Fast Pitch

Grants of up to $10,000 to Williamson County, Texas, nonprofit organizations to present their mission, projects, and activities to the community in order to receive funding. Applicants must register by May 15 to attend the May 20 training session.

The Fast Pitch is an annual series of events that allows the community to experience how CTCF is a resource bridge allowing individuals and nonprofits to engage with each other.

The Fast Pitch series accomplishes the following:

1) Educates individuals. It allows members of the community to learn about area nonprofits and the specific projects or programs that are in place.

2) Raises awareness of nonprofits. Area nonprofits are exposed to potential, new volunteers/donors/supporters.

3) Provides resources. Supports the community with over $21,000 in grant awards. Provides training to develop effective pitches for the nonprofits to use in the Fall competition as well as their day-to-day activities.

Grant Awards are as follows:

1st Place Award - $10,000 (Open category)
2nd Place Award - $5,000 (Open category)
Arts & Culture Award - $3,000
People's Choice Award - $3,000 (chosen by the audience)

There are 2 Rounds for the Fast Pitch Competition:

Round 1 is a written application. The Grants Committee of the Chisholm Trail Communities Foundation evaluates and scores these written applications, and the 15 applicants with the highest scores advance to Round 2.

Of the 15 finalists, there will be 12 in the Open Category and 3 in the NEW Arts & Culture Category. Nonprofits with a mission supporting Arts & Culture must choose if they will compete in the Open Category (for 1st and 2nd place Awards) OR the Arts & Culture Category (for the Arts & Culture Award)--see the Grant Awards listed above for reference.

Round 2 is a verbal presentation evaluated by a judges’ panel and an audience consisting of members of the community (the event is FREE to attend and open to the public).

For this part of the event, the 15 finalists each choose 1 person to represent their organization. Finalist #1 makes their 90-second “pitch” to the judges and audience. Immediately after their “pitch” the judges have 90 seconds to ask follow-up questions of that person. Then Finalist #2 gives their “pitch”, #3, #4 and so on up to #15. It is a fast-paced, exciting environment befitting the name, “Fast Pitch”!

After all 15 Finalists have made their fast pitches, the audience at large is given the opportunity for a Question & Answer session. After the Q&A session, every attendee is able to vote for their favorite presentation from the evening for the People’s Choice Award.

The 4 Awardees (see Grant Awards listed above) will be announced at the end of the evening after the scores have been tabulated and the audience votes counted.