The Long Foundation
Executive Director
Mitchell Long
40 N. I-35, Suite 7C2
Austin, Texas 78701
(512) 479-4080
(512) 479-4182 (fax)
Mitchell@longfoundations.org
www.longfoundations.org
Grant Requirements and Guidelines
And
The Grant Application Process
Thank you for inquiring about the grant application process for The Long Foundation. The Long Foundation is a non-profit Texas corporation established in April of 1999 by Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long. This foundation is a tax-exempt private family foundation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Located in Austin, Texas, The Long Foundation has two primary funding programs: our General Funding Program and our Lozano Long Promise to Texas Hispanic Youth Program. These programs will be discussed in detail later.
The Long Foundation is sensitive to the workload of potential grantees and would like to manage the expectations of applicants seeking funding whose request may not meet our guidelines and policies. Therefore, we have attempted to provide the necessary information to streamline the grant application process. Please take advantage of this information by taking time to read and understand our requirements, guidelines, and policies.
The Foundation favors applications that contain only the necessary information for us to properly review your request and to contact your organization. Please do not over-produce the application with color graphics, fancy bindings, or other irrelevant expenses. We also ask that you consider what really needs to be seen, and send only those materials. It will save everyone both time and expense.
General Funding Program
Under our general funding program, The Long Foundation typically supports programs for the visual and performing arts as well as programs that provide opportunities for children and young adults to improve their economic and social potential and that of their communities.
Funding under this program is confined to the state of Texas, and is generally limited to the Austin metropolitan area. Additionally, the Foundation will only consider proposals for this program from applications submitted by request of The Long Foundation.
Because of the emphasis that we are placing on our new program, The Lozano Long Promise to Texas Hispanic Youth, which is discussed below, very limited funding, if any, will occur under our general funding program for the next few of years. More specific guidelines are still being developed for this program.
Lozano Long Promise to Texas Hispanic Youth Program
The Foundation's primary funding program is the Lozano Long Promise to Texas Hispanic Youth. The Lozano Long Promise has been designed to establish a permanent endowment within The Long Foundation dedicated to benefit Texas Hispanic youth by furthering the Five Promises of America’s Promise. This endowment is being funded over time, and it will eventually reach $10 million dollars. It is set up to benefit Texas Hispanic youth by making annual grants to charities, schools and universities, and government programs. Selected programs must be located in areas or targeted at groups with large Hispanic populations and must support the youth of those areas or groups by fulfilling at least one of the Five Promises, which include:
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Promoting ongoing relationships with caring adults – parents, mentors, teachers, tutors, and coaches;
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Providing safe places with structured activities during non-school hours;
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Promoting healthy start and future;
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Providing marketable skills through effective education; and/or
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Providing opportunities to give back through community service.
Please visit the web site www.americaspromise.org for more information about America’s Promise and its Five Promises.
By promoting these Five Promises, our goal is to reduce the high school dropout rate among Texas Hispanic students and to provide additional opportunities for these youths to improve their economic and social potential and that of their communities.
To qualify for funding consideration under the Lozano Long Promise, the applicant must be a non-profit corporation or association as recognized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and be in good standing therewith. An IRS determination letter is required and a copy must be included with the pre-grant application. An exception to this requirement is for qualifying government programs. Another exception is if the non-profit corporation or association has filed Form 1023, application for exemption, with the IRS and expects its determination letter soon. Grants will not be made to individuals, private foundations and certain types of charitable supporting organizations.
To qualify for funding consideration under the Lozano Long Promise, the program to be funded must meet the following:
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The program must be directed toward benefiting Texas Youth;
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At least 75% of the youths targeted by the program must be Hispanic;
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The program must be directed at fulfilling at least one of the aforementioned Five Promises of America’s Promise;
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The program must be of a charitable intent; and
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The program must identify measurable goals and agree to monitor results.
Please note that while the programs must be directed at Texas youth, "youth" is not limited to minors (those under 18 years of age). The Long Foundation recognizes that the achievement of obtaining marketable skills does not necessarily end when a person reaches the age of 18. Youth may include people seeking to advance their education while in their 20’s.
It is also important to note that this program is not necessarily limited to benefiting only Hispanic youth. While the primary purpose of this program is to help Hispanic youth, grants made to such qualifying programs can be used to benefit everyone participating in those programs. However, at least, 75% of the youth "population" targeted by the initiative must be Hispanic. The youths targeted or involved in a particular program define the "population" of that program. Consequently, the population depends upon the program itself and its specific goal.
Grant Application Process for The Lozano Long Promise to Texas Hispanic Youth
The Long Foundation is sensitive to the workload of potential grantees. Our staff is also limited in the amount of work and information it can process effectively. As a result, The Long Foundation has developed a two-step application process, involving a pre-grant application followed by a formal grant application.
Our two-step application process requires potential new grantees to first make their request for funding by completing The Long Foundation’s pre-grant application form. This form can be downloaded by clicking on its icon at the end of these Grant Requirements and Guidelines. We will evaluate all completed pre-grant application forms submitted by the deadline (see below) in order to choose new grantees with programs that fulfill the criteria, and that the Foundation decides may be of interest for funding. Chosen new grantees will receive an invitation to submit a formal grant application, and will be sent the requirements therein.
Grant recipients from the prior year do not need to submit pre-grant applications, at least in regard to funding requests for the previously funded program. These prior grant recipients will automatically be invited to submit a formal grant proposal in regard to the previously funded program.
What does this mean? It means that we only review formal grant applications that have been invited to apply. How do you get invited to submit a formal grant application? You get invited to submit a formal grant application to The Long Foundation either because of its prior knowledge and interest (due to prior funding or otherwise) or by submitting a completed pre-grant application form and having a non-profit activity that is of interest to The Long Foundation and meets its requirements and guidelines. Why is this two-step application process used? It is used to save many potential grantees the time and expense of submitting a formal grant application when their program may not be of interest to The Long Foundation. Additionally, it saves our staff the time and expense of handling and processing a large number of formal grant applications.
Please note that an invitation to submit a formal grant proposal does not imply an invited potential grantee will receive a grant. It only means that their program seems to fall within grant guidelines, is of interest to the Foundation, and that they may submit a formal application for consideration by the Board of Directors for funding.
We realize that some questions on the pre-grant application form may not apply to all organizations. However, it must be completed to the best of the applicant’s ability. The pre-grant application form was created using Microsoft Word. Therefore, once downloaded, it must be completed using Microsoft Word, or it must be converted for use by your word processing program. The spaces for answers should expand sufficiently for most answers.
There are several ways to return the completed pre-grant application form back to The Long Foundation. It may be returned by way of e-mail (as an attachment) to Mitchell@longfoundations.org.
The completed pre-grant application can also be returned by fax to 512.479.4182 or by U.S. Postal Service and overnight service to:
The Long Foundation
40 N. I-35, Suite 7C2
Austin, Texas 78701
You may include one brochure or pamphlet with the pre-grant application. You will also need to include a copy of your IRS determination letter. This document must be submitted even if you returned the completed pre-grant application by e-mail. At this stage, please do not include additional materials, as they will not be reviewed.
Grants are determined in January or February of each year, with grant payments occurring usually in April or May. Because of our two-step process, pre-grant applications must be submitted by July 31, and formal grant applications must be submitted by October 31 of each year (or as otherwise stated in the request letter). You will be sent a confirmation that we are processing your application within 3 weeks of having received it in our office. Therefore, the only occasion you should need to contact us is because you did not get a confirmation that your proposal has been received. Moreover, be advised that the Long Foundation does not generally make grants outside of its normal schedule.
Just for clarification, we strongly prefer to receive material by the given dates, but we will accept material postmarked by the given dates if it arrives within five business days of the deadline or as permission is granted.
At this time, The Long Foundation does not have a set upper or lower limit on the size of a grant that it will award. Additionally, the size of each grant and the number of grants awarded each year will vary.
Additional Guidelines for The Lozano Long Promise Program
Programs that have a lower priority to be funded (even if all other requirements are met) include the following:
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Funding for internet web sites (including web site design, implementation, conversion, revisions, maintenance, etc.).
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General-purpose, non-specific grants for general fund-raising programs or general endowment programs, even if the overall mission of the requesting organization is in alignment with The Lozano Long Promise. Funding for a specific purpose or a specific endowment is more likely to be awarded as long as the program is strongly aligned with The Lozano Long Promise.
We recommend that you save the Word document directly to your desktop and edit it there before returning to us. To do this, right click on the link below
and save the document to a location on your local drive.
In Internet Explorer, use 'Save Target as'
In Netscape, use 'Save link as'
In FireFox, use 'Save link as'
Lozano Long Pre-Grant Application (MS Word)
To open the application in an Abobe pdf
Lozano Long Pre-Grant Application (Adobe pdf)
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