The Clowes Fund aims to support organizations and programs focusing on socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals, with a keen interest in assisting immigrants, refugees, and asylees integrate into U.S. society and its economy. They prioritize efforts that address economic, linguistic, legal, and mental challenges during this integration process, alongside facilitating access to job skills training and support services to enable full participation in community economic life. This includes youth development efforts aimed at preventing school dropouts and assisting their return to education or pursuit of economic self-sufficiency.
The grant program offered by The Clowes Fund provides two types of grants: Introductory and Continuation. Introductory Grants focus on Immigrant Services or Workforce Development priorities, offering $40K over two years for organizations, typically those with operating budgets less than $2.5 million. Continuation Grants, on the other hand, extend support to Immigrant Services, Workforce Development, Arts Education, or K-12 Education, with funding amounts ranging from $60K to $150K over three years. These grants aim to enable access to job skills training and support essential for economic participation of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals, especially focused on immigrant, refugee, and asylee populations. The fund's geographic focus areas include specific regions in New England—parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, and the State of Vermont—with a particular emphasis on supporting communities with significant immigrant, refugee, and asylee populations. The process begins with a Letter of Inquiry and, for those invited, progresses to a full proposal submission.