Inquiries

Inquiries to determine eligibility must precede submission of a full proposal. Please call the foundation office, (607) 722-2266, or submit a brief written inquiry by email (KleeFoundation@stny.rr.com) or USPS. For most proposals, a meeting of agency representatives with Klee staff is required and must occur no later than one week prior to submission deadline. The Foundation will provide assistance to qualified organizations in the preparation of grant proposals.

Schedule

Grants will be considered at meetings in the spring and in the fall. Proposals should be submitted according to published deadlines (see below for 2010 dates), available at the beginning of each calendar year. With Foundation approval, on a limited basis, grants may be considered at other meetings. Please call the Foundation office for more information.

Applying Organization

All proposals should include the following information about the applying organization, the project, and the finances for the project:
• Proposal cover sheet summary form*
Board members recognize that you’re under the stress of reduced resources and uncertainty. Acknowledging this challenge, we request that your proposal include a description of what you and your board are doing to respond by answering the following in a narrative of one page or less. We know these are tough questions, but these are undeniably tough times. Business as usual is not an option for most organizations. Klee board members look very closely at these issues in making their funding decisions.

1. What will be different about how you operate during 2010?
2. What steps are you taking to reduce expenses and/or increase revenue?
3. What alternatives are you considering? For example, has your board re-examined your core mission and considered restructuring in any way? Has the need for any part of your programs changed significantly enough to consider its elimination?
4. With what degree of certainty does your board believe that the agency is sustainable over the next 2-3 years? Based on what?

• Board information form to be filled out by board officer**
• Copy of letter from Internal Revenue Service recognizing charitable tax exempt status (If submitted within last 3 years, may substitute signed statement that status hasn’t changed)
• Most recent audited financial statements (bound, and including management letter)
• Operational budget for current fiscal year (including YTD), showing prior year budgeted and actual figures
• Current list of Board of Directors and/or Advisory Board, showing affiliations of members
• Copy of most recent Annual Report
• Bylaws (If bylaws have not changed since last submitted to Klee, simply note that)
• Organizational chart
• Copy of most recent form 990 filed (if most recent is available on Guidestar, simply note that)
• Additional information as requested

Special Project Grants
PLEASE NOTE: WE WILL NOT BE CONSIDERING SPECIAL PROJECT GRANTS DURING 2009 or 2010.  HOWEVER, WE WILL CONTINUE TO PUBLISH THE GUIDELINES FOR YOUR INFORMATION.
In addition to the above documents, a narrative portion is required. Guidelines for the narrative and additional documents will be provided to applicants approved for submission.  If approved, the following will be required as part of the submission. 

• Brief (1-2 pp.) narrative that answers the following:

1. What is the need [in the community] that will be met by the proposed project?
2. What are the agency’s plans for implementing the project?
3. How will the agency evaluate the project’s success?  What tools and benchmarks will be used? What measurable goals are built into the plan for the project?

• Job descriptions and qualifications for personnel responsible for project
• Copy of budget for project, showing breakout of expenses, earned and contributed income
• List of all sources from whom funds have been or will be sought, and responses to date

An organization applying for project support should be able to demonstrate the probability of future ongoing funding from other sources to replace any funding the Foundation might provide in the current year.

An agency may not apply annually for a special grant, nor while it has a prior special grant open.

* Request from Foundation office         
** Board Information form can be found here

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Note: all applicants must speak with staff before submitting a grant proposal. Those agencies applying for special project grants will need to schedule a meeting with staff before applying. See guidelines.

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