What does it look like to invest in young people?
Sometimes it looks like a horse helping a teenager discover they can lead.
Sometimes it is a safe place to spend a Friday when school is not in session. Or a meal and a trusted adult during summer break. Or making sure a young person in foster care, even hundreds of miles from home, knows they have not been forgotten.
Those are just a few of the ideas behind Snow-Redfern Foundation’s 2026 Legacy Grants.
This year, six Nebraska organizations will each receive $5,000 per year for two years to bring projects to life that support youth well-being, education and basic needs.
And while the projects are wonderfully different, they share a common thread: creating places and experiences where young people can belong, connect, grow and lead.
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Meet the 2026 Legacy Grant partners
LyonHeart Equine Assisted Learning | Kearney
Through its Stable Relationship Youth Leadership Apprenticeship, young people ages 11–18 will move from participants to co-creators, working alongside staff, volunteers and horses to design an equine-assisted learning program for younger children. Youth will help develop activities, test ideas, make decisions and ultimately help deliver the new program.
Alliance Recreation Center | Alliance
ARC will expand opportunities for rural youth through hands-on STEM experiences, scholarships for after-school, Friday and summer programming, free middle-school event nights and affordable family activities. Young people will also help choose STEM projects and shape activities and events.
Aspire For Greatness | Fremont
Aspire’s new Learn to Thrive initiative will bring teens and caregivers together around mental wellness, communication, healthy relationships, conflict resolution, financial literacy, leadership and other real-life skills. Youth will help shape workshop topics and an annual Teen Wellness & Leadership Summit.
Panhandle Partnership, Inc. | Scottsbluff
Roots of Belonging will invite rural teens into an immersive experience focused on identity, connection, creativity and leadership. Through restorative circles, StrengthsFinder, creative arts and youth-led community projects, participants will explore four powerful questions: Who am I? Where do I belong? What matters to me? How can I make a difference?
The Zone Afterschool Program | Norfolk
The Zone will expand free programming for students in grades 7–12 during summers and school breaks, when access to structure, meals, supportive adults and positive activities can disappear. Youth will have opportunities for career exploration, financial literacy, leadership, service learning, recreation, mentoring and more.
PlainsWest CASA | Western Nebraska
Through Growing Futures: Youth Connection & Basic Needs, PlainsWest CASA will help children experiencing abuse and neglect access essentials such as clothing and school supplies, along with sports, camps, music, school activities, transportation and other experiences that create connection and belonging. The project will also help CASA volunteers stay connected with children who may be placed hundreds of miles from their home communities.
More than a grant
Legacy Grants grew from a simple idea: good work is already happening in Nebraska communities. Our role is to help more of it become possible.
The program supports special projects and innovative ideas that address youth well-being, education and basic needs, particularly work that may not fit neatly within traditional funding streams.
And the funding decisions themselves reflect another change in how Snow-Redfern approaches philanthropy.
Applications are reviewed by our Community Circle, bringing community knowledge, lived experience and different perspectives directly into decisions about where resources go.
Because we believe the people closest to communities should have more than a voice in philanthropy.
They should have a hand in shaping it.
We are excited to invest in these six organizations, learn alongside them over the next two years and see what happens when good ideas are given room to grow.
