The National Football League Foundation provides funding for the program and LISC provides technical assistance and manages the program. The goal of the program is to provide non-profit, neighborhood-based organizations with financial and technical assistance to improve the quality, safety, and accessibility of local football fields. The Program provides grants of up to USD250,000 for capital improvement projects with two types of funding available, general field support or field surface grants.

Those that are eligible for a grant under the Program are projects sponsored by non-profit community-based organizations registered as exempt from Federal Income Tax under Internal Revenue Service Code Section 501(c)(3) or middle or high schools. Additionally, all organization applying for funds must be located specifically and exclusively within NFL Target Markets, which are listed in Attachment A of the RFP and serve low to moderate-income areas within those markets.

Strong preference are given to proposals that:

• seek to upgrade existing facilities that are in poor condition or otherwise underutilized;
• demonstrate active use of the fields;
• attract matching funding that exceeds the minimum required match of 1:1;
• involve local partnerships with non-profit community partners (eg., USA Football, Parks and Recreation Departments, YMCA branches, etc.) to promote youth sports safety and community programming on the fields;
• provide for continuing maintenance and field safety; and
• involve youth football programs that are currently registered and compliant with USA Football’s Football Development Model education program.

As previously stated, grants are given only for capital expenditures. Application requests may be for a maximum of USD250,000 from the NFL Foundation Grassroots Program to be used for capital improvements. Please see “Availability of Funding” in the RFP attachment for stipulations involved with at USD250,000 maximum grant request.

Proposals are due by May 31, 2021 with no exceptions and must be submitted as a PDF attachment, while also including all required documents as per the RFP. Lastly, proposals may not be summited in the body of the email and should be titled with the Organization and Project name.

Please read the complete RFP before submitting a proposal: