Overall charitable giving is down, but community foundations have stepped up their contributions.
A Council on Foundations survey of more than 200 community foundations across the country found that total grants from this group reached $14.8 billion in 2022 — the highest amount ever. Yet fundraisers sometimes overlook community foundations, instead focusing on larger, national grant makers.
That’s a missed opportunity, and not only in terms of potential grant dollars, says Samuel Bellamy, regional scholarships and grants officer at Coastal Community Foundation in South Carolina. Community foundations likely have deep ties in the place they serve, offer grants tailored to that region, and often provide other forms of support such as training or technical assistance, he says.
Another way community foundations are different is that they often have a local program officer you can connect with before applying for a grant, Bellamy adds. For example, the Coastal Community Foundation website lists contact information for all program officers, including those overseeing specific grant opportunities. Reach out to the appropriate individual before applying to get feedback on your project and ask for more context about the grant, Bellamy suggests, so you can better tailor your proposal.
You should also check to make sure you understand the questions in the application, which can be confusing, he says. “Different words mean different things in different foundations. So sometimes having that conversation beforehand really helps iron out some of those wrinkles.”
Keep in mind that there are more than 800 community foundations in the United States, and they have many differences, including size and ways of giving, says Irfan Hasan, deputy vice president for grants at the New York Community Trust. “Understanding that about your community foundation will help you be a better grant seeker,” he says.
Here are eight tips for grant seekers to build inroads to community foundations, secure their support, and keep them close. Plus, the experts we spoke to also share some common faux pas to avoid when forging ties.
Cast a wide net.
“Just start at the grassroots level, reaching out to anyone who might be aligned with the thing you care about,” says Jenna Bimbi, founder and co-executive director of the New York Birth Control Access Project, “because those folks are going to know the community foundation people.”
When Bimbi established the organization and needed to find donors, she contacted everyone she could think of who worked on reproductive health, youth advocacy, and related issues. This led her to meet two well-connected women in New York who introduced her to others, including Hasan.
The personal connections gave Bimbi credibility with the foundation, she says, which made a $40,000 investment in her nonprofit over two years, becoming its first foundation supporter. “So it’s make every call, send every email, take every meeting,” Bimbi says. “It takes time and energy, but that effort’s invaluable when it comes to community foundations.”
That initial grant had a positive “domino effect” with other foundations and donors, Bimbi says, because she could say that the nonprofit had support from the New York Community Trust.
Show results in tangible ways.
Most nonprofits understand the importance of reporting back to grant makers, Bimbi says, but how you do it matters, too. “It’s not just about being thoughtful with your follow-up; it’s about sometimes being creative with your follow-up,” she says.
For example, the New York Birth Control Access Project doesn’t simply send grant makers an email update on how it used their support. It often sends an Instagram post that shows how young people are commenting and interacting with the organization. “You can touch and feel that these young people were engaged in the program that you funded,” Bimbi says.
Don’t apply for a grant just because you can.
When assessing an opportunity, consider whether your organization can actually accomplish what it says it will, says Bellamy at Coastal Community Foundation. “You really want to make sure that this isn’t a money grab or a mission-creep situation for you,” he says.
‘Do what you do best and then collaborate for the rest.’
If there’s a grant opportunity for something your nonprofit does well, he adds, absolutely apply for it. But if it’s slightly outside of your area of expertise or is something you think you could do if you had the money, consider submitting a joint application with another organization that specializes in that niche. “I like to use the saying, ‘Do what you do best and then collaborate for the rest,’” Bellamy says.
Don’t overpromise in grant proposals.
“Not only can the foundation tell that you’re overpromising,” Bimbi says, “but when you get to the end of that grant term, if you’ve overpromised, I think you’re probably far less likely to get re-funded.” New York Birth Control Access Project didn’t overpromise when seeking its first grant from the New York Community Trust, she says, and the group has continued to get its support for four years, with the grant amount increasing over time.
“We stuck to our vision — we didn’t mission drift,” she says. “We got [Hasan] exactly what we said we would get him.” That means when the nonprofit first approached the Trust for funding, its vision wasn’t “squishy,” Bimbi says. It was exactly what she and her board chair had agreed they would do.
Check 990s when researching foundations.
A foundation’s website can help you understand basic things like how it gives, what its current priorities are, and whether it has any open calls for proposals, but its IRS Form 990 will give you a fuller picture, says Hasan. “Websites are all pretty and give all the good news,” he says; “990s give you the details.”
You can find 990s in many places online, such as on Candid. Spend some time with this document to learn more about a potential grant maker’s giving, including which organizations it supports and where to help determine if your nonprofit might be a fit.
Spend some time with [990s] to learn more about a potential grant maker’s giving, including which organizations it supports.
Build real relationships.
At its online “investors’ summit” for potential donors last year, the New York Birth Control Access Project invited Hasan to lead a roundtable with a few young people the organization had helped, thanks to the Trust’s support.
Attendees said they thought the approach felt unique, Bimbi says, and liked seeing a grant maker talk about work it supported and show a tangible result. “You’ve got Irfan Hasan from the New York Community Trust talking to, sort of interviewing, three young people whose lives had been impacted by the money that the Trust had given us, and it felt really powerful,” Bimbi says. “And I think it was very moving.”
This is just one example of how the nonprofit tries to nurture a “symbiotic” relationship with the Trust, she says, by keeping the foundation connected to its work so they’ll keep investing in it. “The first time Irfan hears from us in a year is not when we turn in our report,” Bimbi says.
The organization also invited Hasan and the Trust to a party they held to welcome their new co-executive director. “It was just a party,” Bimbi says, “But we invited Irfan because he should be there. He should see it. So I think keeping the relationship really real is important.”
Take the long view when getting to know foundations.
The Coastal Community Foundation is “110 percent” open to building ties with nonprofits because often those relationships can grow into other kinds of support, Bellamy says. Even if the foundation runs out of money in a given fiscal year, he says, it can still provide technical assistance, advice, or even a bridge to a different grant maker. Other funders in the state often reach out for information about local charities, he explains, and it’s easier for staff to speak on an organization’s behalf when they already know it.
But don’t assume that getting to know a program officer means you’ll automatically get a grant, Bellamy says. While a relationship can help bring to a grant to fruition, it doesn’t guarantee it. “Anyone who reaches out with that notion could be disappointed.”
If you contact a program officer with questions, he says, be sure to follow through on any information that person shares. Going back later with the same questions will likely sour the relationship. “That’s more so disappointing than anything because we are taking time out to provide that feedback and give that information, for it not to go anywhere, and you have to do it again,” he says.
Make your grant proposal stand out.
To Hasan, strong proposals are jargon-free and specific. He wants to know not only what your organization does but why it is well suited to solve the problem it’s focused on and what tactics you’ll use to do it.
Spell out the expected result of the funding, he says, whether it’s policy change, systemic reform, or steps toward creating that change. If the outcome depends on things your nonprofit can’t control, such as legislation, it’s OK to say that your organization will grow and learn as it does this work.
Hasan also suggests one small thing to ensure your proposal is streamlined, well-organized, and easy for program officers to review: Add page numbers. The New York Community Trust gets lots of online applications and often prints them out, he explains, so while it isn’t a deal breaker, “having proposals that are not page-numbered [is] a real pain.”
Bellamy says the Coastal Community Foundation often gets proposals that talk a lot about the organization but not enough about the impact of its work. “A great application would be one that says, ‘This is why we’re doing it, this is what we’re going to do, this is the outcome that we’re expecting,’” he says. “Something as simple as that.”
He also likes to see solid metrics that show how you’re measuring success. If you’re trying to do “transformational” work and it doesn’t go as planned, he adds, say that. The Coastal Community Foundation appreciates grantees who tell them they didn’t quite meet their goal and explain how they’re going to course correct, Bellamy says. “It’s actually very promising, because it lets us know that … you’re actually thinking through your activities and your programs, and … it shows that you actually care about the outcome.”
