• Grants to organizations that do not have a current 501(c)(3) determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service.
• Churches or other organized religious bodies.
• Grants to another organization that distributes money to recipients of its own selection, i.e. a regranting organization.
• Regional, national or international programs.
• Grants for research or studies.
• Grants for travel, conferences, conventions, group meetings, or seminars.
• The purchase of event tickets, tables, ads or sponsorships.
• Support to fairs and festivals.
• Religious or private schools.
• Request for funds to develop films, videos, books or other media projects.
• Direct mail campaigns.
• Loans of any kind.
• Grants to individuals.
• Grants to fraternal organizations.
• Political interests of any kind.
• Institutions that discriminate on the basis of race, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability or sexual orientation in policy or in practice.

The following are general policies followed by The George Foundation in making grants:

Proposal deadlines for making grant applications to the Foundation are January 15, April 15, July 15 and October 15 of each year. Within each quarter, grant requests will be presented to the Trustees on a monthly basis for determination. Grant staff cannot assure applicants the exact date in which an individual grant will be reviewed, but all grants are usually presented to the Trustees for review within the quarter they are submitted. Please note, if the submitted request is missing required information, the proposal could be deferred to the next scheduled grant review meeting.

All proposals for capital support will be grouped together for review. The deadline for capital proposals will be October 15 of each year. During the review process, grantees will receive ongoing status reports concerning their requests and notified in writing once the Trustees have reached a decision.

In seeking to leverage its grant making, the Foundation prefers to provide no more than 50% of the total budget for a program or project. This includes awards to new organizations or awards for new programming that is expected to become self-sufficient over time. In the event other sources commit partial or full support, The George Foundation should be notified promptly so that the grant staff has up-to-date information to present to the Trustees.

Grant requests must be in response to a documented community need not solely an organizational need.

All proposals submitted to the Foundation must come from the Board Chair or the Executive Director of the organization and not from development officers, department heads or other personnel within the organization.

All materials submitted with the proposal should be either copies of originals or other disposable forms. The Foundation does not return data submitted in support of a proposal.

All site visits are made at the request of the Foundation and are an integral part of the grant review process. During the review, grant staff will research the proposal and may request information by telephone inquires or meetings with agency staff, board, volunteers, and clients as necessary.

Any discussion or indication of interest prior to or after submission of a written application or site visit should not be construed as a commitment by the Foundation. The Trustees will consider each application on its own merit, and notification of Trustee approval or declination is always made in writing to an organization. The action of the Trustees on an application is final.

Grant funds are approved by the Foundation in accordance with the proposal and budget submitted with the request. Any changes or modifications to the request and/or the use of funds must be presented in writing to the Foundation for approval.

Grant staff monitor all grants and, in most cases, there will be a follow-up site visit by the grant staff after the grant award is made. In addition, progress reports and a final accounting of the use of grant funds are required for all grant recipients. If these reports are not received, further grants will not be considered until the organization is in compliance with the terms and conditions of the grant.

It is unusual for the Foundation to consider a grant application from the same applicant, whether granted or denied, more frequently than once in a twelve month period.

The Trustees of The George Foundation request that grant recipients refrain from using organizational resources to acknowledge grant funding from the Foundation with plaques or other purchased decorative items.

The Foundation considers it important to inform the public of the work of philanthropy and therefore encourages grant recipients to acknowledge publicly the support the Foundation gives to a grant project.

Please remember the Foundation is able to fund only a fraction of the proposals that come to our attention. In some cases, excellent proposals cannot be funded because of a limitation of funds or they are outside the Foundation's current priorities and interests.

• Leverages available resources by securing multiple funding partners rather than relying on the Foundation as a sole funder.
• Is an investment in the community rather than a charitable donation.
• Creates long-term value.
• Is not dependent on more than three years of funding from the Foundation to ensure the program's success and/or continuation.
• Does not duplicate, but identifies areas where there are gaps in services.
• Is with an organization that has no known governance issues.
• Is with an organization that is in compliance with the Foundation on all previous grants.
• Is not from an organization under advance ruling from the Internal Revenue Service.

• Program/Project Support
• Foundation Initiated
• General Operating
• Capital