Frequently Asked Questions - Responsive Grants

We typically do not meet with applicants before a proposal is submitted because our program staff isn't large enough to accommodate the number of requests we receive. However, program officers will briefly discuss your proposal idea over the phone or by email. We've developed a special form where you can submit these kinds of questions.

We want you to know that you do not have to be "known" by us for your proposal to receive a full and fair consideration, nor do you need to personally meet with a staff member or trustee. If our trustees approve an Initial Inquiry and invite a full proposal, then we nearly always meet with the applicant at a site visit.

It is not necessary to meet directly or "lobby" trustees. Trustees receive thorough written information about your organization, the proposed project, and the context of the request. All eligible proposals are presented to trustees and they consider each project on its own merits. The vast majority of funded proposals do not involve direct contact with trustees.

If, after reviewing the application guidelines and the Help Desk on our website, you still have specific questions about how to respond to our guidelines, we encourage you to call or email us.

You might be interested in reading the very interesting conversation we had several years ago when we raised the question of meetings on our blog.

No. Proposals submitted to MMT should be strategic, well planned, and reflect your organization's top priority for funding. Your organization's leadership can best judge what your organization most needs. If your proposal reflects strategic thinking and sound planning, it will receive fair and serious consideration.

You should be thoughtful about the amount of money you request from MMT and be able to explain your need. Remember that MMT nearly always prefers to be one of several funders of a project and almost never provides 100% of a project's funding. Look through our list of recent grants for similar projects in our Awards Database to get a sense of the amounts we have recently granted for similar projects.

All initial inquiries that are received by the 15th of each month are reviewed by the program officers, who identify questions, strengths, concerns, etc. of each proposal. Summaries of the proposals written by program officers go to the trustees at their next month's meeting, where they decide which applications will be investigated further. Applicants are notified of the decision by email right away. Applicants whose inquiries move to further study are invited to submit a full proposal. They generally have six weeks from the date of notification to do so.

Those approved for further study are assigned to a program officer. After the proposal and supporting financial documentation is received, the program officer arranges a site visit. The purposes of the site visit are to establish a face-to-face relationship, view the organization and/or project "in person," follow up on questions the trustees may have at the final review, and gather additional information as part of the due diligence process. The timing of the site visit depends on the program officer's workload and MMT's internal calendar. Within a month or two of the site visit, the program officer submits a summary report to the trustees. At their next meeting, the trustees discuss the proposal and make a decision about whether to fund it. Applicants are usually notified of the decision by phone or email within a day of the trustee meeting.

The average time for a final grant decision is about six months from the time the initial inquiry is submitted. The exception is capital requests over $200,000, which are reviewed twice a year in May and November.

We want to be careful investors of MMT resources and look for projects that best address significant community needs. By far the most common reason for a decline is insufficient planning, indicating to our trustees that an organization is not ready for a MMT grant. Prior to submitting a grant application to MMT, your organization's staff and board should have tools and a roadmap in place, such as a strategic or business plan, multi-year income and expense projections, identified outcomes, and a fundraising plan. Other common reasons for decline include few or no funds raised locally for the project and inadequate sustainability plans. Please refer to the What We Look For section of this website to help you identify things we look for in a strong proposal.

MMT generally makes grants over one- or two-year periods, and in rare cases, three-year periods. Multi-year grants are most useful when a project needs a few years to get fully established or for organizational capacity building grants. Generally, multi-year grants are set up with declining amounts each year as other funds replace initial grant funds. It is crucial to demonstrate how you plan to sustain such a project.

We will work with an organization to structure a challenge or matching grant if it will help inspire others to give or increase the organization's ability to raise other funds for the project. While MMT capital grants are often awarded during a capital campaign, funds are not paid out until all other resources needed for the project are committed; therefore, organizations often use their MMT capital grants as challenge grants.

Applicants invited to submit a Responsive Grant full proposal are asked to provide current year financial statements (balance sheet and income statement) and financial statements for the three prior years (audited statements, if available). While we do not require an organization to provide audited financial statements, we would generally expect to see an audit for organizations with annual budgets of $500,000 or above.

Capital requests of $200,000 and under are handled in the same manner as other Responsive Grants requests. Initial Inquiries for more than $200,000 are considered by the trustees each month, but are presented for final action twice a year: in May and November. To allow time for first review and due diligence, Initial Inquiries must be submitted to MMT no later than November 15th for the May meeting and May 15th for the November meeting. Submitting your proposal prior to those dates helps us schedule due diligence most efficiently.

The only written rules about how often applicants may submit proposals are that an organization may not resubmit a declined proposal for at least 12 months from the date of decline and that we will only consider one proposal from an organization at a time.

That said, organizations should be thoughtful about how often to apply for a grant. A long-range plan can help an organization forecast its needs several years in advance. Plan to seek assistance from MMT when it is strategic to do so to accomplish a top organizational priority. Avoid applying to MMT for each project idea as it emerges. MMT also tends to favor organizations with diverse sources of support.

We fund special projects but also help good organizations become stronger through capacity-building support, bridge funding, and through funding general operating costs in the context of strategic proposals that advance organizational missions.

MMT can provide grant funding for nonprofit social benefit organizations that do advocacy and lobbying; however, IRS rules stipulate that MMT funds cannot be used specifically to fund lobbying activities, which include direct and grassroots communications on specific pieces of legislation or ballot measures. MMT can fund general advocacy activities (e.g., community organizing, issue education, etc.) as long as MMT funds are not used to advocate for or against specific pieces of legislation or ballot measures. Nonprofit organizations can actively advocate and lobby on issues related to their missions. The IRS has specific rules for nonprofit lobbying activities (as opposed to general advocacy) that nonprofits should be aware of and adhere to. For more information on nonprofit lobbying rules, contact the Alliance for Justice.

We do not have an explicit guideline defining "economically disadvantaged." Typical measures could include children who qualify for the national school "free or reduced price" lunch program or whose families have incomes at or below 200% of the most recent Federal poverty level. "Special needs populations" could include students with mental, emotional, or developmental disabilities, students deemed at risk by qualified educators, mental health or youth development professionals, or minority or immigrant children facing linguistic and cultural barriers.

One of the essential functions of a board is to give and/or raise funds. Outside funders, including MMT, expect board participation in annual giving and other fundraising efforts, albeit all board members may not participate at equal levels. Without board involvement in fundraising, a development officer will have limited impact and a capacity building effort aimed at increasing individual donations is unlikely to have much success. An interim step might be to apply for Grassroots Grants from Meyer Memorial Trust or another source to hire a consultant to work with the board on fundraising. (Always check references before hiring a consultant; refer to the advice in What We Look For in Technical Assistance Proposals for more information about working with consultants.)

Organizations that are not recognized as tax-exempt by the IRS are not eligible to apply to Meyer Memorial Trust. Such organizations cannot ask another, unrelated organization (especially if the missions are not aligned) to be its fiscal sponsor. This is considered “borrowing” another organization’s tax-exempt status and is not allowed. If a fiscal sponsor is indicated on an application, we will research how the organizations’ missions are aligned during the due diligence process, as well as confirm that the fiscal sponsor understands and agrees that it will be ultimately responsible for the use of funds and outcomes of the project.

Questions? If you have further questions about fiscal sponsorship and eligibility, please contact the grants administration department at grantsadmin [at] mmt [dot] org or 503-228-5512.

MMT does not allow the use of fiscal sponsors in the Grassroots Grants program, but we do allow them in the Responsive Grants program under the following conditions:

• The applicant organization is a tax-exempt charity that utilizes the services of another tax-exempt organization to manage its finances and/or payments. In this instance, indicate the sponsor organization name in the fiscal sponsor field of the Responsive Grants Inquiry application form. If a grant is awarded, both the grantee and the fiscal sponsor must sign the grant agreement indicating the responsibilities of each party.
• A project or program of a larger organization is requesting funding. If the program is an officially-adopted project of a larger organization, and/or the project is planning to spin off on its own but has not yet received its own tax-exempt status, the parent organization may apply directly to request funding for that project. In this instance, the parent organization is considered the grant applicant and is responsible for submitting the application, conducting the project, managing the finances, and reporting on the project.  

Recent examples of organizations deemed ineligible were a faith-based school that had in-class prayers and required students to attend church service as part of their school day. Another was a church-operated food pantry that included religious materials in food boxes.  

Those applicants would likely have been eligible if they did not require prayer or religious service attendance of students and did not include religious materials in food boxes, assuming they met other eligibility criteria.