They say the first step is the hardest. In our case, it’s true. While our assets tend to remain finite, applications increase in number - so our filtering process becomes more rigorous. If you meet our eligibility requirements below you can go on to the next step, sending a
Letter of Inquiry.
What we DON'T fund
- Individuals
- Organizations with budgets less than $150,000 dollars
- General support for first-time applicants
- Most Research (see below)
- Education
- Wild animal rescue and rehab
- Climate Change
- Pet rescue and rehab
- Community leadership development
- Youth development (other than aid for emancipated foster youth)
- Internationally (except for Middle East Peace and an occasional grant in Environmental Conservation - the organization must be based in the U.S.)
- In San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, or San Mateo County (except for Traumatic Brain Injury)
- Films, videos, documentaries, books, websites, other media
- San Francisco Bay restoration and conservation projects
- Start-up or seed funding for organizations or projects new to Firedoll Foundation
- Large-scope, long-term initiatives (we prefer discrete projects with concrete end-of-year deliverables)
- Wordy, jargon-laced, over-packed proposals (see below)
What we DO fund
- 501(c)(3) organizations
- Non-private foundations under Section 509(a)(1), (2) or (3)
- Fiscally-sponsored organizations are welcome to apply
- Projects in our Focus Areas
- Projects in our Geographic Areas
- Capital campaigns (rarely)
- General support (existing grantees)
- Research directly supportive of currently funded projects (see Current Grantees)
- Projects with clear, discrete deliverables at the end of the grant year are the strongest contenders
- Clear, tight, simply written proposals (see "Helpful Hints" on our Proposal Guidelines page)