We understand the urgency of your needs and have developed a streamlined grant-making process to meet those needs.

A grant round is never more than three months away! We have four grant rounds per year with the following application deadlines:

• September 15
• December 1
• March 1
• June 1

We offer specific consulting projects - or Service Grants - that are critical to a nonprofit’s operations, yet difficult to secure assistance with or too time intensive to accomplish on your own.

Review the Service Grant Catalog to identify the project your organization needs most. For each Service Grant, we have predefined the:

• Project scope
• Deliverables
• Project plan, and
• Intended outcomes.

As a result, you know in advance what to expect from each project.

There are four easy steps to submitting your online application:

1. Create an Account. Create an account for your organization by providing your contact information and your organization's IRS-issued Employer Identification Number (EIN) or fiscal sponsor.
   
   
2. Begin an Application. The application asks for the following info:
   • Section 1: Mission, program descriptions, and key facts
   • Section 2: Project specific questions (download the questions in advance)
   • Section 3: Key contacts at your organization
   • Section 4: General finances and budget information
   • Section 5: Diversity of your staff, board and constituents
   
   
3. Save your Application. Drafts can be saved online and returned to at a later date. We advise you to prepare your answers offline and then copy and paste your final responses into the online application, which will prevent you from losing information due to technical errors.
   
   
4. Submit. Once you have made final edits to your application, simply submit. You will receive an email confirming receipt of your application.

Qualified applicants will be invited to an in-person interview, where we verify:

• Effective programs
• Strong management and governance
• Strategic plan in place
• Healthy and stable finances
• Clear and compelling need for assistance

In addition, the interview is an opportunity for you to receive consultation from our staff to ensure that the specific project you applied for is going to meet your organization’s needs. In cases where we don’t feel the requested project is the right fit, we can recommend a different project or give advice on other approaches or tactics for your organization.

Based on your application and interview we make the decision to provide your organization with a Letter of Intent - signaling our intent to award a Service Grant.

We will then assign a volunteer team leader – called an Account Director - to meet with you on-site to determine if it is the right time for your project to begin, and to collect further details on the specific needs for the project. In most cases, this meeting leads immediately to signing a Service Grant Award and scheduling the project to begin.