Kirchgessner Foundation Grant

The Kirchgessner Foundation Grant focuses on supporting tax-exempt organizations in Southern California that provide vision care services to economically disadvantaged individuals, particularly the young, elderly, and disabled. Grants may be awarded for specific projects, seed funding for new initiatives, or general operating support. The Foundation prioritizes proposals from nonprofits in the Greater Los Angeles area, emphasizing self-sufficiency for the blind and vision-impaired. Overall, it seeks to enhance access to essential vision care.

The Foundation’s Purposes
Kirchgessner Vision Foundation (“Foundation”) is a private foundation qualified under Internal Revenue Code §501(c)(3) whose purposes are exclusively charitable. The Foundation supports tax exempt institutions located primarily in the Southern California area which are actively engaged in the provision of services in the field of vision. The Foundation seeks to assist economically disadvantaged persons, especially those among the young, the elderly, and the disabled. While the Foundation may support a limited amount of eye research, its emphasis is to support activities in the area of vision care, and to help those with sight problems to be self-sufficient.
The Foundation places the highest priority on the grant proposals of nonprofits serving communities in the five-county region of Greater Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura Counties). Agencies who serve the Greater LA region but are headquartered elsewhere may also apply for a grant. It is highly unlikely that funding will be offered to an organization, initiative or project that falls outside of this area.
Types of Grants
The Foundation makes the following types of grants:
Grants to support a specific project or program, or the acquisition by purchase or otherwise of one or more specific items of equipment needed for a project or program.Grants for seed money to assist in establishing a new project, program or organization, including salary and other operating expenses. Such grants are determined on a case-by-case basis.Grants to provide operating or general support. Such grants will be limited and will generally be acted upon only after one of the first two types of grants above.

Eligibility

The Foundation makes grants only to organizations which are currently qualified as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code Section 501 (c)(3) and are not private foundations or supporting organizations.Typical applicants are organizations which seek to help the blind and other vision-impaired individuals to become self-sufficient.

Ineligibility

The Foundation does not consider requests from:individualsprivate foundations, private operating foundations, or supporting organizationspolitical or business lobbying organizations or campaignsfund-raising campaigns, dinners, banquets, etc.Moreover, the Foundation neither supports nor engages in political activity.It does not attempt to influence legislation or provide support for organizations engaged in such activities.