The Community Foundation of Shelby County Community Grants

The Community Grants program administered by The Community Foundation of Shelby County offers funding to charitable organizations serving Shelby County, Ohio. The Foundation manages a variety of donor-created charitable funds, many of which empower the Foundation's board to distribute grants at their discretion. These grants are issued through a competitive process designed to evaluate the merits of proposals submitted by local nonprofit organizations. The Community Grants are especially notable for drawing from multiple unrestricted and field-of-interest funds, enabling a flexible approach to supporting community needs. These grants are made available to not-for-profit organizations that complete a two-step online application process, beginning with a Preliminary Proposal. To gain access to the online proposal system, applicants must first obtain permission by contacting Juli Smith, the Scholarships and Grants Manager, either by email at [email protected] or by phone at (937) 497-7800. Once approved, the applicant receives a code to access the proposal form online. The Community Foundation runs two grant cycles each year—one in the spring and one in the fall—with specific deadlines for each stage of the process. The spring cycle begins with the preliminary proposal opening on January 2 and ends with awards made in late April, while the fall cycle runs from July 1 to the end of October. The grants can be funded by various specific funds under the Foundation's administration. These include unrestricted resources like the Community Impact Fund and specialized funds such as the Roscoe Beanblossom Fund (focused on youth), the F.I.S.H. Fund (covering basic needs like food, clothing, and housing), the John Douglas Long Blind Fund (supporting those with vision impairment), the Memory Fund (targeting children, seniors, or veterans), the Prime the Pump Fund (serving community service groups and Foundation initiatives), and the Shelby County Medical Services Fund (for medical-related needs). Once a grant proposal is approved, the Foundation’s Grants Committee selects the appropriate fund to support the award. Grant recipients must be not-for-profit organizations that provide services in Shelby County, Ohio. While no specific organizational structure like 501(c)(3) status is explicitly mentioned in the available materials, the Foundation’s typical practice and guidance for nonprofit eligibility indicate that applicants should be tax-exempt organizations operating in the charitable sphere. The Foundation does not publish detailed eligibility or exclusion criteria online, and no specific requirements regarding fiscal sponsorship, size, or operational history are provided. No PDF guidelines or application forms were referenced in the source materials, which suggests that all application-related instructions are managed internally through communication with the Foundation’s staff and via their online application portal. The lack of published evaluation criteria implies that awards are likely based on community impact, alignment with fund purposes, and organizational capacity, as determined by the Foundation's review committee. The grant application process is recurring and follows a clear annual cycle. The preliminary proposal windows open every January and July, with deadlines in mid-February and mid-August respectively. Full proposals are then due by the end of March and September. Awards are typically issued in the final week of April and October. Because of this established schedule, the program can be expected to recur annually. Organizations that miss one cycle may plan for the next with predictable timing. For more information or to begin the application process, organizations should contact Juli Smith at the Foundation’s Sidney, Ohio office.