Who should apply?

Grants are available to 501c-3 organizations, projects with 501C-3 sponsoring organizations and individuals working on new, non-profit projects. Please read about our approach to funding individuals.

Read about Sparkplug's ideals and specific funding guidelines before applying, and visit some of our past grantees to learn what kind of work the foundation has supported. Please be aware that Sparkplug makes grants only for seed money, or to launch new ideas within existing projects. Also please read our list of expenses we don't fund.

Currently, our grants are open to people and organizations everywhere. However, we make very few international grants. The international grants we do make are limited to places where we're familiar with ongoing non-profit work, where we may be able to make site visits, etc. We regret that we can't make grants in areas where we're too unfamiliar with local work to be able to assess applications. Please call us to find out if we can fund in your area.

 

To apply:

First, call us for a talk-through of your proposal. Please be aware that we only consider applications that have been discussed with us in advance.

Next, complete and mail your application to our P.O. Box. If you cannot mail the application at all -- if you're applying from a location that doesn't have reliable mail service, for example -- call us to make another arrangement.

If you're applying as an organization or have a fiscal sponsor, use the Organization Application. If you're applying as an individual, use the Individual Application.

We need your application on or before the deadline. Note that some express mail services do not deliver to postal boxes, so plan ahead to use regular "snail mail." Don't plan to deliver it by hand to the P.O. box either; it will still be stamped and posted, and won't reach our box right away.

If we need additional materials from you, we will request them within a few days, and you will have a few days to provide them. Please see the time-table for application and funding dates.