunity, and holistic wellness. ($22,000)
- RISE Academy – Offers inmates an in-prison character development and job readiness program. Following reentry, graduates continue receiving support through opportunities such as the RISE Business Academy, family programs, policy work, and employment services. ($25,000)
- The Bike Union Mentoring Project – Provides workforce development and personal growth opportunities to young adults impacted by the foster care system, including workforce development at Astute Coffee, financial literacy, cooking and nutrition, mindfulness meditation, academic tutoring, and more. ($10,000)
- Youth Emergency Services (YES) – Provides emergency services to runaway, homeless, and near-homeless youth for over 50 years. YES is a National Safe Place organization and the only organization in the Omaha metro focusing directly on helping youth ages 16-24 address immediate crises and work to become self-sufficient. ($10,000)
