Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation Grant

The Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation Grant supports charitable, religious, and educational organizations focused on improving the lives of underprivileged individuals. Grants typically range from $5,000 to $50,000, often requiring a challenge or match. Eligible organizations must be tax-exempt under IRS codes and located within specific Florida counties. However, requests from primarily government-funded institutions or for certain excluded purposes, such as individual scholarships or operating expenses, are generally denied.

NOTE: Grant applications are available via invitation only from the Foundation. If you are confident that your organization is eligible for funding after reviewing the Policies & Eligibility section, please send the Grants Manager a letter of inquiry stating the amount sought, the purpose of the grant, and nature of the organization.
General Purposes:
Based on policy resolutions adopted by Edyth Bush (Mrs. Archibald G. Bush), our Founder, while she was still alive, this Foundation is operated exclusively for charitable, religious, literary, and other exempt purposes. "Special consideration will be given to distributions and grants to charitable, religious and educational organizations which are organized and operated to help underprivileged or needy people to improve themselves, or to relieve human suffering..."
As a practical matter, we have made grants for challenge and development purposes, construction and renovation, equipment and expansion of functions, pilot projects and seed start-up of new programs, and study or planning grants to determine feasibility and market. We also have made emergency grants, emergency and other Program-Related Investment Loans. Over 50% of our grants are on a challenge or match basis, either "pay-as-matched" or "all-or-nothing."
Typically, grants range from $5,000 to $50,000. Many of our larger grants are on a challenge match basis.
The Foundation has broad interests in
human service, education, health care and a limited interest in the arts.
The Foundation has elected to focus these interests by concentrating on certain priorities within the particular field. This focus is more clearly defined by the Foundation's Grant Policy Limitations.

Eligibility

The Foundation welcomes grant requests from otherwise eligible tax-exempt organizations under Internal Revenue Code Sections 501(c)(3) and Section 509(a) headquartered within the Orlando MSA of Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake Counties, Florida.

Ineligibility

In addition to the Orlando MSA geographic limitation, the Foundation will ordinarily deny grant requests (as adopted by our Board of Directors):From chiefly tax-supported institutions, or their ‘support’ foundations (more than 50% government funding of the operations or project indicates ‘chiefly tax-supported’) or to continue dropped or discontinued government funded programs or projects until at least one (1) year or more of 51% private funding has been completed successfully;
For individual scholarships or for individual research grants even if through an exempt or otherwise qualified educational organization;
To pay off deficits or pre-existing debt;
For foreign organizations or for foreign expenditure. For this purpose ‘foreign’ means outside the United States, or its territories and possessions, whether the organization itself is U.S. based or foreign based;For travel projects or fellowships;
For chiefly church, sacramental, denominational or inter-denominational purposes, except outreach projects for elderly, indigents, needy, youth, or homeless regardless of belief, race, color, creed, or sex;
For endowment funds or other purely revenue generating funds;
Advocacy organizations or advocacy component funding;
For cultural or arts organizations unless their collections, exhibits, projects or performances are of demonstrated nationally recognized quality; or for the demonstrated educational value of children, K-12th grade.
From organizations having receipts or revenues from memberships and/or contributions of less than $25,000 in the previous year, or from any organization whose Internal Revenue Code Section 509(a) ‘publicly supported’ status will need renewal in the next six (6) months.”Most of the policies are those favored by Edyth Bush, our founder, in her personal giving or in her Foundation policies prior to her death.In case a grant request is denied, reapplication on the same grant request ordinarily will not be considered. However, unless the organization is not eligible for tax or policy reasons, denial of a grant request is without prejudice to your submitting other requests on different projects or on other subjects.