Eligibility​

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Please note that organizations are only eligible to apply once in any calendar year. If an organization is declined two consecutive calendar years, we ask they wait at least one calendar year before applying.

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Open Application

We keep our application process as open as possible because we believe that every organization is deserving of consideration. All 501(c)3 organizations are welcome to submit an application; no invitation is needed to apply for RTNF funding. 

 

An open application process comes with pros and cons. While it reduces barriers to apply and allows RTNF to hear from applicants outside of our normal networks and applicants with creative programs, it also means we receive many applications. Even among competitive applicants, with whom staff may feel strong potential for alignment and partnership, RTNF only has the capacity to fund about 10% of our most competitive applications each year. Additionally, we are a foundation with a very small staff and we try to limit air travel because of its effect on the climate. This means we often are not able to perform in-person site visits outside of our geographic region (Utah). 

 

Due to these constraints, we generally discourage applications that are outside of Utah unless a prospective applicant is supported by a strategic funder that is very well aligned with RTNF (sometimes referred to as a "peer funder"). If you're unsure whether your organization is supported by a funder that qualifies, you may send a list of your current funders and this year's operating budget to info@rtnf.org to determine if one of your current funders qualifies. If your organization isn't located in Utah or doesn't share a peer funder, it may be impossible for us to complete due diligence of your organization, in which case we advise an organization not to apply.

 

While we want to keep our application process as open as possible, we have incorporated this recommendation to prospective applicants because we believe your time is immensely valuable, and we would hate for any of it to be wasted on our application process if we aren't able to offer your organization the attention it deserves.

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Organization Size

For internationally operating organizations, we typically fund organizations or programs with operating budgets ranging from $5-20 million per year. 

 

For Utah-based organizations, we typically fund organizations or programs with operating budgets of over $350,000.

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Grant Request Term

As RTNF prepares to sunset, we are making changes for our suggested grant terms. We provide only 1-2 year commitments at a time, but partners can apply for renewal at the end of each grant if desired. New applicants should note that if they apply for a single year of funding, there will be a gap of about a year and a half before they are eligible for more funding due to reporting timelines.

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Maximum Request Amount

First and foremost, we strongly encourage applicants not to make grant requests that will, if awarded, harm their organizations in the event that we do not or cannot renew funding at the end of the grant period. It is up to the applicant to design the request in such a way that limits the risk to its organization should we choose to grant your request but refuse a renewal request in the future. In addition to these recommendations, we also generally recommend that applicants request 5-8% of a program or organization budget from us.