Great Idea Competition

Win up to $10K for your civic-minded project!

What would you do with up to $10,000 to make your community better? Stillwater Area Community Foundation’s Great Idea Competition is open to any citizen, group, nonprofit, business or organization with an idea for the community, and the determination to complete it.

Complete Application Here

As long as it benefits one of our local communities, the Great Idea could be just about anything! For example, the next Great Idea may…

Beautify streetscapes
Address an environmental concern
Make life more enjoyable for local residents
Address needs of under-served community members
Attract visitors and engage residents

Selection criteria include:

Enhance community quality of life
Strengthen community connections
Innovative idea
Leave a lasting impact
Build community pride

And it will benefit one or more of our communities.

Want to apply? Tell us your idea.

Great Idea applications are accepted from April 1 – July 1. The winner is announced in early fall. The winning project should be targeted for completion within 12 – 18 months from grant receipt.

Stillwater Area Community Foundation strives to diversify the types of Great Ideas we fund, and the places and people within our service areas who will benefit from it. Preference will be given to applicants who have not received a Great Idea grant within the past three years.

Top entrants may be asked to present their Great Idea concept to the Stillwater Area Community Foundation board of directors.

2022 Great Idea Competition Winner

The 2022 Great Idea grant program recipient was Cimarron Community Farm’s “Growing Youth, Growing Food” program. The farm grows more than 10,000 pounds of food a year on a ½-acre plot of land in Lake Elmo. In 2023, the grant will help farm officials expand that access through its free summer youth program.

Great Idea Competition