In order to be considered for funding, all interested organizations must first submit a Letter of Interest (LOI) to the GKV Foundation. Because our staff is small, we will read only the first 100 received during the LOI window. (See “Submission Process” tab for date due).
If your LOI is selected for further consideration, you will be contacted and invited to submit a more comprehensive proposal. It is envisioned that GKV will invite two to three organizations to submit a full proposal for each new planned grant.
Submissions must be limited to 300 words, single-spaced and submitted in both PDF form AND its related “Word” or “Pages” format. Do NOT include any photos, artwork, or your organization logotype. Both versions should substitute the parent organization’s name with its EIN in ALL mentions. And, since we are geographically limiting our funding to Berkshire County, Massachusetts, add your home base after your EIN. We do this to avoid our review committee being initially and unduly influenced by the sponsor. We want to judge your project per se.
Important: Include both the Parent Organization’s name and EIN in the body of the email message to which you have attached these items so that we can contact you after the review.
It should go without our saying, but your first paragraph (50 words or less) is critical. If you don’t catch our attention upfront, it is unlikely we will read much beyond that paragraph. Tell us why your proposed program, if successfully implemented, will make your community a better place.
The next step in the selection process – choosing which applicants will be invited to send in a full proposal – will be based solely on this LOI.
Our staff is small and unable to respond as politely as we would like. Therefore, we will respond only to the few LOI submitters invited to send us a full proposal. If you do not hear from us 45 days after the deadline for LOI submissions, sadly you will not be asked to submit a proposal.
The following topics must be addressed within the LOI for the program to be invited to submit a comprehensive proposal:
- A brief description of the specific program to be supported;
- The expected longer-term individual and societal impact of the project;
- Scalability—if this early stage is successful, to what extent can it be expanded;
- The measurable expected first-year’s result i.e., how will we know if the “experimental” year was successful ( this might help you think this through: “Designing the Evaluation.”) ;
- Size of the requested grant. (Please note that GKV will not support general ongoing administrative activities.)
Applicants must state at the end of the LOI: “We assert that (insert your organization’s EIN), the applicant, meets GKV Foundation’s Minimum Requirements as stated in the GKV website.” This statement asserts the following (and its 19 words are not part of the 300-word maximum LOI length):
- The applicant is a certified 501(c)(3) with a board in full compliance with the IRS;
- Parent organization will have been active for at least five years at the time of the award;
- Its annual operating budget big enough to manage a new, sustainable project yet small enough for a minimum grant of $25,000-50,000 to make a significant difference.
Send LOI’s electronically to LOIsubmissions@gkvfdn.org. and please remember to insert your organization’s name and EIN in Subject line.
Since you have put a lot of work into conceiving your new program, if you haven’t already you should look for additional funders given the low probability (1%) GKV will be your answer. Here are two resources that might help you to secure that funding:
https://learning.candid.org/resources/knowledge-base/fundraising-training/
https://learning.candid.org/resources/knowledge-base/finding-grants/