Community Innovation grants & PRIs

We invest in promising ideas to make our region better for everyone.

Photography courtesy of North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance

We’re always open for ideas!

We accept Community Innovation applications at any time, but you’ll want to connect with us first. We want to hear your ideas, answer your questions and help you determine if your idea is a fit for this opportunity or other opportunities we support.

The Community Innovation program invests in great ideas and the people who power them across our region.

CI grants and program-related investments (PRIs) fund ideas that have the potential to make our region better for everyone. The idea can be related to any issue that a community believes is important. Through this program, we aim to:

  • Develop, test and spread great ideas. CI grants support efforts to develop and test ideas to solve problems and create opportunities, then spread the best ideas across communities.
  • Inspire, equip and connect leaders. Great ideas spread through people. CI grants invest in efforts to inspire, equip and connect leaders to more effectively lead change.

The potential for ideas to spread is a key aspect of this program. If an idea works, we want to understand if that idea could spread to other organizations or communities or issues. And if it doesn’t work as hoped, we want to know if there are lessons learned that can help others doing similar work. We also provide funds to help you understand and evaluate those lessons learned.

This is our largest grant program and most flexible—and we make only a small number of grants each year. In 2024, grant amounts ranged from $472,000 to $8.2 million for term lengths that spanned 3 to 8 years.

Partner-supported opportunities

We support complementary funding programs through our community grant partners.

What we fund

We are open to ideas on any issue that aligns with our values and purpose. We believe great ideas can come from all corners of a community and address an array of issues. We look for the potential and momentum of an idea. We will consider any idea applicants share with us, and we also engage with communities to seek out and encourage promising proposals.

We will consider organizations of all sizes and ideas at all stages of development. We are looking for big transformation, but know big ideas can start small. We will consider ideas at all stages of development—the idea just needs to be defined enough that we can consider its potential impact. We award grants to organizations of all sizes.

We are flexible in when and how we invest. Applications are welcome at any time throughout the year, and we are flexible in how we fund an idea. We offer grants and program-related investments (PRIs, which are non-grant investments like loans and guarantees), and do not place caps on the amount or duration of these funds. What matters is matching the funding to what best supports an idea.

Given the flexibility of the program, we ask anyone interested in submitting their ideas to contact us first. We really want to hear your ideas and help answer questions so that you don’t spend time on an application that isn’t a fit.

Community Innovation through the years

We have invested over $172 million since this work began in the 2013. The program details have changed through the years but the spirit of it remains the same: We invest in great ideas and the people that power them.

We hope you take some time to get to know the innovative organizations and people we’ve supported through our Community Innovation grants. We think they’ll inspire you to think bigger and think differently.

Search our grants database

We share occasional news and stories about CI grants we’ve made. Be sure to get on our email list to receive all the CI news.

Everything you need to know to apply

If you’ve already talked with us about your idea and are ready to apply, use our online form.

Apply now

Applications for this program are open year-round. Contact us before you apply so we can help answer any questions and help you determine if this opportunity is a fit.

  • Organizations that are based in or support efforts in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota or the 23 Native nations that share the same geography.
  • 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations or government entities, including schools; OR coalitions or collaboratives (only one organization may receive the grant); OR organizations working with a fiscal sponsor that has 501(c)(3) status; OR in very rare exceptions, other types of organizations.

Please contact us to discuss your situation if there is some reason that you do not meet the above eligibility requirements.

If you become a finalist in the grant selection process, we will learn more about your fiscal sponsor and ask for a fiscal sponsorship agreement.

We encourage you to review all the application information provided in this section.

  • The application form is short and designed to help us understand your idea.
  • Please include the amount you are requesting to support your idea. We’re happy to discuss this with you.
  • At the end of the form, we ask for some basic contact and demographic information.
  • We will work with you if your application moves forward in the process.
  • We will let you know if your application is not a fit.

We use an online form application and can work with you if that option doesn’t meet your needs. Just let us know at staff@bushfoundation.org.

When using the online form, we recommend Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Firefox as your web browser.

You can view the application questions and criteria we use to select CI grantees below. These are the actual application questions that are in the online form.

We provide the questions and criteria together to help give you a general sense of how they relate. It does not mean that your proposal has to fit in this way. We know that there is not always a 1:1 correlation between questions and criteria, particularly given the flexibility of this program. We offer this information in this way as a guide.

Go to the full list of questions & criteria

We review applications on a rolling basis. You will hear from us via email approximately 6 to 8 weeks from the date the application is submitted. If you do not move forward in the process, we offer an opportunity to receive feedback from our staff. This is optional, and our intent is to help you with future or other applications.
 
If you become a finalist, we will schedule a phone call with you to discuss your application. Here is what you can generally expect:

  • We will ask for more information about your idea and organization.
  • We will ask for financial materials to include in our review process. These can include audits, IRS Form 990s or internal financial statements, depending on the size of your organization.

We request financial documents to understand the health and capacity of your organization so that we can better support you. Financial health is only one of many factors we consider. Mostly, we want to encourage an open conversation about any financial challenges or struggles you are facing so that we can be a resource to you.
 
We aim to let you know within 1 month of submission if we are declining your application. However, a successful application can take months to evaluate. Proposals above $1 million will go through an approval process with the board and generally take longer.
 
In 2024, the average time for a successful application was between 2 and 12 months, with the average being 7 months.

Jargon is tricky. The words themselves aren’t necessarily bad. The problem is when we assume that we all interpret them the same way. Sometimes, jargon can be useful and familiar.

When we use jargon, we provide the context and definition for what we mean.

Go to all the jargon-y Bush terms and definitions

Working with us as a grantee

We’re so excited to support your work along the way! Our intent in working with Community Innovation grantees is to build a supportive and reciprocal relationship.

We partner with you to create the grant agreement based on your proposal, including an agreed-upon timeline for the work and how the funds will be used.

We will ask you to share your reflections (successes as well as challenges) during our meetings and as part of your interim and final grant reports. With your permission, portions of these reports may be shared publicly.

We’re supporting really big ideas, and as with any innovative work, sometimes things don’t work out as hoped. We expect there will be challenges and even failures along the way. Learning from these moments is an important part of creating new community solutions.

Hear what CI grantees have to say

Community Innovation grantees often share their reflections as they work on big solutions for their communities. With their permission, we publish their learnings on our website.