Small & Simple Grants

HAND offers two types of Small & Simple Grants

 

1. The Small & Simple Grant to Control Invasive Plant Species (SSCIPS)

This program funds efforts to remove invasive plants throughout your neighborhood. Grant monies can be used to purchase tools and supplies or to rent equipment to help remove invasive plants, as well as to purchase native plants to replace the invasive species that have been removed.

This grant program is available through a partnership between HAND and Monroe County Identify and Reduce Invasive Species (MC-IRIS). Each year MC-IRIS issues the Reduce One Invasive Species Challenge. In 2025 the Challenge focuses on THREE particularly problematic species: Callery Pear, Burning Bush, and Japanese Barberry. A SSCIPS grant can be used to take up the Challenge and help to eliminate these invasives from your neighborhood.

This partnership offers an added bonus: MC-IRIS will provide a free native replacement tree or shrub for each invasive tree or shrub removed through the Reduce One Invasive Species Challenge. Paired with a SSCIPS grant your neighborhood will be able to add many native plants to your landscape.

 

 

2. The General Small & Simple Grant (S&S) for all categories other than invasive plants (see #2 below)

The purpose of this grant is to promote neighborhood community building activities with a demonstrated neighborhood benefit. Funds can be used for most items, with the notable exception of food. 

Here are some project ideas:

• Sponsor your own neighborhood cleanup.
• Hold a neighborhood party, best community builder ever!
• Add sign toppers to your street signs to identify your neighborhood.
• Prepare "Welcome to the Neighborhood" packages, filled with useful items everyone needs when moving in! 
• Print and mail your neighborhood newsletter.
• Install dog waste bag containers, for those who forget a bag!
• Improve an area by landscaping with native plantings or trees.
• Install a bench.

 

 

BOTH Small & Simple Grant Programs:

• Have a combined annual maximum of $500 per neighborhood (can be divided between the 2 grant types, or for multiple smaller grants within one category), 
• Do not require a monetary match from the neighborhood, and
• Have a rolling deadline. Applications will be accepted between January 1 through September 1, 2025, or until all grant funds have been awarded. If the application process must be closed prior to September 1, 2025, an announcement will be posted in The HAND Update and on HAND Facebook and web pages.

 

If your organization has an idea for which you are interested in applying for a Small & Simple Grant, contact

Angela Van Rooy

Neighborhood Services Program Manager

angela.vanrooy@bloomington.in.gov

812-349-3505.

 

 

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Small & Simple Grant to Control Invasive Plant Species (SSCIPS)

The 2025 Small & Simple Grant to Control Invasive Plant Species application form is entirely electronic. You will need a Google account to submit the application. This allows you to upload files, receive a copy of your application, and edit your application after submission.

 

Please read through the grant guidelines and application in their entirety before beginning to fill out the electronic application form.

 

You will be asked to upload four files to your application; please have these completed and ready for upload before you begin to complete the form. You will need:

• a project narrative of no more than 250 words,
• a one page budget,
• an Attestation of Neighborhood Inclusivity, signed by a neighborhood official, and
• a completed Neighborhood Participation Pledges form.

 

 

If your application is granted:

• The individual or organization who will seek reimbursement for grant-related purchases must complete and submit Vendor Documents, as required by the City Controller's Office.
• Participants must complete these waivers. Please see instructions in section V. Grant Requirements in the SSCIPS grant guidelines.
  • Individual Property Owners' Permission
  • Waiver, Release and Hold-Harmless Agreement
• Schedule a workshop with MC-IRIS volunteers to learn how to identify and reduce invasive plants.
• The Neighborhood Project Coordinator must maintain a list of volunteers and a tally of yard waste bags and/or brush bundles disposed of over the course of the project. Please use the SSCIPS Grant Volunteers and Yard Waste Tally form to submit this information as part of your final report. 

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SSCIPS grants awarded in 2022:

• Prospect Hill Neighborhood Association

 

SSCIPS grants awarded in 2021:

• Blue Ridge Neighborhood Association

• Elm Heights Wintercreeper Project

• Arden Place Neighborhood Association

• W 11th St Neighborhood

Blue Ridge neighbors gather for an on-site workshop with MC-IRIS volunteer, Gillian Field, who teaches participants how to identify and reduce invasive plants.

 

 

 

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General Small & Simple Grant (S&S)

The 2025 Small & Simple Grant application form is entirely electronic. You will need a Google account to submit the application. This allows you to upload files, receive a copy of your application, and edit your application after submission.

 

Please read through the grant guidelines and application in their entirety before beginning to fill out the electronic application form.

 

You will be asked to upload four files to your application; please have these completed and ready for upload before you begin to complete the form. You will need:

• a project narrative of no more than 250 words,
• a simple budget,
• an Attestation of Neighborhood Inclusivity, signed by a neighborhood official, and
• if applicable, Volunteer Hours Computation Sheet, indicating volunteer names and number of hours pledged to the project.

 

 

If your application is granted:

• The individual or organization who will seek reimbursement for grant-related purchases must complete Vendor Documents, as required by the City Controller's Office. If you will be working with a vendor, and you prefer that HAND pay the vendor directly, please contact Angela Van Rooy at angela.vanrooy@bloomington.in.gov.
• Each volunteer must complete a Waiver, Release and Hold-Harmless Agreement and submit it to the Neighborhood Project Coordinator.
• The Neighborhood Project Coordinator will maintain a list of volunteers and their activities, and will report these on the Volunteer Hours Computation Sheet as part of the final project report.

 

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Small & Simple grants awarded in 2024:

• Arden Place Neighborhood Association - Annual neighborhood cleanup
• Bloomington Housing Authority Residents Council - Neighborhood Back to School Bash
• Blue Ridge Neighborhood Association - Native garden clean up and continued invasive plant removal
• Bryan Park Neighborhood Association - Kids party in the park
• Monroe County Identify and Reduce Invasive Species (MC-IRIS) - Annual native plant sale support
• The Overlook - Perennial plant swap 
• Park Ridge Neighborhood Association - Planting trees from seed
• Park Ridge East Neighborhood Association - Last day of school celebration
• The Woodlands Winding Brook HOA - Neighborhood welcome packets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small & Simple grants awarded in 2023:

• Bloomington Housing Authority Residents Council - non-food pantry items
• Blue Ridge Neighborhood Association - native garden for entry gates and continued invasive plant removal
• Council of Neighborhood Associations - Celebration of Bloomington Neighborhoods event
• Eastern Heights Neighborhood Association - signage for neighborhood communication, luminary supplies
• Near West Side Neighborhood Association -street sign toppers
• Park Ridge East Neighborhood Association - solar charged portable power supply
• Prospect Hill Neighborhood Association - printing and mailing of neighborhood association newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small & Simple grants awarded in 2022:

• Bloomington Housing Authority Residents Council - event tables
• Bryan Park Neighborhood - Beatles sing-along
• Covenanter Neighborhood Association - street sign toppers
• Crawford Homes - resident hygiene pantry
• Grandview Hills Neighborhood Association - bat boxes
• Maple Heights Neighborhood Association - meeting yard signs and tool share equipment
• Park Ridge Neighborhood Association - meeting and event signs
• Park Ridge East Neighborhood Association - street sign toppers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small & Simple grants awarded in 2021:

• Park Ridge East Neighborhood Association - traffic calming signs

• McDoel Gardens Neighborhood Association - neighborhood logo design and stickers

• Mayfair HOA - landscaping around neighborhood entrance sign

• Prospect Hill Neighborhood Association - printing and mailing of neighborhood association newsletter

• Bentley Court HOA - message center kiosk