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July 2009 |
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Expansion of Core Support
We are pleased to announce that the Weingart Foundation will continue to focus on providing core support grants to nonprofit organizations that serve the needs of poor and underserved communities in Southern California.
During fiscal year 2009, the Weingart Foundation was overwhelmed with core support grant requests. Unfortunately, we were only able to fund a small percentage of the requests received. Priority was given to organizations providing “safety-net” – or essential health and human services.
Our revised grant guidelines identify new selection criteria for core support requests by expanding eligibility to all nonprofit organizations operating programs within the grant focus of the Foundation. This includes health, education and human services. The grant guidelines also provide important information about our capital, capacity building, and program development grant categories. While funding in these areas will be limited for the foreseeable future, the Foundation will consider grants for projects meeting the requirements and criteria outlined in the guidelines.
Given the current needs of the nonprofit sector, we anticipate that there will be significant demand for funding and that the application process for all grant categories will be very competitive. As a result, we urge you to carefully review our grant guidelines, paying close attention to the types of support available and criteria, general funding amounts, grant limitations, and application instructions. Click here for information on our core support grant guidelines.
Changes to the Small Grant Program
We are also pleased to announce that the Small Grant Program (all requests of $25,000 and under) is again accepting applications after closing in March 2009 due to an unprecedented increase in requests.
Weingart Foundation remains committed to the Small Grant Program and its mission to support small, developing and community-based organizations. In order to equitably address the high volume of requests and to avoid future disruptions to the program, the Foundation has significantly changed the Small Grant application process as well as refined its guidelines and funding priorities. Our objective is to maintain a streamlined process and timely response period. Major changes to the program include: 1) deadlines for submitting applications; 2) a competitive review process involving three annual grant cycles; and 3) the consolidation of the previous two-step letter of inquiry and application process into one simple application form.
Organizations that were in the process of applying to the Small Grant Program when the program closed in March can re-apply using the new application. Given the significant changes to the program, we strongly suggest all agencies interested in applying thoroughly review the new Small Grant Program guidelines before submitting a request. In addition, we encourage agencies to select a submission deadline that best fits your organizational priorities and project timeline as each cycle will have an equal amount of funds available. For a complete description of the new Small Grant Program guidelines and eligibility criteria, please click here.
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