The Staten Island Foundation makes a number of different types of grants in order to address the Foundation’s mission and meet the needs of our nonprofit community. Foundation staff will discuss potential requests with applicants to help determine which application is needed for a proposed project.
Direct Service Grants
The Foundation invests in programs and projects that are focused on improving the lives of those being served, with a particular focus on those who are least advantaged. Grant funds can only be used to support the program or project described in an approved application.
In many cases, a grant from the Foundation does not provide full funding for the work. The Foundation will consider matching grants or a challenge grant that encourages support from other funders.
The Staten Island Foundation is most interested in the outcomes of the grants we make rather than the program’s activities. The application must align with one of the Foundation’s target outcomes listed under the appropriate Focus Area and propose an anticipated results statement that describes concrete, measurable results.
Capacity Building Grants
The Foundation makes grants to support nonprofits achieve and sustain better results for those they serve by strengthening an organization’s infrastructure, management, and governance. Various capacity building projects may include improving internal systems, training staff, volunteers, or Board members, developing strategic plans, expanding fundraising efforts, evaluating overall effectiveness.
The Foundation asks applicants for Capacity Building Grants to anticipate the results their efforts will make and to identify whether they are looking to increase revenue, decrease expenses, increase the number of people served or decrease the time it takes to obtain results. Applicants looking to use Foundation funds to engage consultants to assist in the capacity building work will be asked to submit a proposed work plan with the application.
Capital Improvement Grants
Although these grants are very limited at this time, the Foundation recognizes that at times investing in capital improvement is the best investment we can make to increase the efficiency or effectiveness of your organization. Please contact Foundation staff to discuss your potential request. Typical Capital Improvement Grants help an organization buy or improve a physical asset and in most cases Foundation dollars will be paid out over multiple fiscal years and will contribute to an overall project budget that includes multiple sources.
Focused Opportunity Grants
At times, The Foundation will encourage applications to support projects that may have a powerful impact but are limited in focus by the duration of the project, the amount of funds required, or the scope of the work. Examples of projects that would fall into this category may be an emergency food distribution, a professional training opportunity, a volunteer-led community event. The application for a Focused Opportunity Grant must align with one of the Foundation’s target outcomes listed under the appropriate Focus Area. As with all Foundation funding, priority is given to those projects that aim to improve the lives of those being served, with a particular focus on those who are least advantaged. Grant funds can only be used to support the program or project described in an approved application. In addition, the Foundation is more interested in the outcomes of the grant we make rather than the project’s activities. Foundation staff is available to help applicants identify potential outcomes.