Community Grant Program Guidelines

2024 – 2025 COMMUNITY GRANT PROGRAM

Behavioral Health & Health Care | Food | Shelter & Safety 

The Santa Barbara Foundation’s Community Grant Program offers multi-year, general operating grants in three program areas:  

  • Behavioral Health & Health Care 
  • Food 
  • Shelter & Safety   

Applicants are encouraged to apply for funding in the program area that most closely aligns with the mission of their organization. Organizations are not eligible to apply for more than one program area in the same year. Please see “Program Area Priorities” below for additional details on each of the three thematic areas.  

Background  

The Santa Barbara Foundation’s Community Grant Program is designed to support our nonprofit partners working in core human interest areas: Behavioral Health & Health Care, Food, and Shelter & Safety. 

Despite being a food-producing county, research suggests that more than one in four households in Santa Barbara County are food insecure. A confluence of factors – including increases in the cost of living, the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, and a regional housing crisis – has increased the number of unhoused community members, including youth. Health care continues to remain inaccessible to too many, and there has been an unprecedented increase in demand for behavioral health services across demographics. 

While many of the challenges our community members face are intersecting and overlapping, addressing these needs is a precondition for healthy and thriving individuals, families, and communities. Our program areas reflect these foundational needs. 

Together, Santa Barbara County nonprofits weave the critical safety net that supports our community’s most vulnerable populations and therefore our county on the whole. The Santa Barbara Foundation offers our multi-year Community Grants in recognition of the essential role that our nonprofit partners play and to help further their vital work in these three program areas.
 

About Community Grants

Multi-year, general operating funding increases nonprofits’ ability to build their capacity and respond to community needs. We also recognize the need for longer-term funding in order to reduce the administrative burden on nonprofit organizations and allow for multi-year planning. Therefore, our Community Grant Program is a two-year grant cycle that offers unrestricted funding to be used for organizational operations or programs with the intention of increasing the efficacy of your work in the program area for which you are applying.  

This grant period will run from the award date in August 2024 to September 2026. As these are two-year cycles, our Community Grants run only every other year and therefore will not be open for application again until 2026.  

Grantees will be required to participate in a mid-cycle evaluation in the first year of the award, prior to the disbursement of the second year of funding.  A final report is required at the close of the grant period, 25 months after the initial award.  

Additional Grant Information

Funding Amounts and Duration

The maximum award for the multi-year Community Grants is a total of $60,000, $30,000 per year for two years. The grant review panel may reduce or increase award amounts at its discretion and based on funding availability.  

Grant Limitations

Grants are not intended for:

  • services and programs that are not focused on the program area in which the organization has applied
  • scholarships
  • individuals

Please visit the Eligibility Criteria & FAQs for a complete list of what the Foundation does not fund.

Eligibility Requirements

  • Organizations must be providing direct services or serving as a coordinating body to address the program area for which they applied (Behavioral Health & Health Care, Food, Shelter & Safety)  
  • Organizations must be well-managed, financially viable, and operate effective programs that primarily serve the needs of poor and underserved communities
  • Grants are only available to organizations serving within Santa Barbara County   
  • Organizations must be certified as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or use a fiscal sponsor with 501(c)(3) tax status. Applications that do not contain a valid EIN (tax ID) number will not be considered. Organizations using a fiscal sponsor must review the Eligibility Criteria & FAQs for additional information and instructions.

 

Important Dates

February 26, 2024 RFQ Period Opens
March 15, 2024 RFQ Deadline
April 8, 2024 Notification of Eligibility to Apply via SmartSimple
May 7, 2024 Grant Application Deadline
August 2024 Grant Awards Announced

Program Area Priorities:

Behavioral Health and Health Care Program Area

As behavioral health and health care services continue to be integrated to promote better health outcomes, beginning in 2022 the Santa Barbara Foundation combined its Behavioral Health and Health Care grant programs. 

Priority will be given to organizations that:  

  • demonstrate sustained and/or increased demand for behavioral health and/or health care services  
  • take steps to sustain or expand organizational capacity to address demand for services   
  • provide holistic approaches to serving clients, undertaken by the agency itself or in partnership with others  
  • demonstrate cultural competence among volunteers, staff, and board members for the communities served  
  • seek to dismantle language, cultural, and other barriers that prevent low-income and marginalized populations from accessing services  
  • develop strategies to address diversity, equity, inclusion, and access within their agency  
  • work in community-wide collaborative approaches to address behavioral health and/or health care issues  
  • address youth mental health needs 

For questions regarding the Behavioral Health & Health Care program area and funding eligibility, please contact Jenny Kearns, Director of Grantmaking at jkearns@sbfoundation.org or (805) 880-9363.  

Food

Priority will be given to organizations that:  

  • demonstrate sustained and/or increased demand for programs that provide food security  
  • take steps to sustain or expand organizational capacity to address demand for services   
  • provide holistic approaches to serving clients, undertaken by the agency itself or in partnership with others  
  • demonstrate cultural competence among volunteers, staff, and board members for the communities served  
  • seek to dismantle language, cultural, and other barriers that prevent low-income and marginalized populations from accessing services  
  • develop strategies to address diversity, equity, inclusion, and access within their agency  
  • work in community-wide collaborative approaches to address food insecurity  
  • serve seniors  

For questions regarding the Food program and funding eligibility please contact Bridgette Bugay, Program Officer at bbugay@sbfoundation.org or (805) 880-9354. 

Shelter & Safety

Priority will be given to organizations that:  

  • provide emergency shelter  
  • provide housing loss prevention assistance  
  • demonstrate sustained and/or increased demand for shelter and safety services, including housing loss prevention services  
  • take steps to sustain or expand organizational capacity to address demand for services   
  • provide holistic approaches to serving clients, undertaken by the agency itself or in partnership with others  
  • demonstrate cultural competence among volunteers, staff, and board members for the communities served  
  • seek to dismantle language, cultural, and other barriers that prevent low-income and marginalized populations from accessing services  
  • develop strategies to address diversity, equity, inclusion, and access within their agency  
  • work in community-wide collaborative approaches to address shelter, safety, and housing loss prevention issues  
  • prioritize the following vulnerable populations:  
  • youth who are homeless 
  • families with children, including pregnant mothers 
  • women 
  • seniors 
  • individuals fleeing domestic violence/sex trafficking  

For questions regarding the Shelter & Safety program areas and funding eligibility please contact Bridgette Bugay, Program Officer at bbugay@sbfoundation.org or (805) 880-9354.