I missed the deadline and submitted my LOI/Application late. Now what?
- Your LOI/Application will be deferred and reviewed during the next cycle offered for that specific type of grant.
Does my LOI/Application have to be submitted through the Foundation’s online portal?
- Yes. We will only consider proposals submitted through our online portal.
Can I apply for multiple grants during the same funding cycle?
- Yes.
I submitted my LOI/Application via the online portal. How will I know that the Foundation received it?
- Upon submission, you’ll receive an email confirming Foundation receipt from the Smart Simple portal
I submitted my Letter of Intent. How will I know if the Foundation wants me to submit a full application?
- The Foundation will begin reviewing LOIs after each LOI deadline. If the Foundation wants you to submit a full application, you’ll receive an email stating that you’ve moved to the next phase of the funding process. In that email, you’ll be given a link to access the full application form.
If my LOI/Application is declined, will I be notified?
- Yes. All applicants will be notified (regardless of the outcome) via email at the end of the grant cycle.
When will I be notified about my Application and whether or not my proposal will receive funding?
- It usually takes the Foundation 2-5 weeks to complete the Application review process. Applicants will typically be notified of Application decisions within 3-7 weeks following the Application submission deadline.
My LOI/Application was rejected. Can you tell me why or offer feedback?
- We can offer general feedback about our grant process, but we don’t offer specific feedback about regarding your application score or comments from reviewers or board members. Often times, applications do not meet the criteria outlined in the RFP (please make sure to review prior to submission).
What is the scoring rubric for evaluating grants?
- Please see the attached rubric for a general sense of what our grant evaluators are looking for.
Can NHG funds, or grant funds generally, be used for staff salary roles?
Generally no. To be clear, we aren’t opposed to funds being used to help support people in roles BUT all our grants are designed to be executed over 1-3 years and to not be sustaining. So if a staff person is going to be hired leveraging a grant from us, we want to see clearly how that role will be sustained without the grant funding.
Can we work on policy and do advocacy as part of the grant?
Yes, although (1) applications that make this the primary focus will probably not be successful and (2) the advocacy can’t blur into politics or items that would otherwise conflict with our grant agreement. Most of our grants are focused on improving lives in the relative immediate term. We think the most power in advocacy comes from improving outcomes, using that improved set of outcomes to advocate to key stakeholders why they should sustain a better system, and then doing the work to improve the outcomes both through execution and through any policy changes needed. We tend not to fund policy first or policy only approaches. Not because they aren’t necessary sometimes, but rather because we aim to have our funds used to improve outcomes for people in the immediate term.