American Express - Community Giving Program

Overview

Their mission includes support for their customers, colleagues and communities by helping them achieve their aspirations and helping their communities thrive. This shapes their work as a responsible corporate citizen. They deliver high-impact funding and initiatives that support people, businesses and non-profit partners so that together, they can make a meaningful difference in the world.

Community Impact Priorities

Backing Equal Futures

Helping to advance economic and educational opportunities for coming generations, to ensure their long-term success and ability to thrive.

• Programmes that provide skills and pathways to prepare youth (ages 13-30) for long-term success and the future of work. (Including the green economy, STEAM and digital futures.) This may include school-based, college, trade school, public service or workforce-related training or mentoring to support skill-building, education, the transition to meaningful employment and self-sufficiency for under-represented populations.
• Advocacy to support education and workforce development in under-represented communities. Eligible organisations for under-represented communities include those supporting racial, ethnic and Indigenous minorities, women, refugees, incarcerated or formerly incarcerated, unhoused and formerly unhoused people, veterans or families of veterans, disadvantaged or people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Backing Small Businesses

Helping to support small business owners in building their economic vitality and foster a thriving community through grants, mentoring support, and technical assistance.

• Support for underrepresented and economically vulnerable small business owners and entrepreneurs through their “Backing Small” initiative, including grants, mentoring support, and technical assistance through established community partnerships. Programs include:
  • Backing Small Businesses
  • Backing Historic Small Restaurants
  • Backing International Small Restaurants
  • Blueprint: Backing BIPOC Businesses in Canada
• Financial literacy education, training, and mentoring for underrepresented individuals and families to build financial awareness, fiscal acumen and success, including at school age grades 5-12, during higher education, or when individuals are entering/re-entering the workforce.

Backing Low-Carbon Communities

Helping to promote sustainability, climate-resilience, equity, and recovery in cities and disaster-prone areas.

• Help communities prepare for and recover from climate events, with support including:
  • Community-led climate projects including through our Green2Gether networks, focused on nature-based initiatives.
  • Disaster relief and resilience building programs and initiatives in extreme weather-prone areas and cities where our colleagues and customers live and work, to provide immediate and/or long-term relief to natural and man-made disasters and help create climate-resilient communities.

Please note that American Express does not actively solicit applications for grants and new partnerships.

All prospective grantees must be invited to submit a grant and will receive specific details to complete their application should they be invited.

To be eligible for funding, an organization must:

• Have tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1), (2) or (3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Organizations outside the U.S. must be able to document nonprofit status.
• Not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, genetic information, citizenship, veteran or marital status, or any other basis prohibited by law.

American Express Leadership Academy

Since its founding in 2007, the American Express Leadership Academy has invested over $100 million to enhance the leadership skills of more than 165,000 non-profit leaders around the world. The six-month program is funded by the American Express Foundation and delivered by Common Purpose. Together, they host three annual academies that bring together participants in the Americas, Asia-Pacific region, and the UK/EMEA region. For more information and application details, click here.