The Small Capacity Building Grant Program awards are aimed at strengthening the organizational capacity and programmatic effectiveness of nonprofit organizations serving communities within Santa Barbara County.
Donor Name: Santa Barbara Foundation
State: California
County: Santa Barbara County (CA)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/09/2025
Size of the Grant: $1000 to $10,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
Types of Support
The Santa Barbara Foundation has established the following guidelines for its Small Capacity Building grants in the following areas. The focus is to support sustained or expand organizational capacity not existing program expenses.
- Readiness preparation to address potential funding loss risks to organization’s sustainability. Examples include: legal guidance, emergency/business continuity planning costs, fundraising plan, contingency planning costs, cyber security assessment.
- Organizational development and capacity building (i.e. campaign feasibility studies, strategic planning, succession planning, program evaluation, exploratory strategic alliances/collaborations, or merger and acquisitions)
- Staff, board, or volunteer training and development as well as collaborative learning opportunities
- Small capital items and equipment that specifically allow your staff to locally serve clients and fulfill its mission
- Defined projects such as program design/piloting as well as strategic marketing, communications or development plans. Examples: installing security systems, initial purchase of software licenses.
Funding Information
The maximum award for a Small Capacity Building Grant is $6,000.
Grant Period
The grant period is up to one year from the award date.
Eligibility Requirements
- Organizations must be certified as tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or use a fiscal sponsor with 501(c)(3) tax status. Applications that do not contain a valid EIN (tax ID) number will not be considered.
- The foundation accepts applications from public entities such as schools, universities, and libraries through an affiliate or supporting 501(c)(3) organization.
- An agency acting as the fiscal sponsor on behalf of a community collaborative may be eligible to submit proposals on behalf of its own agency needs as well as the needs of the collaborative.
- A fiscal sponsor may submit one application on behalf of their organization and one application acting as a fiscal sponsor per grant program in a calendar year.
- All applicants must be serving communities within Santa Barbara County. Nonprofits based outside Santa Barbara County should demonstrate knowledge of the local landscape in their issue area and are encouraged to engage local partners/stakeholders.
Grant Limitations
Small Capacity Building Grants are NOT made for:
- Multiple projects and/or unrelated expenses within a single application
- General operating support (staff salaries, rent, utilities, etc.),
- support for existing programs
- Fundraising events
- Endowment funds
- Reimbursement of expenses already expended
- One-time events, including recurring annual events (other than collaborative learning opportunities)
- Single-use items such as disposable supplies, or items to be resold
- Tuition requests for Leading From Within programs (The foundation directly supports scholarship opportunities through its partnership with Leading From Within.)
For more information, visit SBF.
