Guidelines

Submitting a Letter of Inquiry The first step in the Silver Family Foundation application process is to submit a short Letter of Inquiry (LOI). Letters are reviewed on a continuous basis, and may be submitted at any time during the year.  All LOI are reviewed to determine if they fall within the Silver Family Foundation guidelines.  Once a LOI is reviewed, organizations will either be declined or asked to submit a full proposal.  The Silver Family Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant proposals and all organizations must first complete the LOI process. Letter of Inquiry (LOI) Guidelines The Silver Family Foundation requests that an organization send a Letter of Inquiry that is no longer than three pages.  The LOI should include the following information:     * A brief background on your organization, including a mission statement, history of your organization, the size of staff and composition of the board, the constituency and geographic region served, and the type of services provided.     * A brief description of the activities for which you are requesting support, including the need/issues that will be addressed, an outline of objectives and anticipated outcomes and history of performance.     * The total amount of funding needed, the amount you intend to request from the Foundation, and information about other sources of support, both requested and secured.     * Contact information including an email address. Submitting a Grant Proposal Silver Family Foundation grant proposal deadlines are as follows:   •    Spring Cycle:Proposals are due  March 30th. Grant awards will be made in June. •    Fall Cycle: Proposals are due September 30th. Grant awards will be made in December. The Foundation accepts requests for specific projects. No grants are made to individuals. A site visit will be made after a grant is awarded. At the conclusion of the grant, recipients must provide a written evaluation describing how the funds were spent, using a provided evaluation form.  Report deadlines are as follows: •    For fall cycle awards (made in December), the report deadline is September 15th. •    For spring cycle awards (made in June), the report deadline is March 15th. Submissions by e-mail are preferred. You may send the financial information required via e-mail if it is in an Excel document, or you may also send your proposal and attachments via regular mail to:  Silver Family Foundation, PO Box 18234, Portland, OR 97206.