Overview and Eligibility
The Fund currently provides one-year grants, of up to $50,000 (although most are in the range of $5,000 - $30,000 to emerging and more established community foundations and, where appropriate, to support organizations or community foundation associations. Grantees must be based in one of the Fund's target countries and should be registered as nonprofit organizations in accordance with national legislation. (In some circumstances the Fund will also make a grant to an intermediary organization acting on behalf of an unregistered community foundation initiative group). All grants are awarded through a competitive and transparent process: All funding decisions are advised by regional advisers and a grants review committee and they are finally approved by the Fund's Management Committee.
Grants offered by the Fund provide an opportunity for emerging and developing community foundations to invest in their institutional growth, something for which it can often be hard to raise money locally. With its own limited resources, the Fund seeks to make grants which can result in the greatest impact for individual or groups of community foundations. Fund staff are available to advise on the technical aspects of their applications.
The Fund is responsive to the fact that community foundations are at different stages of development in different regions of the world and all applications are considered in view of their regional context. In regions or individual countries where there are few or no community foundations or where all institutional forms of philanthropy are weak, for example, the Fund may seek to engage with a broader target group, including other local fundraising, grantmaking institutions, organizations which are considering making a shift from project implementers to local grantmakers, and initiative groups.
Where there is a distinct but still developing community foundation sector in a country, the Fund seeks to balance grants to individual institutions and grants to clusters of community foundations or philanthropy support organizations which will achieve a wider impact.
While its main focus is on supporting new community foundations and strengthening those that are still at an early stage in their development, the Fund will also consider applications from more established community foundations (i.e. those that have a strong track record in grantmaking, a diverse donor base and a growing or established endowment fund). In such cases, it would particularly encourage applications that are aimed at piloting new and innovative approaches (in grantmaking, systems management or asset development, for example) which stand to benefit the wider philanthropic sector, or which would involve the provision of technical support to emerging community foundations in their country or region.
