1. Non-profit agency located within Los Angeles County.
2. Recognized leader in providing services to children.
3. Solid reputation and track record of delivering children’s services.
4. Organizational capacity and experience to implement and sustain the project.
5. Experience administering grants of comparable size.
6. Ability to sustain ongoing operations through continued fundraising.
7. Willing to provide suitable donor recognition to the Everychild Foundation.
8. Board of directors made up entirely of unpaid volunteers.
9. Prior year audit identifies revenues of at least $1 million, except in unusual circumstances.
10. Ability to supply audited financial statements for the past three years.

1. Innovative projects that target a specific, critical, unmet need of children in Los Angeles County.
2. Projects that demonstrate the best approach to meeting the need.
3. Projects that serve a significant proportion of the children who need the service or, if a new prototype, a project that can be replicated to meet a larger population.
4. Projects where children are the primary population served and where any adult involvement is incorporated to improve the services to children.
5. Projects that are part of agency’s strategic plan.
6. Projects that will be ready for implementation in the calendar year following the grant award in November.

1. All or a substantial part of the entire funding for a project.
2. Complete funding for a discrete portion of a larger project
3. Final funding for a larger, otherwise fully funded project.

1. Lead grants for capital projects, particularly for projects requiring substantial funding.
2. Projects that duplicate the previous year’s Everychild Foundation grant.
3. Projects that benefit from a national fundraising affiliation.
4. Projects from agencies that are affiliated with a religious organization, proselytize, or target a sectarian population for services in practice, mission or strategic planning.
5. Costs directed toward ongoing operations, agency administration, or debt repayment.
6. Pilot, demonstration projects or expansion projects that do not have data that show the approach may be effective.
7. Replacement funding.

Applications for our grant are by invitation only from the Everychild Grant Outreach Committee (GOC). The GOC’s job is to identify potential grant applicants that can meet the grant criteria and undertake an initial screening of agencies that have come to the attention of Everychild either by recommendation of Everychild’s grant consultant or by individual Everychild members. Agencies not invited to apply are welcome to send an annual report with financial statements. However, we will only review this information as time permits.

Agencies applying for the grant are given a five-page format for the LOI. The LOI is the agency’s opportunity to present a concise and compelling story about its mission, the unmet need the project addresses and its uniqueness. The GOC provides each agency with hands-on guidance in preparing the LOI throughout the process. In late January, the GOC forwards the LOIs it recommends to the Grant Screening Board (GSB) and the screening process begins.

The GSB is comprised of 18-22 volunteers from the Everychild membership, the eight members of the Everychild Executive Board, and a non-voting professional grant consultant. Seven formal meetings are held, with the chair and vice chair overseeing the process. The first step is to review the LOIs and vote in February to determine whether to proceed with the proposal to the document review stage. A team of three to four GSB members is then assigned to each remaining agency, working with them until the end of the grant selection process. Agencies submit a package of information including recent annual reports, audited financial statements, and a strategic plan that shows how this project fits within the agency’s strategy. Every document undergoes a rigorous review.

Once the review is complete, the teams make a presentation about their agency at a meeting in April of the full Grant Screening Board, providing a recommendation on whether to proceed further and visit the agency in person. The GSB votes again, further winnowing the number of candidates to those who will receive site visits.

Site visits to selected agencies by the full GSB are considered crucial to the process by literally bringing the agency and its proposal to life. At the site visits, usually scheduled in May, GSB members meet agency leaders and their clients face-to-face, tour the facilities, see programs in action, and discuss the proposal in detail.

Based on the site visits and information from document research, two grant finalists are selected by the GSB in early June. The final two agencies have the summer to prepare a final proposal, which is reviewed by their teams and then summarized and mailed to each Everychild member in preparation for the grant hearing in October.

Each finalist agency makes a formal presentation of its proposal before the full Foundation membership at the grant hearing held in October.

Within two weeks of the grant hearing, members vote via mail-in ballot.

The GSB holds a final meeting each year in early November after all the ballots are received. Votes are counted and the call is made to the new grantee.

If you do not succeed one year, we encourage you to try again. We will provide you with feedback about your project and how your application can be improved. Please note, however, that if you are one of the two finalists and your proposal is not selected, you must wait one year before reapplying.

Ongoing communication between the Everychild Foundation and its grantees allows for accurate tracking of the grant’s progress and success.  It is the responsibility of the foundation’s Grant Monitoring Committee to oversee this effort.  The committee conducts one to two site visits per year to each active grantee as part of the grant agreement.  Active grantees are those agencies still receiving funds from the Everychild grant.  During this period, the grantee also sends a quarterly progress report, an agency annual report and regular updates to the Everychild Treasurer, Grant Monitoring Chair, and Grant Consultant. Once the grant funding period has ended, communication is maintained between the agency and Everychild, but on a more informal level.  All past grantees are invited to attend the Everychild Foundation’s annual luncheon.