Helping Today

Helping Today grant program seeks to support Erie County nonprofits addressing the most immediate needs of our community. Helping Today intentionally casts a wide net, but prioritizes projects that address health, economy and education. Helping Today awards do not exceed $50,000 with all grant monies expensed within 12 months of receiving the award.

Focused on helping nonprofits build capacity to better address issues in our community, Helping Today grants can support (but are not limited to) the following:

  • operations
  • programming
  • planning
  • marketing/community awareness
  • capital purchases (including technology and vehicles)
  • facilities improvements
  • evaluation

Please click here for more information about the Foundation's mission-aligned vision and strategy for priority grantmaking.

Helping Today Deadlines

Helping Today grants will be awarded on a quarterly basis with the following application deadlines and notification dates in 2023:

Application DeadlineNotification Date
Wednesday, February 1 Friday, March 17
Friday, April 28Friday, June 30
Tuesday, August 1Friday, October 6
Friday, October 13Friday, December 14

Please Note: The online grant application form must be completed by 5:00 p.m. on the quarterly deadline date.

For questions or guidance, please call 814-454-0843. All applications are reviewed by Foundation staff and a volunteer advisory committee, and are ultimately approved by The Erie Community Foundation Board of Trustees.

Sample Application Form

Below is a is a link-to a read-only version of the Helping Today grant application form. To submit an online application for consideration, please contact the Community Impact team to schedule a pre-application meeting during which a code will be provided for use in accessing the online forms for grant proposal submission.

Grant Guidelines


Apply for a Grant Complete a Grant Report