CFGF makes most competitive grants to organizations that are classified as publicly supported charities in the Internal Revenue Service Code, Section 170(b)(1)(A), and includes schools and universities, churches, synagogues and mosques, and governmental entities.

Under certain circumstances, grants are made to private charities, supporting organizations, and non-charities. Organizations applying for competitive grants must give evidence of non-discrimination in hiring and providing services.

  • Grant requests must have direct relevance to the residents of Genesee County. If a request includes activity outside of Genesee County, the majority of activity must be within Genesee County.
  • Grants for sectarian religious purposes or any religious activities are not eligible.
  • Grants will not be made for loans, debt reduction, or annual appeals.

We generally make one-time grant commitments. Longer-term commitments may be considered for initiatives that show exceptional promise for community impact. We are especially interested in programs that involve partnerships, coordinate services, and generate collaborative efforts.

How to Apply

The first step in the competitive grant application process is a pre-application conversation with a program officer. This interchange of information serves as an opportunity for you to inform the Community Foundation about your organization’s needs, outline your project, and ask clarifying questions.

Following your conversation with a program officer, you will submit a grant application through our online portal. We have streamlined the grant application process to reduce paperwork and increase transparency. Through the online portal, nonprofits can complete the grant application, submit supporting materials, check the status of applications, communicate directly with the Community Foundation, and submit required grant reports.

To learn more about our grant programs and application process, view the recording of our 2024 Grant Information Session or download the presentation.

Grant Deadlines

To better serve our community, we have established grant deadlines with specific application deadlines and decision timelines to better communicate our grantmaking process. These cycles will provide clarity regarding the grant process and will help applicant organizations better time submissions to meet the expressed need.

Most CFGF grant programs use the general grant application and budget forms for funding requests. You may use these to draft your application prior to submission; however, we will only accept applications submitted through our online system.

September 1 Deadline (decisions expected by November/December):

Supports programs and services with the greatest impact on the long-term health and development needs of Flint children.