FAQ
Our team is happy to
help
If you don’t find the answer to your question here, please give us a call at 920.432.0800.
FAQ for
nonprofits
Applicants must meet all three of the following:
- Be a non-profit organization, (exempt from federal income taxes under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and not be classified as a 509(a)(3) supporting organization), or a governmental body, such as a school or municipality.
- Serve the people of greater Green Bay: Brown, Kewaunee, and Oconto counties.
- Conduct business without discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual preference, age, marital status, disability, or national origin.
- Program or project support or equipment related directly to projects
- Technology and equipment improvements to develop greater organizational efficiencies or capacity
- Staff and board training and planning that enhance organizational capacity or develop greater organizational efficiencies
- Other priorities as determined by the grants committees. See individual grant program guidelines for more information.
We do not fund sponsorships
Each grant program is different. See individual grant program web pages for more information. Please contact us at 920-432-0800 if you have further questions.
In general, strong programs will:
- Address a well-defined need, with a clearly defined action to meet the need/opportunity.
- Improve the quality of life for our community or its residents.
Use innovative approaches to address community issues. - Help the organization become self-sufficient.
- Use partnerships or collaboration to leverage additional impact.
- Be feasible and likely to succeed.
- Demonstrate a reasonable level of risk.
- Propose appropriate and reasonable budgetary items.
- Attract additional funding and leverage resources.
- Create well-defined, meaningful, and measurable project outcomes and methods to report actual outcomes. Measurement complexity should be relative to the size of the grant request.
- Have long-term impact, especially relative to cost.
- Not have received a grant for a similar purpose from the same granting program in the past 18 months.
- Have a positive standing with the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation regarding previously received grants, including the complete and timely submission of required final reports (and mid-term reports where applicable).
Granting programs generally do not fund:
- Annual appeals, capital campaigns or other fundraising activities or events.
- Religious activities or programs that serve, or appear to serve, specific religious organizations, groups or denominations.
- Individuals
- Endowments
- Debt retirement, deficit financing, reduction of an operating deficit or replenishment of resources used to pay for such purposes.
- Lobbying or legislative activities
- Capital improvement requests
- Programming or expenses occurring before the grant is awarded.
Efforts substantially serving people outside of Brown, Kewaunee and Oconto counties. The Kopseker Trust is an exception.
FAQ for
donors
Go to www.ggbcf.org. Click “Dashboard Log” In. Enter your login credentials click “Login” and select “My Donor Dashboard”.
Log in to your Donor Dashboard, click “My Profile/Change Password”, select “Change Password”. Enter your old password, new password, and re-enter your new password. Click “Save”.
Log in to your Donor Dashboard. Select “See All Fund Activity and Statements”.
Log in to your Donor Dashboard. Click “Recommend Grants”. Click on “New Grant” or if your charity is not listed, click “Add a Charity”.
Log in to your Donor Dashboard. Click “Recommend Grants”. Make your grant recommendation, then under Other Grant Recommendation Details, check these boxes: Please make this Grant Recommendation Anonymous and Please do not publish my name.
Yes. The Community Foundation may make grants to any qualified charitable status nonprofit public charity, school, or government entity in the United States.
No. According to IRS regulations, Donor Advised Funds may make grants only to qualified charitable status nonprofit public charities, schools, or government entities.
Our staff has extensive knowledge of local nonprofit organizations and community needs. We are happy to provide information to assist with your grant decisions. When appropriate, we will contact an organization on your behalf or anonymously. We are also able to provide research on organizations beyond Northeast Wisconsin, as requested.
FAQ for
professional advisors
Our team is strategically positioned to address our community’s most complex issues. By partnering with nonprofits, local leaders, businesses, donors, and other philanthropies, we tackle problems no organization, policy, or effort can solve individually. Together, we are building a culture of impact and philanthropy to address urgent needs today and for future generations.
– If your clients have a high-income year (due to a fluctuation in earnings, the sale of a business or property, etc.) they may wish to “pre-fund” future charitable giving by contributing an optimized amount to a fund with us. Your client would then benefit from a larger-than-usual charitable deduction, which can be taken in the year of contribution to the Foundation, to offset his or her higher income tax obligation. Plus, they would have funds set aside to use in future years for ongoing charitable giving.
– If your clients wish to become more strategic with their charitable giving and move beyond transactional check-writing to more focused, impact-driven giving, they may want to take advantage of the advice and consulting services provided by our experienced team to develop and implement a giving plan that meets those goals.
– Some clients prefer to remain anonymous when making their charitable gifts. A fund at Greater Green Bay Community Foundation allows them to recommend grants to the organizations of their choice while keeping the source of the grants confidential.
– The Foundation’s online donor portal makes it easy for your clients to make grant recommendations and to keep track of charitable giving throughout the year.
Our work together is assured by a trusted and local resource of investment experts, in partnership with our Chief Investment Officer, Hirtle Callaghan & Co., to support the long-term purpose of the Foundation. The primary investment objective is to achieve an annualized return through appreciation and income, equal to or greater than the rate of inflation plus grant distributions. Investment pools are also available for local professional advisors to provide advisors and their clients with the greatest flexibility.
Yes. Our donor relations team can help your clients convert their private foundations into a fund at the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation. Clients often seek this solution when they find the administrative burden, tax reporting, or required distributions no longer fit with their goals. We are familiar with the conversion process and are happy to help.
FAQ for
students
Yes, the FAFSA is not required to start your application. We recommend completing the FAFSA if you want to be considered for need-based scholarships.
You can start your application and upload everything but the letters. Once you receive them, go back into the portal to upload them and submit the application by the deadline. If you do not receive the letters by the application deadline, you can upload a document stating that you were unable to attain them in time and your application will be reviewed for the scholarships which do not require letters of recommendation.
You can submit a copy of your unofficial transcript. If we have questions regarding the information, we will contact you.
ACT and SAT scores are NOT required.
You will need to complete all sections and upload all documents in order to submit the application to the system. Please fill out the information to the best of your ability, using your current college information wherever possible.
You must submit the required enrollment verification forms in order to receive your scholarship. A copy of your tuition statement must be uploaded to your original scholarship application by logging in to your scholarship application dashboard. Once logged in, click School Grants and Scholarships, click My Applications, find your approved application in the table and select the app id #, find the enrollment verification documents in the table and upload the required documents.
Some scholarships distribute a portion of the award over multiple semesters and will require you to return to the application dashboard to upload documents verifying continued enrollment and academic success.
Scholarship payments will be mailed directly to your college for educational-related expenses.
To complete the FAFSA visit the Federal Student Aid website. If you need assistance, please contact your high school counselor or college financial aid office.
