The New Hanover Endowment has $10 million available for this first round of grants, and plans to give them out to all sorts of different organizations.
CEO and president William Buster said the endowment wants to open this first round of grants to a wide range of grassroots organizations.
"The cap of any grant — and we're saying this for anyone who applies — is $250,000 for a one-year grant, and a nonrenewable grant," he explained. "So we're expecting grant sizes anywhere from $5,000 to all the way to $250,000.”
That means at least 40 organizations will get grants, and likely many more. Any non-profit in New Hanover County can apply, and the endowment will provide grant-writing assistance in the month leading up to the September 30 deadline.
Buster says the purpose of this round is to develop relationships with the community.
“We can't just give the money out and just hope organizations do the right thing. We have to be in a relationship with them," he said. "There's an accountability process for the spending after the fact, but for this round of funding is strongly focused on capacity building.
After applications are reviewed in the fall, non-profits can expect to hear whether they’ve been awarded the grants on December 1.
