Rise 2014 Collaborative Grant Opportunity
Rise’s mission is to work in partnership with community-based and other organizations to redevelop and strengthen neighborhoods and communities. By providing capacity-building assistance, housing development services and access to financing, we make the connections between non-profit community organizations, financial institutions and government that make successful neighborhood revitalization possible. Our CDC Capacity Building and Collaborative Grant Program is designed to build the capacity of local community development corporations (CDCs) through a combination of organizational development initiatives and financial support.
Rise recognizes that the financial support necessary for CDCs to build organizational capacity and achieve community development goals is not as widely available as it might be. To address this need, we have allocated funding in 2014 to provide a limited number of competitive Collaborative Grants to selected community development corporations. Collaborative Grants will be outcome-based and awarded to help CDCs complete a specific goal or neighborhood objective.
Applications are being made available on a competitive basis to CDCs serving St. Louis County, the City of St. Louis, Madison County, IL and St. Clair County, IL.
A grant workshop for CDCs that may seek to apply for a 2014 Rise Collaborative Grant will be held Tuesday, October 8, 2013 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm at Harris Stowe State University. It is not required but it is strongly encouraged that eligible CDCs attend the workshop. Please contact Brian Hurd ([email protected]) to RSVP for the workshop.
Letters of Intent are due October 18, 2013.
Fully completed applications must be delivered to Rise by 4:00 PM Friday, November 22, 2013, 611 Olive, Suite 1641, St. Louis, MO 63101, attention Rick Bonasch ([email protected]) or Brian Hurd ([email protected]). Email submissions are encouraged.
Award announcements will be made Wednesday, December 18, 2013.
Grant Instructions & Application Forms
Collaborative Grant Application Instructions 2014
Collaborative Grant Letter of Intent Form 2014
Collaborative Grant Program Application Form 2014
Training Workshop Materials
Collaborative Grant Training Workshop 2014 – Announcement
Collaborative Grant Training Workshop 2014 – Presentation Slides
Grant Frequently Asked Questions
Please submit all grant questions to Rick Bonasch – [email protected] by October 15, 2013.
Question: If our Executive Director is not available to sign the Letter of Intent, will you accept a signature from another staff person?
Answer: For the Letter of Intent, applicants should utilize the form linked to above and fill in the appropriate answers. There is no signature required and the Letter of Intent form may be submitted via e-mail by the organization’s Executive Director, Board President, or the main contact person for the application (as listed in the Letter of Intent form).
Question: If we ask for the maximum amount of $20,000, is there a possibility of negotiating for a lesser amount if the funds are limited and you like our proposal?
Answer: Yes. If a strong proposal cannot be awarded the full request due to limited funds, Rise may choose to contact the applicant and offer to fund some portion of the request. That said, it is important that you base the amount of your grant request on a realistic assessment of the program’s expenses and revenues and that your itemized budget is consistent with your grant request. Please keep in mind that we anticipate that most grants awarded will be considerably less than the maximum of $20,000, and that we are looking for proposals that leverage Rise Collaborative Grant funds.
Question: In the letter of intent form, Question #2 reads: “Describe the critical community need(s) your organization is currently facing. Please address the following questions in your response.” However, there are no additional “sub-questions” listed. Is there anything else that should be included in Question #2? Are Question #3 and #4 totally separate?
Answer: The phrase “please address the following questions in your response” in Question #2 in the Letter of Intent form was included by mistake; please disregard it. To clarify, for Question #2, we ask that you describe the critical community need(s) that your organization is currently facing, and to limit your response to 100 words. Question #3 and Question #4 are separate questions and each have separate word counts.
Question: A consideration is being giving to partnering with a company who is not a non profit agency. CDC will be the lead agency. Is this allowable under the 2014 Collaborative Grant Program?
Answer: The lead applicant is required to be a 501(c)3 nonprofit CDC. Rise places no restrictions on co-applicants/collaborators. The role of the collaborator should be clear in the LOI/application. Funded activities must be consistent with advancing the placed based mission of the CDC.
Question: On the LOI form, questions 2 (community need), 3 (proposed activity and outcomes), and 4 (other sources of program support) have word limits for responses as follows: 100 words for question 2; 250 words for question 3; and, 250 words for question 4. Are those word limits to be per question?
Answer: Yes. Please limit your responses to 100 words on Question #2, 250 words on Question #3, and 250 words on Question #4.
Additional Resources
Below are links to materials from a Saint Louis University School of Law Legal Clinic training on collaboration in the non-profit sector. These materials are not a formal part of the Collaborative Grant application package, but may be useful to applicants.
