GREAT FALLS — The Red Ants Pants Foundation is currently accepting letters of intent for their 2025 community grant cycle to nonprofits, businesses, or individuals to use the funds to enrich and promote rural communities.
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Each July, the foundation puts on the Red Ants Pants Music Festival in White Sulphur Springs. A portion of those proceeds go towards their community grants, which has provided over $190,000 to over 100 entities in Montana, especially those that develop and expand leadership roles for women and support working family farms and ranches.
Executive Director for the Red Ants Pants Foundation, and the producer of the music festival, Sarah Calhoun says, “The focus is really to help enrich and support our rural communities, because we don't feel like the the resources always trickle down that far to our smaller towns across Montana.”
Grants range from $500 to $5,000. Calhoun says even though the grants are small, sometimes they’re just enough to gat a project off the ground, saying, “Something, you know, as little as $500 or $1,000 of a grant, having a program or an idea and having another organization believe in what you're doing really gives folks the confidence to keep moving forward with their community development projects.
With proceeds from the 2023 music festival, the foundation awarded $21,000 in grants to fourteen recipients last year including the StrongHerTogether Women in Agriculture conference in Fort Benton, the Women In Ranching retreat in Browning, and the Havre Art and Beautification Committee.
Other recipients have included museums, community events and projects, farmer’s markets, and educational resources. Letters of intent are being accepted by the foundation now, which is a one page letter detailing your project and rough idea of a budget you would like supported.
Calhoun explains, “This could be some sort of a community group doing a an evening, a summer gathering or a small town music festival or agricultural program or educational course or we do some historical infrastructure on some community buildings as well. So the sky is really the limit. If you guys can think it up, we'll consider funding it.”
The Foundation is accepting letters of intent for their grants through February 15th. Of those who send in letters of intent, some will be invited to complete an application, and grants will be awarded in April.
Click here to learn more about the Red Ants Pants Foundation Community Grants.
