Please click on the link below to open and download the appropriate grant application.

Grant Evaluation Form

All grantees are required to submit this final report by the date shown on their grant award letter from the Southwest Florida Community Foundation (SWFLCF). Grantee reports are a vital part of our grant monitoring and evaluation process, and they help us to be a more informed and strategic grantmaker while ensuring accountability for expenditure of grant funds. SWFLCF wants to learn from you about your progress on grant activities, and this final report is intended to help you capture your experience so that it informs your work as well as our grantmaking.

Major Annual Grant

The Major Annual Grant Cycle is awarded based on the instructions of the Community Foundation’s endowment donors. These grants typically do not exceed $25,000.

Deadline: May 7, 2010

Capacity Grants

SWFLCF's quarterly Capacity Grants of up to $1,500 support training seminars and other staff development activities, the hiring of organizational development consultants, small equipment expenditures, and emergency needs of local nonprofits.

Deadlines: March 15, 2010; June 15, 2010; September 15, 2010; December 15, 2010.

ARTS & ATTRACTIONS GRANT

The Arts & Attractions Grant Cycle was established to use existing resources to assist arts and attractions agencies, especially to encourage repeat visits, strengthen a need in the arts, provide the financial foundation that will encourage additional and create greater resources for growth, and partner with motivated professionals to maximize the expenditure and ensure a quality return on investments. Two types of grants will be offered: Marketing & Visitor Enhancement Grants and Basic Operating Grants.

Deadline: June 11, 2010

Initiative Grant

The focus area of this grant changes annually. The 2009 focus area was "Working Together for Hunger Relief." The 2010 focus area will be announced in January. The following details are subject to change annually, depending on the focus area. 

RFP Eligibility Criteria

• Nonprofit organizations based in Lee, Charlotte, Hendry, Glades, and Collier counties. Organizations based in Collier County must also serve at least one of the other four counties.
• Nonprofit and government agencies are eligible to apply; however, government agencies must partner with nonprofit agencies in order to be eligible.
• Organizations that do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, or religious affiliation.

Project Proposal Guidelines

• Must be a collaborative project with multiple community partners who have defined roles and responsibilities.
• Must be a new project or an expansion of an already successful project.
• We are interested in projects that propose changes in how program services are delivered.
• We are looking for either well-tested models that can be scaled up or expanded regionally or new pilots that if successful can be grown and replicated.
• We are looking for innovative and creative solutions to this critical community issue – encouraging organizations to “think outside the box”.
• Project proposals must have a clearly defined operating plan, evaluation plan, and plan for sustainability.
• Proposals can incorporate funding for research and/or planning activities if necessary for the development of the proposed project.
• Project proposals must be concrete, practical, and impactful.

Review and Selection Process

• Proposals will be reviewed by Community Foundation staff, the Grants Advisory Committee, and the Grantmaking and Community Leadership Committee of the Board of Trustees.
• Applicants may receive a site visit in April from foundation staff and committee members as part of the proposal review process.
• The Grantmaking and Community Leadership Committee will recommend grants to the Board of Trustees in June.

Key dates

• Info to come.

Total Awards

• Up to $100,000

Updated application to come.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Anne Douglas, Director of Programs
Southwest Florida Community Foundation
8260 College Parkway, Suite 101
Fort Myers, FL 33919
239-274-5900