If your organization is invited to submit a full proposal, we will e-mail you a link to submit your proposal using our online grants system. Below are the full proposal components you will be asked to provide.

Proposals accepted for further development must be approved by our Board of Directors in early September, with grant money distributed in January of the following year.

Please use Times New Roman, 12 point font, single spaced. When possible, please use bullet points to break up complex program descriptions.

Organization

• Describe your organization's background, history and mission.
• Include the overall goals of the organization.
• List current programs and activities, emphasizing major achievements of the past two years.

Program

• Describe your program in detail.
• Include clearly stated goals and objectives.
• Include a project activities timeline.
• If your program involves a partner or partners, describe why you have chosen them.

Need

• Include a needs statement describing the issue and who the program will serve.
• Describe how your strategy compares with or differs from others in the field.
• Describe how the proposed project will address the identified need.
• What research supports your idea?

Fit

• Describe how your project addresses one of the Journalism Program's three grantmaking initiatives (Audience, Rights or Content).

Impact & Measurement

• Describe your plans for assessing the results and impact of the project. For example, how will your organization track, measure, and monitor progress toward meeting outputs, outcomes, and key milestones during and at the end of the grant period?
• How do you plan to share with others the obstacles you’ve met along the way, the failures encountered, or the best practices and lessons learned from carrying out this initiative?
• Detail how your organization will recognize the McCormick Foundation as a funder of your project or activity.

Project Budget

• Please download and use the attached budgeting form to show your budget for the program for which you're requesting funding. If you are proposing a multiple-year grant, you must provide a projected budget for each requested funding year.
• Provide a brief budget narrative explaining how McCormick's funds would be used.

Additional Required Attachments

Organizational Budget: Provide an operating budget for your organization that includes income and expense projections pertaining to the fiscal year in which the project will take place.

Funders: List your top five funders and amount of support for the current fiscal year.This list should include the name of the corporation/foundation/individual, amount, and purpose of the donations.

Most Recent List of Board of Directors: Please provide in a Word document a list of the name, job title and the principal business or professional affiliation of each director.

Most recent audited financial report

Tax exempt certificate: This signed form certifies the organization's current tax-exempt status. Please download this form to sign.

IRS tax determination letter / 501(c)(3): We require a copy of the most recent tax determination letter issued to your organization (or your fiscal agent) by the IRS. It should include your federal tax identification number and the date your organization (or fiscal agent) was awarded tax-exempt status.

Note: This is NOT the state tax exemption certification. We will need all applicable components for the registered 501(c)(3) organization by June 30. In some instances, where fiscal agents or universities are involved, the intended grantee is not the same as the entity carrying out the proposed initiative. In such cases the foundation needs all the applicable documents for both organizations (i.e. the university’s fundraising foundation and the center/organization applying for funding).

Please contact Aaron Smith (asmith@mccormickfoundation.org) with questions.