The Competitive Grantmaking Process
The Community Foundation follows a grantmaking process designed to closely align our grantees’ work with our mission, vision and values. Our rigorous process ensures that our donors’ dollars are directed to local nonprofit organizations that share our high standards of integrity — and impact.
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.
This year’s Grant-Seeker Sessions have concluded.
Organizations are allowed to apply for one proposal.
Year-round grant requests: 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 will solve.
Summer program requests: This is a one-step application process. The Summer Program Proposal outlines your project, the challenge you seek to solve, details on how you will approach your work, the staffing involved, the budgets, the projected outcomes, etc. Funding decisions will be made for summer programs based off the review of this proposal and a site visit.
The LOI and Summer Program Proposal opens on November 1, 2024.
The submission deadline is Friday, December 20, 2024, at 5:00 p.m.
Year-round: 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.
To access the Full Proposal, log into the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties Online Grant Interface:
https://www.grantinterface.com/Home/Logon?urlkey=cfpbmc
The submission deadline is Monday, March 3, 2025, at 5:00 p.m.
Year-Round: Once full proposals are accepted, the Community Impact team will move to phase four: 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 and/or Community Impact Committee members around your facility, etc. Site visits are typically 60 minutes in duration and are scheduled at a mutually agreeable day and time between March and April 2025.
Summer: Organizations that submit a summer program proposal may be requested to participate in a virtual site visit. Virtual site visits are scheduled at a mutually agreeable day and time in February 2025.
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.
Year-round: Year-round grant awards are notified in May 2025 and funds are distributed in June 2025.
Summer: Summer program awards are notified in March 2025 and funds are distributed in April 2025.
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. Grantees are required to give periodic progress updates and reports, as specified in the grant agreement. When appropriate, the Community Foundation requests stories of success from the projects to share with donors.
Timeline
Our timeline for nonprofits with year-round or summer programs is as follows:
November 1, 2024 | Letter of Intent (LOI) Opens |
December 20, 2024 | Letter of Intent (LOI) due at 5 p.m. |
February 3, 2025 | Full Proposals Invited |
Mid-February | Summer Requests call |
March 3, 2025 | Full Proposals due at 5 p.m. |
March 14, 2025 | Summer Program awards notice |
March – early April 2025 | Site Visits (Full Proposals Invitees) |
May 23, 2025 | Full Proposal award notice |
May 26 – June 13, 2025 | Measurement calls w/ Program Officers |
July 1, 2025 | Grant period begins |

The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, socioeconomic status, or national origin. Applicants for grants from the Community Foundation must hold similar standards. Competitive grant applications from organizations known to have discriminatory policies will not be considered.