General Grants

December 1st, 2018

How To Apply For A GMF Grant

(Questions? Contact Mr. Bruce Whittenberg, Executive Director, via email prior to sending the application.)

1. Answer each question. Head each of your answers with the question to which you are responding. These do not need to be separate pages for each question. Do not print and include the entire page of questions.

2. Respond to each question carefully and succinctly. Indicate whether or not your program addresses one or more of the top five priorities identified as most important by Montanans in the 2019 GMF Winter Media Survey, conducted during the 2019 legislative session: 2019 top issues in order:

   a. Jobs and the Economy
   b. Healthcare
   c. Spending and State Taxes
   d. Drugs (The survey did not list any more details about drugs)
   e. Education

3. A major goal for Ed Craney, GMF’s founder, was to improve commercial broadcasting in the state. Efforts to offer noncommercial programming funded by GMF to commercial stations are important and may improve the odds for receiving a grant. If providing programming to commercial broadcast stations is part of your plan, please provide details.

4. Provide a budget for your proposal (not your entire organization) in a format GMF trustees can easily decipher. Expenses and purposes must be clearly delineated. Be sure to list other sources of funding, if applicable. Some post secondary institutions take a percentage of each grant awarded to a program for operations/administration, unless the grantor specifically prohibits it. The Greater Montana Foundation does prohibit such a fee.
   No portion of any Greater Montana Foundation grant may be used for operations or administrative purposes, unless expressly allowed in writing as intended to do so.

5. If there are critical supporting documents, please include them. You may also include brief biographies of principals who may be unknown to GMF; however we do not require a multi-page vita. It is also not necessary or helpful to include pages of recommendations, letters of support, photos, long lists of programs produced, etc. Do not include DVDs, CDs, etc. with your materials. If in doubt, ask the executive director first.

THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND BOARD’S REVIEW PROCESS

1. Deadline for receipt of application at GMF: Applications must be received (or postmarked if snail mailed) no later than midnight April 1, 2023.

2. When I receive a grant application, by email or snail mail, I first review it for eligibility and completeness. If there are questions, I will contact you.

3. I make copies of each application and include them in the board of trustees meeting manuals, which are provided to the members well in advance of the June annual meeting. We cannot include photos and extraneous documents.

4. Each member reviews and ranks the grants in advance of the annual meeting. If there are questions or any requests for additional information, I will notify you.

5. Each applicant is invited and highly encouraged in 2023, to join by zoom or in person, the application presentation session during the meeting to present their proposal. Instructions on how to do so, along with a time slot will be sent to you. Presentations, including Q&A, are limited to 15 minutes per applicant and time limits are strictly observed. Be prepared with a well-organized 10-12 minute presentation and plan to allow 3-5 minutes for questions.

6. If you do not hear from me by May 20 regarding a scheduled time for your presentation by Zoom, please contact me ASAP. Rarely, but occasionally, a grant application is not received in the office.

7. The site of the Zoom presentations is the Ed Craney Studio of the Montana Historical Society Museum. We have two experts who will assist you, with an earlier on-line workshop, and the studio is equipped with state-of-the art audio-visual technology, funded by GMF. Please let me know if you have any questions.

8. The 2024 Grant Application can be downloaded here.