Let's check if you’re eligible
Your organization is eligible to apply for a grant from El Pomar Foundation if it matches this basic criteria. Be sure to review our full details and guidelines once you can confirm these three items.
- You are an active 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or government equivalent
- Your activities take place in Colorado
- If requesting capital support, your request may not exceed $100,000
- You have not received a grant within the past three years (three-year wait after a grant request is funded)
- You have not been declined for a grant in past year (one-year wait after a grant is declined)Â
Once you’ve determined you’re eligible, you'll need these things to apply:
- Name and address of the organization or government entity and contact information for the CEO/Executive Director
- A brief history of the organization, its mission, principal programs, and accomplishments
- Concise statements describing the following:
- Purpose of the request
- Amount requested
- Need for the project
- Specific solutions to be reached
- Expected contributions to the population served
- Criteria for measuring the success of the project
For program and capital requests, please also be prepared with:
- Detailed budget of the project, including revenues and expenses.
- A “support for the request” document, which includes committed, pledged, and pending support for the program or project. Include the names of the foundations, date received, and the amount received from each.
Be prepared to attach the following:
- Financials for the most recent three full fiscal years (three 12-month periods). While we prefer audited financial statements, we will accept a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet for each fiscal year instead. We cannot accept 990s.
- An organization budget for the current year, including revenues and expenses.
- A list of governing body members, such as board of directors.
- A statement of whether funding has been sought during the preceding three years from other foundations for support of your nonprofit organization overall and, if so, the names of the foundations, year received, and the amount received from each.
- If appropriate, endorsement of outside authorities and copies of regulatory agency approvals.
- Up to two graphics (photographs, architectural renderings, images from an existing publication, etc.) that portray the specific project or general operations of the organization.
Think you might be ready to apply? Here are more resources to help you prepare.
Once you’ve reviewed our Grants Overview and have a sense of what we fund and when applications are reviewed, and have also checked your eligibility and reviewed the materials you’ll need to gather to create an application, here are the next steps.Â
The toolkit includes a checklist of what you'll need to begin an application, as well as FAQ answers and links to helpful videos and other resources.Â
We make most grants through our competitive process, but also have individual funds with specific focus or geographic areas. Review each of our funds to determine what you are applying for. Â
Grant applications are submitted and managed online. You'll need to create an account in our grant portal (or log in to your existing account) to begin your application. You can save your work and return so it's not necessary to complete the application in one session.Â
We accept applications on a rolling basis, and our Trustees review them 4-6 times a year during Trustee meetings. There are no deadlines for applications, so we encourage you to apply at least 8-10 weeks prior to the Trustee meeting that best fits your grant request timing (meeting dates at right).
Still have questions?
Here are a few resources that might help.
Read our Grant Making Overview
You'll find information here about what we fund, what we don't fund, and key criteria for our grant program.
Search Grants
To get an even better understanding of grants we've made, in what locations, and at what funding level, you can search the past three years of this data using our grant search portal.
Contact Grant Office
Our Grants Office team is small, but mighty, and always happy to help however they can.