Macy's North

Overview: The last link on a long chain of national retail companies, including Dayton's, Hudson's, Target, Macy's, May Department Stores, and now Federated Department Stores; Macy's North is the Federated Department Store's division that operates in seven states: Northern Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, parts of Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

The Macy's North giving program was only recently established, and while it will incorporate plenty of precedents and models from its predecessor corporations, Macy's North seems to be also developing its own unique giving program. Overall, Macy's North has five giving operations

A. Macy’s Gives, the mothership community giving program at Macy’s North, supports encourages charitable giving and employee volunteerism at the local level. Not all of the priorities, application or communication systems are worked out for the Macy's Gives program.

Macy Gives Priorities Along with ongoing support of education, arts and culture, and health and welfare; Macy’s Gives will also focus giving on women’s issues, HIV/AIDS, and programs that assist youth and minorities.

B. Macy’s Make It Happen Grants provide critical funding for high-potential, newer programs managed by small- to medium-sized nonprofits that are on the verge of achieving broader outstanding results after an initial success on a small scale.

Focus Areas

Macy’s North is seeking applications from non-profit 501(c)3 organizations that are innovatively serving disadvantaged children and families in the following areas: child care, after-school programs, education, life skills, homelessness supports, parenting education and nutrition.

Special consideration will be given to new innovative programs that:

1. Show initial great results/response against a demonstrated need, and would benefit from additional funding to increase scale to broaden impact.

2. Foster a love of reading and promote reading fundamentals.

3. Build social, academic, leadership and/or life skills in children/youth.

4. Reach at-risk children in working families.

Note: These are “special project” grants and are not intended to become ongoing, general operating funds for a program but rather the catalyst needed to get a high-potential program off the ground. We invite grantees to re-apply in subsequent years based on program results, although there are no multi-year grant guarantees.

Funding Guidelines

1. Grant requests can be made for a maximum of $15,000.

2. Non-profit must have a total annual operating budget between $500,000 and $2 million.

3. Program cannot be a start-up; however, program must be less than three years old.

4. Each grant may be augmented, as appropriate, with additional marketing support.

5. If your organization received a Community Grant from Marshall Field’s/Macy’s North in the past 12 months, you may not submit a request for the same purpose/program. You may submit a request for a distinctly different purpose/program.

C. Community Grants: The store-based giving program, each Macy’s store and distribution center will awarda community grant funding to nonprofits in three areas:

1. Education
2. Arts and Culture
3. Health and Welfare

Local grant recipients will be determined by employees at each Macy’s North store and distribution center location.

D. Collaboration with Other Divisions and the Parent Company In addition to these division-specific programs, Macy's North also intends to collaborate with the rest of the Macy's chain (Macy's East, Macy's West, Macy's Florida, Macy's Midwest, Macy's Northwest, and Macy's South) and its parent company's foundation and corporate giving program -- the Federated Foundation and the Federated Department Store Corporate Contributions program.

E. Community Programs Target, Marshall Field's and May Department Stores sponsored several high-visibility consumer-involvement giving programs. Macy's North plans to continue some of the programs, especially:

1. Glamorama: Glamorama, the annual standing room-only, celebrity-packed, fashion-driven charity event of the year in Minneapolis and Chicago, raises money to support the Children’s Cancer Research Fund and The Art Institute of Chicago.

2. Earning for Learning: In the "Earning for Learning" program, schools nationwide can receive financial support through employee and family volunteerism in support of academic programs.

3. Go Read: An educational program that seeks to assist kids from preschool through third grade become skillful readers and encourages them to get excited about reading.

4. Macy’s Day of Music: In partnership with the Minnesota Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Macy’s Day of Music features a wide variety of performances across multiple musical genres. The annual music marathon, which entertains thousands of music lovers in Minneapolis, Chicago and Detroit, is completely free of charge to make the arts accessible to everyone.

5. Summer Reading: Public Library Summer Reading Program in Minneapolis, Chicago and Detroit to encourage children and their families to sign up for the summer reading program at their local public library to continue to build their reading skills through the summer and have fun at the same time. Libraries offer special incentives and programs to encourage kids to meet their own goals.

NOTE: Because the company is not awarding grants through a foundation, it is not required to provide an exhaustive list of its grants. Macy's North has chosen to not provide a list voluntarily. The sample grants listed below were found through internet searches, annual reports of local nonprofits and the corporation's press releases. The grants below are only from the Chicago area.

NOTE: Federated Department Stores Foundation: The company intends to continue using the Federated Department Stores Foundation for the immediate future. There are no timelines for changes, but the company is discouraging local organizations from applying to the foundation, instead directing them to regional giving program, such as Macy's North.

The Macy's North webpage gives this description of the Foundation: From our earnings, as well as through the Federated Department Stores Foundation, Macy's is able to channel much-needed funding directly to charitable organizations, civic programs, community projects, arts/culture programs and educational institutions.

Areas of ongoing focus include women's issues, breast cancer awareness and prevention, domestic violence and HIV/AIDS, as well as hunger and secondary education opportunities for disadvantaged minority students.

• Arts & Culture:
• Diseases/Disabilities, AIDS/HIV Services & Research:
• Education:
• Health Care:
• Human Services:
• Women & Girls:

Sample Grants
$ 3,000 to Barrington Youth and Family Services , Barrington , IL
$ 2,000 to Erie Family Health Center , Chicago , IL
$ 2,000 to Hephzibah (IL) , Oak Park , IL
$ 1,500 to Howard Area Community Center , Chicago , IL
$ 1,000 to Joliet Area Community Hospice , Joliet , IL
$ 1,500 to Lawndale Christian Health Center , Chicago , IL
$ 1,000 to Metropolitan Family Services of DuPage , Wheaton , IL
$ 2,500 to Moose Heart School , IL
$ 2,000 to Public Action to Deliver Shelter , North Chicago , IL
$ 4,000 to Zion Conservatory of Music , Zion , IL

Application Procedures:: Currently, the foundation is accepting proposals and applications through email or by regular mail. However, right now, there are no firm indications of what the foundation wants or requires in an application.

Send a basic proposal -- short (4-5 pages), very concise and very well organized to division headquarters in Minneapolis.

Grants Paid

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