Textron Charitable Trust
/OVERVIEW: The Textron Charitable Trust makes grants for work and opportunity, education, housing, health and arts and culture.
IP TAKE: The Textron Charitable Trust prioritizes U.S. cities where it maintains corporate operations. Its grantees tend to be small- to medium-sized organizations working in its areas of interest. While the trust does not specify geographic priorities for its grantmaking, cities where the Textron company maintains operations, including Providence, RI, Fort Worth, TX, and Wichita, KS receive priority.
Textron is an accessible corporate funder that runs open application systems for its charitable trust grants and corporate sponsorship programs, accepting grants on a rolling basis.
This funder also provides additional nonprofit support through the company’s culture of volunteerism, which encourages Textron employees to get involved at the local level. That said, Textron is willing to back its employees philanthropic interests provided that it aligns with the company’s overall mission. As a result, don’t hesitate to pitch your project or foundation to a Textron employee as an alternative way of garnering support here. Through this same avenue, you can apply for an event sponsorship.
PROFILE: Textron Inc., a multinational industrial conglomerate known for manufacturing machinery, aircraft and recreational vehicles, conducts its philanthropy through the Textron Charitable Trust. Based in Providence, Rhode Island, this trust’s named funding initiatives include Workforce Development and Education and Healthy Families/Vibrant Communities. Recent grantmaking focuses on work and opportunity, higher education, housing and arts and culture.
Grants for Work and Economic Opportunity
Through its Workforce Development program, Textron aims to help people secure employment, as well as workplace success by supporting job training for people of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds. Areas of focus have included vocational training programs in technology, manufacturing and engineering and adult ESL and literacy programs. Recent grantees include Rhode Island’s Center for Women and Enterprise, Rock Valley Community College in Illinois and multiple chapters of the United Way.
Grants for Higher Education
Textron supports higher education via its Workforce Development and Education initiative, prioritizing programs that prepare students for careers in technology, manufacturing and engineering. Grants have supported a broad range of public and private two- and four-year colleges across the U.S., including Texas A&M University, Wichita State University, Duke University, Lafayette College and the Rhode Island School of Design.Grants for K-12 Education
Textron does not name K-12 education as a designated funding area, but the trust has given to some private schools and out-of-school learning and mentoring programs for K-12 students. Grantees include Junior Achievement of Kansas, Texas’s John Cooper School, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Providence, Cleveland’s St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School and Saint Mary Catholic School in Mobile, Alabama.
Grants for K-12 Education
Textron does not name K-12 education as a designated funding area, but the Trust has given to some private schools and out-of-school learning and mentoring programs for K-12 students. Grantees include Junior Achievement of Kansas, Texas’s John Cooper School, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Providence, Cleveland’s St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School and Saint Mary Catholic School in Mobile, Alabama.
Grants for Housing, Homelessness and Community Development
Textron’s Healthy Families/Vibrant Communities initiative names community revitalization and homeless assistance programs as areas of grantmaking interest. Through this initiative, Textron offers giving for emergency response, emergency shelters, and affordable housing.
In Kansas, the trust has given to the United Methodist Open Door, which runs homeless resource and rapid rehousing programs for individuals and families. Another grantee, Crossroads Rhode Island, runs emergency shelters and affordable housing projects for homeless and vulnerable people throughout the state. Other grantees include Texas’s Arlington Life Shelter, the Harvey County Homeless Shelter in Kansas and Bridges Safehouse of Cedar Hills, Texas.
Grants for Public Health
Public health grantmaking stems from Textron’s Healthy Families/Vibrant Communities initiative, but is a smaller area of grantmaking for this funder. Recent grants have focused on general and children’s health education programs and basic health services for low-income communities. Grantees include Kansas’s Gracemed Health Clinic, Rhode Island’s Clinica Esperanza and the Shriners Hospital for Children and Gastonia, North Carolina.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Textron’s arts and culture grants focus on outreach programs that “enhance learning and target low- and moderate-income individuals.” It appears that this focus area prioritizes larger, established cultural institutions and museums rather than grassroots groups that work at the local level. The foundation gave $10 million to the National Air and Space Museum’s permanent “How Things Fly” exhibit, which will reopen in 2022. Other grantees include National Guard Memorial Museum, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Providence’s Steel Yard, which offers public programs in industrial arts.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
In addition to its charitable trust grants, Textron offers event sponsorship grants for events that benefit the communities where Textron does business.
Important Grant Details:
The Textron Charitable Trust awards over $2 million in grants a year. Grants are generally awarded in amounts up to $50,000, with an average grant size of about $5,000. This funder tends to prioritize small to mid-size organizations operating in the areas where it maintains operations, including Providence, Rhode Island; Wichita, Kansas; Augusta, Georgia and Fort Worth, Texas. For additional information about past grantmaking, see the trust’s recent tax filings.
This funder accepts applications on an ongoing basis via its online grant application portal. It runs a separate application program for its event sponsorship grants. The Textron Charitable Trust does not provide a direct avenue for getting in touch, but prospective grantees may reach out to one of its many operational headquarters for additional information about grantmaking opportunities.
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