Rural Grants

A Grant Opportunity Area

Please note this information is for rural grants only. There are different requirements for each of our grant opportunities. Please review each one carefully to determine the proper fit for your project or programming.

Priority Area

We are excited to start 2026 with a Rural Grants initiative. We determined the eligible geographic areas for this cycle, by county, using the following three criteria from the 2024 Alabama Kids Count Data Book, available through VOICES for Alabama’s Children:

  1. County population under 50,000
  2. Kids Count county ranking below top 25%
  3. County poverty greater than 15%

In the list and chart below, Tier 1 counties meet all three of the criteria items; the Tier 2 list incorporates counties who met the first criteria (population), along with counties with population under 125,000 who met both the second and third criteria (overall ranking and poverty rate).  Counties that fall outside this criteria will not be considered in the rural cycle.

Tier 1 (35 Counties)

  • Barbour
  • Bibb
  • Bullock
  • Butler
  • Chambers
  • Choctaw
  • Clarke
  • Clay
  • Conecuh
  • Covington
  • Dale
  • Dallas
  • Escambia
  • Fayette
  • Franklin
  • Geneva
  • Greene
  • Hale
  • Henry
  • Lamar
  • Lawrence
  • Lowndes
  • Macon
  • Marengo
  • Marion
  • Monroe
  • Perry
  • Pickens
  • Pike
  • Randolph
  • Sumter
  • Tallapoosa
  • Washington
  • Wilcox
  • Winston

Tier 2 (15 Counties)

  • Calhoun
  • Cherokee
  • Chilton
  • Cleburne
  • Coffee
  • Colbert
  • Coosa
  • Crenshaw
  • De Kalb
  • Houston
  • Jackson
  • Marshall
  • Russell
  • Talladega
  • Walker
Rural Grants map showing Tier 1 Counties (blue), Tier 2 Counties (green), and Non-Eligible Counties (gray)

Eligibility

  • Projects or programming for organizations based in our Tier 1 or Tier 2 listing, with preference given to Tier 1 counties.
  • Projects or programming overseen by an organization that is in an excluded county, but the project or program delivery is 100% in a Tier 1 or Tier 2 county.
  • Applicants must be a 501(c)3 public charity.

Priority Exclusions

  • Projects or programming occuring outside of Tier 1 or Tier 2 counties.
  • Projects or programming designed to attract residents from Tier 1 or Tier 2 counties into an excluded county for services and programming are not eligible for consideration.

    Process and Timeline

    This cycle starts with a brief e-mail to rural@df-al.com. Include a few sentences about the organization and your intended project/programming.  A staff member will respond to you to learn more.  The rural initiatives committee will meet monthly to discuss eligible organizations and opportunities.  If it is determined the project should move forward for consideration by the board of The Daniel Foundation , the organization will be invited to submit a full grant application.

    This will be a rolling cycle and the timing of the committee meeting and the application submission date (upon formal invitation) will determine at which board meeting the request is considered (meeting are currently scheduled to occur in June and October of 2026.)

    How to Apply

    The Daniel Foundation of Alabama uses GLM – Grant Lifecycle Manager by Foundant as our online grants management portal. The rural grant application will not be accessible until you have received the invitation to apply. Click the log in button below to sign in or create an account. Should you have questions about how to use this system, please contact Joyce, (205) 874-3523 or joyce@df-al.com.

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