Resources for Women of Color in Reproductive Justice Grant

Apply for a Grant

Fiscal Year 2011-2012 Opportunities (now through June 30, 2012)

Quick Links Calendar of Deadlines For New Applicants: Letter of Inquiry Form (Word doc) For Renewal Applicants: Proposal Form for Renewals (Word doc) Catalyst Fund Request for Proposals (PDF) CFW Grantmaking Philosophy & Guidelines Grantmaking FAQ

(June 15, 2011) In fall 2011, Chicago Foundation for Women will make grants from the General Fund and the Catalyst Fund: Resources for Women of Color in Reproductive Justice. In spring 2012, the Foundation will make grants from the Sophia Fund for Advocacy and the Irene Bayrach Anti-Violence Legacy Fund. Throughout the year, grants will be made from the Strategic Response Fund.

Grants range from $15,000 to $50,000 (except for the Strategic Response Fund) and will support organizations within the Chicago metropolitan area (Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane, McHenry and Will counties). Activities can be local, regional or in some instances statewide.

Please note recent changes to our processes and guidelines:

• All grant applications are now being accepted electronically

• We now have a renewal process for projects funded in the same cycle in the prior year (e.g. Fall 2010 grantees are Renewals this fall--more info in our Guidelines)

• Direct service applications must be either a best practice or an innovative program

• Starting July 1, 2011, organizations may only apply once per fiscal year to either of the primary grant cycles

• New letter of inquiry and proposal forms have been created (please do not use any previous forms; they are no longer valid)

Read our Grantmaking Philosophy and Guidelines for more details and application instructions for currently available funds, or use these shortcut links:

• General Fund: eligible issue areas, how to apply

• Catalyst Fund: request for proposals (PDF), how to apply (same as above)

• Strategic Response Fund: funding priorities, how to apply

Questions? Please email Associate Program Officer Meridel Thomson at mthomson@cfw.org or check out our Grantmaking FAQ.

FALL 2011 Orientation Sessions

The Foundation will conduct three orientation sessions for prospective applicants. Get more details on the sessions at www.cfw.org/orientation. These sessions will be an opportunity for organizations to ask questions about our guidelines and for renewal applicants to learn about FY12 changes. They are not mandatory, but highly encouraged. Space is limited, so please RSVP if you plan to attend to Bern Wims at bwims@cfw.org.

• South Side: Monday, June 27, 10 -11:30 a.m. at Teamwork Englewood, US Bank Building, 815 W. 63rd, 2nd Floor

• North Side: Wednesday, June 29, 10 -11:30 a.m. at 4753 N. Broadway, 12th Fl.

• West Side: Friday, July 8, 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. at 2708 S. Pulaski

FALL 2011 GENERAL and CATALYST Fund Deadlines

Letter of Inquiry Form deadline for new applicants*	Monday, August 22, 2011 at 5 p.m.
New applicants invited to submit full proposals	Friday, September 16, 2011
Proposal deadline for renewal applicants (funded fall 2010 for same project)	Friday, September 23, 2011 at 5 p.m.
Proposal deadline for new applicants (submission by invitation only)	Friday, October 7, 2011 at 5 p.m.
Review by the Grantmaking Committee	October - November 2011
Board of Directors' approval	December 2011

* If an organization received a grant for the same project in the Fall 2010 primary grant cycle, an LOI is not needed. Please instead submit the Proposal Form for Renewal Applicants by Friday, September 23 (see above).

Reasons for Decline

Please note the following automatic reasons for decline for Fall 2011 grant applications:

• Application is incomplete or incorrect. Staff will not follow up with applicants who fail to submit any of the required materials.
• Application is received after 5 p.m. on deadline days.
• Request is for 100% of project budget for General or Catalyst funds.
• Request is for funding for a new staff position.
• Organization currently has CFW funding for the same program.
• Request amount is below minimum ($15,000 for primary grant cycles) or above maximum ($50,000 for primary grant cycles, $7,500 for Strategic Response Fund).

For more information on our eligibility requirements, read our Grantmaking Philosophy and Guidelines: Ineligible Applications.

HOW TO APPLY for the General and Catalyst Funds (FALL 2011) 

The application process for these funds is administered in two steps for new applicants. A new applicant is an organization that did not receive Foundation funding for the same project in the past year (funding for another project does not count as a renewal). Renewal applicants are organizations which received a Foundation grant for the same project in the previous year. (If applying for the Catalyst Fund, please see the Fall 2011 Catalyst Fund RFP (PDF) for additional required information.)

Free PDF creation software is available from Primo PDF

Applications are now being accepted electronically. The Letter of Inquiry Form should be submitted as a Word document. For proposals, we request PDF files. To create PDFs you can download a free program called Primo PDF.

Application process for NEW APPLICANTS

Application process for RENEWAL APPLICANTS

HOW TO APPLY FOR THE STRATEGIC RESPONSE FUND (through June 2012) 

This fund allows the Foundation to provide immediate support for projects that aren't a fit or cannot wait for the Foundation's primary grant cycles. Grants of up to $7,500 are awarded on a rolling basis to local organizations addressing critical issues and concerns of women and girls. These grants are intended to be small, discrete and timely. Thus, grants from this pool are "exceptional" and out of the ordinary course of business. This fund is competitive as resources are limited to $50,000 annually. As such, an organization is limited to one Strategic Response Fund grant per year. This limitation is intended to keep these discretionary grants from competing in size and importance with grants awarded through the Foundation's primary grantmaking process.

Grant requests are evaluated monthly and recommendations are approved by the board of directors. Please note that Chicago Foundation for Women does not generally purchase sponsorships, tables or program book ads for grantees' fundraising events. Additional information on program priorities and specifications are listed in the Grantmaking Guidelines.

Strategic Response Fund applicants must submit the following materials by email to mthomson@cfw.org as one PDF (or as few PDF files as possible) in the following order:

1. Letter of Inquiry Form (Word document). The form includes space to describe the proposed project, as well as provide the organization's operating budget and actuals, funding sources and project budget. Please include relevant information, such as proposed activities, the urgency of the request, a date by which the funds will be used, and so on.
2. Applicants must also submit the most recent organization audit or filed 990 (if necessary this can be submitted separately as a hard copy, mailed to the attention of Meridel Thomson) 

Within four weeks, staff will inform applicants whether they will be awarded a Strategic Response Fund grant.

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