CRCF: Capacity-Building Grants

The Capacity-Building Grants from the Capital Region Community Foundation aim to enhance the sustainability and effectiveness of eligible nonprofits in Michigan. These grants provide essential support for internal system improvements, enabling organizations to achieve their missions more effectively. Applicants must have a minimum annual budget and paid staff to qualify. The grants are designed to foster partnerships between the Foundation and grantees, focusing on critical areas like board development, fundraising planning, and equity training.

General Grantmaking Guidelines
The Community Foundation is a public charity organized as a collection of permanent endowments. The income from these endowed funds is awarded through a grant application process to provide charitable funding to nonprofits classified by the IRS as 501(c)(3) organizations and other eligible entities (such as municipalities, schools and faith-based organizations), for projects that predominantly benefit residents of Clinton, Eaton and Ingham Counties, Michigan.
Capacity Building grants help an organization increase its sustainability and effectiveness by strengthening its internal systems. Capacity Building strengthens an organization so it can grow its impact and accomplish its mission. The Foundation does this by partnering with our Capacity Building grantees and other experts in organizational management. Capacity grant amounts vary.
Examples of Capacity Building issues include:

• Board Development
• Fundraising Planning
• Governance Models, Executive Leadership Development
• Long-range Planning, Succession Planning
• Staff Training and Development
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training

Eligibility

Eligible organizations must have at least one paid staff and an annual operating budget of at least $100,000.Applicants must agree to work in partnership with Community Foundation staff to create a plan of action.
These grants are made to support capacity building efforts that increase a nonprofit’s sustainability and effectiveness by strengthening management systems and governance.To qualify for a grant from the Community Foundation's competitive grant process, your organization must have both of the following:

• Federal tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; OR you must apply through a fiscal agent that meets this criteria.

State of Michigan Charitable Solicitation License (unless your organization raises funds exclusively using volunteers and receives less than $25,000 a year; OR if your organization is designated by the State as an “other qualifying entity.”) For information, please visit the Michigan Attorney General website.

Ineligibility

What our Community Foundation generally will not fund:The following are areas which will not be considered for funding through the application process at this time:Religious programsIndividualsInternational organizationsEndowment fundsAnnual meetingsRoutine operating expenses (existing programming and administration)Existing obligations, debts or liabilities, incurred before committee reviews proposal *Operating expenses are defined as routine expenses in an organization's operating budget, including expenses related to existing, ongoing programming, occupancy, administration, etc. Our committee will not provide grants that simply fill a gap in a nonprofit's operating budget.