What We Support

We award grants through a competitive, invitation-only process in the areas of College Readiness & Completion and Integrative Medicine.

College Readiness & Completion

The Scheidel Foundation seeks to help low-income individuals, often first-in-their-family (“first generation”), to get to and through college and be prepared to enter a career that can lead to middle-class earnings.

The Scheidel Foundation will consider support for programs that meet the following criteria:

• Serve individuals in the DC, Jacksonville, FL, or Sarasota Metro areas, or in Kauai, HI.
• Have a significant focus on helping students to access and/or complete a degree or high-quality certificate from an accredited two- or four-year college or university.
• Work with students at high school age or above (adults should have or be near completion of a high school diploma or its equivalent).
• If an established program, have some record of success. If a new program, there is evidence that shows the services provided can result in success.

We are particularly interested in programs that:

• Have a broad focus on their students’ post-secondary educational goals beyond a small set of college credentials or career pathways.
• Combine career planning and support so that students’ college experiences prepare them to transition into careers with (at least) middle class earnings potential.
• Provide a mix of services. Exceptions to this may be made if the service provided has a particularly catalytic effect on college readiness and/or completion.

We will only consider programs that regularly measure results. While organizations may track a variety of student outcomes on the path toward getting to and/or through college, we are most interested in the following:

• College enrollment
• College persistence
• College graduation
• Post-college career transition

Click here to learn more about what we seek to support for College Readiness and Completion.

Integrative Cancer Care

Integrative Cancer Care combines the best of western medicine and evidence-based complementary approaches and lifestyle practices to achieve optimal health and healing for individuals living with cancer. This holistic approach:

• Puts the patient at the center, empowering the individual to be fully informed and active in his or her own health and healthcare options.
• Targets the tumor while optimizing the health of the person with cancer in mind, body, and spirit.
• Expands the tools and approaches available to include complementary therapies and lifestyle practices to reduce side effects of conventional treatment, improve quality of life, and, when possible, to extend life.

The Scheidel Foundation invests in the evolution of the field of integrative cancer care, enabling individuals who live with cancer and their families to experience the potential for extended life with greater depth and quality.

Discretionary, Legacy, and Emergency Grants

The encouragement of personal involvement and growth among our Board members in their own areas of interest is important to us. Each Trustee or designated individual is invited to recommend their charities of choice to the other Board members. In addition, a small number of Legacy grants are made each year to organizations with ties to our late founder, Herbert Scheidel. We also provide a limited number of grants to respond to humanitarian and environmental emergencies as needed. These grant-making areas may fall outside the Foundation’s focus areas and/or geographic regions.

Visit our Grant Highlights page to see some of our typical grants.