Nonprofit Capacity Building

To be eligible for a Nonprofit Capacity Building grant, your organization must have an in progress profile on LIVEGIVEmidsouth. This profile must be published by the grant award date and maintained for the duration of the grant period. The LIVEGIVEmidsouth profile of eligible applicants demonstrates that the organization:

• Has operated as a 501(c)(3) agency for the last two consecutive years or longer
• Operates in the Community Foundation’s service area: west Tennessee, northern Mississippi, and/or eastern Arkansas
• Is permitted by the Tennessee Secretary of State to solicit funds
• Has the last two years of 990’s
• Has at least one paid staff member and stable, demonstrated board leadership
• Operates under sound financial management and is financially stable
• Provides significant community impact in, has solid relationships with, and reflects the makeup of the communities it serves

The following organizations are NOT eligible to apply for funding:

• Individuals, for-profit entities, private foundations, and religious organizations
• Organizations that received a Nonprofit Capacity Building grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis in the previous fiscal year

If awarded a Capacity Building grant, nonprofits are expected to raise funds to match the Community Foundation’s grant dollar-for-dollar. This requirement is intended to help the nonprofit leverage funds for the project by reaching out to new donors and funders. Organizations may use existing unrestricted funds that are not designated for other purposes. Policies for the match include:

• Nonprofits are expected to raise funds equal to the grant amount, and therefore the grant amount requested should not exceed 50% of the total project cost. For example, if the total budget for a project is $30,000, the nonprofit may only request a grant of up to $15,000 and must raise the additional $15,000 to complete the project.
• The entire match does not have to come from one source. The strategy for raising the match should be thought out before an application is submitted and in most cases a nonprofit’s board or development committee should be involved.
• No grant funds will be released from the Community Foundation until the nonprofit has raised 100% of the matching funds. The full match must be raised no later than nine months into the grant term. When the match has been raised, the nonprofit will complete a request for funds in the online grant portal, and the grant check will be processed in 2-4 weeks.
• Individual donor contributions towards the match should be received before submitting a request for funds. If another foundation is awarding funds towards the match, a grant letter is sufficient, but a verbal commitment is not.
• If the grant project is approved by our committee and is already being partially funded by another foundation, Nonprofit Capacity Building grant funds can be used to match the other grant. Additional matching funds would not have to be raised. Please be sure that Community Foundation staff is aware of the situation if this is the case with your grant proposal.

August – Attend a mandatory pre-application information session REGISTER HERE
September 3 – Application opens online in GranteeView
September 19 – Deadline to have LIVEGIVEmidsouth.org profile in progress OR updates to an existing profile
September 26 – Deadline to submit application online via GranteeView
October 18 – Applicants notified via e-mail whether they are invited to continue in the grant process by hosting a grant committee site visit
October, November – Grant committee site visits
December 15 – Applicants notified of funding decision via e-mail
January 1 – December 31, 2025 – Grant term

A complete application includes a submitted application through GranteeView, an in progress LIVEGIVEmidsouth.org profile with identified fields approved, and a line item project budget (including all project revenues and expenses). The project budget should be submitted along with the application through the Community Foundation’s online grant portal, GranteeView. Click here to access GranteeView.

All eligible applications are reviewed by a Community Foundation grant committee to determine which applicants are invited to move forward in the process and host a site visit. (If your organization is invited to host a site visit, further information and instructions will be provided upon notification.) Members of the committee then attend applicant site visits, before making funding recommendations to present to the Community Foundation’s Board of Governors.

Grants are awarded for a 12-month term, and all funds must be raised and spent by the end of that term.

The Strengthening Nonprofits Committee is composed of 26 members who reflect our community and/or serve on the Community Foundation’s Board of Governors. Committee members have significant nonprofit leadership experience, other deep industry experience, and/or are engaged donors to the foundation. A core value of our Community Investment Principles (see below) is inclusion. Therefore, it is expected that the membership of this committee goes beyond subject-matter experts to consider other parts of the community and other lived experiences that may be affected by the work of this committee and the Board of Governors. All members understand the grant requirements and are given a grant evaluation tool by which to guide their decision making.

All else being equal, the grant committee gives funding priority to the following.

Applications that:

• Demonstrate potential vendors, consultants, and/or products for the project have been thoroughly researched and identified
• Include a realistic timeline for completion and demonstrate that ongoing maintenance and/or costs have been accounted for, if applicable
• Show evidence of sufficient internal capacity to implement the project
• Include a clear, detailed, and feasible project budget
• Clearly define success for the project that can be easily communicated to stakeholders
• Outline a clear strategy for raising matching funds and how this grant can provide leverage to attract donors or serve as a final element to fully fund the project

Applicants that:

• Are BIPOC-led by an Executive Director or CEO of color
• Have a history of success in the community they serve
• Have stable revenues and expenses
• Can demonstrate appropriate diversity in board and staff leadership, specifically in ethnicity and gender

• 2024 Nonprofit Capacity Building Grant Guidelines
• 2024 Sample Application
• 2024 Sample Evaluation Tool
• Frequently asked questions about a LIVEGIVEmidsouth.org profile
• Instructions for registering on GranteeView, the Community Foundation’s grant portal
• Reimagining Capacity Building: Navigating Culture, Systems, and Power
• Tennessee Nonprofit Network, statewide nonprofit training and technical assistance
• TechImpact, for research on nonprofit technology products
• TechSoup, a nonprofit tech marketplace
• NTEN, an online information exchange for nonprofits

Organizations awarded a grant are required to check in with staff 12 months after the completion of the term and complete one grant report at 18 months to share the project’s short-term impact on the organization’s capacity. These and any other grant requirements are included in your organization’s grant contract.

Click to Login to GranteeView and submit written grant reports.

Once you have logged in, click on ‘Application Status & History’ in the portal’s navigation menu. Search for the application associated with your grant by updating the search date range to ‘Before [today’s date]’. Click on the associated application, and complete your reporting requirements listed in the Application Uploads table.

If the person who initially submitted your organization’s application is NOT who will be the best contact throughout the grant term, please notify Aerial Ozuzu, Director of Community Impact, at [email protected] or (901) 722-0022.