VT Women's Fund 2011 Grant Round Q & A

1. 

   CommonGood VT
   Moderator

   Are you in the process of preparing a proposal for the VT Women's Fund 2011 Grant Round? Do you have questions? We are here to help!

   VWF Director, Catherine Kalkstein, will be available RIGHT HERE AT THIS URL on the following dates via live, online Q & A:

   Thursday, January 6 from 10 to 11 am

   A username/password is required to participate. Please sign up now at http://forums.commongoodvt.org/register.php/.

   PLEASE GO TO LAST PAGE FOR MOST CURRENT Q & A and REFRESH PAGE FREQUENTLY!!!

   If you have any questions, please contact the VWF at 802-398-2300 or info@vermontwomensfund.org

   Having difficulty registering for the forum? Give Nick Carter a ring @ (802) 862 - 1645 ext.21

   Scroll down for the December Forum Dialogue

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   Vermont Womens Fund
   Member

   Greetings grant seekers! VWF staff will be online at 10 am this morning to answer your questions about our upcoming grant round. We encourage you to read through our new funding guidelines beforehand. They can be found at http://www.vermontwomensfund.org/guide-for-grantseekers/ along with the application materials for the 2011 round.

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   Vermont Womens Fund
   Member

   Hi! This is Catherine and Joanne from the VWF ready to take your questions.

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. 

   CommonGood VT
   Moderator

   Catherine and Joanne, Thanks for moderating today's forum. When is the deadline for the 2011 grant round?

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. 

   CommonGood VT
   Moderator

   and just a reminder for today's participants, be sure to refresh your web browser every couple of minutes or so for the most current Q & A!

   Posted 1 year ago #
6. 

   CSargent
   Member

   Good morning.

   I understand the new push for programs addressing financial issues that face women – particularly young women. Would programs that target preventing and healing from family/sexual violence issues be considered under this round of grant funding? Promoting self-advocacy is a major component of our programs.

   Posted 1 year ago #
7. 

   Alisa DelTufo
   Member

   Greetings: I am wondering what the funding levels are, are there matching requirements and how long the duration of the grants will be?

   Posted 1 year ago #
8. 

   Vermont Womens Fund
   Member

   The deadline for the 2011 grant round is Monday, January 24th at midnight.

   Posted 1 year ago #
9. 

   Vermont Womens Fund
   Member

   CSargent - Thanks for your question. We love the self-advocacy component you mentioned, but there would also need to be a focus of the program on career development / job skills that would directly support future economic security for those young women.

   Posted 1 year ago #
10. 

    Vermont Womens Fund
    Member

    Alisa - the largest grants we award are $10,000. There are no matching requirements, and term of the grant is 1 year.

    Posted 1 year ago #
11. 

    Wally Roberts
    Member

    Hi, this Wally Roberts at Spectrum Youth and Family Services in Burlington. I have a couple of questions to start.

    1. There is a 5-page limit to the application narrative. Not counting the blocked space to begin our answers, there is approximately one full page of text devoted to the questions we are to answer, effectively leaving us with only 4 pages for our answers. Is this your intention, or may we submit a 6-page narrative?

    2. Because many of the youth we serve are runaways or under 18 and therefore subject to being returned to their parents or being placed in state custody if they are reported to authorities, we do not ask our clients for detailed demographic information. Will we be at a disadvantage in answering question 5 on the Narrative?

    Posted 1 year ago #
12. 

    Alisa DelTufo
    Member

    It seems that the intent is to fund for multiple years. Will there be a new application each year? Is there a focus on sustaining these projects over 3 years or is it really a year to year initiative?

    Posted 1 year ago #
13. 

    Vermont Womens Fund
    Member

    Hi Wally. 1. Yes, that is our intention for the max size to be 5 pages INCLUDING the blocked space and pre-set text. 2. No, you will just need to explain on the application why that information is unavailable so our reviewers will understand clearly.

    Posted 1 year ago #
14. 

    CSargent
    Member

    Thank you very much.
    What sort of timeline are you looking for in this round of grant funding? E.g. Would you like us to have programs already scheduled before we submit the grant, or is outreach included in our timeline?

    Posted 1 year ago #
15. 

    Vermont Womens Fund
    Member

    Alisa - Though this new funding initiative will span at least 3 years, a new application to the annual grant round will be required each year even if you are requesting repeat funding for a previously funded project. Please be aware that we like to see the lessons learned from year to year are incorporated into the growth and changes of a project.

    Posted 1 year ago #
16. 

    bgcvergennes
    Member

    Is VWF willing to fund additional years of a project if growth and change is included?

    Posted 1 year ago #
17. 

    Vermont Womens Fund
    Member

    CSargent - We do not impose any type of timeline requirement other than the fact that a project can not be ending prior to June 2011. If it is an exising project then we would like to see the concrete timeline for the coming year, but if the project is just starting up then having outreach built into the timeline is fine.

    Posted 1 year ago #
18. 

    Vermont Womens Fund
    Member

    bcvergennes - yes, we will definitely consider funding a project for more than one year if growth and change is included.

    Posted 1 year ago #
19. 

    Wally Roberts
    Member

    1. How will you be evaluating the applications? For instance, in the Narrative will the responses to Section B-Community Need and Project Design "count" more than Section D-Assessing Outcomes. Will the responses to Appendix B, Biographies of Program Staff count more than the responses to Appendix C, Program budget?

    2. I'm not sure what you mean by the question at the bottom of Appendix C, "...explain how your organization is supporting this project (i.e. Are project expenses included in the organization's annual operating budget? **If so, in what capacity/)** It's that "in what capacity" that has got me stumped. Please clarify.

    Wally

    Posted 1 year ago #
20. 

    Vermont Womens Fund
    Member

    Hi. Just a reminder to folks to refresh your screen periodically to stay current with the dialog.

    Posted 1 year ago #
21. 

    Vermont Womens Fund
    Member

    Wally. Thanks. 1. The application is evaluated as a whole, not with differing weight given to certain pieces. 2. As an example, we'd like to know if there is specific funding (or in-kind support) from an organization's overall budget that is already allocated to this project, or will the project only be possible with support from outside the organization.

    Posted 1 year ago #
22. 

    Aellsworth
    Member

    Hi Catherine and Joanne. This is Ashleigh Ellsworth-Keller from the DREAM Program. We are interested in writing a grant to help fund our Teen Counselor-in-Training Program, which includes many of the guidelines you've listed, including job skills training, self-advocacy, and vocational opportunities, to name a few. Our demographic for the program is approximately 2/3 female and 1/3 male. Would this project still be eligible under the guidelines? Would we need to specify that we were asking for funding ONLY for the female participants? Thanks!

    Posted 1 year ago #
23. 

    Vermont Womens Fund
    Member

    Wally - just to add some additional thoughts for #2 above, this is a new question on our application and we're just interested in understanding an organization's commitment to not only making a project happen but also to sustaining it internally. This is not a make or break question, however, just a point of information for our reviewers.

    Posted 1 year ago #
24. 

    Wally Roberts
    Member

    The third bullet point on Appendix A reads in part "...within the grant period of May 2011 to May 2010..." shouldn't that be "May 2011 to May 2012"? Or am I missing something?

    Posted 1 year ago #
25. 

    Vermont Womens Fund
    Member

    Hi Ashleigh. We definitely recognize that many of the valuable programs serving the 15-25 yr age group will be mixed gender to some extent, and that's ok. However, if awarded funds we would like that grant to specifically support the participation of the young women in the program, and additionally, we would want to see that the programming also includes a gender-specific component, IE. providing the opporutnity for communication, leadership, team-building, etc that is specifically focused on the needs/learning style of young women.

    Posted 1 year ago #
26. 

    Alisa DelTufo
    Member

    Hi again, I am wondering how many grants you believe you will be making in this round of funding? Also, how do you feel about collaboration amongst organizations, as long as there is a lead agency?

    Posted 1 year ago #
27. 

    Vermont Womens Fund
    Member

    Wally, yes that's correct, 2012. Thanks!

    Posted 1 year ago #
28. 

    Vermont Womens Fund
    Member

    Alisa - We definitely encourage collaboration between organizations! Thanks. The number of grants we'll be able to award is hard to predict, however, as it depends on the size and number applications received as well as the amount of funding we have available to award, (which at this point we anticipate will be $60-70k).

    Posted 1 year ago #
29. 

    Wally Roberts
    Member

    Thanks for the additional thoughts about the budget question I had. They were helpful.

    Posted 1 year ago #
30. 

    CSargent
    Member

    In follow up to Alisa's question, I know that the idea of collaboration has been on many of our minds for a long time and that many organizations have been struggling to find organizations to collaborate with. I imagine VWF, as they look at proposals each year, might see many obvious collaborations that we might miss out in the field. Is there a way to share that information?

    Posted 1 year ago #

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