Proposal Guidelines

Comis Foundation has adopted a new grant funding structure and as of 12/15/23 the Letter of Inquiry and Application will reflect the following guidelines.

Applications are by invitation only.

Review our procedures.

Letters of Inquiry

  • Letters of Inquiry may be submitted at any time and will be evaluated on a rolling basis. March 1, 2024 is the deadline for the April 12th application process
  • 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