Foundation Grant Agreement Template

“I can`t think of any circumstances in which we would demand reimbursement if an organization didn`t submit its required reports, but we could withhold future funding or the next instalment of a larger grant,” she says. “It`s a good question because it`s largely an organizational decision,” Simone says. “It will depend on what happened to the grant. Was it used for a trip to the Bahamas or was the scholarship used for another program? And what does the foundation think? “You don`t have to be complex,” says Kelly Shipp Simone, senior counsel with the Council on Foundations. “Simply documenting the name of the recipient, the amount of the grant and the purpose of the grant begins to make things clear for everyone. This is a special consideration for foundations and family funds that, like the Dyson Foundation, value their status as a caring family business but, as Gurieva puts it, understand “the difference between a grant and a gift.” “Your ability to enforce the grant agreement will vary,” Simone warns. “The clearer you are in the grant agreement, the more likely you are to be able to take action.” Many grant agreements have an additional provision: what happens if the terms of the grant agreement are violated? There are only the number of changes that an agreement can change before it is violated. The health of many relationships is determined by the quality of communication. Consider how accurately, consistently and fairly your fund communicates its expectations to its fellows.

Think about how a well-written grant agreement could help improve this communication and your grant relationships. For most of its fifty-year history, the Dyson Foundation has not used grant agreements. The family foundation based in Millbrook, New York, was concerned that the contractual agreements between the recipient and the fellow would make the foundation too formal and bureaucratic. “I think circumstances dictate the action in question,” she says. “If an organization did not use the funds as intended, it would strain the relationship between the foundation and the recipient. This could include recovering the money. “We now use grant agreements with all of our fellows,” she says. “We had fellows wondering why we hadn`t used them before. Strive for a grant agreement that addresses the unique dual nature of family philanthropy – commercial enough to clarify and communicate expectations and responsibilities, but not to the point of losing its true charitable character. Effective grant agreements include these building blocks: This month`s Family Giving News looks at creating an effective grant agreement: What should – and can`t – be included in it, and what options do you have if things don`t go as planned. It tells the story of a fellow who did not meet all the reporting requirements for a capital improvement grant.

When the recipient approached the Dyson Foundation for another grant, Dyson noted that it would not consider a new grant until all documents from the previous grant had been received. The recipient has submitted the required reports on the new improvements, and Dyson is considering the new grant at its next Board meeting. In addition to these basic elements, grant agreements can vary greatly depending on the nature and circumstances of the grant, covering issues such as evaluation, intellectual property and lobbying. (Note: This issue discusses traditional grant agreements with most public charities. There are very specific rules and regulations for grant agreements with certain support organizations [a particular type of public charity] and non-charities, such as a grant to a chamber of commerce for a not-for-profit program. There are specific requirements regarding what should be included in these grant agreements and what should happen if and when the terms of the agreement are violated. Please contact trusted legal counsel for more information on these grants.) Fellows can lobby with foundation funds in certain circumstances, and the blanket ban on many grant agreements is unnecessarily restrictive. “You don`t want to make a general support grant for a public charity too complicated,” simone says. “But there may be other problems that arise as subsidies become more specialized. If there are other expectations that come with the grant, it`s good to interpret that so that everyone is on the same page. “However, we`ve started using them with larger grants in recent years,” notes the foundation`s executive vice president, Diana Gurieva. .