Mimi Washington Starrett Foundation

January 2025 Grantmaking Guidelines

The Mimi Washington Starrett Foundation’s primary objective is to provide grants to facilitate opportunities for nonprofit organizations to achieve their goals.

Please submit a grant application that represents your organization well and aligns with our areas of interest. Feel free to share one that you have previously submitted to the MWS Foundation with updated information, used to apply to another funder, or the NJ and NY Common Application. Please ensure all required information specific to this grant cycle is present in the application or as an addendum.

Our discretionary grantmaking is informed by the following criteria in alignment with our mission:

· Applicants must be incorporated as 501(c)(3) organizations.

· Applicants must serve the greater Morris County, NJ area.

· Applicants must submit all required information and documentation in the online application submission, including:

1. EIN Number

2. Leadership contact Information

3. List of Board of Trustees, education, business background, and other affiliations

4. Most recent Form 990

5. 2 years of your most recent financial statements, preferably audited by an independent source; if your organization does not have audited financial statements, we will accept financial statements reviewed by an independent accountant.

6. Operating revenue and expense budget for the current fiscal year and actual revenue and expense budget for the prior fiscal year; for organizations part of a national or state affiliate, provide these budgets for the local affiliate requesting support.

7. Anticipated revenue and expense budget, with the balance of funding required in addition to MWSF funding, for project-specific requests

8. List of all sources of income and amounts toward the project, actual and prospective

9. Grant request narrative; feel free to share one that you’ve used to apply to another funder, if it represents your organization well, and reflects our mission and funding interests.

Grant applications must fall within the below Areas of Interest:

Education Equitable access to educational opportunities

Community Services  Cognitive disability support; community wellness; health services; local economic development; public legal services; veterans’ affairs

We do not offer grants to:

· Organizations that are not classified as 501(c)(3) public charities by the Internal Revenue Service

· Organizations that cannot demonstrate an active nondiscrimination policy for employees and services

· Individuals

· Loans

· General fundraising benefits and events

· Endowment campaigns

· Research unless it contains an explicit and practical application or outcome

· Support candidates for political office or to lobby in support of or against legislation or any political action

· Religious organizations and activities, with the exception of grants related to the aforementioned areas of interest
 

Process & Timeline

The application portal on Submittable will be open from January 1, 2025, 8:00am until January 31, 2025, 11:59pm. After that, no applications will be accepted during the current grant cycle. Once an application has been submitted, no changes will be accepted. If the reviewer has questions regarding your application, they will contact you for clarification or further information.

If there is more than one person involved in completing the application, you may collaborate using different usernames within your organization's Submittable account. Please note, there are program limitations on multiple people working on the application simultaneously.

You will receive email confirmation when your application has been submitted. Applications will be reviewed through April 2025. Those applications requiring a site visit will be contacted by the end of March 2025. The objective of a site visit is to address any final questions so the final evaluation may be fully informed and complete.

By May 13, 2025, recommendations for grant awards will be made to the Mimi Washington Starrett Board of Trustees for review and discussion. Final decisions on all applications will be made by June 1, 2025. All applicants will be notified of the decision regarding their application by June 15, 2025.

If you are notified that your application did not receive a grant, we encourage you to remain in touch with the Mimi Washington Starrett Foundation through our website to learn about future grant and beyond grantmaking opportunities.

If your application is awarded a grant, you will receive a Grant Agreement. You can expect to work closely with the Mimi Washington Starrett Foundation to outline the terms of the agreement, the terms of awarding the funds, and next steps to take together.

Communication Expectations

If you have questions throughout your application process, you may email them to mimi@mwstarrettfoundation.org and can expect a response within 24 business hours. If your question pertains to the actual online form, please contact Submittable using the “help” button on the application page.

Funding timeline

Grant awards are typically awarded in full upon receipt of the signed grant agreement. The MWSF Board may use their discretion to distribute funds in part throughout the life of the grant project, as goals or objectives are met and reported upon as outlined in the Grant Agreement.