NEW: Geographic Restrictions
Comis Foundation has narrowed our geographic focus for more concentrated positive impact in the communities that are home to our Trustees:
- San Francisco Bay Area: San Francisco, Marin and Alameda Counties
- Colorado: Northern Front Range and solutions in early childhood education for rural & mountain communities
- Metro Washington, D.C.: those portions of Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia bounded by the inner loop of I-495 (inside the beltway)
Our focus on underserved children, under-resourced communities and creative, impactful services which give children the opportunity to thrive will continue in these three distinct regions.
Comis Foundation will also continue to fund a small number of organizations with national scope and reach.
Applications are by invitation only.
Review our procedures.
Letters of Inquiry
- If you are invited to submit a full grant application, deadlines and decisions will fall in 2Q (April/May) and 4Q (Oct/Nov)
Pilot and Proof of Concept: $5,000 – $25,000
- New programs within existing organizations, standalone new organizations just getting off the ground, or testing new approaches within a current scope
- Smaller-scale research or data collecting project or other similar short-duration investigations
- Timeframe is single-year; multi-year research or evaluation projects will not be considered under this program
Capacity Building and Innovation: $25,000 up to $75,000 per year
- Capacity building for organizations, including but not limited to staff professional development, strategic planning, leadership development, and supplemental expertise (e.g., communications)
- General operating support for innovative organizations. We consider the concept of innovation broadly: organizations that create opportunity for children to explore, learn and thrive are by definition innovative until all children can engage with the world through the same set of opportunities.
- Multi-year research or evaluation projects will be considered under this program, particularly as a pre-cursor to scaling innovative programs
- Multi-year grants will be considered under this program at $25,000 – $75,000 per year
Partner Initiatives
Comis Foundation will be working directly with invited Grant Partners for this initiative. Existing partner investments will be granted once annually in 4Q; there is no letter of inquiry process for these grants.
- We work individually with current grantee partners for this program
- The majority of these will be multi-year commitments