Arbor Rising is a grantmaking and capacity-strengthening organization on a mission to empower our low-income neighbors to secure a path out of poverty. We do this by providing crucial supports at critical moments to high-potential nonprofits.

This page includes further details regarding our grant structure, eligibility requirements, LOI instructions, and the LOI itself.

Please read this page in its entirety before filling out your LOI. Please submit your LOI no later than Tuesday, June 9th, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

 

Summary
Arbor Rising is extending LOI invitations for its 2026 grantmaking cycle to all interested and eligible nonprofit organizations. Our diligence process will occur in multiple stages over the summer, and we will select a portfolio of grantees in mid-October. Our 2026-2027 portfolio will likely include 4-6 new entrants, targeting a total portfolio size of 16-18 grantees.

Arbor Rising partnerships typically involve a three-year investment which includes both financial contributions and consulting support. During each year of engagement, we invest additional money and time, helping grantees to reliably and sustainably deliver outcomes by strengthening their capacity to manage data, finances, staff, and their board.

 

Financial Support
The cash portion of the grant is unrestricted and distributed immediately following selection. Though only one year of support is promised at a time, more than 90% of Arbor Rising grantees are funded for three years. Grantees that enter the Arbor Rising portfolio in 2026 will receive $125,000 and can expect future support in the range of $150,000–$175,000 per year. Applicants should not request a specific dollar amount.

 

Consulting Engagement
During each grant year, the Arbor Rising team invests 200–300 hours working closely with each Executive Director to diagnose pressing challenges, co-create robust solutions, and support implementation of deliverables. Grantees, in turn, typically spend 4–6 hours of in-person or virtual meeting time plus 4–8 hours of homework time per month on these capacity-strengthening projects.

In each of these projects, we work with grantees to co-develop customized tools, deliverables, and plans—nothing comes off the proverbial shelf. The work is geared toward strengthening grantee capacity in key areas such as:

• Strategy Development: theory of change, earned-income strategies, and growth plans
• Financial Management: true cost accounting and projecting multi-year budgets
• Data Analysis: quantifying metrics, developing tracking systems, and program evaluation
• Stakeholder Optimization: staff performance management, executive coaching, and board development

This capacity-strengthening work is central to the Arbor Rising value proposition, and organizations without a strong interest in this aspect of the grant should not apply. As prospective applicants weigh the potential value of this significant time investment, we encourage them to review Arbor Rising's track record of impact, hear from prior grantees about their experience, contemplate our commitment to equity, and peruse our annual grantee survey results.

 

Eligibility
From 2011 to 2024, we partnered exclusively with organizations serving participants in the NY-NJ-CT region. Since then, we have accepted qualified applicants from across the continental United States, though we prioritize those serving under-resourced populations in the greater NYC metro area and, to a lesser extent, the eastern half of the United States. At least half of selected organizations in this cycle are expected to serve participants primarily in NY, NJ, CT, or PA.

 

Funding priorities

Arbor Rising supports nonprofit organizations that are:

1. Building pathways out of poverty: An organizational focus on creating opportunities for low-income individuals to achieve economic mobility, most often through investing in education, job training, or other forms of human capital development
2. High potential: Committed and diverse leadership teams employing a model which has delivered (or is on track to deliver) meaningful outcomes for program participants
3. Second-stage: Operating an observable program and exhibiting a demonstrated interest in strengthening organizational performance. While this improvement focus can manifest at any point in an organization’s lifecycle, we find it most common between operating years 2-10 (what we generally term “the second stage”). Historically, AR's median incoming grantee is five years old with a budget of $1.2M.

 

To be eligible for support, organizations must:

• Have 501(c)(3) status or be fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)(3) organization
• Be based in and operate within the lower 48 states
• Have operated as an organization for at least 2 years, but no more than 15 years
• Have at least four full-time, paid staff members
• Have an annual operating budget of more than $500,000 and less than $3,000,000
  • We make exceptions to the above operating budget guidelines for:
    • Organizations less than five years old with budgets exceeding $3,000,000; and
    • Schools and school networks with overall budgets up to $30,000,000 that are launching or growing programs which advance student outcomes

 

Unfortunately, organizations that fall into the below categories fall outside the bounds of our program model and are excluded from grant consideration:

• For-profit entities
• Individuals, scholarships, or endowments
• Political parties
• Sectarian entities (religious, political or ideological in nature) whose services are limited to a particular sect or who require participants to adhere to specific dogma, political point of view or religious practice in order to receive services
• Advocacy-only organizations
• Broad multi-service community agencies
• Local or regional affiliates or chapters of national organizations
  

Re-application guidelines

Organizations that have applied for Arbor Rising funding in the past are eligible to re-apply. That said, those that have repeatedly applied (especially in the last five years) are less likely to be competitive unless they have new leadership and/or have undergone significant programmatic changes.

Before you begin your LOI, please complete this brief eligibility screening. This questionnaire will take approximately 2 minutes and will help determine whether your organization meets the current criteria for Arbor Rising's second-stage grant. All questions must be answered to proceed.

Please answer each question honestly based on your current organizational profile. We learn a great deal about our applicants during our selection process, and accurate information helps us determine fit and timing. If your organization is not a match for this cycle, you’ll have the opportunity to complete a short interest form so we can stay in touch and consider you for future years.

Selection Criteria
Arbor Rising uses the criteria below to select grantees. The most competitive applicants build a clear and compelling case around each of these aspects over the course of our application process.

• Mission alignment: A strong application will describe a clear mission that addresses an opportunity gap—somewhere between cradle to career—that limits economic mobility. Are the organizational goals appropriately ambitious and clearly defined? Are target outcomes specified and measurable?
• Effective program: A strong application will also explain how the organizational model gives program participants a feasible path to achieving the target outcomes. Can the organization achieve these outcomes efficiently over time?
• Strong leadership: The application and interviews with management shed light on the leader’s desire to adapt and grow. What kind of commitment to the organization have they demonstrated? Does management have a record of achievement? Is management curious and motivated to improve the organization?
• Needs alignment: Additionally, management interviews indicate the degree to which consulting support might help address the organization’s most pressing challenges. What is holding the organization back? How might resolving these challenges increase efficiency or impact? Is Arbor Rising equipped to add value?

Our selection process has four stages: an LOI, a written application, a 90-minute virtual meeting with applicant management, and an in-person 2–3-hour site visit. Incremental demands on applicants’ time in each stage are intended to be commensurate with their increased likelihood of entering the portfolio. Arbor Rising's staff and board evaluate all applicants and ultimately select grantees.

 

2026 Process and Timeline

• Tuesday, June 9^th: Completed LOI due by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. 
• Thursday, June 25^th: Each applicant will be notified via email whether or not the organization will advance to the written application stage.
• Tuesday, July 21^st: Completed application due by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. 
• Wednesday, August 12^th: Each applicant will be notified via email whether the organization will advance to the semi-finalist round.
• Monday, August 17^th – Monday, August 31^th: Semi-finalists will be invited to 90-minute Zoom meetings. These conversations provide Arbor Rising the opportunity to learn more about the organization, get to know the management, and discuss the potential consulting engagement.
• Wednesday, September 2^nd: Each applicant will be notified via email whether the organization will advance to the finalist round.
• September: In-person program site visits will be scheduled with finalist organizations. These visits, typically 2-3 hours, provide Arbor Rising the opportunity to observe programs in action, better understand the organization’s model and impact, and continue conversations with key leaders.
• Friday, October 16^th: Grant awards will be announced, financial contributions sent, and consulting engagements launched.

LOI Contents

1. Organization Information
2. Program & Financials
3. Short Answers
   1. What is the specific problem your organization is working to solve?
      
   2. What selection criteria do you use for allowing participants into your program? (e.g., age, grade, gender, risk factors, GPA, geography, etc.)
   3. What are the specific measurable outcomes you are aiming to achieve?
   4. Program description
      • Briefly describe how your program operates
      • What are the 1-2 characteristics of your program that make it more likely to be successful than other, similar organizations?
   5. How long has the ED been involved, and what is her/his/their work background?
   6. Optional: if your organization has applied before, please summarize any significant changes to leadership or program since your most recent application.
4. Diversity Questionnaire [optional]

 

LOI Submission

Please submit your LOI no later than Tuesday, June 9th, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. ET

 

Further Information

If you have questions on the LOI, please refer to our application FAQ page.

For additional details on Arbor Rising’s background and grantmaking philosophy, please refer to our website. Applicants selected for the written application stage will be invited to join an optional information session in late June.

* Note: Some organizations serve multiple groups of participants, serving some groups more deeply than others. The core participants are those that you serve deeply. If you only have one group of participants, then consider them all to be core. Said another way: core participants are those for whom you hold yourselves accountable to outcomes. Ancillary participants are those who you work with, but whose outcomes are either not tracked or with whom you feel you have only a minor impact.

Background – We strongly recommend keeping your response within 500 words. Brevity is perfectly acceptable; feel free to answer each question in as few as 2-3 sentences. You are welcome to address each question in separate paragraphs or to weave your answers into a continuous narrative.

Note: We recognize it is difficult to answer all the questions with the detail you would like within 500 words. For this LOI, please view this short answer section simply as an introduction to your organization. There will be plenty of opportunity, both in writing and in person, in further rounds to delve into the nuances of your program.

Please describe the work of your organization, addressing each of the following:

1. What is the specific problem your organization is working to solve?
2. What selection criteria do you use for allowing participants into your program? (e.g., age, grade, gender, risk factors, GPA, geography, etc.)
3. What are the specific measurable outcomes you are aiming to achieve?
4. Program description
   1. Briefly describe how your program operates
   2. What are the 1-2 characteristics of your program that make it more likely to be successful than other, similar organizations?
5. How long has the ED been involved, and what is her/his/their work background?
6. Optional: if your organization has applied before, please summarize any significant changes to leadership or program since your most recent application.

We at Arbor Rising seek to build an increasingly diverse, equitable and inclusive culture across our stakeholders, from our grantees to our staff to our board. Breaking down barriers between many identity groups is important, but we focus on issues of racial equity. To this end, we have codified our perspective in the statement below and are gathering data on racial diversity and community roots as a part of our application process. This portion of the LOI is optional, but it will help us better understand our applicant pool, and we hope you will consider completing it.

Arbor Rising recognizes that institutional racism and unconscious bias continue to disproportionately deny people of color access to opportunity. We believe that in order to fulfill our mission of building pathways out of poverty, we need to deploy our grantmaking resources with these racial barriers in mind. More on our rationale and action plan here.

* Please note that for any response other than “White” only, the leader in question will be recorded as a person of color in our data.
** For national organizations, please cite the background of the local leadership.

One Last Step
Before you submit, make sure your LOI is complete — you won't be able to edit it after submission. Use the space below if there's anything else you'd like us to know.