Five for Friday: June 27, 2025

Five for Friday: Grant Opportunities and More!

Curated by: The Western Nevada Development District
This edition of Five for Friday highlights funding and development opportunities supporting rural prosperity, Tribal energy initiatives, community health, and nonprofit technology access. Featured programs include USDA Rural Development resources, Tribal project financing through the Department of Energy, community grant opportunities from The Coca-Cola Foundation and Clif Family Foundation, and nonprofit tech grants from Zendesk.
Grant Opportunities & More

Rural Economic Development Resources  

USDA Rural Development’s latest Executive Overview provides background and application information on their programs and mission. Focusing exclusively on rural America, Rural Development offers loans and grants to eligible individuals, businesses, and communities, encouraging homeownership, growth in business and manufacturing, and community wellbeing. Rural Development also partners with private lenders to offer loan guarantees, providing the backing of the federal government to support rural prosperity and growth.

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Tribal Energy Project Financing

The Department of Energy can support Tribal governments with a broad range of projects and activities for the development of energy resources, products, and services that utilize commercial technology (innovative technology is permitted but not required).

The following non-exclusive list of potential types of Eligible Projects:

  • Electricity generation, transmission and/or distribution facilities, utilizing renewable or conventional energy sources
  • Energy storage facilities, whether or not integrated with any of the above
  • Energy resource extraction, refining or processing facilities
  • Energy transportation facilities, including pipelines
  • District heating and cooling facilities
  • Cogeneration facilities
  • Distributed energy project portfolios, including portfolios of smaller distributed generation and storage facilities employed pursuant to a unified business plan
More Information

Addressing Global Challenges on a Local Level

The Coca-Cola Foundation fosters lasting social impact through meaningful support for various causes and initiatives. As of 2023, this foundation has awarded more than $1.6 billion in grants to support initiatives around the world with a recent focus to specifically address sustainable access to water, a circular economy, disaster preparedness and response, and economic empowerment.

More Information

Food Systems, Environmental Protection and Community Health Grants

The Clif Family Foundation, created by the founders of Clif Bar & Company, offers nonprofit grants to support small-to-midsize grassroots groups in local communities. The foundation’s grant opportunities focus on efforts that strengthen food systems, enhance community health outcomes and protect the environment and natural resources.

Nonprofit organizations can apply for operational support grants, which provide funding for daily costs and specific projects.

Applications for these grants are accepted year-round, but are only reviewed twice per year, after deadlines on March 1 and August 1.

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Zendesk Tech for Good Impact Awards

The software company Zendesk provides free software and multiple nonprofit grants through its Tech for Good Impact Awards Program. Grants are available in amounts ranging from $5,000 to $50,000.

This program is open to nonprofit organizations whose mission or project helps foster community, promote resilience in a time of crisis or create career pathways into technology. Current Zendesk customers are not eligible, and nonprofits must be able to show how the Zendesk software will support their external project goals.

Application deadline: August 15, 2025

Tech for Good Impact Awards Program