Whatcom Community Foundation is investing in the important work of our community and nonprofit partners to help our neighbors flourish.
2026 Grant Rounds
2026 Project Neighborly Grants
Project Neighborly grants support people with thoughtful, creative ideas for bringing neighbors together and strengthening the connections that make our communities thrive. These grants are designed to turn good ideas into real experiences; creating opportunities for people to meet, share, collaborate, and build relationships across differences and distances.
At a time when it can be easy to feel disconnected, we are continually reminded that meaningful, in-person connection is at the heart of a strong and healthy community. Neighborliness does not just happen organically. It demands an intentional dutifulness to the practice. It shows up in small acts of kindness, in shared spaces and conversations, and in the willingness to reach beyond familiar circles to build something together. When people come together with openness and care, they create communities where everyone has a greater sense of belonging.
This year, we were inspired by the breadth and spirit of participation, receiving 78 proposals from across the county. From these, Whatcom Community Foundation’s Project Neighborly grant round funded 50 projects, each reflecting a commitment to fostering connection, understanding, and collaboration. Together, these efforts are helping to create a more connected, resilient, and welcoming community for all.
Click here to see a listing of the 2026 Project Neighborly Grantees>
2026 Youth Philanthropy Grants
The 2026 Youth Philanthropy Project focused on building environments where youth can thrive using the proven Icelandic Prevention Model (IPM) as a guide. This model empowers communities to come together, center voice and the needs of young people, and implement strategies increasing protective factors (like strong family bonds, participation in out of school activities, positive peer networks, and supportive school environments) and reduce risk factors (lack of meaningful activities, low parental engagement, easy access to drugs/alcohol, family conflict or high stress at home, bullying, etc.). The goal is to strengthen supports and conditions that help promote healthy youth development. Rather than focusing solely on individual behavior, the model promotes upstream, community-wide solutions.
Click here to see a listing of the 2026 Youth Philanthropy Grantees>
2025 Grant Rounds
2025 Project Neighborly Grants
What do a community bike day, a Juneteenth fatherhood carnival, a Japanese garden gate, accessible art walks, and a Holi Festival have in common?
They’re all part of this year’s Project Neighborly grantee projects—each one a bold, creative idea that brings people together across differences. From murals and music to retreats, street festivals, and speaker series, the 2025 recipients are building bridges and nurturing connection in every corner of Whatcom County.
These 33 grassroots efforts foster a stronger sense of belonging, encourage neighbors to meet who might not otherwise cross paths, and help cultivate a healthier, more vibrant community for everyone.
Click here to see a listing of the 2025 Project Neighborly Grants>
2025 Youth Philanthropy Grants for the Environment & Youth Homelessness
The Youth Philanthropy Project helps high school students develop personal and professional skills needed by the next generation of community leaders. With staff support, students form a leadership committee to review grant proposals and make funding decisions. They learn about local issues affecting Whatcom County and distribute funding that benefits environmentally focused organizations.
The 2025 YPP team tackled two grant rounds, granting nearly $80,000 to Whatcom County projects positively impacting youth experiencing homelessness and supporting programs that support young people in learning and/or stewarding the environment.
Click here to see a listing of the 2025 Youth Philanthropy Grantees >
2025 Fund for Whatcom County Grant Round: Health & Wellness of the Nonprofit Sector
Imagine life without our essential nonprofits. Where would we turn for culture, animal adoption, housing, food, healthcare, environmental care, exercise, education, or support for our most vulnerable neighbors?
Nonprofit staff are the frontline builders of our community—resilient, creative, and committed—despite the unprecedented challenges of the past five years.
To help address sector-wide fatigue, turnover, and burnout, the Whatcom Community Foundation hosted its second Health & Wellness Grant Round, offering mini-grants ($1,000–$10,000) to meet staff wellness and support needs.
As of March 2025, the Whatcom Community Foundation has awarded $250,500 in grants to 45 local organizations to support a wide-range of creative and fundamental needs. Requests ranged from support from updated office furniture to supporting staff training and engagement activities.
Allied Arts of Whatcom County
Animals as Natural Therapy
BAAY (Bellingham Arts Academy for Youth)
Bellingham Symphony Orchestra
Blaine Food Bank Association
Cascade Connections
Children of the Setting Sun Productions
Common Threads Farm
Communities in Schools of Whatcom-Skagit
Community Boating Center
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services (DVSAS)
Fatherhood The Foundation
Ferndale Community Service Cooperative
Ferndale Food Bank
Foster Hearts
FuturesNW
Gifts of Music NW
Habitat for Humanity in Whatcom County
Interfaith Coalition of Whatcom County
Kulshan Community Land Trust
LAW Advocates
Lummi Island Heritage Trust
Lydia Place
Make.Shift
Max Higbee Center
Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association
North Cascades Institute
Northwest Therapeutic Riding Center
Northwest Youth Services
Opportunity Council
Peace Centers
RE Sources
Road2Home
Sustainable Connections
Trans-WA (The Trans Health and Wellness Center of Washington)
Unbridled Spirit 7
VAMOS Outdoor Project
Whatcom Center for Early Learning
Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center
Whatcom Family & Community Network
Whatcom Family YMCA
Whatcom Humane Society
Whatcom Land Trust
Whatcom Museum Foundation
Wild Whatcom
2024 Grant Rounds
2024 Project Neighborly Grants
What could a ‘tween meet up, bi-lingual Zumba, a street mural project, a solar energy awareness program, indigenous children’s books, a senior meal gathering, tree planting and adaptive water recreation possibly have in common? All are recipients of this year’s Project Neighborly grants, awarded to groups that have great ideas about how we can all be better neighbors. Efforts focus on connecting people who might not otherwise meet to foster a sense of belonging and build trust.
Success means more and better relationships communitywide and, a happier, healthier place for everyone.
Click here to see a listing of the 2024 Project Neighborly Grants>
2024 Youth Philanthropy Grants for Youth Mental Health & Homelessness
The Youth Philanthropy Project helps high school students develop personal and professional skills needed by the next generation of community leaders. With staff support, students form a leadership committee to review grant proposals and make funding decisions. They learn about local issues affecting Whatcom County and distribute funding that benefits environmentally focused organizations.
The 2024 grant round provided funding up to $5,000 for local projects positively impacting youth experiencing homelessness and/or struggling with their mental health.
Click here to see a listing of the 2024 Youth Philanthropy Grantees.
2024 Fund for Whatcom County Grant Round: Health & Wellness of the Nonprofit Sector
What would life look like here without our essential nonprofit sector? Where would we go for culture and entertainment, to adopt animals, to find affordable and supportive housing, to feed our families, to get healthcare, to heal and care for the environment, to exercise, to support our oldest and youngest humans, or to learn? How else could we all help to care for our whole community in innumerable ways?
Nonprofit staff members are our community’s frontline community builders, showing resiliency and creativity in serving our communities and staying afloat during the unprecedented challenges we’ve all experienced in the last five years.
The Whatcom Community Foundation’s first Health & Wellness Grant Round offered mini grants ($1,000 – $10,000) to address some of the issues of staff fatigue, turnover and burnout that are currently pervasive throughout the nonprofit sector.
As of February 2024, the Whatcom Community Foundation has awarded $345,500 in grants to 55 local organizations to support a wide-range of creative and fundamental needs. Requests ranged from support from updated office furniture to supporting staff training and engagement activities.
2023 Grant Rounds
2023 Project Neighborly Grants
Project Neighborly grants are for people with great ideas of how we can all become better neighbors by connecting people who would not normally come together. They are intended to spark ideas and make the necessary resources available to bring them to life. We believe that enthusiasm for more neighborly communities, from the water to the mountains and between our international and county borders, combined with energy and ingenuity will result in more area residents being neighborly – kind, considerate and helpful – to everyone they meet. Success means more and better relationships communitywide and, a happier, healthier place for everyone.
This year Whatcom Community Foundation’s Project Neighborly grant round is funding for 30 projects across Whatcom County. Activities supported include projects in Lynden, Point Roberts, Ferndale, Deming, South Fork Valley, Happy Valley, Columbia Neighborhood, Birchwood, Lettered Streets, Lummi Island, Kendall, Sudden Valley, Blaine, King Mountain, and County and Bellingham-wide!
Click here to see a listing of the 2023 Project Neighborly Grantees.
2023 Youth Philanthropy Grants for the Environment
The Youth Philanthropy Project helps high school students develop personal and professional skills needed by the next generation of community leaders. With staff support, students form a leadership committee to review grant proposals and make funding decisions. They learn about local issues affecting Whatcom County and distribute funding that benefits environmentally focused organizations. This grant round provides funding up to $5,000 for environmentally focused projects.
Click here to see a listing of the 2023 Youth Philanthropy Grantees.
2023 Fund for Whatcom County Grant Round: Youth Mental Health
The Fund for Whatcom County is our lead grantmaking fund. Our team considers the biggest opportunities and needs in the community and offers local organizations working on solutions the opportunity to apply for project and/or operational support.
This year, the Community Foundation prioritized Child and Youth Mental Health in its Fund for Whatcom County grant round. The data is alarming. For example: In a class of 30 Whatcom County 10th graders, 21 are dealing with anxiety; 12 are dealing with depression; 6 have contemplated suicide, 5 have made a suicide plan; 2 have attempted suicide. (Healthy Youth Survey 2021).
In February 2023, the Community Foundation Board of Directors approved nearly $400,000 in support from both the Funds for Whatcom County and various Field of Interest Funds, in order to increase award availability.
What our Nonprofit Partners are saying about the 2024 Health & Wellness Grants ...
“When I shared news of this grant opportunity with our program manager in Whatcom County, we both did a double-take – the chance to focus on our staff’s well-being? It’s like discovering a unicorn in the grant world!”
“Our staff have shown up for members through dark and difficult times, and often while staff members themselves are experiencing grief and hardship. We know that to take care of others, you must first take care of yourself. This grant takes a refreshing angle on how to bolster an organization’s programs and mission by caring for its staff members who are tasked with an incredibly difficult job that seems to be more taxing each year.”
“It has been a unique and welcome experience to apply for this grant. Thus far, in my 9-year career, I have written grants that solely focus on the needs of the clients we serve without much consideration for the needs of the staff members who provide the important services that are foundational to our community. I understand that there is limited funding, and the work of nonprofits often entails needs that go far beyond available funding and require comprehensive, systemic change to address root problems. However, in order to address root issues, we cannot solely shine a light on the needs of one person (a client) while the needs of another person (a staff member) remain invisible and neglected. Thank you for creating an opportunity to shift the light and care for the caregivers.”
“We are genuinely grateful for the Whatcom Community Foundation’s dedicated of significant resources towards helping to address and alleviate the building pressures of fatigue and burnout that we have seen grow so significantly over recent years, and fully support these efforts to support the nonprofit organizations that help make Whatcom County such a wonderful place for us all to call home.”
“We know that, to do this physically and emotionally demanding work day-in-and-out, staff need supports and strategies to maintain their health and wellness. Our goals are that each individual feels seen, cared and planned for, welcomed, and sustained as they do this work for the long-term. Our goals with the full amount of this grant are to provide a staff training day and a menu of wellness options to choose a personalized item or experience they believe would improve or sustain their mental health.”
