Resources

Hello GEO friends, I am interested to learn if you have any naming protocols or conventions that you use for grants that you provide to capital projects. Do you ask for naming after your foundation if you provide over a certain amount of funding to the project? Are there other parameters that you consider when making such a request? Thank you for your assistance! Charlotte

Hello all! We are seeking any resources or methods that people recommend for creating a streamlined grant review process for board members who have larger numbers of grants to review. Thanks for any guidance or structure you’ve found helpful! Georganna

Hello all, We are seeking resources or sample policies for foundations that offer stipends to NPOs that they invite to apply, to cover the NPO’s time in filling out the application/write the proposal. Thank you as always for your knowledge sharing! Georganna

Hi GEO friends, We are revisiting how or when to support organizations with large endowments. We’ve discussed criteria like whether the endowment is unrestricted, how many months or years of operating reserves it contains, etc. Does anyone use any guidelines or have any resources to share re: whether to fund an organization with a sizeable endowment? Thanks in advance, Stephanie

Hi all, We’d like to extend the term of a loan to a nonprofit to allow 12 additional months before the outstanding balance is due to the Foundation. Does anyone have a loan extension template we could take a look at? Thanks, Gina ___

Hi all, We are trying to balance a streamlined workflow and moving toward more trust-based philanthropy with our due diligence processes. To that end, two questions (if you have a chance to reply, please include reasoning behind your responses): 1. How many of you require the submission of a final report for a previous grant before releasing a new award? For instance, if a grantee applies around the same time annually, do you require a final report submission first even if that means there is lag time between the grant approval and the funding release? 2. What financial documents do you require with a proposal submission? A Form 990? Audit or financial review? The aforementioned plus current financial statements? Anything else? Any feedback from the GEO community on your processes is appreciated! Thanks so much, Stephanie

Hello all, I’m reaching out to ask for your insights around two questions we have. First, as we consider funding new organizations in areas where we are not yet active, we are currently updating our grantee cohort criteria. Does your foundation fund in cohorts? If so, would you be willing to share the criteria you all are using? Any learnings shared will be greatly appreciated. Also, on an unrelated note, one of our community organizing grantee partners in New York has an executive director who will soon leave her position and is looking for funding to support a 2-3 month learning sabbatical. Do you know of any funders that currently have sabbatical programs for something like this? So appreciative of any insights shared. Many thanks,

Dear GEO Community, Siebert Lutheran Foundation (SLF), an independent, private foundation that advances the Lutheran church and its ministries, recently created a new initiative we call Siebert Serves to increase resources and grants for our grantees. This is the first time in our history we are accepting gifts from donors and foundations, which will be used to support our grantees. Some of the ways donors give: 1. Make a "pass-through" gift (money designated for a grantee which is dispersed by SLF directly to the grantee) 2. Create a named Endowment Fund 3. Direct their DAF gift to a grantee 4. Make an unrestricted gift for endowment, bequests, or estate gifts. We are considering implementing a "fee for service" agreement where a percentage (1-3%) of funds from the types of gifts named above will be retained by Siebert to support the fundraising cost associated with securing gifts. We are interested in knowing if your foundation has/has not implemented a “fee for service” agreement, the rationale behind the decision, and the result. Thank you for sharing your thoughts here or if you are willing to take a 2-minute survey to provide your information, please click here: Siebert Lutheran Foundation - charging administrative fees Survey (surveymonkey.com). Thank you! Your input and experience will help us make an informed decision regarding this process.

Hi everyone, We're wondering if anyone knows if there is an "industry" average for the decline rate of proposals? If you do not know of an average, would you be willing to share your decline rate so we can create an average of these responses? Also, if there are funders who have reduced the number of rejected proposals, we'd be appreciative of any tips or methods that helped. Many thanks,

With this guide, GEO seeks to reassert the value of flexible, reliable funding with an updated analysis and set of examples to illustrate how a commitment to flexible, reliable funding can support the sector to be more equitable and community driven in its practice.