About the Unsolicited Grant Requests Program
Every day, we learn about organizations that approach community work in creative and inspiring ways. If your organization is one of them, you may qualify to apply for one of our unsolicited grants.
We recognize that nonprofit staff time is limited and have designed the following information to help you determine if your organization is a strong candidate for an unsolicited grant.
While we accept proposals for all subject areas and types of programs, The Foundation is particularly interested in organizations that are helping to advance racial equity, especially those that engage with and serve diverse populations and constituencies and seek to dismantle systems that constrain the choices and opportunities of individuals.
After reviewing the priorities below, we encourage you to utilize our Prescreen Tool* to help determine if your organization is a good candidate for an unsolicited grant. This tool will help you gauge the likelihood of being awarded a grant. You may also choose to skip directly to the proposal, but we encourage you to utilize the tool in advance.
*The amount of time it takes to utilize the Prescreen Tool and/or complete a proposal is highly variable. Based on insight from grantees, it is estimated that the Prescreen Tool will take five to ten minutes, and the proposal form will take approximately four hours to complete.
Our Unsolicited Grants Program prioritizes organizations that:
- Have been in operation five or more years
- Have operating budgets between $1MM and $12MM
- Have a minimum of five funders of $5k or more
- Have a minimum of five board members
- Match the priorities in one of the following Program Areas:
- Have programming focused on racial equity and/or on Black, Indigenous, and/or other communities of color
- Have leadership that reflects the communities served by your organization
- Operate in the following geographic areas:
- California, specifically the following counties: Fresno, Kern, Kings, San Francisco or Tulare
- Maryland, specifically the following counties: Dorchester, Wicomico, Worcester or Somerset
- Pennsylvania, specifically the following counties: Lancaster and York
We recognize there are innumerable causes worthy of support. However, the Foundation does not provide unsolicited grants in the following areas.
- Academic or Medical Research
- Alcohol and Drug Recovery Programming
- Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation
- Disease Research and Prevention
- Ecosystem Restoration
- Films
- Hospitals
- Individuals
- Marine Protected Areas outside of California
- Non-community-based Fisheries and Ocean Management
- Plastic Pollution
- Single Species Management or Conservation