Labor Union Grants

Construction Worker
Labor union grants are normally granted to provide support to apprenticeship programs, employment opportunities, job training, workforce development, health and safety programs, youth programs, worker justice, and human rights projects. Between 2000 and 2005, nearly 500 labor union grants were awarded by foundations such as the California Endowment, Chicago Community Trust, John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, Broad Foundation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Surdna Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation, Verizon Foundation, Open Society Institute, William Randolph Heart Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and others.

A few of the organizations that have received labor union grants over the past five years include Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, Chicago Teachers Union, National Farm Workers Services Center, California Teachers Association, American Productivity and Quality Center, AFL-CIO Working for America Institute, SEIU Education and Support Fund, National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, and the Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights.

In 2005, the Ford Foundation awarded two labor union grants to The National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice in Chicago, Illinois and Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights in Greenville, Mississippi. The purpose of these labor union grants were 1) to plan Religious Perspectives on Work to strengthen religion scholarship, teaching and leadership related to work justice and 2) to develop a resource clearinghouse and listserv, to convene the Fifth biennial Southern Human Rights Organizer’s Conference, and to provide media/online services. The combined awards for these grants totaled $500.000.

Beverly Santicola, President of USGG has over ten years experience in writing award-winning labor union grants and directed a variety of labor union grants projects that received local, state and national awards for excellence, including:

  • AFL-CIO National Labor Management Award

  • Work In America – Search for Excellence Award

  • School-to-Work Best Practices Award – U.S. Departments of Education and Labor

  • Finalist for Governor’s Award for Team Excellence in Manufacturing

  • Governor’s Award for Team Excellence in the Public Sector

As Executive Director of the Area Labor Management Cooperative Council of East Central Ohio, Santicola applied for and received a variety of labor union grants to create and retain jobs in that region between 1989 and 2001. Grants to promote labor management cooperation were awarded by the Ohio Department of Development and U.S. Department of Labor. In 1998, Santicola authored a grant proposal for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers – District 15 that generated $375,000 in labor union grants to produce a multi-media information kit for elementary/secondary education. This project included a video called the Kids Connection, which tells the story of how a multi-company, multi-union, multi-generational team of collaborating partners worked together to improve the academic achievement of K-6 grade students in a rural elementary school. Santicola share secrets to her success in winning labor union grants in all of her webinars and workshops.


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