Responsive Grantmaking

The Collins Foundation

Grant Provider's 990

Agency: Foundation

GrantWatch ID #167760

Grant Description

Grants to Oregon nonprofit organizations, government agencies, tribes, and public entities for projects to benefit state residents. Applicants must register in the grant portal prior to applying. Funding priorities include social and racial equity; arts and culture; child welfare and development; education; environmental protection; health equity; and a broad range of efforts to enhance community welfare.

The Collins Foundation seeks to be a diverse and inclusive organization and racial equity is a high priority in its grantmaking. The Foundation promotes inclusion for all communities that are systematically denied access to resources and the opportunity to make decisions on matters that affect them, particularly people of color, immigrants and refugees, people with disabilities, LGBTQ people, low-income individuals and families, and rural communities.

Funding Priorities:

A central priority for the Foundation is to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion through grantmaking. The Foundation is interested in supporting organizations at various stages in the pursuit of equity, and many successful applicants will have made efforts to learn about the root causes of social inequities and will have thought about how racial equity informs the work and operations.
Each year, the Foundation awards significant funding in the areas of arts and culture; child welfare and development; education; environmental protection; health equity; and a broad range of efforts to enhance community welfare.
Grants are made in support of programs and projects, capacity building efforts, collaborations, capital projects, challenge match campaigns, and general operations.
In considering applications for substantial projects, the Foundation prefers to participate with other contributors, and strongly encourages applicants to seek support from other sources to share in the total project. The Foundation prioritizes support for the implementation phase of projects over earlier planning stages, so requests for planning and research are generally not competitive.
Particularly in the areas of health, housing, workforce development, and asset building, the Foundation focuses its grants to benefit low-income communities.

Given that the decision timeline for the Responsive Grantmaking program is approximately four months, and change and uncertainty continue to occur, the Foundation is particularly encouraging of requests for general operating support right now to maximize flexibility as organizations seek to adapt to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Eligibility:

Others (see text field entitled "Additional Eligibility Criteria" for clarification)

Additional Eligibility Criteria:

Organizations must meet the following requirements:
1. Organizations with staff and leadership in Oregon and a proposed project or scope of work that directly benefits the residents of Oregon.
2. Organizations that are committed to equal opportunity for all persons regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, age, disability, or any other legally protected status.
3. Organizations that either (a) have established tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are not "private foundations" as defined under section 509(a) of the Code; or (b) have tax exemption as a governmental, Tribal, or other publicly-funded entity; or (c) have a qualified, tax-exempt fiscal sponsor.
4. Organizations that have current registration with the offices of the Oregon State Attorney General and the Secretary of State, as required by law.
5. Organizations with at least four independent board members.

Ineligible:

Individual religious congregations, hospitals within large healthcare systems, public schools (including public universities), charter schools, and private K-12 schools that charge tuition are generally not eligible for funding.

The IRS prohibits the Foundation from funding lobbying or voter registration activities.

Grants are rarely made for sports or outdoor recreation programs, short term events, youth camping programs, and programs involving animals. If considering applying in one of these areas, please contact a program officer before starting the LOI.

Grants are not made for development office personnel, marketing staff or activities, fundraising events, consumable goods for distribution to clients (e.g. food, clothing, school supplies), individual scholarships, endowments, operational deficits, financial emergencies, or debt retirement.

Pre-Application Information:

Letters of Inquiry submitted online by 5:00 pm PST on February 1, 2023 will generally receive final funding decisions by June 2023. More dates in 2023 will be added soon

The grant review process begins when the Foundation receives a completed letter of inquiry and usually requires sixteen weeks. Each LOI is read by a group of reviewers and evaluated against the Foundation’s guidelines and priorities. Applicants generally receive a response to their LOI via email 2-4 weeks after the LOI due date below. Those organizations invited to continue past the LOI stage will generally have 3-5 weeks to complete and submit a full proposal, after which Foundation staff may request additional written material and an interview or a site visit in order to gain more information about your work. The Foundation’s trustees generally make funding decisions within 10 weeks of receiving a full proposal.

All organizations must complete a one-time registration on the application portal. The Foundation encourages prospective applicants who don't yet have an account to register early, as it can take a few days for registrations to be approved.

Organizations are limited in the number of times they may apply to the Foundation in a given time period:
1. The Foundation will consider only one letter of inquiry (LOI) from your organization in a twelve-month period. For exceptions, see the Full Grant Text RFP.
2. If your LOI is not approved, or the trustees decline your full proposal, your organization is eligible to submit a new LOI 12 months after being declined.
3. Generally, if you receive a single or multi-year grant from The Collins Foundation, you may submit a new LOI no earlier than 12 months after the final grant payment is issued.

FAQs: https://www.collinsfoundation.org/responsive-grantmaking-submission-guidelines/frequently-asked-questions

Additional Funding Information:

Estimated Total Program Funding:

$10,000,000

Term of Contract:

Single and multi-year grants may be awarded. Two- or three-year grants are most often awarded for (1) well-defined projects that need an extended amount of time to become established and sustainable; and (2) large-scale capital projects. Multi-year awards are generally paid in declining amounts each year.

Contact Information:

Apply Online: https://collins.fluxx.io/user_sessions/new

For questions about application timelines or registering with the Foundation’s grant portal:
Contact Kweli Jaoko, kjaoko@collinsfoundation.org.

For questions about eligibility, including fiscal sponsorship requirements and allowable advocacy activities, or the Community Information Form: Leann Do, ldo@collinsfoundation.org

For all other proposal questions, contact:
- Jackie Murphy, jmurphy@collinsfoundation.org,
- Paul Tabron, Jr., ptabron@collinsfoundation.org,
- Tonisha Toler, ttoler@collinsfoundation.org, or
- Lauren Waudé, lwaude@collinsfoundation.org

The Collins Foundation
1618 SW First Avenue, Suite 505
Portland, Oregon 97201
(503) 227-7171
information@collinsfoundation.org