Grants for women available
Local bank offers opportunity
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 11:52 AM PDT
IDAHO — The Zions Bank Women’s Financial Group announces the availability of applications for a series of micro-grants for women. The “Smart Women Grants” are each $3,000 and are available to female candidates who excel in a variety of fields. One grant will be offered in each of the following six categories: small business start-up and expansion, community development, continuing education and teacher support, child and elder care, health and human services and arts and culture.
Open to female residents of Idaho and Utah, applications are available online,
www.smartwomen.zionsbank.com, or by calling (800) 737-6586.
Applications are due July 31. Community peer-review panels will select the grant recipients, to be announced in September.
Last year’s grant winners included a collaborative project between a media production company and a domestic violence center, a Navajo art and culture program, a therapeutic riding facility, a quilt-making project for needy kids, a refugee day care facility, a health literacy initiative and an astronomy education project.
“We developed the Smart Women Grants to help bolster the efforts of everyday heroines who strengthen our communities in so many ways through their various talents,” Sharon Dollinger, of the Women’s Financial Group, said in a press release. “As Idaho’s premiere financial center for women, the Zions Bank Women’s Financial Group created the grants as an extension of our ongoing commitment to empower women in achieving financial independence.”
Priority consideration for funding will be given to proposals that: promote the empowerment of women; emphasize collaboration between women entrepreneurs or non-profit entities supporting women; directly benefit women or low-income and underserved populations; support endeavors that immediately benefit communities in which Zions Bank has a presence; and for proposals that provide a sound plan for measuring performance and results.
In order to receive business-related grants, female applicants must be business owners and the primary manager of the company’s day-to-day activities or associated with a non-profit organization that directly benefits women.
