Community Grants F.A.Q.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Please feel free to call for guidelines at any time. We have two grant cycles each year with deadlines of February 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.

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.

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.