General Grants
Our Letter of Inquiry form is the first step in the general grant process. The letter of inquiry should be used for projects outside our three programs' scope. Some additional areas of focus for our Foundation include:
Visual and Performing Arts:
We fund projects that provide opportunities for everyone to experience quality arts programming, both visual and performing, in the regions we serve.
Art Education:
Working with organizations and school districts to close the achievement gap using the arts as a way to engage learners.
Veterans Initiatives:
Working with veterans organizations to provide respite locations, therapeutic programming, service animals, and PTSD clinical and therapeutic help for our returning, wounded, and recovering servicemen, servicewomen, and their families.
Our Mission
Our mission is to assist organizations seeking to promote the arts or create programs that inspire, engage, and teach.
We dream that someday the arts will no longer be considered a school elective or an interest for the few but a necessity for living a full and healthy life.
Through our partnerships in the community, we are utilizing the arts to harness their extraordinary power to inspire, raise educational outcomes for students, and enrich the overall quality of life in our communities.
We believe there is a great synergy in combining the talents of musicians, museum educators, nonprofit arts advocates, actors, teachers, and writers. We believe that the arts, in all forms, have significant intrinsic societal value and can take on multiple roles in youth education for healthy brain and social development.
In keeping with our mission, the Foundation values and will support organizations protecting and utilizing nature to enrich peoples’ lives through conservation and beautification. We believe that a healthy environment means a healthier population overall.
Studies have shown that children benefit mentally and physically from outdoor activity and clean air. We seek to continue to work with organizations that understand the value of our human connection with and reliance on a thriving and accessible green infrastructure.
Our Funding Programs
The Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation provides four funding streams - three programs in addition to our general application process. Our general application requires a Letter of Inquiry to be submitted and approved before being invited to submit a full grant application. Our three programs do not require a Letter of Inquiry to be submitted before applying for a grant.
Eager To Learn
Our Eager to Learn program was created to ensure that college test prep assistance is available to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. Test preparation tools are necessary for a good score and equally as expensive. Realizing that college is not everyone’s path, in 2022, we expanded the program to promote education, information, and access to skilled trade schools. We are striving to ensure that students have access to the highest quality college test preparation or opportunities to explore careers in the skilled trades. We want to partner with organizations poised to provide these services or who are already working with students to raise SAT and ACT scores or mentor students interested in a trade.
P/Arts
The New Era Writers program aims to inspire individuals who have a love of writing to pursue degrees and careers in the writing professions. We want to ensure that individuals can find support in improving their abilities and connect students and adults to professional outlets in writing. We believe that one of the most important life skills that can be attained is learning to be an effective writer and communicator. We support programs that will provide those seeking to professionalize their writing with the knowledge and skills to express themselves and encourage higher levels of training designed to deliver clear and compelling prose.
P/Arts stands for Philanthropic Arts and is our Foundation’s own initiative launched in 2019. P/Arts was created to help catalyze non-profits, public charities, accredited schools, and local agencies to implement or enhance programs utilizing art and art education in daily curricula. We fund early childhood through high school arts education programs. We want to promote the arts' teaching powers and are looking for partners to strengthen and rebuild our public school system’s visual and performing arts programs. We believe that the arts are a powerful tool in empowering and engaging students throughout all curricula.