Guidelines for Invited Proposals

Once invited to submit a proposal (in response to a preliminary inquiry), applicants should follow the proposal guidelines below.

Proposals should be concise and simply bound (one clip, upper left corner) for ease in preparing copies for each Trustee.

Pages should be consecutively numbered.

The following information must be included:

The Foundation's Application Form:  Application Form. Applicants may also use the Common Grant Application Form that is available through most regional associations of grantmakers. 

Problem Statement, Program Objectives, Methods: This entire section absolutely must be limited to three pages. Any discussion beyond three pages considered essential for understanding the proposal should be submitted in an attachment.

Attachments: the following items should be included as separate attachments.

Evaluation: expected results or outcomes of the proposed program or project and how they will be measured. If your proposal is approved, you will be asked to provide a grant report based on this section. (The W.K. Kellogg Foundation Logic Model Development Guide as posted on the W.K. Kellogg Foundation website, www.wkkf.org, is useful for this exercise.)

Budget: program or project budget, including funding strategy. Capital campaign proposals must include the overall campaign strategy, detailing amounts of funding committed and pending from other sources. Proposals for start-up funding must include a plan for long term funding to sustain the program. If the request is for general operating support, the annual budget should be submitted, including projected aggregate amounts of annual income from all sources, public and private (individuals, foundations, corporations, special events, etc.).

Organization Background/History: This attachment may not be necessary in requests for general operating support since it is assumed that organization mission and history would be addressed in the body of the proposal under "Problem Statement, Program Objectives, and Methods."

Board of Directors/Key Staff:  a list of the Board of Directors, including (for each) his or her address (city and state only), occupation and employer, and term expiration. 

Financial Audit: most recent audited annual financial statement, including any management letter. New applicants are asked send audited statements for the last two years. Organizations that have no audits should send a Form 990, including any schedules and attachments.  Organizations with budgets of less than $25,000 should send a copy of any required filings to the state in which they are headquartered.

501(c)(3): a copy of the Internal Revenue Service determination letter indicating 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. If your organization has made a 501(h) election, please include a copy of Form 5768. 

If you are using a fiscal sponsor, send the sponsor's IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter as well as a letter from the sponsor on the sponsor's letterhead confirming its Board's authorization to sponsor your program or project.

Optional: additional materials such as the most recent annual report, program marketing brochures, newsletters, or published newspaper articles. 

Notifications of funding decisions are usually issued within six weeks of the Foundation's Board meeting.

See mailing instructions under Applying for a Grant.

More information may be requested from info@rahuntfdn.org