April 6, 2010
Message to CASA agencies:
Effective immediately, CASA agencies in Oregon are once again eligible to apply for grants from The Collins Foundation, pursuant to the Foundation’s regular eligibility requirements. (See Submission Guidelines on the home page). The Collins Foundation has six board meetings/grant cycles yearly, occurring every two months—February, April, June, August, October and December. Review of grant applications may take from two to four months after submission.
CASA agencies are asked to follow the Foundation’s regular Submission Guidelines and complete the Grant Application Checklist. Please note that the Foundation does not make grants for development personnel, and generally does not make grants for technical assistance or strategic planning.
The Foundation will consider single-year requests and multi-year requests (maximum three years). Preference will be given to projects that demonstrate thoughtful planning and propose to do either or both of the following:
1) sustain or advance the work of the Get Ready, Get Set, Go! CASA initiative, and/or
2) increase the capacity to serve more children.
These elements should be explained in the proposal narrative of the grant request. (See Grant Application Checklist.)
Guidelines for size of request:
1) Grants generally will not exceed 10% of an agency’s annual operating budget, and will not exceed $25,000 in a single year.
2) Agencies requesting multi-year grants in excess of $50,000 total over the grant period are encouraged to contact the Foundation in advance of submission.
A Note about Foundation resources:
The Collins Foundation endeavors to serve people throughout Oregon. Despite this commitment, the Foundation is unable to support every request received, and does not have the resources to provide grants to every, or even most, of Oregon's CASA agencies in a single year. To maximize the effectiveness of local grant-writing efforts and to avoid having one or two foundations become the recipient of all requests, we encourage CASA agencies to continue developing the potential of the CASA Directors' Network to serve as a coordinator of CASA requests around the state.
Questions about the Foundation’s submission guidelines should be directed to Cindy Knowles, Director of Programs, cknowles@collinsfoundation.org
