Introduction
For nonprofits serving Broward County, the Community Foundation of Broward is an important funder to understand. Its grantmaking interests include arts and culture, community development, education, environment, health, social services, workforce, and youth. Across these areas, the foundation’s opportunities reflect a broad goal: supporting initiatives that improve lives, promote equity, strengthen communities, and expand opportunity.
The foundation’s current opportunities include general grant programs as well as more focused initiatives for youth enrichment, health and fitness, arts-based social justice work, local journalism, and LGBTQ social justice and equity. Some opportunities are open to eligible nonprofits, while others are invitation-only or involve a more specialized partnership structure.
For development staff, the challenge is not simply finding a Community Foundation of Broward opportunity. It is determining which opportunity is the strongest fit, confirming that the organization is eligible, and presenting a project that clearly connects local need, measurable work, and community benefit.
This guide offers a practical framework for Broward nonprofits preparing to research and pursue these grants.
Understand the Foundation’s Funding Fit
The Community Foundation of Broward’s opportunities can look different from one another, but several themes recur throughout the current grant list:
- Broward County service: Many opportunities are intended for nonprofits operating in or serving Broward County.
- 501(c)(3) eligibility: The general Community Foundation of Broward grant opportunity specifies that applicants must have tax-exempt status.
- Equity and mobility: Social and economic mobility, social justice, and equitable access appear across several areas of interest.
- Community connection: Some initiatives focus on strengthening relationships, civic engagement, dialogue, or community building.
- Youth opportunity: Education, career exploration, academic success, and life skills are central to youth-focused funding.
- Healthy communities: Health, fitness, and access to physical activity are represented in the foundation’s grantmaking.
- Organizational capacity: The foundation also supports nonprofit leadership and capacity-building through an invitation-only opportunity.
Before drafting, compare your proposed project with the funder’s stated purpose. A project may be valuable and still be a weak fit if the application does not explain why it belongs in a particular funding category.
A useful first step is to build a one-page fit summary answering four questions:
- Who will benefit? Identify the Broward County residents, communities, or populations the project will serve.
- What problem will the project address? Describe the need in direct, specific language.
- What will your organization do? List the activities, partners, timeline, and responsible staff.
- What will change? Define the outcomes that will demonstrate progress.
Your summary should make the connection between the project and the foundation’s priorities easy to see. If a reviewer must infer the connection, the proposal is doing too much work indirectly.
Review the Current Community Foundation of Broward Opportunities
The foundation’s current opportunities vary in audience, purpose, and level of access. Treat each one as a distinct funding conversation rather than submitting the same concept everywhere.
Community Foundation of Broward Grants
The broad Community Foundation of Broward grants opportunity supports 501(c)(3) nonprofits that serve Broward County. Its stated areas include social and economic mobility, arts and culture, education and youth enrichment, and healthy communities. The opportunity also includes categories such as social services and community development.
This may be the most natural starting point for organizations whose work crosses more than one focus area. Even so, a broad opportunity requires a focused proposal. Avoid describing every program your organization operates. Instead, select one project and explain why it is timely, needed, and achievable.
Community Foundation Grants
The similarly named Community Foundation Grants opportunity supports innovative projects intended to improve lives and promote equity in Broward County. Its focus includes youth education, economic mobility, health, arts, and community building.
Because the opportunity emphasizes innovation and equity, applicants should explain more than what they plan to do. Show what is distinctive about the approach, whose barriers it addresses, and how community members informed the work. Innovation does not necessarily mean creating an entirely new program; it can also mean improving access, changing a delivery model, or forming a more effective partnership.
Art of Community Grant
The Art of Community Grant supports projects that use the arts to promote awareness and action on social justice issues while encouraging community engagement and dialogue.
An application should make the arts component central rather than incidental. Describe the artistic method, the social justice issue, the audience or participants, and the opportunities for conversation or action. A strong concept will show how the project creates engagement—not simply how it produces an artistic work.
Youth Enrichment Grants
Youth Enrichment Grants support programs helping young people in Broward develop skills for their future careers. The stated emphasis includes academic success, career exploration, and life skills.
Youth-serving nonprofits should identify the age group served, the skills participants will develop, and how progress will be measured. Examples of useful measures include participation, completion, demonstrated skill growth, educational progress, career exploration milestones, or other outcomes that match the project’s design.
BFit Grant
The BFit Grant supports programs that improve access to physical activity and promote healthy living.
Applications should move beyond a general statement that exercise is beneficial. Explain the access barrier, the population affected, the activities offered, and how the program will encourage ongoing participation. If the project involves facilities, equipment, instruction, or outreach, connect each expense to increased access and healthier behavior.
LGBTQ Social Justice & Equity Funders Collaborative Request for Proposals
The LGBTQ Social Justice & Equity Funders Collaborative Request for Proposals funds initiatives supporting equity and social justice for LGBTQ BIPOC communities through civic engagement, leadership development, and culturally relevant programming.
Organizations considering this opportunity should be precise about the community served and the role of LGBTQ BIPOC participants in shaping the work. Explain how the project builds leadership, expands civic participation, or delivers programming that is culturally relevant. Avoid treating identity as a demographic footnote; it should be connected to the project’s design, goals, and outcomes.
Press Forward Grants
The Press Forward Grants opportunity supports local news initiatives in South Florida, with an emphasis on improving the quality and accessibility of news coverage. Eligible applicants include organizations involved in local journalism.
Applicants should define the coverage gap they address, the audiences they intend to reach, and how the proposed work will improve accessibility or quality. A clear distribution plan is important: explain how residents will find, use, or participate in the news produced.
Specialized and Invitation-Only Opportunities
The Community Builders initiative is designed for nonprofits interested in partnering with the foundation to establish endowed charitable funds of $1 million or more. This is fundamentally different from a typical project grant. Organizations considering it should be prepared to discuss long-term impact, fund structure, stewardship, and the organization’s capacity to sustain the partnership.
The Center for Nonprofit Excellence Grants support leadership development and organizational capacity for nonprofit professionals and volunteers, but only invited applicants are eligible. Likewise, Building Community Grants support stronger connections within Broward County and are available only to invited applicants.
Do not spend significant proposal-writing time on an invitation-only opportunity until you have confirmed that your organization has been invited. Instead, use the program descriptions to understand the foundation’s broader interests and watch for appropriate communication from the funder.
Confirm Eligibility Before You Draft
Eligibility review should happen before a writing team begins building a narrative. The general Community Foundation of Broward grant description identifies 501(c)(3) nonprofits that operate within Broward County as eligible applicants. Other opportunities have additional requirements tied to their subject matter or applicant type.
Create an eligibility checklist with the following fields:
- Legal applicant name and tax-exempt status
- Broward County operating or service area
- Populations and communities served
- Alignment with the opportunity’s focus
- Applicant type, such as nonprofit or local journalism organization
- Invitation status, when applicable
- Required organizational documents
- Project start and end dates
- Key partners and their roles
- Internal approval requirements
Your team can track readiness gaps and verify nonprofit status before investing in a full application. This is especially useful when multiple staff members are involved and eligibility information is stored in different files.
Also distinguish between organizational eligibility and project fit. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving Broward County may be eligible for a general opportunity, but that does not mean every project is competitive. The proposed work still needs to match the opportunity’s focus and demonstrate a meaningful benefit to Broward residents.
Build a Stronger Broward Grant Narrative
A competitive application should give the reviewer a clear line of sight from need to action to results. Use the following structure when developing your narrative.
1. Define the local need
Describe the issue your project addresses and the people affected. Keep the explanation connected to your organization’s direct experience in Broward County. Explain what residents, participants, or community partners are telling you, and identify the specific barrier your project will address.
Avoid broad statements that could apply to any county. A local funder needs to understand why your organization is positioned to respond to this need in Broward.
2. Explain the intervention
List the activities in the order they will occur. For example, a youth project might include recruitment, instruction, mentoring, career exploration, and follow-up. An arts and social justice project might include creation, public engagement, facilitated dialogue, and community action.
The activities should be realistic for the requested support. If your organization is proposing a new effort, explain the staffing, partners, facilities, and systems that make implementation possible.
3. Connect outcomes to the project
Choose outcomes that your team can measure. Possible measures include:
- Number of participants reached or served
- Participation or completion rates
- Skills gained or demonstrated
- Access to physical activity or health programming
- Leadership or civic engagement milestones
- Community dialogue or engagement measures
- News audience reach and accessibility indicators
- Evidence of improved organizational capacity
Do not list metrics simply because they are easy to count. Each measure should help answer whether the project is achieving its purpose.
4. Show community involvement
Community engagement is especially relevant for projects involving arts, social justice, civic participation, or community building. Identify who helped define the problem, design the response, or shape the implementation.
If residents or participants have decision-making roles, describe them. If partners are involved, explain their specific contributions rather than listing their names without context.
5. Present a credible budget
A strong budget tells the same story as the narrative. Every major expense should support an activity, and every activity should appear in the work plan. Review the budget for:
- Staff time assigned to actual project responsibilities
- Participant support and accessibility needs
- Supplies, equipment, or space tied to planned activities
- Outreach and engagement costs
- Evaluation expenses
- Partner payments that reflect defined roles
Because the available grant descriptions do not specify award amounts for most opportunities, avoid designing a budget around an assumed grant size. Start with the cost of the project, then identify the portion that the foundation’s support would make possible. If the opportunity provides additional instructions, use those instructions as the controlling source.
Use Funder Research to Improve Fit
Research should answer practical questions, not simply produce background notes. Before submitting, review the opportunity page and compare the proposed project with the foundation’s stated purpose. Then ask:
- Does the project clearly serve Broward County?
- Is the primary benefit connected to the opportunity’s focus?
- Is the project specific enough to evaluate?
- Does the organization have the capacity to deliver it?
- Are the outcomes meaningful and measurable?
- Does the budget support the activities?
- Are there eligibility or invitation requirements that could disqualify the application?
A funder directory with award history and funder intelligence can help your team organize research and analyze patterns in past funding when that information is available. Use that research carefully: past awards can inform positioning, but they should not lead you to copy another organization’s language or assume that a prior project will receive the same treatment.
For a broader view, use pre-screen opportunities by county and focus area to compare Community Foundation of Broward opportunities with other relevant possibilities for Broward nonprofits. The purpose is not to pursue every listing. It is to build a balanced pipeline in which each application has a clear fit and a realistic level of effort.
Manage Rolling and Ongoing Opportunities Carefully
The current opportunities listed for the Community Foundation of Broward have rolling or no deadline designations. That flexibility can be helpful, but it can also encourage delay. A rolling opportunity still requires internal planning, document preparation, review, and submission discipline.
Set an internal schedule with dates for:
- Eligibility confirmation
- Funder questions and clarification
- First narrative draft
- Budget completion
- Program staff review
- Executive review
- Final proofreading
- Submission and recordkeeping
Maintain a short decision log explaining why your organization selected the opportunity, what the project will request, and who approved the final approach. This prevents the application from changing direction each time a new reviewer reads it.
You can also set up deadline and opportunity reminders so rolling opportunities remain visible without relying on one staff member’s memory. Keep a copy of the submitted narrative, budget, attachments, and confirmation for future reporting and relationship management.
Common Application Mistakes to Avoid
Applying to the wrong opportunity
A project may touch several topics, but select the opportunity whose purpose most closely matches the primary outcome. Do not force a youth project into an arts-centered narrative, or a health project into a community-development frame, unless the connection is genuine and well supported.
Treating broad language as a substitute for a plan
Words such as equity, mobility, access, and community impact are important, but they do not replace details. State who will do what, for whom, when, and with what expected result.
Ignoring invitation requirements
The Center for Nonprofit Excellence Grants and Building Community Grants are identified as invitation-only. Confirm access before preparing a full proposal.
Overpromising
A proposal is stronger when it is achievable. Keep the participant targets, timeline, staffing plan, and evaluation approach consistent with the organization’s actual capacity.
Reusing an old proposal without adaptation
Even if your organization has a strong existing narrative, revise it for the specific Community Foundation of Broward opportunity. The opening, activities, outcomes, and budget should all reflect the selected program.
Leaving the reviewer to connect the dots
Make the fit explicit. Name the Broward community served, the opportunity’s relevant focus, the project’s purpose, and the measurable change expected.
A Practical Final Review
Before submission, ask someone who was not involved in drafting to read the application and answer these questions in one sentence each:
- What does the project do?
- Who benefits?
- Why is the project needed in Broward County?
- Why is this the right Community Foundation of Broward opportunity?
- What will change if the project succeeds?
- How will the organization know?
- What will the requested support pay for?
If the reader cannot answer quickly, revise for clarity. The final application should not require a reviewer to reconstruct the project from scattered details.
Use a scoring review to assess the proposal against your own criteria: eligibility, funder fit, local need, project quality, equity, feasibility, outcomes, budget alignment, and clarity. A structured application review and scoring process can help identify gaps before the proposal reaches the funder.
Conclusion: Turn Funder Fit Into a Repeatable Process
The Community Foundation of Broward offers a range of opportunities for nonprofits serving Broward County, from broad support for education, health, arts, social services, and community development to focused initiatives involving youth enrichment, fitness, social justice, local journalism, and nonprofit capacity.
The strongest applications will not try to say everything about the organization. They will present one well-defined project, demonstrate a clear Broward County benefit, confirm eligibility, connect activities to outcomes, and show that the budget is ready for implementation.
Start by identifying the best-fit opportunity, then complete an eligibility review, prepare a focused concept summary, and build the narrative and budget together. For a more efficient workflow, review and organize relevant grant opportunities before assigning the next application to your team. A disciplined process will help your organization spend less time on weak-fit applications—and more time developing proposals that are clear, credible, and responsive to Broward’s communities.