Deadline: 5-Mar-21
The Community Foundation of Kankakee River Valley has announced the Communityworks Grants to help the Community Foundation build endowments for making grant awards, particularly in Early Childhood Education; Land Use & Protection and Workforce Development.
The mission is to build endowment funds for their region over time, and it strives to bring together individuals and organizations to assess community needs, to build greater endowment funds, to convene area leaders around important issues, and to distribute grant awards to worthy nonprofit organizations. The Foundation also serves as a neutral leader with no direct affiliation with any group, religion, political or governmental entity.
Focus Areas
The Community Foundation of Kankakee River Valley has developed an Impact Plan on the community’s greatest needs across three focus areas:
- Early Childhood Education: The community has determined that the Community Foundation can have the greatest impact on Early Childhood Education (birth to age 8) by supporting:
- The improvement of the quality of child care;
- The support for parent education;
- The improvement of the quality and accessibility of early childhood education services, and
- The improvement of opportunities to access children’s mental health services.
- Land Use & Protection: The community has determined that the Community Foundation can have the greatest impact in these areas by:
- Expanding community efforts on land development with consideration for recreation focused on the benefits of the Kankakee River;
- Taking steps to preserve “rural charm” of their service area;
- Supporting efforts to address transportation issues
- Workforce Development: Their area’s communities have determined that the Community Foundation can have significant impact by supporting:
- Increased work opportunities for unemployed/underemployed youth through collaboration with the Workforce Board and other governmental and community-based organizations.
- Youth programs that prepare entry-level employment through the development of soft skills and work experience.
Funding Information
- An estimated $80,000 in grants will be awarded in 2021 by the Community Foundation, and it is anticipated that the total funds available will be distributed among several worthy applicants with an approximate, anticipated maximum award value per recipient of $10,000.
- Awards to regional, not-for-profit organizations, according to the guideline specifications, are expected to range from $1,000 to $10,000 in 2021.
Ineligible Funding
While the Community Foundation attempts to remain flexible in responding to community needs, in general, grants are not awarded for:
- Religious purposes (this does not exclude grants to religious organizations for non-religious purposes or to facilities such as day-care centers that have non-profit status independent from a sponsoring church or religious organization);
- Purchase of advertising;
- Capital or operation debt reduction; however, capital items needed for training purposes will be considered.
- Political campaigns or to support attempts to influence legislative issues of any governmental body.
- Multiple proposals from one organization.
Criteria
Proposals are reviewed, evaluated and recommended by the Foundation’s Grants Committee with the Community Foundation Board of Directors approving the final award recommendations. Because the Foundation cannot fund all the requests it receives, the Community Foundation Grants Committee and the Board of Directors rely on the following general policies and considerations for award selections.
- Grant applications are to adhere strictly to the grant application instructions.
- Grant awards are to be made only to those nonprofit organizations and programs operating either within Kankakee or Iroquois County.
- Awards through the Community works Endowment Fund are made only to organizations currently holding charitable 501(c)(3) classifications as designated by the Internal Revenue Service, or to quasi-governmental agencies, e.g., school districts, libraries, park districts, etc.
- Awards are intended to be made for one year at a time. Multiple-year awards may be considered if circumstances justify; however, potential for sustainability after the grant award period may receive favored judging.
- The evaluation process may include an on-site visit by Foundation representatives.
- There is one grant award period annually (July 1 through June 30) from the Community works Fund. Awardees may reapply in subsequent years by re-submitting full applications in subsequent funding cycles.
Evaluation Criteria
After initial review and screening by the Community Foundation Administration, the Community Foundation Grants Committee reviews and recommends applications for awards primarily based on the following criteria:
- The visibility and impact of the project should be apparent to current and potential Communityworks Endowment Fund donors.
- The project should be currently actionable – Is the community supportive of and receptive to the initiative?
- The need for and the significance of the project should be obvious and relatively simple to communicate to the community.
- Successful outcomes and the impact of the project should be readily identifiable, measurable, and reported to the community via the media.
- The receiving organization needs to demonstrate that it has the necessary experience and capacity to successfully implement and execute the project.
- The proposed project should demonstrate how it is creative and how it has the potential to stimulate the interest of the public and media.
- Projects which impact multiple focus areas (Workforce Development, Early Childhood Education, and Land Use & Protection) may receive higher priority by the Community Foundation for funding.
For more information, visit https://www.cfkrv.org/grants/how-to-apply-for-a-grant/