Grantmaking Process

Designed to help our grant seekers better understand the process, requirements, and new grantmaking categories for the next year, Grant-Seeker Sessions are open to all nonprofit organizations supporting Palm Beach and Martin Counties.

Registration is now open! 

11/6/24 – Student ACES Center, Belle Glade, 6-7 p.m.
11/8/24 – Delray Beach Public Library, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
11/12/24 – Mandel Public Library of West Palm Beach, 2-4 p.m.
11/13/24 – Children’s Services Council of Martin County, Stuart, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
11/14/24 – Virtual (Zoom), 5:30-7 p.m.
11/18/24 – Special Grant-Seeker Session: Literacy Grants Q&A (Zoom), 10 – 11 a.m.

The first phase in the process is submitting a Letter of Inquiry, also known as an LOI, that summarizes your project and outlines the challenge you seek to solve.

Once LOIs are reviewed by the Community Impact team, your agency may be invited back to the second phase: submitting a full proposal, which includes details on how you will approach your work, the staffing involved, the budgets, the projected outcomes, etc.

Once full proposals are accepted, the Community Impact team will move to phase three: conducting site visits to your organization. The visits — which are conducted in person or virtually — are an opportunity to clarify aspects of your project, provide additional details, tour our staff or Community Impact Committee members around your facility, etc.

Organizations that submit a summer program proposal may be requested to participate in a virtual site visit.

The Community Impact Committee — made up of Board of Directors members as well as a slew of community volunteers — reviews all grant applications and recommendations submitted by the Community Impact team. The committee ultimately approves the slate of competitive grantees year over year in this phase. The committee recommends the slate of competitive grants each year to the full Board of Directors, which gives final approval.

As the final step, grants are awarded to nonprofit organizations twice a year: Summer program awards are distributed in April; all other awards are distributed in June.

Throughout the lifecycle of the grant, the Community Impact team will make regular contact or visits with grantees to communicate on the success of the project. Per the terms of the grant, grantees are required to give periodic progress reports. When appropriate, the Community Foundation requests stories of success from the projects to share with donors.