As a CF, how do you determine who is eligible to receive your annual unrestricted grant dollars?

AnnSiciliano

Our unrestricted Community Endowment has received its first large estate gift. To this point the grant distribution from the Community Endowment has been very small. We would like to learn more about the process to determine grant recipient(s).

• Does the community foundation have specific areas of interest when granting funds from your unrestricted endowment?
• If so, how was this area of interest determined? And, how often do you review and update this area of interest? Does it align with goals in your strategic plan?
• If not, are all nonprofit organizations serving your community eligible for the funding and what type of criteria is used?
• From your experience, please share any suggestions on how these types of grants can make more of a difference in your community or tips on the processes?
• Are there any lessons learned that you could share with us, good or bad?
• When the unrestricted endowment gets to be large enough be provide more impactful grants ($100,000 or more), do you provide larger grants to fewer recipients and/or consider multi-year grants?
• Do you hold part of the annual endowment distribution in reserve for a disaster or crisis that might occur to a local nonprofit? If so, is a certain dollar amount or percentage of the distribution held?
• Is there anything that you would change or recommend avoiding in a competitive grant process? 

RandMorgan

We have been concerned about the divisive nature of society, so we have been using our unrestricted grants specifically for things that build community and bring community together. One of my favorite things is the 7th inning stretch at a professional baseball game. In that brief moment in time, it doesn't matter which team you're rooting for, what jersey you're wearing, what political leanings, what religious group you belong to, what your racial or gender identity is. In that moment the whole stadium stands up and sings a silly song. TOGETHER. Then a peppy tune comes on the loudspeakers, the dance cam pans the stadium catching people dancing in the aisles, they see themselves on the big screen, everybody laughing, everyone having a great time.

Those are the kinds of moments we try to create with our unrestricted grants where people are brought together, where our divisions don't matter. Some examples: We commissioned the best-known Colorado landscape photographer to come out and photograph our county over three years in all seasons, in all weather conditions. He then published a coffee table book which was then made available to the public, in an effort to connect people to place. We've sponsored free weekly outdoor summer evening concerts on the lawn of our local university campus. We commissioned a well-known artist to build a two-story multi-sensory children's installation inside our new public library. We commissioned our local symphony's composer-in-residence to compose a seven movement symphony depicting our area's history into orchestral form. We are working with partnering with a municipality who recently acquired a large open space to make improvements to that area and to build an amphitheater and children's play area. All of these with the intent to bring people together and to build community.

JamesPatterson

Hello @AnnSiciliano,

Not sure if this is reaching you too late, but here are my responses. We are a CF as well. We distribute about $1.7M annually.

• Does the community foundation have specific areas of interest when granting funds from your unrestricted endowment? As a CF, we feel compelled to fund all nonprofit sectors. We divide these into 6 focus areas: Arts & Humanities, Education, Health, Human Services, Sustainable Communities, and Youth & Families.
• If so, how was this area of interest determined? And, how often do you review and update this area of interest? Does it align with goals in your strategic plan? Although we fund broadly, our Board has defined a strategic focus within Education to support career pathways and complementary education. We engaged a consultant to create a Giving Program Strategy based on our past funding inclinations and community need.
• If not, are all nonprofit organizations serving your community eligible for the funding and what type of criteria is used? All 501c3s who have been in business for a year are eligible to apply. I've attached our grant guidelines foromore info.rt r mo
• From your experience, please share any suggestions on how these types of grants can make more of a difference in your community or tips on the proce I'm sure there is much that could be said here, but we do try not to provide much in partial funding because we believe fully funding fewer projects can have more impact and cause less stress for nonprofits.sses?
• Are there any lessons learned that you could share with us, good or Again, a whole lot to talk about here. I'd be happy to share via phone. bad?
• When the unrestricted endowment gets to be large enough be provide more impactful grants ($100,000 or more), do you provide larger grants to fewer recipients and/or consider multi-year gr Yes and yes. Our largest grant so far was $225,000 per year for three years. Only requests within our strategic focus above qualify for multi-year funding.ants?
• Do you hold part of the annual endowment distribution in reserve for a disaster or crisis that might occur to a local nonprofit? If so, is a certain dollar amount or percentage of the distribution Sort of. Our Board designates $30,000 per year to our Community Opportunities Grant Program. These grants are available on a rolling basis and provide emergency support. You can learn more here: cfnil.org/grants/community-opportunitiesheld?

Is there anything that you would change or recommend avoiding in a competitive grant proces