2. An Interim and Final Report explaining how funds were used. These reports should include candid reflective, concise responses. YVCF board members are equally interested in hearing about your successes, as well as your challenges, difficulties and even failures.
3. Any funds not used for the purpose requested must be returned to the Yakima Valley Community Foundation. Please contact the Foundation with any questions. Failure to do so may affect future funding.
4. YVCF requests public acknowledgment of its grantmaking in publications, press releases, brochures, videotapes and other publicity or public relations materials and presentations that result from the use of its funds.
Please address inquiries and proposals to:
Emily Medeiros
Director of Program Services
Yakima Valley Community Foundation
111 South 33rd Street, Suite 103
Yakima, WA 98901
(509) 457-7616
2007 Grant Request Process
How Do I Request Funds From the Yakima Valley Community Foundation?
The Yakima Valley Community Foundation will use a competitive two-step process for awarding grants in the 2007 funding cycle. The first step will include a Letter of Request to be submitted to the Yakima Valley Community Foundation. Those applicants selected for further consideration will be asked to provide additional information and materials about the project and submitting organization.
STEP ONE
Applicants must submit 5 copies of a “Letter of Request”, limited to three pages in length. This letter must be on the organization’s letterhead (no smaller than 12-point type) and signed by the CEO.
Please identify the funding category: Health, Educatin, Community Development, Human & Social Services or Art & Culture. Please use YVCF numbers and questions listed below as headings for your responses.
1. Organizational Information: A brief history, purpose, mission, size, budget and programs operated by the organization.
2. Purpose of Project: Include the following information – description of the project, target population, number to be served and what the grant will specifically fund. Discuss your organization's qualifications to deal with the issue.
3. Why a YVCF Grant is Needed and Amount Requested: Explain why YVCF funds are needed for this project and why other funding is not available. Indicate the amount you are requesting. Provide a list of grants received for this program or project during the previoius year, and applications pending or applied for in support of the same program or project.
4. Community Partners: Describe how community partners will be involved in the proposed project.
5. Goals and Objectives: Clearly state measurable outcomes for the project. Tell how you propose to achieve the outcomes of the projectin terms of specific activities, including a timetable (proposed starting date and duration of the project).
6. Community Impact: Describe how the project will benefit the community and note the Foundation's goals being addressed by this project.
7. A copy of the most recent Internal Revenue Service determination letter confirming your organization’s status as a tax-exempt, public charity under Code Section 501(c)(3).
8. Confirmation that the proposal has Board approval. (Example: board minutes, co-signature of board chair on the Letter of Request, etc.)
STEP TWO
Applicants selected for further consideration will be requested to provide 5 copies of the following additional information.
1. An Evaluation Plan including the quantitative and qualitative indicators you will use to measure the progress and impact of the project. Who will assess the results?
2. List of Board of Directors that indicates officers, professional affiliation, term and city of residence.
3. Provide one of the following: the most recently completed external audit report or a certification statement from an independent source that there are no findings or questioned costs within the last two fiscal years.
4. Current operating budget including year-to-date financial information. Please explain any significant change in agency revenues or expenses for the past two years, as well as the amount and nature of any cash reserves or endowment. Have you operated with a deficit in the above years? If so, explain.
5. Program/Project budget (if applicable). Include expenses and sources of revenue. Be specific as to whether the listed revenue is committed (i.e., in hand) or anticipated. Explain the basis for your belief that that anticipated revenue will be forthcoming.
6. List of major funders/contributors (and amounts) to this program/project related to this request.
7. Most recent IRS Form 990
8. Policy statement of the agency's commitment to equal opportunity in hiring and in providing services.
9. Annual Report, if available.
Letter of Request Deadline
Deadlines indicate date on which the application must be received by the YVCF office - not the “postmarked by” date. Late applications will not be considered. (Please note: faxed and e-mailed applications will not be accepted.)
The deadline for submission of the Letter of Request is Friday, May 25, 2007, at 5:00 p.m.
General Areas of Funding
In accordance with the mission of the Yakima Valley Community Foundation, the following general areas may be funded depending on fund restrictions and donor intent. Please note that the 2007 grant program guidelines identify the specific areas to be funded for this grantmaking year.
HEALTH
To improve physical and mental health status for persons of all ages; improve access to and quality of treatment services; promote the efficient use of healthcare resources; prevent disease and improve health outcomes. These program areas might promote, enhance, expand, improve:
- Health care for indigent and uninsured
- Healthy communities and health safety net for uninsured/underserved persons
- Community advocates addressing local health needs
- Preventive care and access to services
- Health and well-being of individuals, families and community
- Support services
- Programs that prevent risky behaviors
EDUCATION
Formally constituted educational institutions and organizations or activities that administer or support those institutions; libraries; organizations whose primary purpose is to provide opportunities for supplementing and continuing education and related services to students and schools outside the framework of formal education institutions. Includes the continuum of learning, early childhood, preschool, primary and secondary grades, higher education, vocational education, and continuing and adult education as well as parent training, academic enrichment, school-based student support services, library services, community involvement in schools, and adult literacy. These program areas might promote, enhance, expand, improve:
- District and/or school leadership, teaching and parent involvement
- Strategic initiatives of area schools, colleges and universities
- Educational attainment of children and adults, in the classroom and out
- Access to learning opportunities
- Specific skills to a particular population
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Includes housing, community engagement, capacity building and economic development, employment training, public safety, citizen participation, neighborhood life, volunteering, as well as preservation of the environment, natural resources and wildlife. These program areas might promote, enhance, expand, improve:
- Workforce development
- Neighborhood quality of life/ strong neighborhoods
- Community improvement/ capacity building
- Private-public partnerships/ Public-social benefit activities
- Citizen awareness and participation/ Volunteerism
- Economic and/or civic well being of the community
- Environmental education and/or preservation
HUMAN & SOCIAL SERVICES
Includes the support of family and individual development, and encompasses independent living and non-medical services for the elderly and individuals with disabilities; emergency services, including transitional and other services for the homeless; parenting skills; and human services for children and adolescents. Addresses the basic needs required by all and the special needs required by a few. Includes counseling, day care/ senior centers, transportation providers, and those agencies that ease entering/ leaving this life. These program areas might promote, enhance, expand, improve:
- Agencies that deliver critical human services
- Socio-economically disadvantaged/ basic needs such as food and shelter
- Growth and development of youth sports and athletics
- Services that develop skills/ independence of people with special needs, including those with addictions, physical disabilities and mental illness
ART & CULTURE
Includes the enjoyment and understanding of the visual, literary, performing, folk, media and other art forms. These program areas might promote, enhance, expand, improve:
- Arts and cultural heritage and institutions
- Creative and educational experiences for traditional and new audiences
- Capacity and stabilization of arts and culture organizations
- Effective arts in education.
- Access to and awareness of the arts, especially to low-income population.
To conserve limited resources, the Yakima Valley Community Foundation will not normally consider more than one proposal from the same organization within a twelve-month period.
How Are Letters Of Requests Evaluated?
First and foremost, your Letter of Request will be screened for eligibility. Compatibility with YVCF stated funding goals is the next determination. An internal rating-weighted evaluation tool will be utilized.
Decision makers will evaluate the dollar amount of your request and its apparent reasonableness for the project indicated. Finally, the Foundation takes a critical look at available funding to estimate the likeliness of your proposal’s continuing success through the process.
What Happens Next?
If invited to participate in Step Two, a deadline for submission of additional information will be set.
Upon timely receipt of that information, it will be reviewed for completeness. It will then be reviewed by the Yakima Valley Community Foundation Grants and Program Committee. The review of your application may include a site visit, discussions with others in the community who are familiar with your work, your peers in the field, and other funders who have supported your efforts in the past.
Additionally, an assessment of your organization’s overall capacity is made. YVCF will evaluate:
- Quality of leadership, both board and staff
- Capacity to carry out the proposed work
- Financial systems and reporting, financial strength
- Quality of organization planning
- Sustainability of the program and its funding (if intended to be ongoing)
- Program evaluation and how it is used by the organization
- Potential impact of your project and its relation to the cost
- Level of accountability
Once the evaluation of your proposal has been completed, the Grants and Program Committee and program staff will compare all the applications received for that cycle, taking into consideration:
- Previous grants to your organization and/or YVCF grants made for similar programs
- The amount and type of funds available
The committee will make funding recommendations to the entire YVCF Board of Directors for final approval.
Publicity/ Public Acknowledgement Policy
The Yakima Valley Community Foundation will issue a press release about grants immediately after the awards are announced. Agencies are also asked to provide their own publicity after receiving a grant.
YVCF requests public acknowledgment of its grantmaking in publications, press releases, brochures, videotapes, and other publicity or public relations materials and presentations that result from the use of its funds. When any program or project results in a service product, performance, or other tangible outcome made possible because of a grant from the Yakima Valley Community Foundation, the Foundation should be credited. YVCF appreciates photographs of funded projects to use in publications.
Privacy/ Nondisclosure Policy
The Yakima Valley Community Foundation respects all information that is received. It is the YVCF policy that Board members, staff, consultants, advisors and volunteers maintain the confidentiality of all information and only use such information in connection with the YVCF program.
Yakima Valley Community Foundation does not share or sell data to anyone. YVCF complies with IRS disclosure rules regarding grant awards on Form 990, completed annually.