Grants & Funding¶
Boot Up's funding strategy is mixed: federal grants, state allocations, corporate philanthropy, and local community foundations. High-fit and medium-fit opportunities are below. None are confirmed; all are research targets for the program's funding lead.
Fit assessments are research, not commitments
[HYPOTHESIS] Fit ratings below reflect alignment between Boot Up's design and stated funder priorities as of program blueprint v1.0. Funder priorities shift, eligibility rules change, deadlines move. Verify all opportunities before committing time to an application.
High-fit opportunities¶
| Funder | Program | Typical award | Why fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| FCC | E-Rate / ConnectEd | Varies | Direct match: school/library technology access |
| IMLS | Grants to States | $10K–$500K | Direct match: digital inclusion in libraries |
| Microsoft | TEALS / Philanthropies | $5K–$50K | Direct match: CS education in underserved communities |
| WV DHHR | Community Services Block Grant | State allocation | Direct match: services to low-income individuals/families |
| DOJ / BJA | Second Chance Act | $300K–$1M | Direct match: reentry programs for formerly incarcerated |
| AT&T | AT&T Believes | $10K–$100K | Direct match: criminal-justice reform + workforce dev |
| Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation (WV local) | General community grants | $5K–$75K | Start here — local funder, fits multiple program aspects |
Medium-fit opportunities¶
| Funder | Program | Typical award | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google.org | Impact Challenge | $250K–$1M | Highly competitive; fit is real but selection rate is low |
| SAMHSA | Various grants | $200K–$1M | Substance-use-adjacent; Boot Up is digital literacy, not treatment — fit must be carefully framed |
| Verizon | Forward for Good | $10K–$250K | Digital inclusion; corporate priorities shift year to year |
Recommended sequencing¶
- Start local. Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation or equivalent WV local funder — faster turnaround, more forgiving evaluation, builds a local champion network.
[HYPOTHESIS]Local funder traction makes federal applications more credible. - Federal entry point. WV DHHR CSBG via the state allocation process — Boot Up fits existing CSBG service categories cleanly, and state-level review is more accessible than direct federal competition.
- Specialized federal. Once one cohort is running with documented outcomes, Second Chance Act becomes credible (requires actually having served reentry participants, not just planning to).
- Corporate philanthropy in parallel. AT&T Believes, Microsoft Philanthropies, Verizon — independent of federal sequencing, on their own cycles, producing devices or cash directly.
- Google.org and major nationals last. 1-in-100 selection rates. Apply with a real track record, not before.
Application principles¶
Drawn from the BNI grant strategy and the Epistemic Honesty directive:
- Honest framing of proven vs. hypothesized. Year 1 targets in Impact & KPIs are planning hypotheses, not projected outcomes. Funders sophisticated about evidence read sloppy claims as a credibility problem.
- Theory of Change with citations. Where research supports a design choice (e.g., digital inclusion correlated with employment), cite it. Where Boot Up hypothesizes beyond the literature (e.g., "earned not given" improves retention), label it as the hypothesis it is.
- Workforce numbers are real. Workforce Development creates documented paid roles for marginalized adults — a strong differentiator vs. pure device-distribution programs. Lead with it for employment-focused funders.
- WV-rooted, not WV-limited. Boot Up is designed to be replicable. Don't frame it as a one-city project for scale-minded funders; do frame it as locally rooted for funders who care about community embedding.
- No grant submitted without Kevin's review. Per the BNI AI Use Policy — Claude Code drafts grant content but does not submit it.
Sponsor & in-kind targets¶
In addition to cash grants, Boot Up actively pursues corporate IT laptop-donation programs (target: 2–3 ongoing donor companies in Year 1); software licensing waivers (not currently needed given the open-source stack, but available for niche tools); volunteer hardware-tech mentors (IT professionals, 4–8 hours/month at the makerspace mentoring trainees); and venue and meals for graduation ceremonies (local partner contribution). In-kind contributions are recorded and reported with the same discipline as cash grants.