Tips for Completing Your Application

Completing Your Application:

Our new online portal makes applying easier than ever. The questions included in the new online application are consistent with what we have asked in the past, but the new format will allow you to work on your request over time, automatically saving your work for you throughout the application process.

Please pay special attention to due dates and refer back to your account often to make sure you know what stage your request is at.

1. Project Details:

Whether you are talking about your agency or your project/program plans, please assume that we know nothing about your organization or your work.

We ask you to start this section with basic facts. The Program Title, Amount Requesting, Program Budget, Start Date/End Date, and Hours of Operation.  Each question has an Instruction section that will further explain what we are seeking.

2. Agency Details:

Tell us a little more about your agency. We seek candid answers explaining where you are headed and how you plan to handle challenges as they arise. The data requested in this section should come directly from your 501c3 determination letter, your Profit & Loss and Balance Sheets, and your program budget.

Present a clear picture of where you are headed and how you plan to address any obstacles you may face when responding.

3. Financial Details:

The answers to the first section should come directly from your Financial Statements, Profit & Loss and Balance Sheets. Please consult your agency’s financial team, accountant, or treasurer if necessary

We appreciate not being your only source of funding. We want to know if you are actively fundraising and how many other grants you have secured, committed, or applied for.

4. Demographic Details:

Please tell us more about who and how many local residents your project/program is affecting. The Foundation focuses on projects and programs that benefit Niagara County residents. We have a heightened focus on those in Eastern Niagara County.  We are open to programs in WNY only if they are not duplicated within Niagara County.

While the Foundation is interested in funding programs that serve a diverse population within Niagara County, we believe our agencies do a great job of this. Answering this question would be helpful for our data collection but is not required. If you have submitted this data through other Foundations, we will accept those findings.

5. Community Impact:

The Foundation measures the impact of our grant funds and will ask you to report on them in your Follow-up report. Please take the time to think this through when creating your goals and how you will show impact.

6. Supplemental Documents:

Please upload copies of all documents requested and optional documents if they pertain to your request.

7. Final Steps:

This section allows our applicants to add anything that could help explain your project or program but wasn’t covered in the earlier questions. It is not required, and you are not penalized if you leave this section blank.