Grant and Funding Opportunities

The Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing (REPL) is pleased to announce the availability of the FY2025 Cemetery Grant for qualifying not-for-profit and local government cemeteries. Allowable grant requests include those to defray costs of exceptional cemetery maintenance or training cemetery personnel in the maintenance and operation of cemeteries. Eligible applicants shall be cemetery operators properly registered with REPL, be a documented not-for-profit entity under the IRS tax code and be in compliance with any applicable endowment and/or preneed cemetery merchandise and services trust accounts. The REPL Superintendent is accepting only online applications.

Please gather all information prior to application entry. Once you start the application, the information entered cannot be saved and if you exit out of the application you will lose all information previously entered. The Cemetery Grant application instructions are being provided as a worksheet guidance document only. This will allow you to gather all of the necessary information prior to submitting the grant application online.

Eligible applicants include:

• Local government or not-for-profit cemetery operators properly registered with REPL
• Any cemetery required to establish and maintain an endowment care trust pursuant to ORC section 1721.21 and/or a preneed cemetery merchandise and services trust pursuant to ORC section 1721.211 must be in compliance with those sections to be eligible for a grant

Grant funding totals: $2,500

Deadline: July 31, 2025.

Contact: Daphne Hawk, Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing, phone: 614-466-5384; email: CemeteryGrants@com.ohio.gov

See more at: https://cemeterygrants.com.ohio.gov/

The Kettering Fund was founded July 1, 1958 by Charles F. Kettering, renowned inventor, businessman and philanthropist. The Kettering Fund was gifted to the Kettering Family Foundation in 2014 and now operates as a sub-fund of the Foundation.

The mission of The Kettering Fund Ohio is to support scientific, medical, social and educational studies and research carried on within the State of Ohio. The Fund’s Distribution Committee meets biannually (May and November) to determine funding recommendations to the trustees of The Kettering Family Foundation.

The Kettering Family Foundation (KFF) will consider activities in the following categories:

• Arts, Culture and Humanities
• Education
• Environment
• Health/Medical
• Human Services
• Public and Society Benefit

Eligibility:

• Unit of government
• Religious organizations
• Organization that has a current 501(c)(3) determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service

Award Ceiling:  Funding is ultimately contingent upon the initiative’s alignment with the Fund’s priorities and funding availability
Deadline: July 31, 2025.
Contact: Kettering Fund; email: info@ketteringfamilyphilanthropies.org

See more at: https://www.cfketteringfamilies.com/philanthropy/fund

The Ohio History Fund was created to support the preservation and sharing of Ohio’s heritage by funding local, regional, and statewide projects, programs, and events related to the broad sweep of the state’s history and pre-history. The Ohio History Fund is a competitive matching grants program that is crowd-funded and made possible through voluntary contributions from people like you! Eligible projects fall into one of three grant categories: Bricks & Mortar, Organizational Development, and Programs & Collections.  History Fund grants are competitive and require matching funds, goods, and/or services from recipients.

Community Vitality

• Organizational Development grants focus on building capacity: providing the training and materials to help historical societies and like organizations help themselves. Grants in this category can include, but are not limited to: training for board and staff, professional assistance with organizational issues, improving governance structures, volunteer or membership program development, and assessments or strategic plans (including paid facilitators/consultants). Applications must explain the issue(s) faced by the organization and how the grant will address the issue(s). Solutions must align to the issues identified.
   
• Programs & Collections encompasses a variety of projects that further the study, recordation, interpretation, publication and dissemination of historical information, engagement of communities in history, or preservation of historical collections and archives. Projects funded under this broad category can include, but are not limited to, public programs, exhibits, care and management of archival materials and artifacts, digitization of collections, oral history, archeological/architectural/historical surveys, archaeological field work, nominations of historic buildings and sites to the National Register of Historic Places, preparation of historic preservation plans or feasibility studies, mobile or online applications, walking tours, and events.
   
• Bricks & Mortar Bricks & Mortar projects can involve: 
  • Rehabilitation, restoration, protection, or acquisition of historic properties and archaeological sites listed in the National Register of Historic Places or designated by a local historic preservation ordinances (usually as a Certified Local Government).
  • Building work or construction directly related to the preservation of historical or archival collections regardless of the building’s historic status. If an extant building is in the National Register, any addition “shall not destroy historic materials that characterize the property.”

Eligible applicants may include:

• Public entities in Ohio, such as units of local government, public libraries, and educational institutions.
• Ohio-based, nonprofit organizations in good standing, as defined by the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office. Non-profit organizations registered in Ohio and public entities, including, but not limited to,
  • local historical societies and museums,
  • public libraries,
  • genealogical societies,
  • university archives and special collections,
  • historic preservation groups,
  • archaeological societies,
  • county records management offices,
  • and township governments,
  • incorporated “friends” groups of any of the above

Award Ceiling:  $20,000
Award Floor:  $1,000

Deadline: September 9, 2025.

Contact: Andy Verhoff, Ohio History Fund & Outreach Manager, Local History Office Ohio History Connection; email averhoff@ohiohistory.org; phone: (614) 297-2341

See more at:  https://www.ohiohistory.org/preserving-ohio/ohio-history-fund-grant/apply-for-a-grant/

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) supports local Stand Down events that assist veterans experiencing homelessness by providing a wide range of employment, social, and health services.

Stand Down is a military term referring to an opportunity to achieve a brief respite from combat. Troops assemble in a base camp to receive new clothing, hot food, support services, and a relative degree of safety before returning to combat action. A DOL VETS-funded Stand Down event serves a similar purpose; however, it is intended for veterans experiencing or at-risk of homelessness. The critical services provided at these events are often the catalyst that enables those individuals to reenter the workforce.

VETS awards these noncompetitive grants on a first-come, first-served basis to support one-day or multi-day events at up to $7,000 or $10,000, respectively. They are collaborative events coordinated between VA, DOL, other federal, state, and local government agencies and community-based organizations providing services and supplies to veterans experiencing and at risk of homelessness.

Eligible applicants may include:

• Any area other than a city or town with a population greater than 50,000, and the area adjacent to such a city or town and either:

• State, Territory, and Possession, county, city, local, special district, and Native American tribal governments and agencies,
• non-profit and for-profit entities,
• state and local workforce boards,
• institutions of higher education,
• public and tribal housing authorities, and
• faith-based organizations

Award Ceiling:  $10,000

Deadline: September 30, 2025.

Contact: Kaila Cwiekalo, Veterans' Employment and Training Service Ohio Office, U.S. Department of Labor, 30 East Broad St., Columbus, OH 43215; phone: 614-255-2400; email: Cwiekalo.Kaila@dol.gov

See more at:  https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/345327

ODOT is hosting a special solicitation for projects that make walking and biking a safe, convenient, and accessible transportation option for all Ohioans. A variety of pedestrian and bicycle related projects are eligible for this opportunity with an emphasis on projects that can begin construction before July 2026.

The Ohio Department of Transportation is hosting a special solicitation for projects that make walking and biking a safe, convenient, and accessible transportation option for all Ohioans. A variety of pedestrian and bicycle related projects are eligible for this special solicitation, including:

• Plans and Studies - the development of pedestrian and/or bicycle related plans or studies at the state, regional, local, or corridor level.
• Data Collection - the collection of data related to walking and biking.
• Education and Promotion - activities that educate on bicycle and walking matters and those which promote walking, biking, and transit as a transportation option.
• Short Term Infrastructure Projects - engineering, design, and/or construction of pedestrian and bicycle projects that can begin construction by June 30, 2026.
• Traditional Infrastructure Projects - engineering, design, and/or construction of standalone pedestrian and bicycle projects of statewide significance.

Eligible applicants include:

• political subdivisions (i.e. city, village, township, county, school district, health district, park district, etc.),
• regional planning organizations, and
• other non-profit agencies with support from a political subdivision

Award Ceiling:  Cost should be commensurate to the potential impact. Projects for over $3M are highly unlikely to be fully funded through this solicitation.
Deadline: Electronic applications can be submitted at any time and will be reviewed and awarded quarterly (January, April, July, and October) based on funding availability.
Contact: Caitlin Harley, Safe Routes to School & Active Transportation Program Manager, phone: 614-466-3049, email: Caitlin.Harley@dot.ohio.gov

See more at: https://www.transportation.ohio.gov/traveling/bicycling-and-pedestrians/Resources/pedbikefunding

The Ohio Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Grant Program will award approximately $250 million to provide safe, reliable drinking water in areas that lack infrastructure, bring sewage treatment capacity to unsewered areas, and develop regional infrastructure to serve multiple communities. This presentation offers more information.

Water and wastewater construction projects are eligible for up to $5 million in grant funding, and infrastructure engineering design projects are eligible for up to $250,000.

Examples of water infrastructure construction projects include, but are not limited to:

• Sewer/wastewater treatment plant improvements/expansion
• New/replacement sanitary sewer lines
• Excess sanitary sewer infiltration/inflow correction
• Improvements to public drinking water treatment facilities
• Drinking water line improvements or extensions
• Repair, replacement, and construction of drinking water storage towers

Click to download the application to the Ohio Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Grant Program, and contact Matt Lindsay at mlindsay@mvrpc.org to discuss potential projects in your community.

Through its Planning and Local Technical Assistance programs, EDA assists eligible recipients in developing economic development plans and studies designed to build capacity and guide the economic prosperity and resiliency of an area or region. The Planning program helps support organizations, including District Organizations, Indian Tribes, and other eligible recipients, with Short Term and State Planning investments designed to guide the eventual creation and retention of high-quality jobs, particularly for the unemployed and underemployed in the Nation’s most economically distressed regions. As part of this program, EDA supports Partnership Planning investments to facilitate the development, implementation, revision, or replacement of Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies (CEDS), which articulate and prioritize the strategic economic goals of recipients’ respective regions. The Local Technical Assistance program strengthens the capacity of local or State organizations, institutions of higher education, and other eligible recipients to undertake and promote effective economic development programs through projects such as feasibility studies and impact analyses.

Please see the Federal Funding Opportunity for full information on how to apply. Also note that any applicants who are in the process of developing an application under the previous FFO will need to apply under the new FFO and use the associated new forms.

Deadline: Applications are accepted on a continuing basis and processed as received. This Planning and Local Technical Assistance opportunity will remain in effect until superseded by a future announcement.

Contact: Ellen Heinz, State of Ohio Economic Development Representative, (312)505-4953, eheinz@eda.gov

See more at:

 https://www.eda.gov/funding/funding-opportunities/fiscal-year-2021-2023-eda-planning-and-local-technical-assistance

https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=280447