About Our Process

With philanthropic ambitions in arts, creativity, mentorship, education, health, and well-being, we have received thousands of funding proposals from skilled, impactful, and motivated organizations here in Oregon and Washington State. For those organizations aligned with our values and priorities, we hope to position you for a meaningful investment; we do this, in part, through a variety of grant programs — each with different benefits, opportunities, and conditions to consider. With questions, you’re welcome to email us anytime at info@marielamfrom.org.

Starting
a Grant
Application

The application process varies depending on the grant program you pursue.

First: Decide Which Grant to Pursue

We have three annual grant programs — Sunflower, Rose, and Daffodil — which are awarded monthly, January-November. Our Sunflower Grant — the smaller-awarding of our grant programs — accepts applications on a rolling basis, no queue enrollment required. Our Rose and Daffodil Grants, which award at higher rates, require applicant queue enrollment.

  • Applying for a Sunflower Grant? This program opens Spring 2024. Learn more about this grant and request to be notified of its availability here.

  • Applying for a Rose or Daffodil Grant? Review the instructions below.

If you decide to pursue a Rose or Daffodil Grant, follow these steps:

Step 1: Join the Queue (Rose & Daffodil only)

We move 35-50 organizations off of the waitlist each month. If you are a first-time partner, you can join the waitlist at any time. If you are a returning partner, you can join the waitlist after your grant report has been submitted and your grant term has concluded.

You can learn more about the applicant queue here.

Step 2: Get a Head Start on the LOI (Optional)

While you wait, feel free to get started on the Preliminary Application (or LOI). We post all of the LOI questions and prompts on our website, here. Typically, we don't encourage first-time partners to spend time on the final application unless the LOI has been approved. Nevertheless, you are welcome to prepare however you see fit.

Step 3: Receive your Access Code / Get Started

Once you receive your access code, it means the wait is finally over and you can finally start your Preliminary Application! Need more time? We invite applicants to postpone their LOI start-date twice.

Summary of
the Application Process

All of our partners enter our application from our waitlist. After being invited to begin the application, our process consists of two stages: (a) the Preliminary Application, or LOI, and (b) the Final Application. Both phases are completed in our grant portal.

Indicators:

Our Timeline to Review

Your Timeline to Submit

Day 0

Moved off of the waitlist, access to the Preliminary Application (LOI), which you have 28 days to complete.

Day 28 | 4 weeks to submit LOI

Preliminary Application (LOI) is due via our grant portal. Review begins immediately and some decisions will be issued prior to Day 49.

Day 49 | 4 weeks for MLCF to review LOI

Preliminary Application is reviewed; if conditionally approved, the organization is asked to schedule a meeting with a Program Officer. We will provide a scheduling link to you via email. This meeting should occur within 28 days of notification. After this meeting, a final LOI decision will be issued.

Day 77 | 5 weeks to submit Final Application (if invited)

All applicant meetings have occurred; Preliminary Application decision is issued if not already done. If applicable, organization is invited to begin Final Application, with 35 days to complete.

Day 112 | 5 weeks for MLCF to review your Final Application

Final application is due in our grant portal. After this point, Program Officers may contact you with questions or follow up items. If you don’t hear from a Program Officer, that’s okay! That means we have everything we need.

Day 139 | 2 weeks for our Board to review and vote on proposals

Your funding proposal and our staff evaluation are presented to our Board of Trustees for review, questions, and consideration. Our Board typically has 1-2 weeks to issue funding decisions, though this may be longer. We encourage you to reach out to your Program Officer if you have any questions.

Day 153 | Roughly 20 weeks (5 months) from access to decision

We always work to call our applicants with a funding decision, and follow up with an email. Shortly thereafter, those applicants approved for funding will receive automated correspondence that invites them to complete a grant agreement before funding is sent.

Commonly Asked Questions:

  • If you are a first-time partner, you can join at any time! If you are a returning partner, you need to be eligible to apply — meaning it’s been 12 months since last payment AND your grant report submitted.

  • No, so long as your are eligible (learn more here) you are free to join at any time! In fact, once you are eligible, we encourage you to join ASAP if you plan to reapply for funding.

  • Applicants are required to self-register. After registration, you should see your organization listed on the website within 2-3 weeks.

  • We absolutely value long term and ongoing partnerships, but we also aim to work with any and all eligible organizations that need our support. This means that those partners with whom we have worked before won’t get to ‘skip the line’ but are strongly encouraged to register for the queue when eligible (after a grant report is submitted and it’s been 12 months since last payment).

    It is worth noting that we do, however, give added value to returning partners in our grant evaluation criteria. You can learn more about that here.

  • We don’t want to move people out of the queue just to have them waiting again in our process. We typically invite 30-35 applicants per month off of the queue. Once you are nearing the access date, we will notify you via email to ensure you are able and ready to get started.

  • The needs of our community are all timely and warrant quick response. Generally, we require organizations to move through our process as designed. If, however, you are responding to an urgent need and/or community emergency, you are welcome to email us at grants@marielamfrom.org to inquire about alternative funding processes.

    Additionally, organizations in such positions are welcomed to consider our Sunflower Grant, which you can learn about here.

  • We’re happy to answer them! Please contact grants@marielamfrom.org and we will work to address all of your questions.