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Grant guidelines
The Foundation has designed its process to impose the least possible cost on prospective applicants. Where any part of that process proves burdensome, we regard it as a deficiency on our side and welcome being told so.
Grant types
The Foundation's principal instrument. Unrestricted, typically committed for three years, and accompanied by an additional ten percent capacity allowance directed at the partner's discretion.
Two cycles annually, closing 15 April and 15 October. Determination within eight weeks.
Rolling and unrestricted, available to organizations operating in Greenville County and the contiguous Upstate. A single paragraph constitutes a complete application. Established to provide first institutional funding.
No deadline. Determination within three weeks. Greater Greenville only.
For circumstances that cannot reasonably be anticipated within an annual budget. Available to organizations with no prior relationship to the Foundation as well as to current and former partners.
Rolling. Determination within ten days. No reporting required.
Awards above $150,000 annually over terms of four to seven years, extended to a limited number of organizations in which the Foundation has become a structural funder. These are not open to application and arise from established multi-year relationships.
Eleven active commitments. The Foundation adds approximately one each year.
Eligibility
Organizations meeting both are invited to apply. Organizations uncertain of either are invited to apply regardless and to allow the Foundation to make the determination.
The Foundation applies no minimum budget threshold, no minimum operating history, no audit requirement and no board composition requirement. The smallest organization funded in fiscal 2025 operated on an annual budget of $34,000 with two part-time staff.
Cycle dates
Process
One page describing the organization, its work, the purpose the funding would serve and the approximate amount sought. No attachments, budgets or supporting letters are required at this stage.
The Foundation responds with an approval to proceed, a decline or a request for clarification. Declines state the specific basis for the decision and indicate whether reapplication is warranted.
Approximately one hour, conducted at the organization's premises where practicable. The Foundation asks to meet the staff conducting the work rather than executive leadership alone, and enquires specifically about operational continuity.
Foundation staff draft the internal case from the conversation and the organization's financial statements, and submit the draft to the applicant for correction before it is presented to the Board.
Trustees vote at the quarterly meeting. Applicants are notified within two business days and funds are disbursed within ten. Multi-year commitments renew automatically on the anniversary date.
Frequent inquiries
An applicant must hold its own determination letter or operate under a fiscal sponsor that does. The Foundation funds fiscally sponsored projects routinely and sponsorship has never been treated as a deficiency. Organizations currently in formation are encouraged to apply through the Open Upstate Fund and to indicate their status in the inquiry.
The letter of inquiry is one page. Applicants invited to proceed complete a full application consisting of four questions together with the organization's most recent financial statements in whatever form they are maintained. The Foundation does not request logic models, theories of change, strategic plans or presentation materials at any stage of its process.
In fiscal 2025 the Foundation received 612 letters of inquiry and made 118 awards, a rate of approximately one in five. The Open Upstate Fund operates at a materially higher rate of approximately one in three, principally because fewer organizations are aware of it. Rapid response requests are approved in approximately 85 percent of cases.
Yes, and it prefers to. Seventy-one percent of grant dollars carry no project restriction. Where the most productive application of an award is staff compensation, benefits or premises, the Foundation regards that as a satisfactory outcome requiring no prior approval.
In most circumstances, yes. Approximately 30 percent of currently funded organizations were declined at least once before receiving an award. Decline letters state the specific basis for the decision and indicate whether reapplication is warranted. Where a letter advises against reapplying, that guidance is substantive rather than formal.
Letters of inquiry receive a determination within three weeks. Full applications are decided within eight weeks of the cycle closing. Funds are disbursed within ten business days of the Board vote, as a single installment in the first year and on the anniversary date thereafter. Multi-year commitments require no further action by the recipient.
One conversation annually, conducted at the partner's premises or by telephone and scheduled at the partner's convenience. Foundation staff prepare the resulting report and submit it to the partner for correction. No partner produces documentation on the Foundation's behalf. Where a funded program has encountered difficulty, the Foundation asks to be informed early and does not recover funds on that basis.
Yes. An Open Upstate award does not preclude application to the principal cycle, and rapid response awards are not counted against any other allocation. The Foundation will not, however, hold two concurrent multi-year general operating commitments with a single organization, as the resulting concentration is not in the interest of either party.
No. This is the most frequent inquiry the Foundation receives and the position has not changed. Work of demonstrable merit outside the five regions remains outside the Foundation's scope, and a foundation of this size that admits exceptions forfeits the concentration on which its effectiveness depends. Staff are glad to suggest funders active in other geographies.
Yes, and the Foundation encourages it. All inquiries are read by the professional staff, and both founders review every letter of inquiry originating in the Upstate. Organizations in the Upstate may attend the monthly consultation sessions without appointment, which resolve most eligibility questions in a single conversation.
Letters of inquiry
The Foundation does not operate an online application portal and does not accept applications submitted through third-party grant platforms.
Letters of inquiry are received in writing and are read by the professional staff. A letter should extend to no more than a single page and should describe the organization, the work it conducts, the purpose the funding would serve and the approximate amount sought. Attachments, budgets and supporting letters are neither required nor reviewed at this stage.
Organizations operating in the Upstate may raise an inquiry in person at the Foundation's monthly consultation sessions, held on the first Tuesday of each month. No appointment is required and no presentation is expected.
The Foundation responds to every letter it receives within three weeks, and responds to each with a determination rather than an acknowledgment.