Grant Programs

Research shows that contact with nature is linked to increased happiness, well-being, positive emotions, social interactions, and a sense of meaning and purpose, while also reducing mental distress (source: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/04/nurtured-nature). We encourage proposals that foster connections to the natural environment to promote mental health at both the individual and community levels.

Specifically, we aim to fund programs that:

• Demonstrate and promote a connection between engagement with nature and positive mental health outcomes;
• Create opportunities for youth and young adults to disengage from technology and engage in outdoor programs and activities designed to improve their mental wellness;
• Support mental health practitioners by increasing opportunities for self-care or personal renewal;
• Provide opportunities for those impacted by trauma (i.e., foster youth) to engage in nature-based healing activities.

While the list above is not exhaustive, it is representative of our overarching belief that sustained, meaningful engagement with nature can result in positive mental health outcomes for all.

We encourage applicants from organizations across East Central Illinois. We give preference to rural organizations and those operating in Coles and the surrounding counties. View the map above.

We are especially interested in programs or projects that connect communities.

Successful proposals will represent a synergy of as many of the following aims as possible.

• Promote personal health through widespread availability and consumption of healthy, affordable food;
• Support mental wellness through individual and community engagement with the natural environment;
• Grow the local agricultural economy, sustaining and creating new viable farm and farm-related businesses;
• Develop, promote and scale innovative green practices that add productive value to farms while protecting the land for future generations; and,
• Encourage community engagement and collaboration, policy development, and research around agriculture and rural development.

We encourage applicants from organizations across East Central Illinois. We give preference to rural organizations and those operating in Coles and the surrounding counties. View the map above. We are especially interested in programs or projects that connect communities.

We encourage prospective grantees to contact us to discuss their potential proposal and its possible fit with our guidelines.

While we do not set limitations on our grant requests, the average size of a Land, Health, Community grant award is $30,000. Funding levels can range between $2,500 – $50,000.

We do not sponsor events or provide funding to individuals.

If you would like to discuss a specific idea or possible partnership with The Foundation, feel free to contact us.

If your organization is invited to submit an application, you may be contacted by Foundation staff to arrange a site visit. Not all applicants will receive a site visit request. Our site visits may be in person or conducted remotely via video conference, and staff will do their best to give two week’s scheduling notice. 

Site visits are a chance to discuss your application, your project, and your organization as a whole with representatives from the Foundation. We will not provide a formal agenda, but you should be prepared to answer questions and are invited to ask questions of your own. We aim for the site visit to be a conversational learning experience for both Foundation staff and your organization.

A post grant report is a requirement of nearly all grants. It is an opportunity to share what worked well, and what did not, and to what degree the project accomplished its goals. The date will vary, but the majority of reports are due 11 or 12 months from approval. This will be communicated to you when your grant is awarded. 

We believe that it is important to measure the success of our grantmaking strategy. While we have our own internal strategy that we use to measure our own progress towards our programmatic goals, we allow our grantees to report metrics that are most relevant to their unique context.

We recognize that the measurement of success (and failure) is only valuable when it is done based on the specific and context-based parameters established by our grantees. We work in tandem with them to ensure that what is measured has meaning to both their work and our overall goals as a Foundation.This will allow evaluation flexibility while helping The Lumpkin Family Foundation learn about what Outcomes and Metrics are most useful to our grantees. Please contact staff with any questions about Outcomes and Metrics.

Your report template will be accessible through our Apply/Report here portal. Most post grant reports are similar to the following example for the Land, Health, Community program:

Please feel free to contact Foundation staff with any questions about your reporting date or details.