The Small Magic Foundation
Minor Acts Generate Immense Change
Potential. Powered.
Organizations: Get in Line for Funding & WorkshopsNonprofit organizations, churches, and schools are served in the order they sign up. Every eligible organization is funded in turn.
About the Program
The M.A.G.I.C. Grants program funds community service projects designed and led by young people across the Greater Tampa Bay region, organized in groups through a nonprofit organization, school, or church. Students don't just participate. They lead.
Project Guidelines
All funded projects must meet three core criteria. Every M.A.G.I.C. Grant project is built around a SMART goal framework, ensuring that young people design work that is realistic, focused, and achievable from start to finish.
Projects must be built around a SMART goal. Each proposal must clearly define what will be accomplished, how success will be measured, and why the project matters to the community it serves. Vague or open-ended projects are not eligible.
The grant must fund the project in full. Awards range from $500 to $1,000. Projects must be scoped so that the grant covers the entire cost. SMF does not fund a portion of a larger project; the full scope must be executable within the awarded amount.
Projects must be completable within the grant cycle. In keeping with the time-bound element of SMART, projects should be designed to reach completion within approximately one month. Projects that extend significantly beyond that window are outside the scope of this program.
Who We Serve
M.A.G.I.C. Grants are designed for young people who already see a problem and already want to solve it. The funding fills the gap that stops most of them from ever starting.
Motivated to make change
Our grantees are self-starters who have identified a real need in their community. They come with a vision, not a vague interest. The grant gives their idea a runway.
Without access to do it alone
These are students who would not otherwise have the financial resources, institutional backing, or network to execute a meaningful project. Supplemental funding is the difference between an idea and an impact.
Organization Applications
Nonprofit organizations, churches, and schools can bring one or more groups of students through the M.A.G.I.C. Grants program. Multiple groups from the same organization can complete a single workshop together. An organization must meet every eligibility criterion below and execute a Memorandum of Understanding with SMF before its student groups apply. Eligible organizations are funded in the order they sign up, up to $2,500 per sponsoring organization per fiscal year from SMF program funds. Sign up below to get in line.
First come, first funded. Organizations are placed in line for workshops and funding in the order they sign up. As long as an organization meets every eligibility criterion, it is funded in its turn. No organization is ranked against another, and an organization's place in line is preserved until it is served.
How It Works
Organization signs up, qualifies, and signs an MOU
A nonprofit organization, church, or school signs up to get in line, confirms it meets every published eligibility criterion, designates an adult supervisor, and executes a Memorandum of Understanding with SMF.
Groups attend the workshop
Multiple groups from the same organization can attend a single workshop covering how to identify community needs, build a SMART goal, and design a project.
Groups submit their proposal
Each group submits a proposal covering the project plan, budget, timeline, and rubric requirements. The application is logged at the date and time it is complete. Applicants are notified of missing items within five business days.
Eligible groups are funded in order
Groups that meet the rubric are funded in the order their organization signed up, subject to available funds and the per-organization limit. Groups that cannot be funded in the cycle are waitlisted with their position preserved.
Project is executed and reported
Funds are disbursed to the sponsoring organization for the direct costs of the approved project. The organization documents that use and submits a final report. Reporting compliance is required to sponsor future groups.
Requirements
Student Groups
Sponsoring Organizations
Eligibility is determined by verifiable fact, not by evaluation of merit. An organization that does not meet every criterion is not eligible to sponsor applicants until the deficiency is cured. These criteria are the same for all organizations.
Meet the Criteria? Get in LineHow Awards Are Decided
The M.A.G.I.C. Grants program is rubric-based rather than competitive. Meeting the rubric requirements makes a student group eligible for funding. Awards are then made subject to available funds under the rules below, which are published so that applicants understand how decisions are made before they apply.
Order of award. Eligible organizations are funded in the order in which they signed up, as recorded in the SMF sign-up log. Within an organization, groups that meet the rubric are funded in the order their complete proposals are received. No other factor affects the order of award.
Limit per sponsoring organization. SMF awards no more than $2,500 in grant funds to any one sponsoring organization per fiscal year from its own program funds. Additional eligible groups from that organization are waitlisted and funded in the following fiscal year if funds allow. This limit ensures available funds reach multiple organizations and multiple student groups.
Waitlist and rollover. Eligible groups that cannot be funded in the cycle are waitlisted in sign-up order and carried forward automatically with their original position preserved. A waitlisted group does not reapply and does not lose standing. If additional funds become available within a cycle, they go to the waitlist in order before any newly signed-up organization is considered.
Notice to applicants. Every eligible group not funded in a cycle receives the same written notice: it met the program requirements, funds for the cycle were fully committed, and it has been placed on the waitlist with expected timing. Notices do not evaluate or rank the merit of the group, the project, or the sponsoring organization.
What Makes a Strong Project
Student Voices
The chance to know that if there's something that I wanted to do that the funds wouldn't stop me and I have the opportunity to do that.
— M.R.
That smart goals are really good to have.
— A.P.
Before this, I didn't know much about grants, but now I realize the power of grants and how they can help my project.
— I.B.
Corporate Sponsorship
Every sponsorship dollar goes directly toward expanding grant access for young people who need it most. Sponsors are recognized throughout the grant cycle and in all program materials. A gift restricted to the M.A.G.I.C. Grants program creates additional funding capacity: it does not displace any group on the waitlist and does not consume unrestricted program funds.
Community
$500/yr
Entry level
Champion
$1K/yr
All Community benefits
Catalyst
$3K/yr
All Champion benefits
Magic Maker
$5K/yr
All Catalyst benefits
Named Grants
$10K+/yr
All Magic Maker benefits
Terms of Restricted Gifts
A donor, sponsor, or partner organization may restrict a gift to the M.A.G.I.C. Grants program and may express a preference regarding the community, school, or partner organization to be served. SMF accepts such gifts on the following terms.
SMF retains full discretion and control over the use of all funds it receives, including the authority to redirect a restricted gift to the general program purpose if the stated preference cannot be carried out.
No gift may be earmarked for a named individual student or a predetermined individual recipient.
The same rubric applies. Student groups funded by a restricted gift must meet the same requirements as all other applicants.
Restricted awards add capacity. They do not displace any group on the waitlist, do not consume unrestricted program funds, and do not count toward the annual per-organization limit.
Terms are documented in a written gift agreement signed by SMF and the donor.