Our Current Grant Focuses

Apply for a Grant

The Goodman Family Foundation utilizes a two-step process. The first step is to submit a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) before the appropriate deadline. Our Board of Directors will review your Letter of Inquiry and will contact you, after the board meets, to let you know if it is appropriate to submit a grant proposal. If you are invited to submit a grant proposal, we will give you a deadline of approximately one month to make that submission.

We make grants to nonprofits doing work in California (Bay Area) and Oregon (Greater Portland area). We make grants for general support and for specific projects. We do not make grants to religiously affiliated organizations nor to organizations that have a religious curriculum. We do not make grants to individuals. We are not currently accepting applications for international work. Our typical grant size is $5,000.

Our Board selects new grant focuses in each of our four categories (Arts & Culture, Education, Environment, and Health & Human Services) yearly so please visit our website a few times per year.

2017-2018 Grant Focuses and Deadlines

Fall grant cycle 2017 (grants made in Oct/Nov timeframe)
This grant cycle is now closed. We are no longer accepting LOIs.

LOIs will be accepted in the following areas only:

Environment: (All requests should include an eco-systems management approach) The Foundation intends to award 2-3 grants in the range of $10,000 each that support science-based work to improve the Oregon and San Francisco Bay marine systems through protection, planning, and/or restoration. Examples include: a) studying and mitigating climate change and how it affects marine life, shoreline erosion, coastal flooding, and/or water pollution; b) protecting and restoring tidal wetlands; and/or c) estuary restoration.

Health & Human Services: The Foundation supports programs or services that improve our elderly population's ability to live in their own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably. Example programs or services might include: meals or grocery shopping assistance, rides to appointments, home modifications, assistive technologies, etc. Please note that grant recipients who received grant awards from us in this focus area each year for the last 3 consecutive years (2014, 2015, 2016) are not eligible for a grant in 2017. You will be eligible to reapply in 2018.

Spring grant cycle 2018 (grants made in May/Jun timeframe)
LOIs must be received by end of day Wednesday, January 10th, 2018.

LOIs will be accepted in the following areas only:

Arts & Culture: The Foundation intends to award $10,000 grants to performing arts organizations for capacity building projects to improve the infrastructure of organizations with an emphasis on reaching a broader diverse audience in addition to better meeting the needs of the community. Examples: 1) Technology upgrades to create a more personalized experience and to increase ticket sales such as upgraded ticketing systems and website redesigns that work with multiple devices (i.e. cell phones, tablets, PCs); 2) Projects to increase audience diversity that reflect community demographics; 3) Capital campaigns and/or building expansion projects to better meet the needs of the community served by a growing organization.

Education: The Foundation wishes to encourage paid internships, providing an above minimum wage stipend, at nonprofits for college undergraduate and/or graduate students (grants distributed in 2018 may be utilized for 2019 internships as needed). The internship experience should include enrichment opportunities which may include skill building, visibility into how a nonprofit functions, peer networking, professional seminars, capstone project/report, etc. Average size grants in this area of focus are $5,000 each. Please note that grant recipients who received grant awards from us in this focus area each year for the last 3 consecutive years (2015, 2016, 2017) are not eligible for a grant in 2018. You will be eligible to reapply in 2019.

Apply for a Grant

2017-2018 Grant Focuses and Deadlines

Next: How to Submit an LOI