Impact Grants

Grant requests must be submitted for no less than $2,000.00 and no more than $25,000.00. In addition, your organization may submit only one Letter of Intent during a grant cycle. If a grant is not given, your organization may submit a Letter of Intent for a different program or project during the next grant cycle. If an investment or grant is made to your organization, your organization is not be eligible to apply again for another grant until twelve months following the date of the grant agreement. Following that twelve month period, your organization may submit for a different project or program.

When considering proposals, please note that those with the following characteristics tend to present
greater investment potential for positive community outcomes:
• Incorporates the collaboration and cooperation of other organizations to achieve desired outcomes as we
believe our investment is maximized when our communities benefit from these partnerships
o Demonstrates how the anticipated results will enhance community development, image and livability
o Encourages more effective use of community resources and promotes volunteer participation and
citizen involvement in community affairs.
• A focus on the prevention of problems rather than merely treating the symptoms
o Identifies the kind of change you seek for your core participants
o Comparison of those changes to current participant behaviors and living conditions
o Reducing negative behaviors or conditions
o Increasing positive behaviors or conditions
• Identifies and addresses the challenges that might prevent the results from being achieved
• Specifies what information or evidence will be used to verify success
We generally do not invest in proposals with the following characteristics, as they do not fall within the
defined scope of acceptable investments for our competitive grant dollars:
• Endowment funds, except for endowment-building matching grants for funds held at the Community
Foundation
• Operating deficits or after-the-fact support
• An intention to redistribute funds as grants by the grantee
• Conference registrations fees, publications, films, television & radio marketing expenses (If any of these
expenditures are considered integral to the success of the project, the grantee should satisfactorily
demonstrate that need)
• Travel expenses for groups such as bands, sports team and classes
• Annual appeals for contributions and/or membership fees
• Common community services that are tax supported such as fire and police protection, welfare and library
services
• General operating expenses including salaries, payroll expense and general operating costs.

• Projects that publicly support a political
candidate/campaign
• Political campaigns or lobbying efforts
• Religious purposes
• Travel or sponsorship expenses of individuals
• Projects that are not charitable
• Post-event funding requests
• Debt retirement
• Fundraisers