Pooled Grants Process

Pooled fund grants are at the heart of Washington Women’s Foundation grant-making. It is a unique and highly respected process that lasts six months and typically involves more than 60 members, working and learning together as part of the Grant Committee. It embodies philanthropy in action, ensuring member involvement, confidence and integrity in grant decisions. Click here for the grant guidelines; this chart shows the flow of the pooled grant process. 

Each year, we award large impact grants of $50,000 to $100,000 in each of five areas: arts and culture; education; environment; health; and human services. Our Grant Committee looks for grants that provide a response to critical and urgent needs; initiate bold new ventures; and foster new approaches to ongoing problems.

For members, the grant-making process begins each November with Discovery Days, a series of meetings where members and their guests become better informed on cutting edge issues in the community. Experts in each of the five areas we fund share their perspectives on where a Washington Women’s Foundation pooled fund award or individual grant would make the greatest impact.

Members are encouraged to bring projects to the attention of the Grant Committee at any time during the year. Member suggestion forms are due by November 28 for consideration in the next year’s grant cycle.

For nonprofit organizations, the process begins with a Letter of Inquiry. This is not a formal grant proposal, but a two-page form designed to allow nonprofits to bring their work to our attention. You may fill out a Letter of Inquiry form online. Letters of Inquiry are due by November 28 each year for grants given the following year.

All members are invited to participate in the grant process by joining the Grant Committee and one of its five work groups. The Grant Committee kick-off meeting is held each January when the Committee work groups begin their intensive efforts to research community needs in our five funding areas. Each work group may review dozens of Letters of Inquiry before inviting 25 nonprofit organizations – five in each of the five funding areas – to submit full grant proposals.

The Grant Committee then carefully analyzes the 25 grant proposals and selects 15 for site visits in April and May. After these visits, the Grant Committee evaluates the information gained and narrows down the list to just two in each funding area. Finally, in June each member receives the ballot listing the 10 candidates and votes to select the five grant awards. Each of our nearly 500 members has an equal voice in selecting the five recipients from the 10 candidates selected by the Grants Committee.

An exciting event in June brings members and pooled grant recipients together to celebrate the grants awarded and the impact they will make on the nonprofits and our community. This celebration marks the beginning of a two to three year relationship between the Foundation and the grantee.

Our impact does not stop when we write a check. Through annual site visits and reports the Impact Assessment Committee monitors the impact of Foundation pooled grants over the duration of funding. We analyze the impact of the grant on the organization's goal and apply what we learn to future grant-making. Grantees are often invited to present to the membership as experts in their field of service at our many trainings and educational forums.

Northwest Medical Teams International  - Dental Van
2004 Grantee

“It’s empowering to know that the $1,000 each of us donates to the pooled fund becomes something so much bigger and has such a huge impact on worthy nonprofits and the community. To be part of this is incredibly rewarding.”

Roxanne Scott
member since 2000