Please include the following in applications for grants serving New York City.

1. A brief cover letter on the organization’s letterhead signed by the paid staff head or designee confirming the organizational commitment to the project.

2. A narrative proposal (no more than 10 numbered pages) that includes:

• • A description of your agency’s background (mission, major activities, and credentials for carrying out the project).
  • A brief statement of the public policy or systemic service delivery problem you seek to address.
  • A description of your plans to address the problem, including the project’s:
    • goals and objectives.
    • planned activities, including who will benefit and how policies, systems, or services will improve.
    • expected outcomes and plan for measuring results.
  • For requests for renewed Trust funding, progress made with earlier Trust support.
  • A brief statement of how the project will be sustained after The Trust’s support ends.

The narrative need not address the topics in order, or even one at a time.  Rather, the narrative should make a compelling case for the needed changes, how the proposed activities will lead to the desired change, and why your agency is prepared to carry out the project.

3. An itemized project budget that reflects the full costs of carrying out the project (as opposed to just the amount requested from The Trust). The budget should also list other pending and/or confirmed income to support the project and any in-kind contributions. Please round up to the nearest thousand for all line items in the project budget.

4. Your current year’s annual operating budget and, for arts and culture groups only, actual income and expenses for the most recently completed fiscal year.

5.  A list of your board of directors, including affiliations. The Trust generally requires a board to have at least four members (we prefer at least five). All board members should be unrelated, and no more than one board member should be paid, typically the paid staff head.

Note: For grants to universities, hospitals, academic medical centers, and affiliated nonprofit fiscal sponsors (e.g., research foundations affiliated with fundraising vehicles of government agencies), overhead costs for grant administration may not exceed five percent of the total project budget. Administrative costs related to carrying out the proposed grant activities, including space, materials and supplies, and technology for project staff, are not subject to the five percent limit and should be identified separately in the proposed itemized project budget.

For additional information, please contact Liza Lagunoff at [email protected].