In FY2025, St. Louis City Senior Fund’s board of director approved 11 grants for capital improvements for senior centers, vehicle matching grants, and emergency grants for organizations during the fund’s fiscal year.
Senior & Community Center Grants
This grant opportunity supported existing senior or community centers located within the City of St. Louis, that have defined geographic service areas, and currently provide two or more free programs and services for older St. Louis City residents focused on transportation, nutrition support, case management, and/or social and exercise programming. This funding was awarded for one-time expenses that maintain or increase capacity, strengthen a center’s ability to serve clients, and has a useful life of more than one year. Grant awards ranged in amount and were capped at $25,000. This year, grants supported safety and repair needs for senior center buildings and technology equipment for vehicles and center operations. Five organizations were awarded grants in FY2025.
Vehicle Matching Grants
This funding provided matching support for vehicle purchases for organizations serving St. Louis City residents, 60 years or older. These grants were offered to support organizations who needed reliable and functional vehicles to deliver transportation, meal delivery, and other services for their clients. This grant assistance was created due to rising costs of—and limited resources for—purchasing new or used vehicles for organizations. Funding awarded supported a portion of the cost of a vehicle purchase for organizations (typically 20%); most grants awarded helped fulfill the local match requirement for the Section 5310 federal funding program. Four organizations were awarded grants in FY2025.
Emergency Grants for Organizations
Beginning in FY2022, Senior Fund has allocated a portion of the program investment budget each year to offer support when organizations serving older St. Louis City residents have an unanticipated event that is beyond the control of an organization, threatens the organization’s ability to operate senior programs and services, cannot be otherwise accommodated from resources available to the organization, and requires urgent or timely action. Two organizations were supported with grants in FY2025.
The following organizations received grant support in FY2025 (July 2024 – June 2025) from one or more of the above grant categories:
- City Seniors (Senior & Community Center Grant)
- Five Star Center (Senior & Community Center Grant)
- Haven Recovery Gives Back (Vehicle Matching Grant)
- Northside Youth and Senior Service Center (Senior & Community Center Grant, Vehicle Matching Grants)
- Operation Food Search (Emergency Grant)
- Southside Senior Citizens Center (Emergency Grant, Senior & Community Center Grant, Vehicle Matching Grant)
- Wesley House Association (Senior & Community Center Grant)
Learn more about additional programs and services Senior Fund supports through multi-year grants on the Current Grantees page.