Mini-grants are awarded to girl-serving programs with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). They are granted to support collaboration, address gaps and overlaps in service, and share exemplary practices. Mini-grants are a small amount of seed funding and are not intended to fully fund entire projects. The maximum mini-grant award is $1000.

Why Provide Mini-Grants?

Numerous organizations provide valuable but uncoordinated activities and support services related to motivating and supporting girls’ interest in STEM careers. Mini-grants are designed to build collaboration between existing programs and organizations to encourage girls to pursue STEM-related educational programs and careers. Preference is given to applications that are innovative and involve a collaboration between two programs or organizations that have not previously collaborated together.

Mini-Grant Application Requirements

• At least two programs from different organizations must collaborate on the mini-grant project. 
• Both your organization and your collaborating partner/s must be registered and approved in The Connectory BEFORE applying.
• The applicant must choose one of her/his programs to be the lead program.  
• The lead program must be located in a collaborative state or region currently offering mini-grants.
• Preference is given to projects that are innovative and include a collaboration between organizations that has not occurred before.
• Mini-grant projects must last longer than one day, unless the one-day project is part of a larger event (for example, a one-day STEM conference for middle school girls that is included within a week-long summer camp).

If you have a registered program in an area currently accepting mini-grant applications, you may submit an application. If you do not have a registered program, you must first submit your provider program in The Connectory so it may be selected as your lead program. Register your provider program in The Connectory.

Application Resources