MOUNT VERNON – Small grants will be a bit larger, and large grants will be available later in the calendar year, under new guidelines being put in place for 2015 by the Community Foundation of Mount Vernon & Knox County.

Executive Director Sam Barone said these first major changes in foundation grantmaking guidelines in 12 years were prompted by a combination of economic factors and the board’s desire to consider funding of major projects that emerge later in the calendar year. The principal changes include:

– Increasing to $5,000, from $3,000, the maximum grant available using the Community Foundation’s streamlined small grant application process. In addition the Foundation will consider small grant requests on a rolling basis year around, rendering a decision to applicants within 45 days of submission; and

– Holding back a portion of the Foundation’s large grant budget – which previously was committed in its entirety at the February board meeting – for a second large grant-making round in August. Application deadlines in 2015 for the February and August large grants competitions will be January 15, 2015 and July 15, 2015, respectively.

Barone said the Foundation’s grant application itself, which was designed in 2002 to be easily completed by non-profit organization without professional grantwriting assistance, will remain virtually unchanged.

Both the revised application and Guidelines for Grantmaking will be available soon on the Foundation’s website, www.knoxcf.org. According to Barone, any organization that has already applied for 2015 Foundation funding using the old application need not resubmit their application; however, their projects will be subject to the increased funding limit and the new timetable for board consideration.

Any questions regarding these changes can be addressed to Sam Barone at the Community Foundation of Mount Vernon & Knox County, 1 S. Main Street, 740.392.3270, or by email at [email protected].