The Kinsman Foundation

Armory Windows Chintimini Wildlife Center beaver

Applying for a Grant

Potential applicants should visit these areas of our website before deciding to initiate the application process:

Beginning January 2010, applicants may initiate and complete online grant applications from a grant application portal on this website. Using this software is optional, and applicants may continue the traditional application process described on this page or any combination that best fits their needs.

Applicants not using the online application portal should initially mail, email or fax a Letter of Inquiry, which should include:

  1. Something describing your organization: a brief narrative statement, a brochure, a reference to a website.
  2. A narrative statement (or otherwise) describing the project you are proposing for funding.
  3. A timeline for the project including your planned starting and completion dates for both fundraising and the project.
  4. A budget for your project identifying each foundation, corporation or government contribution, whether planned or committed. Include other sources of income, such as individual gifts, sales, or admission fees. Be sure to separately show the amount of funding sought from The Kinsman Foundation. Summarize how funds will be spent.
  5. Contact information for the principal person in your organization we should reach regarding your grant request.
  6. A description of how you will measure the success of the project.

A typical Letter of Inquiry is one or two pages – enough to give our decision-makers a general overview of your request. We’ll ask for additional information if it’s appropriate. Our Directors typically will make some independent inquiry about your request, either on the web or otherwise.

After initial staff review, each member of our Board will read your Letter. Staff and Board review is likely to take six weeks or more. Staff members will determine a consensus of the Board’s opinion and contact you with information.

If we invite you to proceed with the grant process, we will want to have:

  1. A copy of your most recent IRS tax-exempt determination letter or other documentation of your IRS exempt charity status.
  2. The names and contact information of your current directors, trustees, or other governing body. We may contact these individuals to ask about the proposal or your organization.
  3. Copies of basic financial records of your organization, your current and your most recent yearly financial statement or records. Your tax returns are not always available to us online, and we may ask you for copies.
  4. Updated or detailed project information including changed conditions, fundraising progress, adjusted budgets or modified timelines. Include detailed information about planned expenditures.
  5. Your plans to administer, maintain or sustain the project after current fundraising is completed.

If you have completed a common grant application such as the one adopted by Philanthropy Northwest, or if the information we ask for is available in some other document or format, you may substitute or submit the information in the alternative form.

Foundation staff or Board members may request a site visit, or invite a grant presentation or interview at our office in Milwaukie. Site visits for performing arts and similar grants may include our asking for admission to an unticketed rehearsal, performance or showing of a work considered for funding. We believe this can provide unique information not only about the artwork itself, but also about your organization, the facilities it uses, and the people involved in it.

Unless you request to the contrary, we will not treat your grant inquiry as confidential information. We may discuss your organization or your inquiry with other funders, individuals identified in your application, outside experts, or other appropriate people in the community.

Our Board will make Small Grant Program decisions as soon as practicable, and our staff will notify applicants. Conventional grants are decided in September; distribution is scheduled for November.

The Foundation will negotiate a formal written Grant Agreement with applicants awarded a grant. You can see a sample copy of our standard Grant Agreement here.

Grantees will be asked to submit reports about grant activities and expenditures.

When we write to you, we’ll use email or standard USPS mail. We encourage you not to use certified mail or other restricted delivery mail, or courier services, except in exceptional circumstances. Although we’ve lost track of a few documents through the USPS, nobody yet has been put at a disadvantage because of it.