1. FUNDING OBJECTIVE:
To support innovative ideas which promise substantial impact and encourage others to make similar or larger grants. We seek ideas which provide leadership in the field, and which contribute in a major way to the applicant’s mission and service to its constituents. Our highest priorities are Education, including projects recognizing global inter-relationships; Human Services; the Arts; the Humanities and the Environment. A low priority is assigned to capital campaigns.

Grantmaking Area: Most grants are made to organizations located in and impacting residents of Lancaster County. Requests from greater Nebraska must have regional or statewide impact and strong local support in addition to meeting the criteria mentioned elsewhere in these guidelines.

Grant Amounts: Most grants are for amounts of $10,000 or less. Approval of greater amounts indicates a high correlation with our priorities.

2. FUNDING PRIORITIES
A. Education: Our highest priority is the improvement of teaching and learning through: models that can be replicated and institutionalized for broader effect; significant changes in the educational process aimed at improving learning; parent education at pre-school and K-12 levels; and educational solutions to human service issues.

B. Human Services: Our highest priority is improving the community’s response in the areas of greatest need. We value collaborations among agencies, elimination of unnecessary duplication, and programs designed to markedly improve the delivery and use of human service programs.

C. Arts: Our highest priorities are improved arts education; incorporation of the arts in non-traditional areas of the curriculum; and increased accessibility by under-served audiences. We look for interdisciplinary approaches, the application of new research, and collaborations among organizations.

D. Humanities: Our highest priorities are improvements in the teaching and learning of the humanities, and increased accessibility by under-served audiences. We look for interdisciplinary approaches, the application of new research, and collaborations among organizations.

E. Environment: Our highest priorities are protection of, and education about, endangered and threatened species and the natural systems they need to survive.

3. GRANT APPLICATION GUIDELINES:
A. Problem Definition: It is essential that a convincing case is presented for the proposed project, why it is needed, and how it will meet the needs identified. Brevity and clarity are important.

B. Applicant Qualifications: Evidence must be presented of the organization’s experience, expertise, and qualifications to undertake the proposed project.

C. Financial Qualifications: Evidence must be presented of financial ability, stability, and planning. We are interested in the size and capacity of the organizational budget in relationship to the project budget; the development plan in relation to existing and proposed needs; appropriate levels and use of reserve funds; and the ability to sustain the project after the grant period. Accuracy is important.

D. Collaboration: Collaboration, when appropriate, generally strengthens an application. The role of, commitment by, and benefit to each organization and to the objective must be identified. Organizations involved in collaborative grant applications may apply separately, for other purposes, as well.

E. Evaluation: An evaluation strategy must be presented defining rational criteria and methods of measuring the proposal’s effectiveness during the grant period.

F. Model Programs: The way in which a program will serve as a catalyst or blueprint for others, and how funding and management will be sustained beyond the grant period must be demonstrated. Simply stating that a program can be replicated is not enough.

4. GRANT APPLICATION PROCESS:
A. Submission Schedule: Inquiries should be made well before the beginning of the project. Grants are reviewed quarterly, in February, May, September and December. The application deadlines for those meetings are January 15, April 1, August 1, and October 1. We require just one copy of the application, single-spaced and unbound.

B. Challenge and Contingency Grants: Grantees have one year from the approval date to raise the challenge amount or meet the contingency.

C. Payment Schedule: It is our objective to issue payment reasonably in advance of the need for funds. Applications must indicate when funds will be needed.

D. Re-application: Grant recipients may reapply twelve months after the grant payment date (for multi-year grants, the final payment date). Organizations having a proposal declined may reapply twelve months after the date of that decision.