Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation supports the arts, environment and human services in Minnesota.
FUNDING AREAS: Arts, environment, human services
IP TAKE: This foundation’s community grant program is accessible to Twin Cities-area nonprofits, with a straightforward online application system and approachable staff.
PROFILE: Established in 1951, the Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation is a family foundation based in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is the foundation of Patrick and Aimee Mott Butler. Aimee Mott Butler was the daughter of Charles Stewart Mott, a founder of the General Motors Corporation. The couple was active with the foundation during their lifetimes and were primarily interested in human services, religious education, history and chemical dependency treatment in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minnesota. Today, the foundation is run by the founders’ descendants and includes a major gift from their daughter Kate Butler Peterson, who has interests in the arts and the environment. The foundation aims to "foster safety, opportunity and growth for individuals and families by supporting effective nonprofit organizations in the arts, environment and human services.”
The Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation has a community grants program through which it awards two-year grants for specific projects and programs, as well as for general operating support. Butler awards special project grants of $100,000 or more for capital campaigns, systems change initiatives and major program innovations. Organizations must be a current grantee to receive this support from the foundation. The Butler Family Foundation also has an invited grants program and contacts selected organizations directly to apply for these opportunities.
Grants range between about $2,500 and $100,000. Learn more about this funder’s local giving in the past grants section of the funder’s website. Grantmaking primarily focuses on the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area of Minnesota. The Butler Family Foundation also considers causes in the east metropolitan suburbs for its arts and human services grants, as well as throughout Minnesota for its environment grants. Past local grantees include Keystone Community Services, Minnesota Land Trust and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.
This foundation accepts unsolicited grant applications from nonprofits for its community grant program. It accepts applications between December and April for community grants through its online system. For special project grants, the funder accepts letters of intent between October 1 and December 1 and again between April 1 and June 1. Direct general questions to the staff at joannep@butlerfamilyfoundation.org or 651-222-2565.
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