Communities of Coastal Georgia

The Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation (CCGF) is a young community foundation that has yet to build a sizable endowment from which to conduct its grant making.  Through the generosity of its founders a designated fund, "The Community Impact Fund," has been made available for this purpose while the endowment grows.  This fund currently allows a total annual distribution of $50,000 in grants averaging from $3,000-$5,000 in two specific areas of focus:

The Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation conducts a two part application process over a period of several months. The first step in that process is completion of a Letter of Intent (LOI) Form.  This LOI is meant to provide a brief overview of the organization's mission, strategy, strengths, and challenges.  Foundation staff and the community impact committee, made up of both board and non-board volunteers, will review each submitted LOI and will invite up to twenty organizations from our tri-county area to complete the Community Impact Grant Application Form.  The committee will then review all applications, conduct site visits and select those organizations they wish to recommend to the board of directors for funding at the board's June meeting.  CCGF staff does not vote on the proposals.

2012 Grant Cycle Time Table:

Guidelines:

The Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation invites inquiries from non-profit public charities and educational institutions serving the citizens of Glynn, McIntosh, and/or Camden Counties. Governmental agencies, religious, and civic organizations may be considered if the grant will be used strictly for charitable purposes as defined by the Internal Revenue Code, Section 170. Only one proposal may be submitted for each grant cycle.

Preference will be given to those projects and programs that:

• Show collaboration
• Demonstrate past performance in delivering quality service to the residents of more than one county in our service area
• Show ability to mobilize diversified financial support, in-kind support and volunteers to sustain the program
• Document the need they seek to address using quality research methods
• Offer innovative strategies and creative solutions without duplicating services

Eligibility Requirements:

• Current I.R.S. determination letter
• Provide service to residents in one or more of our three service area counties  (Glynn, McIntosh, Camden)
• Registered with the Georgia Secretary of State's office as a nonprofit
• Board of directors with representation from the community/communities served
• Annual plan and budget
• Audited financial statements for the last fiscal year (if annual budget is greater than $250,000), or a review by an independent, certified public accountant (if annual budget is greater than $100,000, but less than $250,000)
• Fulfilled reporting requirements for prior grants (grant reports not yet due from the 2011 cycle excluded)
• Address focus areas: Capacity Building and/or Education/Literacy

Sometimes called organizational development, management improvement, or infrastructure building, a capacity building grant or program should lead to substantial improvement in operational effectiveness and to more sustainable management, operations, and programs.  Capacity Building Grants usually focus on one or more of the following areas:

External Relations - Mission/aspiration clarification, strategy setting, exploration of areas of possible collaboration, mergers and acquisitions, convening, marketing, communications, fundraising strategies, needs assessments/surveys, constituent relationships, program development and consultant contracting

Internal Relations - Human Resource issues/policies/procedure development, staff development, team building, organizational structure, management issues, organizational culture definition

Leadership - Succession planning, board development, board governance training, leadership skill building

Internal Management - Annual planning and evaluation, organizational/program assessment, governance, staff development, financial management, technical and IT infrastructure building (i.e.: hardward/software)

The most common capacity-building grant expenditures are for consultants, retreats, new equipment, new staff positions, marketing and communication enhancements, leadership training, and professional development (certifications, conference attendance, skill-building in areas such as proposal writing or program management, etc.).

Unlike grants for programs or projects where there are measurable, quantifiable outputs (i.e. # served) and outcomes (i.e. evidence of behavior change, knowledge attainment, etc.), capacity building grant outcomes are harder to measure.  Among the questions to ask are:  How have improvements impacted the mission quantitatively as well as qualitatively? What has changed for the client or ultimate beneficiary due to enhanced capability?

Education and Literacy:

A community-wide needs assessment conducted in 2009 identified "quality of education" as a major concern for coastal Georgia residents.  The community foundation's second area of interest, education/literacy, will provide grants to non-profits and both private and public educational institutions that seek to improve the quality of education, especially in the core subjects of reading, language arts, mathematics, and science.

Programs and projects targeted at adult literacy and also emergent/early literacy for pre-Kindergarten children are of particular interest to the foundation currently.

Activities that will NOT be considered:

Completing the Letter of Intent (LOI) Form and the submission process:

The LOI form can be downloaded from our website or sent to you upon request.  Once completed and signed, please submit with required enclosure postmarked or emailed by December 16, 2011. (please no binding, covers, packaging, etc.)  All submissions will be acknowledged.

Required enclosure:

• Non-profit documentation: copy of your 501 (c)(3) determination letter or evidence of 170(c)(1)

If invited to submit a grant application, the form will be provided to you.  The form is also available on our website.  Submit the completed, signed form with required supporting documents postmarked or emailed by March 5, 2012. (no exceptions)

Application Check List:

• Completed, signed application which includes the project budget
• List of board of directors and officers, with affiliations
• Current operating budget
• Balance sheet
• Annual Report (if available)
  
• Collaboration between agencies or schools must include a "Letter of support" from the executives(s) of the partnering organization(s) or the principal of the school
  
• Most recent IRS 990 or 990 n
• Most recent audit (if appropriate).   See Eligibility Requirements above