For Applicants
Since 2004, Many Hands has granted more than $3.1 million to nonprofit organizations serving women, children, and families in socioeconomic need in the Washington, DC area. We make four grants each year, one in each of four focus areas: economic empowerment, education, health, and housing. One grantee receives the Many Hands $100,000 Impact Grant, and three receive Many Hands Partner Grants, the value of which depends on annual fundraising. In 2024, each Partner Grant was $69,000. All grants provide unrestricted funding, which may be used for operating, program, or capital expenses.
To read about past Many Hands grant recipients, click here.
Important Dates and Deadlines for Applicants – 2025 Grant Cycle
Applications open: Thursday, January 2, 2025 at 9:00 am
Application deadline: Friday, January 17, 2025 at 11:59 pm
Grant applications must be submitted electronically, using the Foundant(TM) platform.
The application is now available for viewing on Foundant here. You may create an account or use your password if you have previously created an account. Applicants will have two opportunities to ask questions prior to the application deadline:
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- Participate in a Zoom call on December 17, 2024, at 10:00 am. A recording of our applicant webinar is here.
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Submit written questions by email to [email protected], December 1, 2024-January 6, 2025. Answers to submitted questions will be found in updated Applicant FAQs by January 12, 2025.
2025 Grant Review Process
The Many Hands grant review and selection process is member driven. All applications will be evaluated and considered carefully. The entire review process takes approximately four months. At any point in the review process, applicants may be contacted by a Many Hands member for clarification and/or additional information. Applicants will be notified if their proposal is not forwarded to the next level of review.
At Many Hands, we greatly appreciate the time and effort expended in submitting an application for funding, and we review all applications with care. We regret that we are unable to provide feedback on unsuccessful applications. We welcome suggestions for improvements to our grants process at [email protected].
Eligibility Review
Through January 31, 2025
Applications are reviewed against the eligibility requirements and to ensure that applicants are considered in the appropriate focus area.
First Level Review
Mid-February through late March 2024
Many Hands member Focus Area Committees review and discuss the merits of each application.
Site Visits and Financial Review
April 2025
Each Many Hands Focus Area Committee will invite up to five applicants to host a site visit for Many Hands members. All applicants receiving site visits will be asked to submit updated financial information and answer any final questions from the Financial Review Committee.
Funding Decisions
May 2025
Each Focus Area Committee will select one grant recipient. At the Many Hands Annual Meeting, each grantee will make a brief presentation and answer questions from Many Hands members. Following the presentations, a vote of the Many Hands membership will determine the recipient of the $100,000 Impact Grant. The remaining grantees will receive Partner Grants, the amount of which will be determined prior to the Annual Meeting.
Grant Disbursement
Late May to early June 2025
Grants will be disbursed in a single payment following the execution of a grant agreement. Grant recipients will be asked to participate in Many Hands communications efforts.
Many Hands is committed to serving and empowering Washington, DC area women, children, and families in socioeconomic need by supporting strongly aligned community nonprofits. Without exception, applicants that do not meet all eligibility requirements will not be considered.
Eligibility Requirements
Population Served:
- Many Hands grant funds must be used to serve women, children, and/or families in socioeconomic need.
- Many Hands grant funds must be used to serve only residents of the Many Hands service area, which includes:
- District of Columbia
- Montgomery County, MD
- Prince George’s County, MD
- Arlington County, VA
- Fairfax County, VA
- City of Alexandria, VA
- City of Fairfax, VA
- City of Falls Church, VA
Applicant Organization:
- The organization must have 501(c)(3) status at the time of application.
- The organization must have been in operation for at least five years.
- The organization must have an established operating budget of at least $500,000 and no more than $5 million, based on the current-year budget and total expenditures in the previous fiscal year.
- The applicant organization must be located in the Many Hands service area. It must have a local office, have an independent budget for operations in our service area, and a local board of directors with fiduciary responsibilities.
- The organization must be secular and non-partisan in mission and program and must not promote or compel political or religious participation or affiliation.
Special Considerations:
- Charter schools are ineligible.
- Recipients of the Many Hands Partner Grant in 2024 are ineligible to apply in the 2025 grant cycle.
- Any organization that has received $100,000 or more in total Many Hands funding is ineligible to apply for additional funding.
Many Hands supports local nonprofits that serve women, children, and families in socioeconomic need. For our internal review purposes, we group our applicants into four focus areas: economic empowerment, education, health, and housing.
We recognize that many of our applicants have programs that achieve outcomes in more than one area. For each application, we select the focus area that best aligns with the applicant organization’s mission and overall programming, ensuring that similar applicants are grouped and reviewed together.
Our review committees do not evaluate applications for how well they “fit” into their assigned focus area, but look more broadly at how they align with Many Hands’ mission to serve and empower women, children, and families in socioeconomic need.
The 2024 grant cycle application is now closed.
We will begin accepting applications for the next grant cycle in January 2025. Join our mailing list to receive updates on Many Hands’ grant process.
Your grant allowed us to stay in [Stanton Elementary School]. It was because of your commitment to collective giving and your understanding of the value of trust-based philanthropy that I was able to make decisions that allowed us to continue to serve the community.
Thanks to the amazing women at Many Hands for standing with Friends of Guest House to give our women returning from incarceration a better start.
Support from Many Hands is truly transformative for Access Youth. Because of this grant, Access Youth is launching our peer mediation programming as part of our four-year model of student support.
With the grant of $100,000 from Many Hands, College Bound for the very first time was able to support our alumni to and through college completion.
Many Hands’ investment in our work means we have a small army of committed, connected, and caring women who are rooting for us, helping us, and sharing our work far and wide.
With your $100,000 grant, you have chosen to confront and elevate the issue of child sexual abuse in our community. This grant is bold, courageous, and impactful.
Thanks to this critical grant, our beneficiaries can go from working long hours in multiple low-paying jobs to make ends meet to building a family-sustaining career that leaves them time to spend with their loved ones.
Funders like Many Hands are so respected. The stamp of approval of Many Hands is wonderful!
Because of you, women are getting jobs, learning new skills, improving their health, achieving financial stability, and ending their homelessness for good.