Across the Omaha metro, emerging philanthropists are coming together to focus their efforts on improving our community, and in the process, learning about grassroots grantmaking through the Omaha Venture Group, a giving circle facilitated by the Omaha Community Foundation.

OVG is accepting grant applications from local nonprofits January 1-February 5.

Apply HERE

Interest Areas

OVG uses a venture philanthropy model and supports nonprofits with fledging initiatives across the Omaha metro. A total of four grants are awarded each year, one in each interest area.

  1. Arts and Culture: Providing access to the tools and resources to engage the community in arts and cultural programming.
  2. Health: Enabling access or removing barriers to quality healthcare, mental health, and nutrition.
  3. Neighborhoods, Civic Engagement, & Safety: Enabling residents to have a deeper connection to their neighborhoods and each other, creating a stronger, more vibrant, and inclusive city. Ensuring safe and affordable housing, homeownership paths, and public spaces suitable for social connectivity. Ensuring our community has places that are safe from any type of violence, including physical, emotional, or psychological.
  4. Workforce and Education: Expands access or removes barriers to living-wage jobs. Improving students’ experiences inside and outside the classroom, at school, and at home provide high-quality education to all and remove inequities in educational access and student performance.

2023 GRANT RECIPIENTS

Eligibility Requirements

  • Provides services to Omaha metro area residents
  • Annual organizational budget of $500,000 or less
  • Must be a public 501(c)(3) organization or be able to accept funding under an “umbrella” nonprofit agency
  • Must fit into one of the four interest areas
  • Applicants can request up to $8,000
  • Must not have received OVG funding within the last three grant cycles

Grant Application Process

  • Letter of Intent: Applicants submit a brief project summary by Monday, February 5.
  • Site Visits: Selected applicants will engage in site visits, either in person or virtually, providing OVG members with a comprehensive understanding of their nonprofit. Applicants will be notified for site visit selection by March 4. Site visits will be completed by March 31.
  • Full Application: OVG invites finalists to complete the full application, with notifications sent out by April 15. Only nonprofits selected for an award will complete a full application, due by May 3.
  • Grant Night: Successful applicants will be invited to the Grant Night event on May 30. This evening not only reveals award amounts but also serves as a celebratory occasion where grantees join OVG members in acknowledging their collective impact. (All approved grants are subject to a grant agreement with the Omaha Community Foundation.)

Questions can be directed to ovg@omahafoundation.org.

*Pictured: Access Period, a 2023 Omaha Venture Group Grant Recipient