Eligibility:
- Nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and operating for at least three years are eligible to apply for these grants.
- The organization must have two or more full-time employees and an operating budget exceeding $100,000.
- Organizations must be located in or serving one or more of these WNC counties: Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, and Yancey.

Grants generally do not support operating expenses (except for costs that are directly related to the project); capital support (except where modest requests can immediately and significantly increase an organization's capacity and effectiveness); activities taking place before grant decisions are made; sectarian religious purposes; partisan political purposes; veterans affairs; deficit funding; or debt retirement.

Letters of Intent are due by December 3, 2021.

If you would like to discuss your proposal or have questions regarding eligibility, you are welcome to contact Virginia Dollar, Senior Program Officer. It is suggested that first-time applicants review their proposal with Virginia prior to submitting a Letter of Intent.

Applicants will be notified whether they are invited to submit a full application by early January. Ten to twelve finalists will be selected to move to the next round of review. Those chosen as finalists should plan to have both a staff and board representative attend a full application workshop to be held on January 20, 2022.

If your organization is chosen as a finalist, your organization will be required to complete an assessment that involves a minimum of 6 to 8 hours of board time in addition to 12 to 15 hours for the board chair and executive director. Please do not apply if your organization is not ready for this commitment. The assessment, which is funded by the Melvin R. Lane Fund, must be completed between January and April.

Based upon learnings from the Organizational Assessment, applicants will define their project objectives. Completed online applications are to be submitted on April 21, 2022.

Site visits by members of the Melvin R. Lane Fund Advisory Board will be conducted during May and June. Finalists are required to give short presentations on June 24, 2022. Funding decisions will be announced in July.

An eligible organization may only submit one application per cycle.

How to apply: https://cfwnc.org/grantseekers/about-grants/online-grant-application-process

Application tutorial: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8P9ImR-APIbOVI5YVBFUWpXbnc/view

Number of Grants:

Estimated Size of Grant: