Criteria and Guidelines for Funding
To be eligible for local CCHD funds, a project must satisfy all of the following criteria and guidelines simultaneously. However, due to limited financial resources, eligibility does not guarantee funding.
Local CCHD grants focus primarily on the areas of Leadership Development or Institutional Change. Typically, local CCHD grant amounts are limited to a maximum of $5,000 per one-year funding period.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
CCHD looks for initial and continued development of leaders. Activities such as leadership skill training in areas of organizational development, issue identification, social analysis, and community organizing are examples of local projects that may be considered for CCHD funding.
INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
CCHD also considers for funding Community Organizing projects in which groups of people participate in solving problems that affect their lives. A common theme in community organizing is building an organization that can effectively influence decision-making processes so that people working together can bring about needed change in policies, institutions, and/or laws.
A. Criteria
1. The project must benefit a poverty group. At least fifty percent (50%) of those
benefiting from the project must be from the low-income community.
2. Members of the poverty group must have the dominant voice in the project. At
least 50% of those who plan, implement and make policy (e.g., the Board of
Directors, etc.) should be persons who are involuntarily poor (Clergy, VISTA
Volunteers, students, etc. are considered by CCHD to be voluntarily poor.) For
projects that do not presently meet this criterion, applicants must document the
following in the proposal narrative:
a. Why members of the poverty group do not have the dominant role in planning,
implementing and policy-making at the time of application;
b. How members of the poverty group were involved in determining their need for
the project;
c. What time schedule is planned for the poverty group to assume leadership and
control of this project.
3. It is not within the intent or purpose of CCHD to fund projects that could, with
reasonable efforts on the part of the applicant, access project funds from the private
or public sector. However, it is recognized that many prospective applicants for
CCHD funds have not yet developed the capability and/or capacity to obtain funds
from these sources. In a circumstance in which private or public sector funding for
an applicant’s project may be available, the applicant will be requested, as part of the
CCHD application process, to assess its capability and/or capacity to access the
private or public sector funds.
Proposals applying for “seed money” or “matching money” from CCHD will also be
considered. However, in requesting “seed money” or “matching money” from
CCHD, applicants should present documentation that other funding sources will
commit their funds to the project if the “seed money” or “matching money” is raised
by the applicant.
4. CCHD funds will not be granted to organizations that would utilize CCHD money to
fund other organizations.
5. The project activity for which funding is requested must conform to the moral
teachings of the Catholic Church, but the applicant for CCHD funds need not be
or represent a Catholic organization.
B. Guidelines
1. Proposed projects must be innovative and demonstrate a change from traditional
approaches to poverty by attacking the basic causes of poverty and by effecting
institutional change. CCHD defines institutional change as:
a. Modification of existing laws and/or policies;
b. Establishment of alternative structures and/or redistribution of decision-
making powers.
2. Directly benefit a relatively large number of people rather than a few individuals.
3. Generate cooperation among and within diverse groups in the interest of a more
integrated and mutually understanding society.
4. Demonstrate that as a result of CCHD funding there are possibilities of generating
funds from other sources or of becoming self-supporting within the timelines
established in the proposal.
C. Projects Not Meeting CCHD Criteria and/or Guidelines
The following general classifications do not meet CCHD criteria and/or guidelines:
1. Direct service projects (e.g. day-care center, recreation programs, community
centers, scholarships, subsidies, counseling programs, referral services, cultural
enrichment programs, direct clinical services, emergency shelters and other services,
refugee resettlement programs, etc.)
2. Projects controlled by government (federal, state, local), educational or ecclesiastical
bodies.
3. Research projects, surveys, planning and feasibility studies, etc.
4. Projects that have been operating for several years on funds from other funding
agencies.
5. Individually owned, for-profit businesses.
6. Projects engaged in partisan political activities, or projects sponsored by organizations
whose major focus is in partisan political activity.
7. No CCHD funds will be granted to organizations that would use CCHD money to
fund other organizations.