Frequently Asked Questions

... About the Community Grants Program

  • Who decides which grant applications to fund?
    The Board reviews and evaluates all the applications we receive. A voluntary committee may do a site visit. After that, the committee recommends allocation of amounts it feels are appropriate. The recommendations are then forwarded to the Grants Committee for action. The Foundation’s staff, by the way, supports the work of the committee but has no direct input on grantmaking decisions.

  • What kind of things do you fund?
    We make grants to 501(c)(3) organizations. Anything that would qualify with the IRS as a charitable project - spanning the fields of health, human services, education, arts and culture, civic projects, conservation and preservation and the environment - could be considered eligible for a grant.

  • How large are your grants?
    Our Board has decided that rather than funding a few large projects each year, we would rather make several smaller grants to help with more projects in communities throughout North Central Washington. So, most of our grants are for $5,000 or less.

  • Can I just call and ask for an application? When are the deadlines?
    Please feel free to call for guidelines at any time. We have two grant cycles each year with deadlines of January 15 and June 15. Because of the diligence and concern with which the Committee members review and discuss applications, it is a rather long process. Decisions are made within 120 days.

  • As a nonprofit that has an endowment in the Community Foundation, does that help or hurt our chances to receive a grant?
    Neither. Having an endowment in the CFNCW has no bearing when it comes to receiving a grant. If you have an endowment with us but your organization needs a grant, go ahead and apply if you wish. You will be on even footing with all our other applicants.

  • Do you make grants to capital campaigns?
    Legally we can, but our Board of Trustees feels that the small grants we could make wouldn’t make much difference in a large capital campaign. The Grants Committee will, however, consider funding some particular item — a piece of special equipment, for example.

  • Do you fund salaries and operating expenses?
    Not usually, but again there are exceptions. For some projects, salaries are essentially the entire project, and the project may be worth doing. We may believe that the project has so much potential that funding operating expenses during the start-up phase is the only way to get the project off the ground.

  • Do you give any multi-year grants?
    We can legally but generally don’t. Again, it’s back to the philosophy that the small grants we could make wouldn’t make much difference in a long-term endeavor. In the case of an excellent project that absolutely will need more than one year to get off the ground, it is unlikely, but we might consider it.

  • Does the number of people who will be affected by a grant matter?
    Yes, but not always. It is certainly something that the Committee considers but our efforts to get a good “bang for the buck” are measured qualitatively as well as quantitatively.

  • Should we have a professional grant writer prepare our application?
    It’s not necessary. We have a simple application and those who read them are more interested in the reality of the need and the quality of the plan for addressing it than in the elegance of the grant request language. It’s ok to use a grant writer it’s just not necessary.

  • Is your grantmaking strictly responsive to requests you receive or do you undertake any grantmaking initiatives?
    For the most part, our grantmaking is reactive. We are interested in enriching life’s quality throughout North Central Washington, but we let individual organizations tell us what that means in their neighborhood.

  • Why do you make grants outside North Central Washington?
    Some of our donors have charitable interests beyond the boundaries of North Central Washington. For example, they may care about supporting their out-of-state college or university. Grants from unrestricted and field-of-interest funds, over which the Board has complete discretion within the criteria established when the fund began, only benefit programs in NCW. Donor advised funds and designated funds established by members of our community may serve institutions located beyond our borders.

  • Do you award grants to the geographic location where your donations come from?
    When a fund is established, if the donor asks that distributions from the fund go to a certain geographic area, that’s where those grant dollars go - forever. Otherwise, it is our general belief that the needs of our community do not end or begin at a county/city line and that the needs of our neighbors are our own. Interestingly, more and more we see the same non-profits - no matter where their office may be - serving needs that span North Central Washington so it is not the issue it might once have been.

  • Our grant request last year was turned down. Why?
    Please remember that it is discouraging to have to say “no” to good people doing important work. Applications are usually not turned down because they are “bad” applications. Occasionally, an application will fall outside the bounds of our guidelines and the Committee will find itself unable to help. (Please read the guidelines carefully before you invest the time and energy in making an application.) But generally it is a case of the competition being very tough. Last year we received more than $3 of requests for every $1 we had to give AND the number of applications increased by about 35%. We simply need to have more funds established in the Foundation so that we can grant a higher percentage of the dollars requested.