Community Grants - Grant Guidelines

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 Rotary Club of Palo Alto

2011/12 Charitable Grants Guidelines

                                                    October 1, 2011

Dear Palo Alto and East Palo Alto Non-Profits:

The Rotary Club of Palo Alto distributes funds annually to support charitable activities in the Palo Alto area as part of our commitment to community service. We invite you to apply in support of projects that will benefit the communities of Palo Alto and East Palo Alto. We expect to award a total of about $30,000 in grants ranging from $2,000 to $10,000.

Our guidelines for the process are simple:

You are encouraged to propose a specific project rather than a contribution to your general fund, and we are especially interested in projects that we can fund completely.

The project must benefit the Palo Alto and/or East Palo Alto communities.

You must be a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

No grants will be made that benefit only one or a few individuals.

Organizations that have received gifts from Rotary for two years in a row must wait a year before applying again. On occasion, the club may approve a multi-year program that provides financial and other support to an organization for two or more years.

To be considered for a grant, you must submit a short (one page) letter of intent no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, November 4, 2011. This letter should provide a brief description of your project and the funding amount you are requesting. Please do not attach any other information with your letter of intent.

After reviewing the letters of intent, we anticipate inviting 12-15 organizations to submit more detailed proposals, which will be due on December 9.

We will inform you by November 18 of our reaction to your letter of intent. Final grant decisions will be announced in early February, 2012. Checks will be presented in March 2012.

Please e-mail your letter of intent to Rotary grant committee chairperson Bill Johnson at rotarygrants@paweekly.com. Put the name of your organization in the subject line of the e-mail and then attach your letter as a PDF or Word document to the e-mail.

All letters will be acknowledged by e-mail. All correspondence with you in the future will be by e-mail, so please make sure you send your letter from an e-mail address that you will be regularly checking.

If you have questions about the grant process, you may contact Bill Johnson at (650) 326-8210.

ROTARY CLUB OF PALO ALTO

2011-12 Grant Schedule

Deadline for e-mailing

letters of intent:                                                         Friday, November 4, 2011

E-mail notification of committee

action & invitations to submit

full proposals:                                                             Friday, November 18, 2011

Deadline for submitting full

proposals:                                                                   Friday, December 9, 2011

E-mail notification of committee

action & selection of finalists:                                   Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Site visits to finalists:                                                January 11 to February 3, 2012

Final grant decisions:                                                 Friday, February 10, 2012

Presentation of grants at Rotary

Meeting                                                                      TBD March/April, 2012