Giving circle guidelines

An organization must meet the following criteria to apply:

• Organizations must be qualified as tax-exempt public charities under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or be classified as a unit of local government (including public schools). An exception is made to include fire and rescue departments.
• If your organization operates as a 501 (c)(3) public charity via a fiscal agent, your application's supporting documentation must include a letter from the fiscal agent organization that verifies the relationship and includes when the relationship was established.
• Faith-based organizations may apply for funding to support social outreach and charitable service programs to benefit the community-at-large, but they may not apply for general operating support. See restrictions below.
• Only those organizations that serve the county(ies) of the giving circle will be considered. If an organization serves multiple giving circle regions, that organization may complete a separate application for each of those giving circles.
• Organizations must offer programs and services without discrimination based on age, race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, physical ability, sexual orientation, political affiliation or religious belief.

Grants are not awarded for:

• Annual fund or capital campaigns
• Political purposes or lobbying
• Activities that are restricted to members of a faith community or promote a specific religious doctrine
• Loans
• Reimbursements (This program does not support reimbursement of costs incurred prior to the deadline for submission of your application. Your request may only include costs that will occur in the future, after the submission deadline of the application.)
• Individuals
• Re-granting by the applicant organization

Applications for specific programs and projects or for general operating support are accepted, unless otherwise specified.

Prior to completing an application, it is important for interested applicants to learn about the grantmaking of the giving circle to which they are applying. Giving circles may also seek applications for certain target areas, capacity building, organizations with operating budgets within a specified range, or for other permissions and restrictions. The amounts of grant awards also vary widely across programs.

View the dates of all NCCF giving circles, either chronologically or in alphabetical order below. Please note that all cycles end at NOON on the closing date.

• Grantmaking calendar by chronological order
• Grantmaking calendar by alphabet

Giving circle grantmaking decisions are made on varying timelines. Contact the NCCF regional director for the affiliate to which you are applying to find out specific information on when decisions will be made.