Grants

Community Grants

Transformational   Initiatives

Community Grants

 

>> NEW <<

To learn more about this exciting new program, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Community Grants Process

The Saint Luke's Foundation specifically seeks Community Grant requests for:

• Operating Support
• Program Support
• Capital Support
• Organizational and Community Capacity Building:
  • Evaluation
  • Staff/Board Capability
  • Strategic Planning
  • Technology
  • Communication

To honor Saint Luke’s Medical Center’s legacy of service, the Foundation prioritizes the Mt. Pleasant, Buckeye-Shaker, and Woodland Hills neighborhoods. However, many community grants cover a broader area of Cuyahoga County's underserved communities.

Application Process

  Get Acquainted Meetings

  STEP 1: Letter of Inquiry

  STEP 2: Site Visit

  STEP 3: Proposal Submission and Review

  Who Can Apply

  Staff Discretionary Grants

Previous Grants

Grantmaking Calendar

 

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Interested in applying?

To learn the nuts and bolts of the Community Grants Application Process, click here.

 

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Foundation launches new grant program

Nonprofits all have stories to tell. Tell yours well—get it to “stick” in people’s minds—and you have a better chance of reaching your intended audiences with your products and services and garnering support from donors and the community. Crafting that kind of “sticky” message is why, for the past several years, the Saint Luke’s Foundation has focused significant resources on helping organizations build their capacity to tell their stories in compelling, effective ways that “stick” with their intended audiences.

Why Communicate?
We strongly believe communications are critical to the effectiveness of any program led by our nonprofit partners. These nonprofits are working hard every day, making progress, creating change, building alliances, engendering community trust, and helping people help themselves.  In fact, our mission – to reinvest our resources and provide leadership and support for the improvement and transformation of the health and well-being of individuals, families and communities of Greater Cleveland -- can only be realized through the work of strong nonprofits focused on helping people, achieving measurable results and communicating to the widest possible audiences.

However, in troubled economic times, nonprofits and foundations alike have a tendency to communicate less than their for-profit colleagues, largely due to a lack of resources, says the 2008 Philanthropy Annual published by the Foundation Center.

Less communication – when the competition for resources is stiffer than ever?!

Less communication when people won’t come and/or participate in your programs if they don’t know about them?!

Less communication when messages are competing across more and more channels/vehicles/mediums?!

Since early 2007, the Saint Luke’s Foundation has provided communications assistance to our nonprofit grantees, sending them to seminars, offering resources like the Cause Communications Toolkit and the Foundation’s online collection of communications resources, and of course focusing the entire ’09 biennial meeting on the art of creative, “sticky” storytelling.  But based on what nonprofits continue to tell us – there’s more we can do.

So…recognizing that nonprofits sometimes need more than just technical assistance and resources to tell their stories, we are pleased to announce a special Make it Stick! Request for Proposals (RFP) where nonprofits can apply to the Saint Luke’s Foundation for financial support of communications programs, projects and materials.
This unique funding program will occur in the second quarter of 2010 in place of the Foundation’s regular second quarter community grant application process.

The Make it Stick! RFP will prioritize organizations providing basic needs (food, clothing, shelter, healthcare) across vulnerable populations. As with all other Saint Luke’s Foundation grant requests, applicants must also meet at least one of the Foundation’s focus areas of health and healthcare, human services and neighborhood empowerment.

Organizations whose work aligns with the Foundation’s priorities and areas of focus may apply for support of unique approaches to new or existing communications programs, activities or materials. Grant requests could include (but are not limited to):

Deadline
The deadline for all letters of inquiry will be 5:00 PM, April 1, 2010. Applicants must submit Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) through the Foundation’s website at www.saintlukesfoundation.org. Indicate in the title of the LOI that the request is in response to the Make it Stick! RFP. 

Other important dates in the process:

Contact
Foundation staff is available to address any questions organizations have in responding to the Make it Stick! RFP and assist through all stages of the grantmaking process. Direct all questions about the Make it Stick! RFP to Kimberly St. John-Stevenson, who will serve as Program Officer for this portfolio of grants.  Kim can be reached at kstjohn@saintlukesfoundation.org or 216-431-8010.

Application Process
The Make it Stick! RFP process will follow the Foundation’s standard grantmaking process.  However, the Foundation will offer a number of technical assistance opportunities to help nonprofits determine the best potential project(s) to submit for funding.

To begin the application process, click read below or click here

Online Letter of Inquiry (LOI)
A grant request is initiated with a letter of inquiry completed through the Foundation’s website.  The online letter of inquiry includes a brief overview of:

• the applicant organization
• the proposed project, including high-level overview of timeline, resources and audiences
• the impact the grant will have on the organization
• short-term outcomes and long-term objectives
  
  

Selection Criteria
Projects will be assessed using the following criteria:

• The organization
• has a mission and programs/services that support that mission
• has sufficient community support and involvement
• can demonstrate how it will make a difference in the community by having the capacity to tell its story
• has the leadership, staff, and infrastructure to carry out the project
  
  
• The communications project
• has clear goals, measurable outcomes, and a plan for evaluation
• is fully conceptualized and designed in such a way as to increase the likelihood that it will be successful
• is innovative, interesting and cost effective
• The costs proposed are reasonable and appropriate

Letters of inquiry are reviewed by the Foundation staff to determine which requests will be moved to the second step in the application process: a site visit. Those requests that will not receive a site visit will be notified.

Site Visits
In general, site visits last 1½ hours and are held at the applicant's site. The applicant prepares an agenda that includes an overview of the organization, proposed project, outcomes/evaluation and budget. Organizations should include their executive director, key staff members, and board member(s) who can speak to the organization's overall commitment to the request. For more information regarding the site visit, review our online recommendations here.

Technical Assistance on Planning Your Request
We strongly encourage you to participate in an informational meeting on February 17, 2010 from 12:00 – 1:30 pm at the Cleveland Sight Center, located at 1909 East 101 Street in Cleveland. During the session, foundation staff will be available to respond to questions and help applicants explore ways to tell their stories.  During the meeting, we will also provide participants with details on how to access Cause Communications’ Nonprofit Communications Effectiveness Assessment Tool, which will help you gain a better understanding of your current communications activities as you plan for the future.  Participants will also receive a copy of Cause Communications’ “Nonprofit Communications Tool Kit.”

We also invite nonprofits to participate in an upcoming series of communications seminars called “BIG PR Planning on a Nonprofit Budget,” presented by the Saint Luke’s Foundation, The Center for Community Solutions and sponsored by Card Palmer Certified Public Accountants and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). The five-part series is specifically designed for nonprofit organizations. For more on the series, click here or go to http://tinyurl.com/yemd3gy Full scholarships are available – to RSVP, call Lynn or Debi at 440-899-1112 and tell them you want to register for the communications series.  Be sure to mention the Saint Luke’s Foundation when you call.

Grant Proposals
The Foundation’s grant proposal includes a cover letter, three-page logic model, the Communications Effectiveness Assessment, project budget form and narrative, an audit and any requested attachments. All proposal elements can be found on the Foundation’s website. Proposals are only accepted upon invitation following review of the Letter of Inquiry. Projects are often clarified during the site visit and subsequent communications. It is recommended that organizations take full advantage of those steps before preparing a grant proposal.

2010 Grantmaking Schedule

For planning purposes, please be advised that ONLY Make it Stick! communications requests-as outlined in the Make it Stick! RFP - will be entertained on our April 1 deadline. Any requests received on that deadline that are NOT responses to the Make it Stick! Request for Proposals will be reviewed in the third quarter.

The 2010 deadlines for our traditional grantmaking cycles are as follows: