Eligibility
Many Hands supports organizations serving women, children, and families in socioeconomic need. Organizations that serve only men or primarily men are not eligible for funding.
Many Hands includes youth (ages 14–25) in its economic empowerment, health, and housing focus areas. The education focus area includes early childhood and K–12 students. For additional information, please visit the Focus Area page in the About section of the Many Hands website.
Many Hands does not define socioeconomic need by the Federal Poverty Level or any particular scale. We seek to help people in our communities that lack the basic resources or conditions that are necessary for wellbeing and equal participation.
Your organization is eligible to apply only if it has a local address, a local board of directors with fiduciary duties, and an independent local budget. A national/regional organization with a local advisory board, or an organization without an independent local budget, is not eligible for Many Hands funding.
No. We accept applications only from organizations that have been in operation for five years or more. We look forward to receiving your application once you have reached the five-year mark.
No. Our budget requirements apply to the organization seeking funding, not any intended use of a Many Hands grant.
The budget requirements apply to an organization’s approved expenses for the current fiscal year and the actual expenses for the previous fiscal year. The level of reserves does not impact eligibility.
In-kind contributions (services, material, equipment, or labor) that would otherwise be paid by the organization’s budget may be included in the organization’s operating budget to meet the minimum budget requirement.
Yes. Organizations with in-kind contributions (services, materials, equipment, or labor) that cause the organization’s budget to exceed $5 million are eligible for Many Hands funding.
Yes, and we encourage you to apply again. Any organization that has not received funding from Many Hands may reapply for a grant. In addition, organizations that have received grants totaling less than $100,000 are eligible to apply after sitting out one grantmaking cycle. Only our $100,000 Impact Grant recipients and recipients of Partner Grants totaling more than $100,000 are ineligible to reapply for a Many Hands grant.
Funding Request
Many Hands provides unrestricted funding, which may be used for operating, program, or capital expenses consistent with a grantee’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
Think of this simply as a brief “title” that helps reviewers. We are looking for a few words that summarize how a 2023 Many Hands grant would have a timely impact on your organization.
No. Starting with our 2025 grant cycle, we will be assigning focus areas to each application.
Many Hands considers applications from eligible organizations that address needs in one of four focus areas: economic empowerment, education, health, and housing. For additional information, please visit the Focus Area page in the About section of the Many Hands website.
Yes. Reviewers want to understand how your organization assesses its success and effectiveness. This may be through data you collect and analyze, but it may also include staff observations, monitoring of progress toward specific goals, and/or feedback loops to identify what is working and what is not.
Process
Applications for the 2025 grant cycle must be submitted by Friday, January 17, 2025 at 11:59 pm.
The number of applications varies from year to year. For the 2023 grant cycle, Many Hands received eligible applications in four focus areas: economic empowerment (21), education (27), health (21), and housing (23).
Many Hands will review your application to determine whether your organization meets all eligibility criteria, and will contact you if we have questions. We will notify all applicants about the outcome of the eligibility review by mid-February 2025.
Focus Area Committees comprising Many Hands members will review and discuss the merits of eligible proposals from mid-February through late March 2024. You may be contacted by a committee member for more information during this process. Each Focus Area Committee will conduct up to five site visits in the spring, and Many Hands will conduct a due-diligence financial review of all site-visited organizations. Funding decisions will be made by Focus Area Committees in May 2024. Applicants will be notified of the status of their proposals following each stage of review.
Congratulations! You will be asked to prepare a brief presentation to the Many Hands membership. The full membership will then vote to select the recipient of the Many Hands $100,000 Impact Grant. Three grantees will each receive a Many Hands Partner Grant. Partner Grants vary annually in size, depending on fundraising. Over the past three years, the average Partner Grant has been roughly $70,000.
No. Every year, applications for Many Hands funding are reviewed by teams of Many Hands members. Each review committee’s decisions reflect the unique priorities and perspectives that its members bring to Many Hands. Applications that were not successful in the past will be evaluated by different reviewers in the current grant cycle.
Many Hands is committed to acting with integrity in all our relationships and in selecting grant recipients through an honest, transparent, and fair process. Our Conflict of Interest Policy requires disclosure of relationships between our board members with any grant applicant or potential grant applicant. Our Confidentiality Policy requires that each board member keep confidential all nonpublic information received from any organization that applies for a Many Hands grant. Similarly, our Conflict of Interest Policy for committee members requires disclosure of relationships with any grant applicant or potential grant applicant as well as a confidentiality requirement.
No member of the board or Many Hands may serve on a Focus Area Committee that is reviewing an application from an organization with which that member has a relationship.
Technical
Grant applications must be submitted electronically using the Many Hands Foundant™ portal. All organizations must register and create an account to apply for a grant. You will be able to create your account beginning December 1, 2024, at 9:00 am. We suggest creating your account well in advance of the grant deadline to avoid any last-minute issues. Once you have created an account, you will be able to begin the application process, save in-progress applications, and easily upload required documents.
Getting Started
Click on the link to our online portal, which will be posted on the Many Hands website grants page from December 1, 2023, at 9:00 am, through January 19, 2024, and enter the following information:
- An email address (This will be your username and user account ID.)
- Your contact information
- Your organization’s information, including EIN/Tax ID number
- Contact information for the organization’s executive director
If you applied for a Many Hands grant after 2019, you have already created an account in Foundant, which you may continue to use. If you applied for a Many Hands grant prior to 2019, you must now create an online account.
Yes. Your account is unique to each funder, even if you use the same email address.
No. You cannot submit an application without creating an account.
You can reset your password here by clicking on the blue “Forgot your Password?” link.
Your account dashboard is displayed on screen every time you log in. From the dashboard, you can:
- Edit your contact information.
- Begin the application process.
- Access application drafts and submitted applications.
We recommend Google Chrome 14 or higher, Safari 4 or higher, or Firefox 9 or higher. Users of other browsers or older versions of those listed above may experience minor technical issues.
No. Applications are only accepted via our online grants platform.
The Application
No. At the bottom of the application is a “Save as Draft” button. We recommend that you save your application often and before logging out. The system will autosave your work every 20 minutes.
Many of the application questions have character limits due to system requirements. The character limits (including spaces) are generous, and you should not find them restrictive. There is no expectation that you will reach the character limits. Many Hands reviewers value clear and concise “plain language” that is free from jargon.
No. We recommend that you complete your application in a Word document and copy and paste the responses into the online system. If you prepare your application in this way, be sure to keep track of character limits and note that any formatting is likely to be deleted when you paste your responses into the online system.
There are at least a couple of possible reasons:
- If you stay on one page for an extended time without saving, your account may time out without warning.
- A weak internet connection may momentarily disconnect your computer while you are working on the application.
As a safeguard, we recommend that you:
- Save your application often.
- Cut and paste your answers into a Word document to save as backup.
To restore your edits, try:
- Reloading the page, as sometimes the browser will cache an older version of your page.
- Logging out, waiting a few minutes, and then logging back in and re-opening your application.
No. Once your application has been submitted, we cannot accept any amendments or edits, even if the submission deadline has not passed.
If you would like a hard copy of your application for your records, log in to the application portal and click on Application Packet to create a PDF of your application. You can print or save this document. You will always have access to your application by logging back into the application portal, even after you submit it.
Attachments
The following attachments are required:
- The resume or a description of the credentials and experience of the Executive Director.
- A list of the organization’s board of directors, their principal affiliations, and their terms of service. Indicate those serving in leadership positions.
- The organization’s fiscal year 2023 Form 990.
- The organization’s fiscal year 2025 operating budget, including revenue and expenses.
- As available, fiscal year 2025 year-to-date financial statements.
- The organization’s audited or reviewed financial statement (preferred) or unaudited financial statement for fiscal year 2024. Many Hands requires both an income statement and a balance sheet.
All attachments must be submitted as PDFs (.pdf).
You should give each file a name that identifies your organization and the type of document it represents. For example, a file representing your financial statements for the previous fiscal year could be named “OrgName-FS FY2023.” Do not use any symbols except for a period or a dash; other symbols can interfere with the upload process.
No. You may only upload one document per question. You may combine multiple documents into one PDF prior to uploading. If your financial statements (budget-to-actual income statements and balance sheet) are separate documents, there will be a second optional question to allow you to upload a second PDF.
No. We only accept the requested attachments.
- Once the file has been uploaded, a Delete File button will appear beside the file name. Clicking this button will remove the file.
- To replace the file, a new file can be uploaded in its place. Click on the Upload a File button to upload the correct file and replace the original one.
Yes. The size limit for attachments varies and is listed prominently on the online application. If your PDF file exceeds the maximum file size, use “Reduce File Size” in Adobe Acrobat. If you are unable to reduce the size of your file as required, please contact us at [email protected] for assistance.
If there are no symbols in the file name (other than a period or dash) and the file is of an approved type and size, try one or more of these suggestions:
- Try saving a new, renamed version of the document.
- Try saving your file as a different type. For example, if you tried to upload a Word or Excel document, try saving it as a PDF file and then uploading this version.
- Try uploading from a different computer.
Our grants support women, children, and families in socioeconomic need.
We combine donors’ gifts into large unrestricted grants that respect nonprofit expertise.
Members drive the grantmaking process in our collaborative, all-volunteer model.
Latest News
- Fall 2024 Education Event: Career-Connected Learning November 22, 2024
- Watch the 2025 Grant Cycle Membership Kickoff October 28, 2024
- Newsletter Archive October 5, 2024
- Download the 2024 Impact Report October 2, 2024
