Grant Criteria

Community Benefit and Value

Projects demonstrating a benefit to people in the community are valued over those that predominantly benefit the applicant organization. It is important to articulate how support of the project will, directly or indirectly, connect to improvements external to the applicant organization.

• Does the project provide a clear and measurable benefit to the community?
Does the project substantively address one of the Foundation's Grant Emphasis Areas?
• Is the project clear on its target population or area of impact?
• What is the value of the benefit to the community and to the population served?

Change

Specifically, how will the project contribute to change? That is, how, for whom and to what extent will the community benefit be realized?

• Will the project achieve an observable change in the community, or in the people served?
• Is the degree of change compelling?
• Is the applicant clear as to how they will know the project is successful?
• Specifically, how will progress and success be measured and reported?

Leadership

Project success - particularly those seeking break-through changes - usually hinges on leadership; the people who play key roles in making the project work.

• Is there a skilled and passionate champion of the project?
• Are the leaders and key people trained, effective and committed?
• Is the support of the board/volunteers evident, strong and likely to be important?

Achieving and Sustaining Success

A project that cannot be sustained is usually a poor investment. There are a number of factors that contribute to achieving and sustaining success:

• Can the project be sustained financially and programmatically?
• Does the project have community support?
• Does the project have diverse funding streams? Is it overly reliant on "iffy" sources?
• Is there a workable plan of action to guide the implementation of the project to results?
• How risky is the project in terms of its track record and the barriers to success?
• Is the potential outcome of the project worth the risk?

Return on Investment (ROI)

Return on Investment addresses the value of the project results in relation to the financial investment of implementation -- whether it is cost effective to support the project.

• What is the measurable benefit of the project relative to the expense?
• Do the benefits justify the expense?
• Will the project realize efficiencies over time that make it a sound investment?
• What is the cost of the project relative to the cost of not successfully undertaking it?
• Will there be savings or added revenues in other program areas (e.g. reducing the need for public assistance)?
• Are there other investments that would realize a higher ROI?
• What have been the experiences of similar projects, and their results?

The criteria listed above are applied to each proposal received by the Foundation, and are used to guide the grant decisions of the Distribution Committee.