Open Road Fund Community Access Site Interest Form - 2026 

Who We Are

The Open Road Fund launched in 2023 and is stewarded by Nexus Community Partners. The Fund has granted 298 awards in the amount of $50,000 each to Black residents across Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. This year, we are prepared to award 102 grants in this region. The Open Road Fund plans to award grants annually, over the next 5 years, totaling 8 rounds of grant-making. To learn more, here is a link to our mini-report: https://nexuscp.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Year-2-Annual-Report.pdf The goal of the Open Road Fund’s community engagement work is to actively partner and work alongside our communities to create opportunities and inform.

Community Access Sites

Our Advisory Committee and other community stakeholders have asked us to commit to making this funding opportunity as accessible and widely promoted as possible. To honor this commitment, we are looking to work with organizations and businesses that are willing to help applicants access and navigate the Open Road Fund application during the open period from June 19th until July 19th, 2026. We are not asking sites to help applicants write their applications.

We are looking for Community Access Sites that can offer the following accommodations to applicants in their communities:  
  • A place for people to sit and fill out their application (you do not need to have laptops/computers)
  • accessible wifi/internet
  • someone who can answer commonly asked questions and provide basic application support (ex. How to save their application and directing them to our support email address for more complex questions)
  • regular and accessible hours of operation
  • welcoming environment for people of all ages, gender expressions, sexualities, abilities, religions, and diasporic ethnic backgrounds. 
COMMUNITY ACCESS SITES MAY NOT CHARGE APPLICANTS TO USE THEIR SPACES OR GET SUPPORT WITH THE APPLICATION PROCESS

Next Steps

The Open Road Fund is committed to partnering with community organizations that share our values and have the capacity to support applicants. After we review your submission, we will reach out to schedule a virtual call with the Open Road Fund Program team if we are interested in working together. This initial call will be to meet each other and answer any questions you have. 

If your organization and our program both decide to move forward, there will be a training on the basics of the program. We will also send you promotional materials and a guide to help answer frequently asked questions. Your business/organization will be posted on the Nexus and Open Road Fund website to be promoted as a place applicants can come to fill out their
applications.

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