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The Community Fund

The Community Fund is one of The Community Foundation’s essential tools to respond quickly and strategically to address critical needs in our region.

Through The Community Fund, the foundation’s Board of Governors provides coordination, collaboration and sustained investment. When donors choose to give to this unrestricted fund, the foundation can connect financial resources and human capital to effective nonprofits and community groups already at work. Imagine the impact if these organizations had the resources needed to operate at their desired capacity.

2019: Capacity Building Grants - Overview

For 2019, grants from The Community Fund will focus on capacity building for nonprofits as part of its grant cycle. These grants are intended to strengthen and grow our local community of nonprofit organizations.

By definition, capacity building grants will support activities based upon what each applicant organization needs to achieve its mission most effectively.

Capacity building grants allow nonprofits to secure the professional and timely assistance necessary to enhance organizational capacity and address important issues of organizational development and effectiveness.

The Community Fund 2020 Grant Focus and Priorities Will be Announced in Spring 2020.

Examples of capacity building projects include:

Leadership development: supporting a leadership training experience for two or more members of the organization’s leadership/ management team.
Planning activities: including organizational assessments, strategic planning, fund development, communications/marketing, or business planning. [Feasibility studies are not eligible for grants from this program.]
Board development: may include activities such as leadership training, defining the role of the board, and strengthening governance.
Strategic relationships: providing technical assistance / consultant support to help two or more organizations work through collaboration and strategic restructuring; positioning for merger or affiliation; or business planning for social enterprise.
Internal operations: improvements to financial management, human resource or volunteer management.
Technology improvements: IT capacity through upgrades to hardware and software, networking, websites, and staff training to optimize use of technology.

Capacity Building Grant Guidelines

Eligibility

Proposals are accepted from 501(c)(3) charitable organizations located in the Community Foundation's service area, which includes: the city of Fredericksburg, and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania, and Stafford.
Requests may not exceed $15,000 and cannot be used for expenses already incurred.
Typically, multi-year grant applications are not considered in this grant program.
Public schools or other public agencies will typically not receive grants through this program, although they may be involved as partners in funded efforts.
Grants are not awarded to individuals.
If your organization has previously received a grant from the Community Foundation, all prior grant requirements must be in good standing before a new proposal will be considered.
Preference is given to current or recent recipients of a grant through The Community Foundation.

The Community Fund 2019 Grant Calendar

Applications must be submitted via our online grant management portal.

The application portal will open Monday, April 8th.

Applications are due no later than 5pm, Monday, May 13th.

Awards will be announced the week of June 24th.

Grantees are required to provide progress reports and a final grant report.