The Big Lots Foundation supports nonprofit organizations in the communities the company serves throughout the United States, with the exception of Alaska, Hawaii, and South Dakota.
The Foundation's areas of interest include:
Hunger
The focus is on:
- providing nutritious food or meals;
- providing emergency food assistance; and,
- educating families or individuals about the importance of healthy eating.
Housing
The focus is on:
- preventing families or individuals from losing their housing;
- providing affordable, stable housing; and,
- providing emergency shelter for families and individuals.
Healthcare
The focus is on:
- improving healthcare through research and education;
- providing preventative education and care; and,
- providing affordable, critical medical care.
Education
The focus is on:
- improving classroom learning outcomes through innovation;
- providing service-learning curriculum that aligns with education standards; and,
- promoting servant leadership through academic and experiential learning.
Priority is given to projects that:
- have a Big Lots associate actively involved;
- support needy families, helping them transition from poverty to self-sufficiency; and,
- come from organizations with strong fiscal management and board member commitment and involvement.
Support is provided in the form of monetary grants, gift cards, and in-kind merchandise. (Significant partnership projects and capital requests are by invitation only.)
Support is not provided to/for:
- organizations that are not 501(c)(3) public charities;
- individuals;
- fraternal, labor, social, or veteran organizations;
- churches or religious sectarian organizations, with the exception of those that have an outreach program that benefits the whole community;
- non-academic educational activities such as bands, choirs, proms, after-proms, graduations, etc.;
- individual K-12 schools or public service agencies such as police and fire departments;
- organizations that spend more than 20% of their revenue on overhead and fundraising costs;
- organizations that discriminate against people on the basis of age, race, creed, gender, handicap, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or national origin;
- staff positions for government agencies;
- political candidates, committees, or organizations; or,
- athletes, teams, sporting events, or tournaments of any kind, including charity golf tournaments.
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