1) Must be in one of the three eligible sectors for these Community Support funds: Arts and Culture, Environment, and Human Resources (a.k.a. health and human services). If an organization addresses multiple service areas, for the purpose of determining eligibility, the coalition chairs determine an organization’s primary focus area with final approval by the City. If not in one of the coalitions, see the Granting Procedures document linked below for other ways to request funding from the City.
2) Must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit or eligible public charity. If unsure about the eligibility of your category of organization, contact a coalition chair before applying.

Grant reviewers may consider turnover rates for key staff and board members; thoughtful policies for succession planning and term limits; each individual’s connection to the organization’s mission; a diversity of lived experience to provide a variety of perspectives; and appropriate numbers of people for the work at hand. The actual mix of people and policies will vary, but the committee’s overall impression should be one of stability and resilience.

Heavy reliance on a single funding source— whether a donor, a specific grant, an annual fundraiser, or service fees— raises questions about revenue stability when circumstances change. Each organization will have a different array of funding sources, so the committee will assess whether there is a history of consistent funding and an array of sources that provide diversified stability if one or more key funding sources were to change.

In addition to diversified funding sources (see above) two key concepts for nonprofit financial health are solvency and transparency:

• Solvency means cash reserves and/or liquid assets are appropriate relative to the budget. There should be no material concerns about the organization’s ability to meet its financial obligations. Best practices for nonprofit organizations recommend 3-9 months cash-on-hand, but understandably there may be reasons an organization has less or more than that amount, depending on timing or the unique circumstances. If your cash-on-hand is significantly higher or lower, please explain why in your application.
• Transparency can be demonstrated with clear, concise, internally consistent financial statements that are easy to interpret. Revenue, expenses, and assumptions should be clearly explained and, for programmatic grants, appropriate to the request.

• If your organization has received an audit within the past fiscal year, providing audited financials is always preferred.
• Your statement of financial position (balance sheet) includes both assets and liabilities as of a recent reporting date. If your organization has no assets or liabilities, this must be stated in the position document.
• Your statement of activity (profit and loss) includes, for the most recent full fiscal year, both your sources of revenue and your expense line items.

For Question #13 (not applicable for HRC), you will enter the numerical figure for the total expenses shown in the budget document you upload to Question #13a.
• Your uploaded budget must include both revenues and expenses for an entire fiscal year. A month-by-month cashflow report is not needed.
• It is recommended to provide a consolidated budget with categories for revenues and expenses such as “state grants,” “foundation grants,” “donations,” etc. Too many individual line items can be unhelpful to reviewers unless there are important details such as whether a specific funding source is secured or projected. Another example: if you receive multiple different state grants, listing them individually would indicate more funding diversity than a single “state grants” line item.
• Best practice is a balanced budget, meaning any discrepancy between total revenues and total expenses is clearly explained. For instance, a deficit might be funded by transferring funds from reserves. Or a surplus might be rolled forward to next year.