There is no deadline for the submission of an inquiry. We accept inquiries at any time during the year. Submit your inquiry using our Letter of Inquiry form. The GIF is equivalent to a “letter of inquiry”.

Our initial inquiry process is straightforward, so we hope that most of your questions will be answered by simply reviewing our website and our Letter of Inquiry form – see question 1 above. We encourage you to fill out and submit the GIF as your introduction to the Foundation. If you still have questions after you have reviewed the website and GIF, please feel free to call us.

Yes, you may call. However, we will confirm receipt of your Letter of Inquiry form by email within a few days of our receiving it. In the email, we will let you know the timeframe in which we expect to review your GIF and respond to your inquiry. If you find a need to call, we suggest that you wait at least 30 days after your GIF is submitted before calling us to inquire about its status.

Concise is better. Please include your website address. That is the first place we look for additional information to help us understand your work.

No, please do not. The information requested in our Letter of Inquiry form is all we are equipped to handle at this stage of the process. However, you may direct us to your website. From time to time, we may request additional materials to help us better understand your work.

Please call or send another email. We send a confirmation email to every potential grantseeker. If you did not receive this email we did not receive your Letter of Inquiry or there was an oversight on our part.

If at least 30 days have gone by without a response, you are welcome to call or send an email; we apologize for the delay on our part.

Yes, you are welcome to send in a new inquiry, although we encourage you to review our Grantmaking Priorities as well as the other Grantseekers – Inquiries web pages before you submit it. If you believe your initial inquiry was a good match, you may also request feedback to better understand if a new inquiry is worth your time. Unless we indicate to the contrary in our correspondence to you, we generally prefer that grantseekers wait at least 12 months before submitting a new inquiry.

This timeline varies from cycle to cycle and year to year and may differ among grantseekers in different program areas. We also take into consideration our ability to make new grants and the allocation of our limited resources. Please consult our Current Perspective on Grant Inquiries page for more information regarding our current grantmaking outlook. If there is not a good match, we will generally let you know within a month to six weeks. If there is a potential match and we are in a position to make on new grant, lead time can be anywhere from a few months to a year. Grantseekers who are of interest will be contacted by the program officer assigned to review your file. Once assigned, our program officer will try to stay in touch with you so you have a realistic understanding of our process and anticipated timetable. If necessary, you are welcome to call your program officer to learn more about the status of your inquiry.

This is not necessary as we give every applicant the same level of review. In order to ensure fairness and consistency, our staff reviews every Letter of Inquiry form.

Your organization must have a valid Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) and a letter ruling from the IRS which confirms that you are an organization described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code before you can apply for a grant from our Foundation. Generally, we fund very few start-up organizations, but if you feel you closely match one of our areas of current interest, please fill out the Letter of Inquiry form. See question 1 above.

This is not a simple question! You will need to be able to demonstrate to our satisfaction that your organization is a Type I or Type II supporting organization or is a “functionally integrated” Type III supporting organization before we will consider funding. This may require you to submit an opinion from your legal counsel to that effect. We urge you to consult with legal or tax counsel regarding this matter and whether you will be able to provide the appropriate documentation before you submit an inquiry.

In most cases with organizations in or near Chicago, we will try to visit grantseekers before issuing a grant application invitation. We believe a face to face visit allows us to understand your work at a deeper level than is possible through written materials or telephone calls. Please be aware a visit does not mean you will be invited to submit an application or receive a grant.

In most cases our initial grants are project specific. If an organization’s mission aligns closely with our mission, we may consider funding general operations. In general we do not make multi-year commitments to new grantseekers. We do not fund individuals, underwrite events or fund capital projects. Please see our Grant Limitations for further guidance.

We make very few education grants outside of the Chicago area and, in most cases, we would initiate contact with prospective grantees outside the area. Thus, it is unlikely that an unsolicited inquiry will result in a positive response from the Foundation. If, however, you believe your program is a close match with one of our current areas of interest and provides a unique grantmaking opportunity, we encourage you to contact our office to discuss your program before you submit a Letter of Inquiry form. A member of our staff will be able to advise you whether it makes sense to submit a written inquiry.