Submitting grants to board for approval
Our board allows staff to approve grants $5,000 or below as long as due diligence has been completed. Our grant committee approves anything above $5,000 via DocuSign. We currently submit an exhaustive list of all grants processed from donor advised funds, designated funds, scholarships, expense to fund, etc., regardless of the amount, to the board at our quarterly meeting, for board approval. We have completed this historically as a best practice as suggested from National Standards. We would love to know if other community foundations boards are approving EVERY grant, which is usually after the grant has been processed, or if you have a better process in place that you wouldn't mind sharing. We have thought about just a summary sheet by type of fund, or by grantee, but want to make sure we are keeping our board members informed, as well as meeting needs for accreditation. Just curious what others are doing.
Comments
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Hi Julie,
We used to operate the same way you describe; however, we implemented our Grantmaking Protocol (approved by our board many, many years ago) that allows:
President/CEO or COO can approve grants up to $10,000.
Community Programming Committee can approve grants above $10,000 up to $75,000.
Anything above $75,000 must go to our full board for discussion and approval.
All grants are approved by one of the three options above which has allowed us to quickly meet the needs of the community as they arise. I'm happy to speak with you further if you want to contact me directly.
Good luck!
Carly Oliver
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