Common Grant Application

The Common Grant Application is an online grant application and management system that non-profit grantseekers may use to apply for and seek funds from non-profit grantmakers.

History

The Common Grant application was founded in early 2007 and is based in Santa Monica, CA.

As of August 1, 2008, the Common Grant Application Web site lists over 3,500 grantseekers and grantmakers.

Background

There are over 72,000 non-profit grantmaking foundations and over 1.7 million non-profit grantseeking organizations in the United States. The grantmaking foundations (consisting of independent foundations, community foundations, corporate foundations and operating foundations) granted over $42 billion in 2007. Grantseeking organizations typically must submit a written letter of inquiry and/or grant application to grantmaking organizations to be considered for, and receive grants. The grant writing process undertaken by a grantseeker varies depending on the grantmaker. A recent project undertaken by a collaboration of national grantmaker organizations (Project Streamline) found that current grant application and reporting practices create significant burdens on
the time, energy and ultimate effectiveness of non-profit grantmaking and grantseeking organizations.

The Common Grant Application is designed to reduce this burden for non-profit organizations. An analogous model is the the Common Application for college bound students. The purpose of the Common Grant Application is to simplify the grant seeking and grant management process by providing a single proposal or application format that can be used by a grantseeker during the grant writing process to apply to one or more grantmakers. The simplest and oldest form of a grant application is a paper-based grant proposal or grant application from grantseekers to a grantmakers. The paper-based system is now being replaced in some instances, by online-based grant applications that allow grantseekers to apply to grantmakers.

Most common grant applications ask for a set of organizational and program / project information that is of interest to and will be accepted by all members of a grantmaker group or community. The typical organizational informational asked for in a grant application consists of: contact information, tax identification number, non-profit () status, year established, staff, budget, mission, history, names and titles of key staff. The typical program or project information asked for in a grant application consists of: name, amount and type of funding requested, description, goals and objectives, activities that will be performed, outcomes, staff, budget, and geographic location. Since grantmaker interests and grantmaking approaches can be very different, most common grant applications also offer the opportunity to provide additional or supplemental information that may be required by individual members of the grantmaker group or community.

Other common grant applications

Other common grant applications have been generally designed and created by groups or communities of grantmakers, either with common funding (e.g. arts, education) or geographic (e.g. Pacific Northwest, New England) interests. Grantmakers may be members of ad-hoc groups, or members of formal organizations such as a national associations of grantmakers (e.g. Forum of Regional Association of Grantmakers ) or regional associations of grantmakers (e.g. Delaware Valley Grantmakers , San Diego Grantmakers ). Many other regional common grant applications are listed at the Foundation Center and the Forum of Regional Association of Grantmakers .

Notes and references

Further Reading

"2007 Grantmakers Information Technology Survey Report". Technology Affinity Group, Council on Foundations, 2007.

Bearman, Jessica. "Project Streamline: Drowning in Paperwork, Distracted from Purpose." a collaborative initiative of the Grants Managers Network, 2008.

Brest, Paul. "Creating an Online Information Marketplace for Giving." The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation 2006 Annual Report.
Menlo Park, California: The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 2007.

Cohen, Rick. "A Call to Action: Organizing to Increase the Effectiveness and Impact of Foundation Grantmaking." Washington, D.C.:
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 2007.

Eakin, Lynn. "We Can’t Afford to do Business This Way: A Study of the Administrative Burden Resulting from Funder Accountability and
Compliance Practices." Toronto: Wellesley Institute, 2007.

The Forbes Funds. "The Cost of Meeting Compliance: A Case Study of Challenges, Time Investments, and Dollars Spent."
Tropman Reports, Volume 4: Number 1. Pittsburgh, PA: The Forbes Funds, 2005.

Lara-Cinisomo, Sandraluz and Paul Steinberg. "The Cost of Meeting Funder Compliance: A Case Study of Challenges, Time Spent and
Dollars Invested." Santa Monica, CA: The Rand Corporation, 2006.

Ni, Perla. "Opinion Blog Entries: Common App, Please." April 11, 2007.

Schneiderman, Martin. "Potential of Creating a Centralized Repository of Information on Non-U.S. Based NGOs. Findings and Recommendations." Princeton, NJ:
Information Age Associates, 2006.

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