530 South Gay Street, Suite 700

530 South Gay Street, Suite 700

DEADLINE: 5 pm NOVEMBER 4, 2009

Appalachian Community Fund

530 South Gay Street, Suite 700

Knoxville, TN37902

865.523.5783

2009 General Program Guidelines and Application

PLEASE READ THE COMPLETE GUIDELINES AND FORM BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR PROPOSAL. SOME THINGS ARE DIFFERENT FROM YEARS PAST.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO CALL OREMAIL US. IT MAY SAVE YOU TIME AND ENERGY!

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Submission and Formatting Guidelines

YOUR PROPOSAL MAY BE DISQUALIFIED IF IT DOESN’T MEET THESE GUIDELINES. PLEASE REVIEW THIS BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR PROPOSAL. INCOMPLETE, LATE OR APPLICATIONS NOT FITTING THE GUIDELINES MAY BE DISQUALIFIED.

WE OFFER TWO OPTIONS FOR SUBMITTING YOURAPPLICATION:

OPTION 1: TO SUBMIT ONLINE, PLEASE EMAIL ONE COPY OF YOUR COMPLETE APPLICATION IN WORD FORMAT. PLEASE NAME EACH OF THE DOCUMENTS WITH YOUR ORGANIZATION’S NAMEAND AN ADDITIONAL IDENTIFICATION. For instance: Mountain Climbers, Part 1 or Mountain Climbers Board list.

A complete online application is:

  • Cover sheet
  • Narrative of no more than six (6) pages in a readable font with answers to each section; you may use one extra page to tell us anything you want us to know that wasn’t covered in your narrative.
  • Budgets for the grant request and for the current fiscal year
  • Expense and income report for your last fiscal year
  • Most recent balance sheet showing assets and liabilities
  • A list of board and staff and information: (name, gender, race, ethnicity, occupation, location, sexual orientation, and any other helpful information). If you need to protect confidentiality, please provide numbers and omit names.
  • One copy of your audit, if you have one done.
  • One copy of a newsletter or one copy of other supporting material.
  • Your IRS letter stating 501c3 status, OR, a letter from your fiscal sponsor stating their willingness to be your agent and a copy of their IRS letter

OPTION 2: TO SUBMITPAPER APPLICATIONBY REGULAR MAIL:

A complete paper application is:

  • Seven (7) copies of the complete proposal with the narrative of no more than six (6) pages in 12-point or other readable type; you may use one more page to tell us anything you want us to know that wasn’t asked for in your proposal narrative.
  • Seven (7) copies of board and staff information and budgets and financial reports.
  • Fifteen (15) additional copies of the cover sheet.
  • One copy of your audit, if you have one done.
  • One copy of a newsletter or one copy of other supporting material.
  • Your IRS letter stating 501c3 status, OR, a letter from your fiscal sponsor stating their willingness to be your agent and a copy of their IRS letter

Additional information for both options

  • Please do not add pages to the cover sheet -- keep all information in the space provided. If you need to reproduce the form on your word processing program, that’s fine.
  • Please limit the narrative to six (6) pages in a readable 12-point type in consideration of the readers. You may use one extra page to tell us anything else you want us to know about your work.
  • Please save your binders and plastic report covers – it’s much easier on us if you just clip each complete proposal together with a paper clip, and clip all of the cover sheets together.
  • You can include one copy of your newsletter or one copy of other supporting material, but please don’t send multiple copies of supplementary materials such as news clippings.
  • We will acknowledge receipt of your application.
  • Final reports from previous grants must be submitted before any future grant monies are released.
  • If you have any questions about anything in this proposal application, please don’t hesitate to call us at 865.523.5783.

Online and paper proposals must be receivedin the ACF office by 5:00 pmWednesday, November 4, 2009. Postmark dates do not count.

* The Appalachian Community Fund (ACF) was founded in 1987 to bring new

resources and provide grants to groups for community organizing and social change in the Central region of Appalachia (East Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky, Southwest Virginia and all of West Virginia). Grants are given to community-based organizations that address underlying causes of the economic and social distress of the region. ACF seeks to build a long-term resource base and expand community philanthropy in the region. In 20 years, ACF has given away $5 Million to community organizations; in 2008-9 ACF distributed $278,695 in funds.

REVIEW AND SELECTION PROCESS

* The board of directors of the Appalachian Community Fund is made up of activists from the four Central Appalachian states. Proposal applications are read by members of the ACF Board who review and discuss proposals and make decisions on the final grant awards. The average grant award last year was $6,500. The reading and review process takes several months. Notices will be sent as soon as decisions are final. To avoid potential conflict of interest, please indicate if anyone in your organization is a board member of ACF.

ACF funds work that takes place in the Central Appalachian region: West Virginia, Eastern

Kentucky, Southwest Virginia, and East Tennessee. We use the Appalachian Regional Commission designation for Appalachian counties in these states. A list of counties can be found on our website -

Alexander Fund - New York Community Trust

The Appalachian Community Fund has been given the unique opportunity to manage the grantmaking program of the Alexander Fund of the New York Community Trust. The Alexander Fund is a long standing philanthropic commitment by the late Oakey Logan and Ethel Witherspoon Alexander to benefit workers in the coal industry, their families and their communities in Central Appalachia. The commitment to the Appalachian region has been evidenced over the last several years with its generous support to many groups working for change in the coalfields of Central Appalachia. The Alexander Fund sets an excellent example of stewardship by believing in the self-development and self-determination of Appalachians working to preserve their culture and improve the conditions around them.

GENERAL ELIGIBILITY AND CRITERIA FOR FUNDING:

  • Organizations must have a 501c3 tax exempt status, or a 501c3 fiscal sponsor, in order to receive ACF funding.
  • The organization or project must be in Appalachian counties of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, or West Virginia. If you are based outside the region, the proposal must include a workplan for the Appalachian portion of the work.
  • The organization or project must show evidence of working for social change through one or more of the following:
  1. Organizing and action led by people working to control their own lives.
  2. Educating communities about the root causes of oppression and injustice.
  3. Eliminating barriers to full participation in society (i e. racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, ageism, able-ism, and exclusion from decision-making processes).
  4. Focusing on efforts to change cultural, social, political, and economic systems and institutions that accommodate and perpetuate social injustice.
  5. Creating and modeling democratic cultural, social, political and economic systems.
  6. Connecting local issues with national and global concerns.
  7. Networking, collaborating, and cooperating with other change agents working toward similar goals.

ACF defines social change as the movement of people toward the establishment of environmental, economic, racial and social justice and the re-distribution of wealth, power and resources through the methods listed above.

Additionally, proposals will be evaluated on demonstrating:

  • An understanding and analysis of structural racism and other types of oppression and efforts to address them.
  • A clear strategy aimed at an equitable distribution of power and wealth.
  • Strong local community leadership representative of and accountable to the organization’s constituency.
  • Efforts to build new leadership from the community served.
  • A commitment to building the organization and involving previously unorganized people.
  • The organizational capacity to plan and implement work and to raise and manage funds.
  • A plan or project with specific goals.

APPALACHIAN COMMUNITY FUND

GRANT APPLICATION COVER SHEET

Date of Application: ______

Contact person(s) and title: ______

Organization name and year founded: ______

Address: ______

Phone______Email and website ______

Requested amount$______Total organizational budget $ ______

If project funding is requested, project budget amount ______project title ______

How many years have you received ACF Funding? ______

Through which programs?

Please give a brief statement of your organization’s mission, a summary of the project or grant request and two accomplishments of your organization in the last three years in this space provided.

PROPOSALNARRATIVE: Six (6) pages for narrative; plus financials and board list).Please include the following information in your narrative, being as specific as possible and respond completely toall parts of the question. Please number your pages and limit the narrative to six pages in a 12-point font out of respect to readers. If your work addresses health care access, education, or economic development or takes place in this context, please speak specifically to this. In order to help with reporting to our donors, please indicate to what extent your work directly or indirectly relates to coal mining or the coal industry. (Being related is not a criterion for funding).

1. History and purpose of the organization.

Organizational Background: Please briefly describe the organization’s history, social justice vision, and recent achievements and challenges

2. Funding request. Describe the request, including: a. The problems, needs or issues the work will address. What are the underlying or “root” causes of these problems? What systemic or institutional change is the organization trying to achieve?b. Provide a timeline and the specific goals, objectives and activities/strategies forthe one year duration of the grant.c. How will your organization know whether or not it’s successful? (Please tell us about themeasures for success that are most important to your organization)

If the organization is based outside Central Appalachia, please also describe how ACF funding will be used by and for Appalachian people.If your work is related to health care, economic development, or education or takes place in this context, please be specific about the context.

3. Movement building and social change. How does the organization see its work as part of a larger movement for social change? Describe the most important coalitions, collaborations or networks that you participate in as part of social change work. Include why the organization is active in these collaborations and your organization’s role.

4. Constituency, accountability and leadership development: Describe the organization’s core constituency -- (please be specific about race, gender, income levels, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, and people with disabilities), how they are involved in the leadership of your organization, and how you support leadership development. Include how your group’s leadership is selected and how the organization is accountable to the community and constituency.

5. Organizational structure and process. Briefly describe how your organization works. Who decides what kind of work the organization will do and how are decisions made? How is the organization structured, what is the decision-making process, and what are the responsibilities of board, staff and volunteers?

6. Anti-racism values and practice. The board of the Appalachian Community Fund values anti-racism and believe it has to be a component of social change work, no matter what issue you work on or what community you are in. A. Please tell us how your organization incorporates anti-racism values and vision into your thinking. B. What is your organization doing to put its anti-racism values into practice?

You may use one additional page of narrative to tell us anything you want us to know that wasn’t asked for in your proposal narrative.

7. Financial information (is an attachment to the narrative.)

A). Current fiscal year organizational budget (projected income and expenses)

B). Project budget if requesting project funding

C). The most recent completed fiscal year statement of actual income and expenses (sometimes called a budget activity report or profit and loss),

D). Balance sheet or financial statement for the most recent completed fiscal year.

E). A description of the organization’s plans for future fundraising.

F). Brief explanation of any restricted income or endowments or assets.

G). A brief description of any process and policies the organization has for handling monies coming in to the organization, i.e. the budget approval process, who writes and signs checks, who keeps the books.

If you’re unsure about what financial information you have or what is needed, please don’t hesitate to call the office 865.523.5783.

8. List of the organization’s Board of Directors (or other leadership body) and Staff. Please provide a description of the roles and demographics (race, gender, class, age, sexual orientation, ability) of the members of your current board of directors (or the leadership body who governs your work) and your staff.

10. Tax-Exempt Information (one copy only): A copy of the organization’s or the fiscal sponsor’s 501(c)3 letter. If you are using a fiscal sponsor, provide a letter of agreement from them as well.

Proposals must be received in the ACF office by 5:00 pm on Wednesday, November 4, 2009. Postmark dates do not count.

Proposals submitted online should be sent to

Questions should be sent to

ACF office 865.523.5783

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