Grant Process & Application Materials

The Sharks Foundation Grant Cycle is now CLOSED.

Funding Priorities

The Sharks Foundation provides $20,000-$25,000 grants for organizations that support youth or youth and their families, with special emphasis towards underserved populations and at-risk youth. Each grant must fall into one of our focus areas of giving: Education, Health & Safety, or Character Development. Funding must be applied to the costs associated with a specific project or programming element of an organization.

The Sharks Foundation will NOT support:

• General operating deficits
• Administrative staff costs (i.e. salaries, training events, etc.)
• Sponsorships or fundraisers of any kind (i.e. walks/runs, galas, tournaments, etc.)
• Recreational group outings or trips (i.e. sporting events, museums, amusement parks, etc.)
• Capital campaigns or building improvement projects
• Endowments or reserve funds
• Grants to individuals, athletic teams or schools or any associated 501(c)(3) organizations (i.e. PTAs, booster clubs, etc.)

Organization Eligibility

To qualify for a grant from the Sharks Foundation, an organization must:

• Be a public 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization in good standing with the Internal Revenue Service for a minimum of five (5) years
• Provide services to children in need within Santa Clara County
• Be available for a site visit if selected as a beneficiary
• Adhere to all deadlines and application requirements

Important to note: The Sharks Foundation will not fund any organization for more than three (3) consecutive years. If your group has been funded for each of the past three seasons, you must wait one year before reapplying.

Grant Eligibility

Each organization is able to submit one (1) grant application per season. To qualify for a grant from the Sharks Foundation, an application must:

• Be within the range of $20,000 to $25,000
• Fall under one of the focus areas of giving: Education, Health & Safety, or Character Development
• Ensure that 100% of grant monies received from the Sharks Foundation are used for the exclusive benefit of youth or youth and their families
• Ensure that a majority of monies used (51% or more) are used for the exclusive benefit of children in Santa Clara County

Application Materials

• Application Guidelines
• Application Checklist
• Application Cover Form
• Application Narrative

Process

All applicants must send the materials requested in the Application Checklist in full. The Application Checklist, as well as the Cover Form and Narrative Guidelines, are available for download at www.SharksFoundation.org.

The deadline to apply is September 11, 2012. Applications must be postmarked or hand-delivered by this date. NO EXCEPTIONS! Hand-delivered applications must be received by the HP Pavilion receptionist by 5 PM. Applications will not be accepted via fax or email.

Once the application period has closed, the Sharks Foundation staff will review and prepare all eligible applications for consideration by the Sharks Foundation Board. An application will be deemed ineligible if it is incomplete, not submitted by the deadline, if it is submitted by an organization that does not meet the stated criteria or if the purpose for funding falls outside of the stated priorities. All eligible applications will receive written notification of their approval status.

The grant timeline for the 2012-13 season is:

• September 11, 2012: Deadline to submit applications
• September – December 2012: Review process
• January – February 2013: Beneficiaries announced, all applicants notified in writing of status
• February – March 2013: Funding dispersed, check presentation and site visits scheduled

Contact Information

Completed applications should be delivered to:


If you have questions regarding The Sharks Foundation application process, please contact Jeff Cafuir at jcafuir@sharkssports.net. Please do not send inquiries as to the status of a submitted application.