Grant deadline: September 1, 2012
Online application will be available July 2012
The Seattle Foundation is committed to providing the most vulnerable people in our region with tools to strengthen their economic resilience. Our work focuses on ensuring that no one falls between the cracks by supporting organizations that prevent homelessness, ensure the availability of affordable housing, and make sure that everyone has access to nutritious food. Our goals are to: support efforts to provide nutritious food and increase healthier options for vulnerable populations year-round; provide support services to get people back into housing; and support people who are struggling to stay housed.
In the current economic environment, low-income families and individuals are facing greater challenges than ever before. As The Seattle Foundation strives to best respond to the compelling and competing needs of our community, we have prioritized our Basic Needs funding strategies.
This has brought about a shift in our funding priorities as we put greater emphasis on meeting the housing and food needs of the most vulnerable, hardest-to-serve members of our community.
What We Fund
The Foundation is currently looking to fund organizations working to make significant progress towards the following three strategies:
- Homelessness and homelessness prevention
- Support services that help families and individuals who are homeless to access safe, stable shelter and affordable housing
- Support services that stabilize families and individuals and help them maintain their housing to prevent homelessness
- Availability of affordable housing
- Support affordable housing opportunities for extremely low-income households and special needs populations
- Access to nutritious food
- Increase the supply of nutritious and healthy food products to low-income families and individuals
- Support efforts to improve the effectiveness of the food distribution system to reach the maximum number of people who need supplemental food
Eligibility
To qualify for a grant from The Seattle Foundation’s Grantmaking Program, an organization must:
- be a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization;
- serve residents of King County; and
- provide programming in Basic Needs that aligns with one of our three strategies.
If you haven’t received funding from the Foundation in the past, we recommend that you contact us to discuss your funding request before submitting an application. If you have received funding in the past, please ensure that you are currently a strong fit for our refined funding strategies. Please contact grantmaking@seattlefoundation.org or call (206) 515-2109.
Other Things to Consider
- Capital campaign funding requests are considered a low priority.
- Organizations that have less than a three-year operating history after receiving its 501(c)(3) classification are considered a low priority.
- Organizations that have an annual operating budget of less than $100,000 as reflected in the most recently filed IRS Form 990 are considered a low priority.
- Multi-year grants are not considered.
Grant Types
The Foundation awards grants to provide general support to organizations working to address the three prioritized strategies within the Basic Needs element.
Deadline
The next deadline for Basic Needs is September 1, 2012. Grants will be awarded in March 2013.
Application Instructions
The Seattle Foundation has instituted an online application process. The following outlines the process and information we require.
Step One
If you have not received funding from the Foundation in the past, the first step of the process is to contact the Foundation’s grantmaking staff to ensure that you are currently a strong fit for our refined funding strategies. Please contact grantmaking@seattlefoundation.org or call (206) 515-2109.
Step Two
The second step is to create an account login on our website. If you don't have one yet, we encourage you to create an account as soon as possible, as it can take up to two business days to validate your login.
Step Three
The third step is to edit or create a profile for your organization on our website. You will need to submit our Profile Request Form, available by going to www.seattlefoundation.org/nonprofits and clicking on the “Profile Access Request Form” link in the right-hand column. (If you are new to our website, you will be taken to a login/registration page first, where you will need to create an account -- see Step Two above.)
The information required to establish your nonprofit organization's profile includes: mission statement, organization and program description, and recent successes and challenges.
Step Four
The fourth step is to complete an online application. The components of the online application include: responding to narrative questions, providing a three-year financial snapshot, and submitting attachments.
Please refer to the Application Components for a complete list of narrative questions and required attachments.
Step Fourth (For grant recipients only)
The fourth step requires completion of a Status Report within one year from the date the organization receives a grant.
Application Submission
Please do not submit any books, DVDs or videos with the application.
If you have any questions about the application process, please contact our grantmaking team at grantmaking@seattlefoundation.org or (206) 515-2109.