President’s Discretionary Fund
The President’s Discretionary Fund of the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois provides funding for youth education and development in the Northern Illinois region.
Eligibility
To be eligible for funding, an applicant must:
- Propose a project that promotes youth education and/or development
- Be a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, not-for-profit agency
- Be in active service to the public for at least one year prior to application
- Provide services within the Illinois counties of Winnebago, Boone, Ogle, and Stephenson
- Be operated and organized in such a manner that no applicable anti-discrimination laws are violated
- Be current on all final reports for grants from the Community Foundation; if your agency has a program currently being funded with a Community Foundation grant and your final report is not yet due, you must submit an interim letter letting us know the progress of your program (do not use the online final report form for this)
Grant Cycle
The President’s Discretionary Fund accepts applications year round. The maximum grant awarded is $500.
Only one application per organization per grant program will be funded within the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois fiscal year (July 1st through June 30th).
Exceptions to this rule:
- You are invited by a Grants Committee to resubmit an application in the following grant cycle.
- Organizations participating in a collaborative may apply once a year as a member of the collaborative, and once as itself or as part of a second collaborative.
All grant recipients are required to submit a final report six months after receiving the grant. You may access the final report by clicking here. The report must address how grant funds were used and indicate project outcomes.
Exclusions
The Community Foundation does not make grants from its President’s Discretionary Fund for the following:
- Ongoing project support
- Projects that promote a religion or require participation in a religious activity as a condition for receiving services. However, grants may be made to faith-based organizations for other purposes.
- To Individuals
All nonprofit agencies planning on submitting grant applications for a project done in partnership with Rockford Public School District 205 must obtain written certification of the project before submitting a grant application. Click Grant Pre-Approval Form »
Online Application
To start a new application, click New Application »
To access an application that you chose to save and finish later, click Saved Application »
Please Note: Your computer must use one of the following commonly used internet browsers and have cookies enabled in order to access the online application.
- Internet Explorer version 7 or higher
- Mozilla Firefox version 3.0 or higher
- Safari 3.2 (for Mac) or higher
- Google Chrome 4 or higher
Budget Worksheet: For your convenience, we are providing a budget worksheet that you can download by clicking the link below. You may find it easier to complete this worksheet in paper form before entering the information into the online form.
If you have questions, please contact Gloria Lundin, President at 815-962-2110 ext 16 or glundin@cfnil.org.