With an average price of $10,000, having the resources to purchase an adult changing table can prove to be a challenge for smaller businesses and community organizations. This is where grant funding and local fundraisers come in.
When businesses have access to additional funding, they are able to invest in accessibility upgrades that positively influence the entire community. Universal changing tables are an important step towards a more inclusive society and ensure more individuals are able to participate in their communities.
Here are a few methods worth exploring to help pay for an adult changing table.
Apply for Grant Funding
Grant funding can be provided by the government, a corporation, or a foundation. All it takes is some research into what grants your project qualifies for and then submitting a proposal for consideration.
The following accessibility grant options can help you add an adult changing table to your building:
Board of Developmental Disabilities’ Community Grants
Your state, city, town, or county’s Board of Developmental Disabilities page is a great resource for all things accessibility, including grant funding for inclusivity projects in the community. Once you locate the correct page, you can find available grant opportunities offered from a government board or from other local organizations. Their website should also list contact information to give you a direct connection to the board if you have any questions on the criteria needed to apply for one of their community grants.
Sova Celebrates Ohio’s Efforts to Install Adult Changing Tables
Image Credits: Montgomery County
As an Ohio-based company, we are always excited when we can collaborate with an Ohio county's Board of Developmental Disabilities.
In 2024 alone, we supplied ten Ohio counties with our Ascent Adult Changing Tables, including Auglaize County, whose Board of Developmental Disabilities used government funding from the American Rescue Plan to install a table in the Auglaize County Verterans Pavillion. This table made history as the county’s first adult changing table.
Also in Ohio, the advocacy group Changing Spaces has a history of working with the state's Department of Developmental Disabilities to provide grant resources to businesses across the state. Kim Kirkwood, Changing Spaces’ Co-Leader who first started meeting with the department back in 2022 to discuss the need for more universal changing tables, explains the impact additional grant funding has had in helping Ohio businesses create more inclusive public spaces:
“By 2023, DODD director Kim Hauck worked with our elected officials to allocate grant funding for Universal Changing tables in the Ohio budget… some businesses that took advantage of the grant funding are Ikea Columbus, Kroger in Powell, Ohio, North Orange Park Aquatic Center, the Union County YMCA, among many, many more. This grant was only for year 2024. I would love to get more grant funding available for community access from our Ohio budget. This is something we need to work on.”
Inspired Access Foundation
The nonprofit organization Inspired Access Foundation was founded in 2022 to raise awareness for people with disabilities and make public spaces more accessible through community projects, such as installing universal changing tables. Their community grants exist to provide funding to projects that will make public venues and spaces easier for disabled individuals to participate in.
This is a great option for universal changing table projects as the organization has a long history of providing adaptive equipment for communities in need. The Inspired Access Foundation understands the importance universal changing tables have in making the world truly accessible.
Click here to open the grant application form for the Inspired Access Foundation.
Grant Opportunity Resources
Many Ascent® Adult Changing Table purchases are funded by grant money. To start looking for grants in your area, the Council on Foundations put together a map of fundraising opportunities that can be filtered by location. Each pin on the map also shares information on specific deadlines and directly links to their website, giving you all the criteria you need to see if the grant is applicable to your universal changing table project.
Similarly, the Changing Spaces Campaign also features a list of grant opportunities on their website, giving you additional funding options to apply for. Each grant links to a central page so you can see if the grant is still accepting applications.
Start a Local Fundraiser
A local fundraiser designed to fund a universal changing table can take many forms. The campaign method that makes the most sense for you will depend on the timeline and resources you are able to dedicate towards running it.
Campaign ideas like online crowdfunding can be quick to set up and require fewer resources to maintain, while hosting an event like a gala dinner could be more expensive and requires an existing list of potential leads to function. Weigh the pros and cons of each campaign option before deciding on the best plan of action for your accessibility upgrades.
One example of the positive impact community fundraising can have is the Amazing Race fundraising campaign organized by teacher Carrie Zook and her students in Indiana. Together, they exceeded their goal of $7,000 by more than double, raising an impressive $16,000 to support special needs families in the community. These efforts helped provide a local restaurant with the community’s first adult changing table.
Grant Funding vs. Local Fundraising Campaign
| Grant Funding | Local Fundraising |
| Research grants and determine if they fit your project | Research potential donors |
| Stricter rules on what you can spend funds on | You have control over how to spend funds |
| Create and submit a proposal asking for funding | Plan a community event to generate funding |
| Monitor your submission and respond to any follow-up requests | Communicate with potential donors to ask for funding |
Depending on the estimated cost of your universal changing table and the scale of your operations team will impact whether grant funding or community fundraising is the best option to pursue.
A fundraising campaign will take more planning and resources than applying for a grant but will give you more freedom on how you can allocate the funds once you receive them. Grant funding, on the other hand, has stricter restrictions on what it can be used for and has a longer wait to receive funds than campaigning does.
Why not try both?
If you have the ability to apply for grant funding and run a fundraising campaign, that is the best option because it diversifies where you are receiving funding from. Multiple sources of revenue can increase how much funding you have available for your universal changing table investment and can allow you to do more renovations than just one funding method could.
Earlier this summer, Lake Pacawa Park in Wisconsin secured an adult-sized changing table for their family restroom, fulfilling a community need for more inclusivity. To fund this addition, a family raised about seven thousand dollars from community funding and used grant funding to cover the remaining costs. Their efforts show that multiple methods of fundraising can be used together to achieve great things.
Join the Universal Changing Table Movement
From Ohio’s Cedar Point Amusement Park to Victory Field in Indiana, businesses and venues across the United States have already made strides in supporting the universal changing table movement. To read more about businesses that have installed an Ascent Changing Table, visit our Press page. For a full map of locations that offer universal changing tables, visit the Changing Spaces Campaign’s UCT Map.
