Capacity Building Grants
We believe that when capacity building is successful, it strengthens and improves an organization's ability to achieve its mission, sustain itself over time, and have a quantifiable impact on the community in which it serves.
The 2023 Capacity Building Grant process is closed. The 2024 Capacity Building Grant application will open on June 3, 2024.
Grant Award Budget: $100,000 (Award range from $5,000 to $10,000)
The Community Foundation of Greenville welcomes grant requests from established 501(c)(3) tax- exempt agencies (operating two or more years), located within and offering services to the residents of Greenville County, South Carolina.
The Foundation encourages grant requests that support an organization’s ability to establish and/or maintain a solid operating structure, and develop and sustain good governance practices. We believe that when capacity building is successful, it strengthens and improves an organization’s ability to achieve its mission, sustain itself over time, and have a quantifiable impact on the community in which it serves.
Capacity Building funding opportunities may include:
- Projects designed to improve an organization’s ability to monitor and/or respond to the needs of its clients and supporters
- Projects involving adoption of management innovation, process improvement and accountability
- Strategies to form collaborative ventures with public, private or other nonprofit institutions
- To support technology audits and analyses of information management systems
- Purchases of computers (hardware or software) or other equipment necessary to improve the organization’s ability to achieve its mission
- Efforts to diversify the organization’s revenue streams
Examples of Capacity Building include:
- Organizational assessment
- Strategic and long-range planning
- Program evaluation and planning
- Developing marketing plans
- Mergers/collaboration
- Feasibility studies
Click here to see a list of past grant recipients.
The Community Foundation will follow these guidelines in evaluating grant requests:
Thoroughly review the requesting organization’s ability to succeed, including evaluation of its budget, Board of Directors, staffing capability, and experience
- Evaluate each request carefully to ensure that projects do not overlap and services are not duplicated
- Require post-grant evaluation to determine whether the funded project met outlined objective
- We will not make grants to individuals
- We will not fund tuition for degree programs, fees and other costs to attend conferences, capital campaigns, campaign consultants (other than initial feasibility study), recurring staff or board training expenses, additional staffing positions, and endowments
Foundation News
Community Foundation of Greenville grants $150,000 to local nonprofits
Over $1 million has been awarded in Capacity Building Grants since 2014
Read More