Bucks County Foundation: Competitive Grants

The Bucks County Foundation aims to enhance life quality for Bucks County residents by providing competitive grants to tax-exempt nonprofits. These grants prioritize addressing community needs, supporting underserved populations, and fostering collaboration among organizations. Applications are accepted twice yearly, with specific eligibility criteria based on organizational budgets. Notably, the Foundation does not fund individuals, political activities, or organizations with discriminatory practices, ensuring support reaches those who truly benefit the community.

Grantmaking Priorities
Each year, Bucks County Foundation (BCF) awards grants to nonprofit organizations from its discretionary funds through a competitive grantmaking process. This process is steeped in community knowledge, relying on the contributions of foundation staff and trustees, along with a broad and diverse group of ambassadors. BCF’s grantmaking priorities underscore its mission to enhance the quality of life for residents of Bucks County.
BCF seeks grants that work to:
Identify community concerns and interests and initiate creative approaches to addressing these needs.Promote solutions that address the causes of community problems, with emphasis on supporting underserved and disadvantaged people.Encourage innovative projects that favor collaborative efforts among community groups or organizations, to address unmet needs.Respect individual concerns in seeking community solutions.
These grants are awarded twice a year through a competitive grant process. Nonprofits serving Bucks County, PA may apply.  There are two grant cycles.

Eligibility

Grants will be awarded only to tax-exempt, (501(c)3) , non-profit organizations. Grants will be awarded only to those organizations that serve Bucks County and its residents.Organizations with budgets less than $500,000 may apply for an operating grant or a program grant. Organizations with budgets of $500,000 or more must apply for a program grant.Regardless of the grant committee’s decision, applications for funding may only be made once every twelve months.Only single year grants will be awarded. Successful applicants may reapply for a second year.Site visits may be made.

Ineligibility

Advertising publications
Projects aimed at promoting a particular religion or construction project for religious institutions
Umbrella funding organizations/pass-through organizations
ResearchBCF does not make discretionary grants to organizations that discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, race, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, economic circumstance, physical/mental abilities and characteristics, or marital status. This policy is not designed to deny grants to organizations serving defined populations in an effort to help those populations overcome historic discrimination; but exists to prohibit grants to organizations whose policies and practices single out particular groups to deny service, employment, or participation to them.