Baugh Foundation grants generally fall into six main categories, guided by our core values. Full information can be found under our “funding priorities” tab at the top of the page. 

• Meeting basic human needs
• Faith-based higher education
• Inclusivity initiatives
• Social justice and advocacy
• Arts and enrichment
• Faith-based journalism

As a family foundation, we monitor our areas of personal interest, and may reassess and adjust grantmaking from time to time. As we transition into new funding areas, we may choose to cease funding in an existing grant category. When this happens, we will do our best to help current grantees by stepping down any longstanding grants in ways that allow space for them to find new funding.

Grant decisions are made by our Board of Directors based on our Foundation’s values, current societal needs, and our own judgement on what is most likely to have a positive effect on the world. Writing a clear and compelling grant request, including an explanation for how this grant will make positive change in the world will give you the best chance at success. While we cherish the personal relationships we have with existing grantees, a pre-existing personal relationship is not necessary to apply for or receive funding.

The Baugh Foundation provides approximately $12 million dollars per year in grant funding, across approximately 80 grants. The Baugh Foundation believes in strengthening organizations for the long term and as such we fund both general support and project grants, including capital campaigns, endowments, and organizational development. Grant applications may include requests for both direct and indirect costs, plus extra that allows the organization to thrive over the long term (e.g., additions to reserves, assets, working capital). 

The Foundation awards a wide variety of grant types to organizations of different sizes and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Requests should be proportional to your organizational size and budget, and the size of the project. To encourage organizational stability, the Foundation prefers for organizations and projects to have multiple streams of income. On occasion, we may fund full projects or full organizational budgets in unique circumstances. Grant awards are most often for one year, are renewable, and awarded for amounts between $5,000-$100,000. The Foundation does occasionally make significantly larger grants to established grantees, or for innovative projects from new grantees. For the best chance of success, we suggest that new grantees aim for smaller awards, proportional to the size and scope of their overall organizational budget. Most awards to new grantees are between $5,000-$40,000.

There are several areas frequently inquired about that we are regretfully unable to support:

• Individuals or personal needs
• Business assistance
• For profit endeavors, organizations, or institutions
• Internal-facing church or house of worship-based projects unless we have a pre-existing relationship with your organization or congregation. We suggest contacting us first if you have a project in this category prior to applying.
• Undergraduate scholarships
• Lobbying or political campaign activities

As a private foundation, we do not fund political campaign activities or lobbying for or against specific pieces of legislation. If your organization participates in lobbying or direct political activities (not including educational activities), our funding is limited to the percentage of the program or organizational budget that does not include those activities. We suggest all organizations that participate in advocacy or lobbying activities consult an experienced attorney to ensure compliance with IRS regulations. If you have questions about what we can or cannot fund, please contact us. The Alliance for Justice also has a comprehensive guide on what does and does not constitute lobbying for nonprofits.

There are no minimum or maximum page requirements for any of our documents or processes. However, the Foundation only has your reports to understand your organization’s activities over the grant period. As a result, we encourage you to include any details you want the Foundation to understand regarding your organization’s movement towards your planned grant outcomes. While you are not required (nor encouraged) to detail every single action your organization has undertaken over the past grant period, please include any information you believe highlights key successes and challenges. We are particularly interested in learnings, new collaborations with other organizations, and how actual activities aligned with your planned activities for the year.

The Baugh Foundation values program evaluations that seek to understand the areas of growth for programs, and requests for funding for program evaluations may be made as part of an organization’s yearly funding request. Due to our size, we do not regularly initiate formal program evaluations for our grants. 

The Baugh Foundation seeks to make grant application as easy as possible, while adhering to philanthropic best practices. To apply for a grant for any funding year, the following will be required:

1. An approved letter of intent or renewal request
2. A completed grant application
3. A recent audit (if available) and the organization’s most recent 990
4. An organizational budget

Yes, we allow indirects at the rates listed below, but we also allow grantees to itemize expenses instead. If indirect rates are unfamiliar to you, you do not need to use them. They are primarily used by universities and other large institutions.

Indirect costs are general overhead and administration expenses that support the entire operations of a grantee and are shared across projects. Examples include executive management, accounting, grants management, legal expenses, utilities, technology support, and facility maintenance.

You may either choose to itemize these expenses in project support requests, or use a flat indirect rate, but not both.

The Foundation has determined the following general maximums for indirect cost rates:

• 10% for university grants
• 15% for non-profit and non-governmental organizations

If an organization’s published or audited indirect rate is less than the maximum allowable indirect rate set by the Foundation policy, the grantee should apply its published or audited rate for proposal budgeting purposes.

If you have questions about what qualifies as an indirect or direct cost, or what is the best way of accounting for these costs for your specific project proposal, please contact us. Grantees may request grants without indirect costs if they wish, and all indirect costs need to be included in your total requested project budget. As an example, if your total project request is $20,000 and you are a non-profit, you may choose to use up to 15% of that amount ($3,000) to go towards indirect costs if you wish, leaving you with $17,000 for direct costs for the project. Indirect costs are not added on top of the requested grant amount.

We deeply appreciate the offers to fly out to meet us in person, but it is not necessary and we regretfully cannot accomodate in-person meeting requests from potential grantees at this time. 

In the spirit of the work being the most important thing, we encourage existing grantees to use their limited funding and time for their critical daily work as well.

We are always happy to answer questions via email or schedule a phone call. We can be reached at info@baughfoundation.org.

Relationships are not required to receive a grant from us, though it can be useful to schedule a short introductory call to help you determine if your organization is a good fit before you spend time applying. We don’t play games or expect you to jump through hoops for years to receive a grant, instead we will always be honest on these calls about whether we think your organization or project might be a good fit for our funding. If you are interested in scheduling an introductory call, please contact us at info@baughfoundation.org.

Beyond that, we often hear about great organizations from other funders and your fellow organizations, so we encourage you to work in partnership with others as often as possible, and sing each other’s praises regularly. We’re not shy about reaching out if we hear about someone doing great work that might align with our funding priorities, and often relationships develop naturally in this way.

We strongly suggest that the organization requesting the grant apply for their own grant, even if a grant writer or volunteer assists them in writing it. The primary grant contact should always be a legal representative of the organization. 

Having someone who is outside the organization submit a grant request creates communication challenges, contract challenges should you receive a grant, and could create legal liability. Many states also require people soliciting donations on behalf of non-profits to register in that state as a fundraiser.  If your organization is applying under a fiscal sponsor, please contact us for more specific directions.