Grantmaking Guidelines and Principles
The Venice Endowment

1. The Foundation understands its fiduciary responsibility to only makes grants that will not impair its 501(c)(3) status. The Foundation makes the majority of its grants to nonprofit organizations classified as a 501(c) (3). In addition, grants may be made to government agencies, but in no case are grants made to individuals.

2. Grant awards from The Venice Endowment Fund will be based on the project merits as submitted in accordance with grantmaking cycles described in various Foundation publications.

3. Grant awards from The Venice Endowment Fund will be directed to projects that:

a) Serve persons living in southern Sarasota County, all of Englewood/Cape Haze, Boca Grande, and environs (organization headquarters may be located outside this geographic area).

b) Meet community issues and opportunities identified by the Foundation and/or credible assessments.

c) Identify additional sources of funding and/or effective fundraising plans.

d) Demonstrate strong support for the project’s continuation (if beneficial).

e) Are one-year, one-time in scope (multi-year grants may be awarded if the organization can clearly identify the longer-term prospects for success).

f) Enhance, expand, and/or improve, rather than simply continue, the organization’s ongoing operations, projects, or programs.

g) Embody cooperative efforts of two or more organizations where such synergy is likely to demonstrate superior results and/or lower costs.

h) Provide an unduplicated value and/or service.

4. The Foundation will normally entertain only one application per grant cycle from The Endowment Fund, per organization. However, a separate application may be submitted by the supporting organization, if it is a separate federally tax-exempt organization.

5. An organization must be in compliance with any previous grant reports and/or conditions in order to be eligible to submit an application.

6. An application from organizations that have received previous funding will only be considered if significant progress on the previous grant/s has been made and demonstrated to the Foundation.

7. These funds do not support endowments or endowed university chairs, debt reduction, basic scientific research, make loans, sponsor events, or fund travel.

8. In order to encourage community support, a grant application of $10,000 or under will normally require the firm commitment of a dollar-for-dollar match to the grant amount requested from the Foundation. In-kind contributions of time, labor, and/or equipment will not count towards this match.           

9. An application for $10,001 or over must include the organization’s most recent (within the last two years) financial statements and the accompanying attestation (audit or review) report that have been prepared by an independent certified public accountant, currently licensed in the State of Florida.

10. Grant awards from The Venice Endowment Fund may support projects by religious institutions provided the projects are principally non-religious in nature and not limited to members of the applicant’s institution or congregation.

11. In addition to the above, capital project funding guidelines include the following:

a)  “Capital” is defined as real estate, bricks and mortar (including new construction, remodeling, and acquiring an existing structure), and permanent fixtures added either to a structure or to real estate. Applications for capital projects may be made only through the two annual capital grant cycles (supersedes 4. above.)

b) To encourage green building practices, the Foundation will only award grants for new construction capital projects that, upon completion, are certified as green according to the most current Green Commercial Building Designation Standard of the Florida Green Building Coalition, Inc. (FGBC).

After a grant is awarded and the project has obtained FGBC green certification, the Foundation will additionally reimburse the grantee for the total FGBC project application fee, and up to $25,000 for planning and design activities directly attributed to building the capital project to FGBC green standards.

c) Capital project applications will be evaluated only against other capital projects.

d) Grant awards will be limited to a portion of the total project that demonstrates the Foundation’s commitment and also strongly encourages meaningful community giving in support of the project.

e) A capital project may be applied for in phases if the benefit of phasing a project is clearly described.

f) For a capital project of $20,001 and over, it is strongly recommended that the application include the following:

(1) A detailed fundraising plan (template available here)
(2) A detailed critical event timeline (template available here)
(3) A description of the phase (if applicable) for which funding is being requested

12. In its role as a community catalyst, the Foundation also intends to periodically initiate proactive grants from The Venice Endowment Fund that address community-wide issues and opportunities.

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