Community Foundation of South Puget Sound is inviting applicants for its Resilience Fund Grants Program.
Donor Name: Community Foundation of South Puget Sound
State: Washington
Counties: Lewis County (WA), Mason County (WA), Thurston County (WA)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): Ongoing
Size of the Grant: $2,500 – $30,000
Details:
The Resilience Fund was established to further address the impacts of COVID-19, strengthen their region’s long-term efforts to rebuild, respond to emerging opportunities, help nonprofits adapt, and support creative new approaches and partnerships. The Resilience Fund is relatively small compared to public COVID-19 relief funding. However, as a community-based funder, the Community Foundation is uniquely positioned to listen, respond, fill gaps, support those in their communities who may otherwise be left out, and fund solutions that do not fit neatly into government categories.
To support these goals during a time when much remains uncertain, they have adopted a rolling application process and a grantmaking framework that balances the need to learn and adapt with the need to act quickly.
Program Objectives
The foundation is seeking a wide variety of proposals and do not expect any single proposal to align with all the program objectives listed below. In reviewing grant proposals, the Community Foundation will consider the following elements:
- Impact: They are interested in proposals that support multiple, deep, or interconnected needs, reach a broader cross-section of the community (e.g., racial equity, capacity building, recovery for low-income workers, mental health, or the arts), or fill gaps between the public sector response and unmet community needs.
- Geography: They are seeking to fund organizations that primarily operate or fill unmet needs within their service area (Thurston, Lewis, and Mason Counties).
- Innovation: They are interested in funding organizations that are adapting to the new social and economic environment, working successfully with other organizations, or making changes to better serve the long-term health and resilience of their communities.
- Equity: They are seeking to ensure that funds are invested as equitably as possible by identifying the needs of underserved populations, communities, and geographic areas.
- Accountability: They are interested in funding services that are designed appropriately for the communities they serve and organizations that engage meaningfully with the perspectives of those most affected by the issues they seek to address.
- Organizational Capacity: They are seeking organizations that demonstrate reasonable financial health and basic capacity (governance practices, nondiscrimination, etc.).
Funding Information
- Most grant awards will range from $2,500 – $30,000.
- Larger requests (over $10,000, for example) may be required to submit additional narrative or budget information after initial review.
- Applicants should expect to receive a response from the Community Foundation within 5 months of application submission.
- The Resilience Fund has raised $900,000 to date. They expect to award the total funds raised through this program over the next three calendar years (2021-2023), beginning with approximately $275,000 from May-December 2021.
Eligible Criteria
The Community Foundation of South Puget Sound generally makes grants to 501(c)(3) public charities that serve Thurston, Mason, and Lewis County residents.
Not eligible:
- Organizations that discriminate regarding age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, national origin, religious affiliation, or presence of a disability.
- Organizations with fewer than three board members.
- Individuals.
- Partisan political activities.
- Religious organizations when funds would be used in whole or in part to further the organization’s religious purposes.
- National and statewide organizations that cannot demonstrate a strong, local, community-based presence in Lewis, Mason, or Thurston Counties.
- Re-granting organizations, service clubs and service club foundations.
- Schools, school districts, PTOs, preschools, childcare centers, camps, and sports teams/clubs.
For more information, visit Resilience Fund Grants.
