Arts & Culture

Emerging Philanthropists of New Orleans’s (EPNO) Arts and Culture team seeks to invest in organizations that have been culture bearers for New Orleans and focus on using art as a catalyst to advance New Orleans culture and make an impact on the community. 

Requirements: 

  • Focus on Orleans Parish 
  • Support individual artists in their efforts to enact public facing results 

Preference will be given to organizations that: 

  • Have demonstrated a long term investment to the city 
  • Support marginalized communities including but not limited to: 
  • Queer and trans people of color 
  • Seniors 
  • Persons with disabilities 
  • Persons at or below the federal poverty limit 

 

Environment & Sustainability

The EPNO Environment & Sustainability team seeks to support organizations which are aimed at improving environmental conditions for marginalized communities by focusing on any of the following issues:

  • Recycling
  • Waste management
  • Flooding
  • Renewable energy
  • Energy burdens and energy efficiency 
  • Climate change
  • Education and advocacy 
  • Green economy & workforce
  • Transportation
  • Contamination 

Preference will be given to an organization or organizations that have partnerships and/or working relationships with other entities or initiatives in order to leverage this funding.

 

Health

EPNO’s Health team seeks to invest in organizations aiming to eliminate chronic systemic diseases in low socioeconomic communities through efforts that:

  • Provide access to healthy food options and nutrition education
  • Offer safe and accessible recreational opportunities, programs, and facilities
  • Promote holistic and mental wellness
  • Embrace goals of creating sustainable and equitable communities

Funding preference will be given to organizations focused on chronic, preventable, and prevalent systemic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery/heart disease, and/or obesity.

 

Housing

The purpose of the EPNO Housing team grant is to invest in organizations working to increase housing stability and build intergenerational wealth for historically marginalized populations (including but not limited to people of color, returning citizens, LGBTQ, women, persons with disabilities, etc.) in Orleans Parish.

Our primary focus for this grant will include, but will not be limited to organizations that:

  1. Provide legal and financial assistance for title clearance, succession, tenant rights, or other programs.
  2. Transform blighted properties into assets that improve communities and increase quality of life.
  3. Prioritizes preserving and protecting New Orleans neighborhoods, its residents, and its culture.

Through these efforts, we aim to foster a more equitable outcome for all New Orleans residents.

 

Human Rights & Justice

EPNO’s Human Rights and Justice team seeks to support organizations that allow those impacted by the criminal justice system in New Orleans to flourish.  

We are especially interested in organizations that:

  • Work to prevent interactions with the criminal justice system;
  • Create access to justice and healing for people at risk of or impacted by unlawful imprisonment in New Orleans;
  • Provide support to individuals upon re-entry to their communities; or
  • Address the causes and costs of the collateral effects of a criminal record.

Preference will be given to organizations that engage in policy work to address systematic discrimination in the criminal justice system such as the prosecutorial incentives that lead to growing prison populations, including but not limited to, the use of plea bargains and their impact on pretrial detention.

 

Early Childhood Education (alumni team)

Given the transformative potential of Early Childhood Education for leveling the playing field for the next generation of New Orleans, we seek to fund organizations focused on deepening and accelerating the city’s educational progress by funding organizations focused on the following: 

  • Providing a safe place for the city’s most vulnerable child population to be while parents are at work or school.
  • Providing a place and educational experiences where children will be able to learn foundational skills, that is, they are prepared with the academic and social-emotional skills to be ready for kindergarten.
  • Providing a place where children and adults will be able to participate in a wide range of experiences and develop to their full potential.
  • Provide a place where children can learn life skills to interrupt the cycle of poverty.

For the purposes of this engagement, early childhood education will be defined as educational services offered to children from birth to 5 years old. 

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