Questions & Answers

In May 2026, Henry L. Hillman Foundation launched the Powered & Prepared Initiative seeking proposals from nonprofit and municipal organizations for backup power solutions that allow those organizations to offer essential services during emergencies without disruption. Up to 15 Awardees will receive $300,000 (USD) each.

Please contact us with any initiative-related questions, requests for help with accessibility and special accommodations, and for technical support.  

Once you have registered and throughout the initiative, we will send important notifications to the email address associated with your account, as well as the primary and secondary contacts listed on your registration form. There are three important steps you can take to make sure these messages are received promptly: 

1. Add our email address to your contacts.
2. Whitelist our email address. Here are instructions to add to your whitelist in most major email providers.
3. Update your registration form right away if one of your contacts changes. If you need to make a contact change after the application window has closed, please email us, and we will assist you.

The Powered & Prepared Initiative requires each applicant to identify a Lead Organization who will assume responsibility for the receipt and management of any award.

The following organizations are eligible to apply as a Lead Organization:

• An entity based in and serving communities within the United States and/or U.S. territories under section 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1) or (2) of the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) that has received a tax determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”).
• A local government agency, including a tribal government or tribal-owned enterprise, based in and serving communities within the United States and/or U.S. territories.

In addition, the Lead Organization must serve and benefit communities located in at least one of the following ten counties in southwestern Pennsylvania:

• Allegheny
• Armstrong
• Beaver
• Butler
• Fayette
• Greene
• Indiana
• Lawrence
• Washington
• Westmoreland

Please also note that the Lead Organization must own the building and/or property where the project will be located. Documentation to confirm building and/or property ownership may be collected from Participants that are selected to participate in later stages of the Initiative.

Review the Rules for a complete set of eligibility requirements.

The following are not eligible to apply as a Lead Organization for the Powered & Prepared Initiative:

• Individuals
• Teams of individuals
• Entities based outside of the United States or U.S. territories
• For-profit companies
• Individuals that include employees of Initiative Sponsor, Carrot, and any of their subsidiaries and affiliates, and immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling and their respective spouses, regardless of where they live) or persons living in the same households of such employees, are not eligible to participate.
• State or federal government agencies, including United Nations agencies, inter-governmental bodies, and regional cooperation agencies.
• Education entities such as schools, colleges, junior colleges, or universities.
• A for-profit corporation organized under the laws of a State (or territory) in the United States.
• A benefit corporation, flexible purpose entity, or similar "hybrid" entity organized under the laws of a State (or territory) in the United States.
• A limited liability company or partnership organized under the laws of a State (or territory) in the United States.
• Fiscally-sponsored organizations.

While this list of organization types are not eligible to apply as Lead Organization, they may serve as partners on an application.

Review the Rules for a complete set of eligibility requirements.

Eligible organizations are welcome to collaborate with nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, foundations, schools, colleges and universities, government agencies, individuals, and other entities (either U.S.-based or non-U.S.-based) to develop the solution.

Organizations proposing to work together must demonstrate through a fully-executed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or other similar agreement, executed by all parties, that all parties have agreed that a single eligible entity or organization (i.e. the Lead Organization) will serve as the Awardee and will have direction, control, and supervision of the proposed project and management of all grant funds and be responsible for all reporting requirements.  

While MOUs will not be collected in the application, MOUs may be collected from teams that are selected to participate in later stages of the Initiative.

The Powered & Prepared Initiative invites proposals that will be led by a credible team with the resources, skills, and organizational capacity needed to successfully implement their backup power solution, and meet the four criteria outlined in the scoring rubric:

• Durable: Will the solution endure over time, while appealing to the specific needs of the community? Does the plan include ongoing maintenance and support that will maintain power reliability over the long-term?
• Integrated: Is the solution cost-effective, reliable, effective, and easily adaptable for a broad range of community needs? Could the solution be adapted or scaled to improve power resilience in other contexts?
• Impactful: Does the proposal address an urgent problem worth solving, and will it have transformative impact? Is it ambitious in number of beneficiaries, size of geography, or intensity of impact on a small but vulnerable group?
• Feasible: Does the team have the skills, capacity, funding, and resources required to implement and maintain the solution? Are there thorough, practical plans and a realistic budget to mitigate risk and succeed?

This initiative is technology-agnostic, allowing applicants to propose a range of solutions, including, but not limited to, solar power, fixed generators, portable generators, battery systems, and innovative energy systems that best meet the power resilience needs of their communities. Lead Organizations are welcome to collaborate with other entities on their solutions, as noted in the Rules. Be sure to review the scoring rubric to understand how applications will be evaluated.

The Lead Organization must own the building and/or property where the project will be located. Documentation to confirm building and/or property ownership may be collected from applicants that are selected to participate in later stages of the initiative.

The Powered & Prepared Initiative is only open to proposals that serve at least one of the following 10 southwestern Pennsylvania counties:

• Allegheny
• Armstrong
• Beaver
• Butler
• Fayette
• Greene
• Indiana
• Lawrence
• Washington
• Westmoreland

Visit the Henry L. Hillman Foundation website and connect with us on Linkedin to receive updates about future initiatives.

We encourage you to first assess your fit and eligibility for the Powered & Prepared Initiative then register no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, to participate. Registration is required and is a simple two-step process. First, create a username and password, then check your inbox to confirm your registration. Next, complete the online registration form. Once you are registered, submit your application online no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, September 17, 2026.

You may only complete one submission as the Lead Organization except as described below. An organization can serve as a partner on a team for multiple applications provided that each application proposes a separate, distinct project. This means each project can only be submitted once, and we leave it up to each team to designate their eligible Lead Organization.

Regional or location-specific branches of larger organizations can each register and submit separately as the Lead Organization on one application. Participants may list both the parent organization and the specific applicant/project in the Lead Organization field on the registration form, such as Parent Organization – Project Name.

In the circumstance described above, the proposed projects must be separate and distinct. There should be no overlap in team members. The intent of the policy is to ensure that any team is concentrating their best effort into a single application. We encourage teams to select a single project that best represents your organization's ability to deliver a solution that meets the scoring criteria.

Review the Rules for more information.

Each application must include a brief video of no more than 90 seconds that showcases your project. This DOES NOT need to be a professionally produced video – a video shot on a smartphone is acceptable. The quality of your video will not impact the outcome of your proposal.

The following are instructions for recording and uploading your video on YouTube:

1. Record a video using your smartphone’s camera app
2. Download and open the YouTube app
3. Sign-in or create an account on YouTube  
4. In YouTube, select “Create” > “Upload a Video”
5. Select your video and press “Next”
6. Set your video’s visibility to “Unlisted,” which will allow only those with the URL link to view your video (do not set to private or public)
7. Select “Upload Video”
8. Check to make sure embedding is turned on.

For more information about video guidelines, review the submission requirements. If you need technical support, you can email us.

Yes, you may update the registration form until the application deadline at 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, September 17, 2026. From the Submissions tab of the platform, you can select Registration Form to update this information.

To ensure fairness, the platform does not allow edits to the registration form or application form once the application deadline passes.

Your submission will be shared with five Evaluation Panel members, the Selection Committee, and the Powered & Prepared Initiative team during the evaluation process.

Portions of your applications may be published online and may be shared with the general public to promote your proposal or to highlight results. Those portions may include, but are not limited to: Lead Organization, Lead Organization Website, Project Title, Project Statement, Executive Summary, Video Pitch, and Project Description.

After Awardees are announced, an online searchable database of applications will be shared with other potential funders and/or government agencies. Applicants will have the opportunity to opt-out of this list if they prefer.

We encourage you to avoid sharing any sensitive or confidential information in your application responses.

Henry L. Hillman Foundation has compiled resources about backup power generation and emergency planning. We encourage you to review these resources as you prepare your application.

Once the submission deadline passes, the Powered & Prepared Initiative team will perform an administrative review to confirm each submission meets the Rules and submission requirements before advancing to the Evaluation Panel review.

The Evaluation Panel will use the scoring rubric to provide scores and valuable feedback on their assigned submissions, and all scores will be statistically normalized to ensure fairness. Applicants that advance to the Evaluation Panel will be reviewed by five judges.

Informed by the Evaluation Panel, the Selection Committee will review the top-scoring submissions. The Selection Committee is comprised of staff from Henry L. Hillman Foundation. Based on considerations that may include, but are not limited to, Evaluation Panel resulting rank order and a diversity of solutions, geography, and feasibility, the Selection Committee will select up to 15 Awardees who will each receive $300,000.

Awardees will be announced by Spring 2027.

Each Evaluation Panel judge scores and comments on the submissions assigned to them using the scoring rubric. Not only will you receive scores on your submission from the reviewers, you’ll also get feedback. In addition to numeric scores, reviewers are required to provide comments to justify each score and note their overall impression of each application.

We find that this feedback is one of the most important aspects of participating in initiatives like this one—and that even if you are not selected as an Awardee, you walk away with valuable feedback that you can then use to refine your proposal and seek other funding or expanded support.

Award funds must be used for the project for which they are intended and may be disbursed to partners for project-related purposes.

Awards may be used to pay for equipment and installation costs as well as relevant electrical and enabling renovations. Eligible expenses include, but are not limited to, equipment and supplies, installation costs, enabling renovations and upgrades, salaries for directly relevant personnel, and seeding small maintenance and repair funds.

Award funds may not be used:

• To undertake any activity which does not have a charitable purpose within the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the Code;
• To influence the outcome of any specific public election or to carry on, directly or indirectly, any voter registration drive (within the meaning of United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) section 4945(d)(2));
• To carry on propaganda or otherwise to attempt to influence legislation within the meaning of Code Section 4945(d)(1);
• To distribute funds to any organization not related to the proposal;
• To make a grant to any organization not identified in the proposal, to make a grant to any individual for travel, study, or other similar purposes, or to make a grant to any organization, except in compliance with the provisions of Sections 4945(g) or (h), as the case may be;
• For the creation of any endowment or for the aggregation of philanthropic capital by organizations that regrant to nonprofit organizations;
• For the creation of a venture capital fund, or pooled funds to invest in or distribute to for-profit organizations;
• For loans or microloans to individuals, nonprofit, or for-profit entities;
• To fund general operating support for the Lead Organization and/or any partners;
• To fund political organizations (501(c)(4) organizations and 527s);
• To promote or in any manner support terrorism, terrorist activities, the destruction of any state, or violence against the citizens of any state, nor shall the Awardee knowingly transact business with any entity that promotes or in any manner supports such actions;
• For government services.

While general operating support is not allowed, applicants may have overhead costs that are not directly attributable to the proposed project but are necessary for implementation. Henry L. Hillman Foundation reserves the right to review and adjust the amounts allocated for indirect expenses. Henry L. Hillman Foundation will consider paying for these indirect costs up to a maximum of 10% of direct project or activity costs. Ensure that any indirect costs are accounted for in your budget in the application. Any portion of salaries and other similar costs that will be allocated directly to implementation of the proposed solution are eligible expenses and can be their own line items.

Review the Rules for more information.

The Awardees will be publicly announced by Spring 2027. Henry L. Hillman Foundation team will work with the Awardees to execute the award agreement. Note that the sample award agreement on this website is provided as an example only. Each grant agreement governing the use of Awards may vary, depending on the nature of the project, the organization receiving the Award, and the Henry L. Hillman Foundation.

Following the execution of the award agreement, the project will be implemented over a maximum two-year project period. A one-time payment will be disbursed no later than the end of June 2027. Awardees will be required to report progress towards milestones and other goals. Those reporting requirements may vary, based on the organization and the project, and will be determined by Henry L. Hillman Foundation. However, it is likely necessary that a minimum of one financial report per year and one narrative report per year may be required. Review the Rules for more information.