GRANT APPLICATION GUIDELINES

General Grant Guidelines

The Wyomissing Foundation’s grant making considers support for well managed nonprofit organizations that address significant critical community issues.

  • Organizations must be nonprofit and classified 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt by the Internal Revenue Service; in limited circumstances, the use of a fiscal agent is permissible;
  • As a general rule, the Foundation does not fund operating support on a sustained basis;
  • The Wyomissing Foundation is proactive in its grant making and looks to provide financial and leadership support to those critical community issues where the Foundation can make a difference;
  • Grant requests must fall within our general fields of interest, i.e., Arts and Culture, Environment, Education, Health and Human Services, Community Development, and Economic Development;
  • The requesting organization must provide evidence of the criticality of the issue and measurable indicators of how the grant will address the community issue;
  • Most grants are given for one-year; multi-year grants are given on an occasional basis;
  • Normally, only one grant is made to an organization in a 12-month period;
  • The Wyomissing Foundation should not be the only funding source for an organization or project.

Proposals that are not generally considered include:

  • Requests for endowments;
  • Operating funds on a sustaining basis;
  • Funds for individuals, social or fraternal organizations or profit-making enterprises;
  • Purchase of tickets, tables, advertisements or sponsorships;
  • Parties, conferences, fairs or festivals;
  • Animal rights programs;
  • Those activities that would jeopardize the Foundation’s charitable status.

We remind grant seekers that The Wyomissing Foundation is able to fund only a small percentage of the requests we receive. We, therefore, encourage grant seekers to carefully review our guidelines before applying for funding. We are unable to fund many proposals because they do not fall as high within our priorities as other requests that are submitted to us.