GRANTS​

We have prepared a Grant Application Planning Sheet to assist you and provide guidance as to the process and contents of the application.  Please scroll down to see it.  

Grants will be  announced and disbursed by the end of our fiscal year, August 31.

Each year the Foundation accepts applications from throughout the State, allowing organizations of all types to express their need.  Each year those needs change, but we are consistently impressed with the good work these organizations are doing in Idaho.  There are so many volunteers and community leaders throughout Idaho who make each community more successful.  From after school programs and field trip bussing to providing breakthrough technologies to improve rural medicine, the Foundation has been able to aid communities throughout the State.  

The Foundation accepts inquiries from any qualified tax-exempt Idaho nonprofit organization.  Particular grantmaking priorities include rural healthcare, educational programs for children, and programs in underserved communities and for underserved populations.  Prior grants made can be seen on our IRS filings at www.guidestar.org. The Foundation does not limit giving to a certain type of program or need (i.e.: programs, equipment, bricks and mortar, salaries and benefits), however administrative costs are not preferred.  We are interested in organizations run in a cost-effective manner and serving large numbers of people who are truly in need.  Prior grants awarded are available by viewing the Foundation's 990-PFs on www.guidestar.org.

Very few foundations offer such an open and simple process, but we believe that the members of each community know better what they need than we do.  One of the hardest things each year is having to tell applicants that we just could not fund their project.  

GRANT CYCLE FOR 2025 will open FEBRUARY 15, 2025 and close MARCH 31, 2025

The Foundation has only one grantmaking cycle per year.  ALL APPLICATIONS MUST BE COMPLETED THROUGH THE ONLINE PORTAL.    Each applicant must set up an account through Submittable (see link below) and will be able to fill out and save the application online. 

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​No applications will be accepted by mail or email.  Please click on the link below to access the application platform.

ONLINE GRANT REPORTS

All grant recipients must submit a final grant report form by March 31 through the online Submittable portal. FAILURE TO SUBMIT THE REPORT ONLINE WILL RESULT IN INELIGIBILITY TO APPLY IN THE FUTURE. 

You will be sent an email reminder in early February.  You can access the report simply by logging into your Submittable account and then going into your application for the year you are reporting.  Embedded in the application at the top of the screen are two report options.  If you have expended all grant funds awarded, submit the FINAL Grant Report by March 31.  If you have not expended all the funds yet, please complete the INTERIM Grant Report by March 31 and then you will go back and complete the FINAL Grant Report once your project is complete. 

All reports must be submitted online. Submittable will send us an automatic notification when you submit it.  ORGANIZATIONS THAT DO NOT COMPLETE A REPORT FORM WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR FUTURE FUNDING UNTIL A REPORT IS SUBMITTED.  REPORTS BY EMAIL OR REGULAR MAIL WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.  

APPLICATION PLANNING SHEET

Updated 4/2024

 

THIS IS NOT THE APPLICATION.  THIS IS FOR PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY. 

ELIGIBILITY

Applicants must be tax exempt organizations serving Idaho communities.  Individuals are not eligible. If you have filed for tax exempt status, but not yet received it, you do not qualify.  If you are an organization outside Idaho, you may only apply for programs that will be totally within Idaho (occasionally we make exceptions for border communities such as Ontario, OR or Clarkston, WA).  If you are a governmental entity (like a library), the application must be for a program that meets the IRS standard for “charitable purposes”.  If you are an organization within Idaho but the project is international or out of state, it does not qualify. 

ONLINE APPLICATION SUBMISSION

All applications must be submitted using the online submission platform Submittable.  A link to the application is provided above. Application opens February 15 at 8:00 a.m. and closes March 31 at 5:00 p.m. These days may fall on a weekend.  Plan accordingly.  There will be no technical or other support available the last 10 days. Please consider setting an earlier deadline for yourself in case you run into issues with your submission.

Each applicant needs to set up an account through Submittable (www.submittable.com).  When you set up the account, please keep in mind that later in the grant year you will need to access your application in order to submit the Final Grant Report which will be linked to the original application.  We recommend that you use an organizational email (i.e.: grants@org.org) that will continue to be accessible through staff turnover.  Please make note of the email and password used to access Submittable so that you can access your account in the future.  While we have access to the application, we do not have access to your login credentials and cannot provide those to you when it comes time to submit the report.  Additionally, we send reminders and occasionally ask questions through the Submittable platform to get more information when we are reviewing applications.

If you have previously had an outside individual or a person using an email that is no longer active to your organization, you can change that email to one within your organization and maintain access to your previous applications. Just log in to Submittable and click on the circle with initials on the top right, choose settings, then choose update profile and change to a new active in house email.  Then all of your previous submissions will be available to you.

Technical assistance is available through Submittable and by emailing us at lmcf_idaho@msn.com.  Due to the high volume of help requests in the past just prior to the deadline, we will not provide technical assistance after 5:00 p.m. March 15.  We encourage you to submit your applications early.  We have also had people try to submit at the literally very last minute and the application didn’t go through in time.  We cannot help you with this.  Please submit early.  We read through the applications in the order they are received and we can tell you that you'd be well served to submit early.  

CONTENTS OF APPLICATION

The following information will be requested within the application.  Hopefully this will help you prepare the materials. You can save your application in Submittable and go back and make changes before you submit.  Once you have completed the application, you can also save a pdf file of your application to keep a hard copy or to have a copy within your organization’s computer file system.  We have developed this application with efficiency in mind.  We have many open ended questions for which we hope you may be able to use materials you have already developed in your fundraising and programming operations.

Name of Organization:

Contact Person:

Director/Chief Executive Officer:

Phone Number:

Email:

Mailing Address: (Provide an address that will be checking and receiving mail in July and August)

Organization Website:

Tax I.D. #:

Services Offered by Organization

Please provide a very short description of the general services provided by your organization (5 words maximum). I.e.: After school programming, K-6 education, Hospital, Snow sports education, etc.

Category

Pick the label that best describes which category of services your organization provides: Arts/Culture, Education, Health/Hospitals, Environment, Social Services, Recreation, or Animals.

Key Leaders

Please provide a list of the leaders of your organization, describe their responsibilities, and provide their contact information.  Indicate whether they are staff or volunteers.  This list should include all members of the board of directors.  Note “director” is not a key leader, we need to have names.

Total Annual Budget of Organization: $________________________

Organizational Budget Summary

Please provide a breakdown of your annual organizational budget.  This has been left open ended intentionally so that you may use an existing budget or summary you have.  Please include a detailed breakdown of costs including but not limited to wages, facilities expense, utilities, supplies, program expenses (broken down by program if you have multiple distinct programs), and fundraising expenses.  Income should also be broken down, for instance private grants, corporate sponsorships, federal/state grants, taxing district income, program income (user fees, etc.), fundraisers/events, etc.  There is an option to upload an existing budget document to provide this information. 

Organizational Balance Sheet Summary

Please provide a summary balance sheet.  This should be a "snapshot" of your organization's financial situation (all liabilities and assets) on a given day.  Again this is open ended intentionally to allow you to reuse materials prepared for your board or another grant.  Please indicate if any assets are restricted (i.e.: for a building project or capital campaign).  At the end of this balance sheet, please also include the total assets and liabilities for the year previous.  If there is a substantial difference (greater than 10% one year to the next), please explain why. There is an option to upload an existing document to provide this information.

The difference between an organizational budget and a balance sheet is that a budget shows the cost of running the organization throughout the year, and shows income and expenses.  Whereas, a balance sheet shows all of the assets and liabilities.  Without these two different views, we cannot judge the financial health of your organization.

Prior LMCF Funding

Please list all previous known grants from LMCF.  Please be sure you have submitted all prior grant reports.

Purpose of Grant

This is essentially a title for your project, i.e.: "Homeless shelter kitchen remodel," "Library children's room expansion," "MRI machine," etc.  You will have the chance to describe it in detail below in the grant narrative. Please use simple specific descriptors and not undefined nonspecific puff words ("improving programs", "high quality care", "increased access to proven programs" do not tell us anything). Please limit to about 5 words.

Community Served by Project

This may be different than organization location or service area.  It is only the area served by the project. This can be a city, list of cities, school district, county, list of counties, etc.

Community Type

Please choose the type of community served by the project in this proposal: urban/suburban, rural, or both.  There is no right answer.  We would like to have this data for tracking purposes. 

If you choose “urban/suburban”, it will prompt you to choose your urban area from the following:  Treasure Valley, Twin Falls, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, or Other.

Idaho Region

            Please choose the region of Idaho the project benefits:

North Idaho: Idaho, Nez Perce, Lewis, Clearwater, Latah, Benewah, Shoshone, Kootenai, Bonner and Boundary Counties

South Central Idaho: Adams, Valley, Lemhi, Washington, Payette, Gem, Boise, Custer, Canyon, Ada, Elmore, Owyhee, Camas, Blaine, Gooding, Lincoln, Minidoka, Jerome, Twin Falls and Cassia Counties

Eastern Idaho: Butte, Clark, Fremont, Jefferson, Madison, Teton, Bingham, Bonneville, Power, Bannock, Caribou, Oneida, Franklin and Bear Lake Counties

Amount Requested from LMCF: $_____________________

Detailed Project Budget

Please provide the detailed cost of entire project, and break out the portion requested of LMCF (i.e.: entire renovation is $40,000 with detailed list of all costs, and we are asking Foundation for $5,800 for kitchen appliances with quotes for appliance costs).  Break down expenses by type if not all for one type (i.e..: staff/wages, construction, supplies, etc.).

Other Sources of Funding for this Project

Please indicate whether funds are already received, committed pledges, pending, etc. If none, please indicate that.

Key Project People

Please identify the people (by name, not just “director” or “project manager” – if the person/position is not yet hired or in transition, explain that) responsible for this project and explain what relevant skills and experience they have to get this project done.

Grant Proposal Narrative

Describe the project (1500 word limit).  Again, this is an open-ended question so that you may use existing materials.  Be sure to:

1. Explain the need;

2. Identify the population served (who, how many, why, where); and 

3. Describe how the project is designed to meet that need, the desired outcomes of the project, and provide a timeline for completion.

Proof of Organization’s Tax Exempt Status

Most recent financial statements

If you have audited financials, include your latest.  If you do not, include your last full year's income and liability statement which will give us a complete view of all sources of income and all expenses for an entire year. If your audited financials are somewhat out of date, you may also include your current year's unaudited financials.  If you are a brand new organization, provide a detailed budget projection with a description of how you arrived at those numbers.  All submissions shall include detailed administrative and fundraising costs. 

The purpose of providing financials is for us to get the "big picture" of your organization's finances.  Please let that be your guide.  For small organizations (less than $50,000 in expenses per year) these may be similar to your summaries above, but for large organizations, they should provide a more complete picture than the summaries requested above.

If your organization's financials are too cumbersome, but are available online (like a school district), you have the option to upload a link.

Optional Uploads

There are two optional upload fields that may be used to submit photos, scans, architectural drawings, bids, or other helpful documents.  These uploads are not to be used to expand your narrative, and you should reference the uploads in your narrative if you use them.  For example, “We are planning to expand the children’s area by 400 feet (please see the uploaded floor plans below).”

AGAIN, this is NOT THE APPLICATION, merely a planning sheet.  All applications must be submitted through the online platform which you can link through the button above and which will open February 15 and close March 31 at 5:00 p.m.