2. What are your grant deadlines? We accept grant proposals at any time throughout the year. We usually complete a review and generate a first response within three months.

3. Can you send me an application? No. We do not use formal application forms. We ask that all proposals follow the guidelines described under "Applying for a Grant".

4. Can we meet with someone to discuss a possible proposal? Due to very limited resources, we rarely meet with applicants prior to the submission of written materials.

5. How often are proposals considered? The Foundation Board meets four times a year. Meetings are currently scheduled for March, June, September and December.

6. How will I know that you received my proposal? It is our practice to acknowledge receipt of all proposals. If you do not receive an acknowledgement within two or three weeks following mailing, you may call our offices and leave a message. The call-in number is (626) 796-2226. As a general rule we only pick up telephone messages on Thursdays.

7. Do you make grants to individuals? No

8. To whom should we address our proposal? All proposals should be addressed as follows:

Michael J Connell Foundation

776 East Green Street, Suite 230

Pasadena, CA 91101-5402

You need not designate a specific individual to receive your proposal.

9 Where should I messenger or hand deliver my proposal? You should not hand deliver or use a messenger service to deliver a proposal. Our offices are not open to the public, and messengers usually fail in their attempts to deliver packages. This results in long delays. We receive most hand delivered proposals long after we would have received them had they been mailed by regular mail.

10 Our proposal was rejected. Can you tell us why? The competition for grant funds is intense. Often, we reject proposals because we no longer have funds available for support. In other cases, proposals may not seem as compelling as competing proposals, may not meet our guidelines or may not fall within or current areas of concern. Generally, we do not give a specific reason why we reject a particular proposal.

11 If our proposal is rejected, may we submit another proposal? We do not limit the ability to submit additional proposals. However, we do not encourage the submission of the same proposal with a new "cover", unless we specifically encouraged you to do so. Please do not submit proposals, if, on reflection, it is clear your organization or its activities do not meet our guidelines.

12 When will I know when my proposal has been accepted or rejected? We consider most proposals at the first board meeting after the receipt of the proposal. If we have questions, we may contact you to resolve the questions and then consider the proposal again at a subsequent board meeting. Once we have made a decision, we communicate the decision in writing to the applicant.

13 Is there a geographic restriction on proposals? Yes. We currently only fund proposals from Southern California, South Western Montana and Austin, Texas applicants. We are not currently considering any applications from other areas.

14 Do you prefer to fund capital or program expenditures? We prefer program expenditures, in most cases. We generally give priority to these requests.

15 Will you make endowment gifts? While we have made exceptions, primarily to honor deceased directors, we ordinarily do not make gifts to endowment.

16 Will you make multi-year grants? We make multi-year grants only when the applicant has demonstrated a compelling need. Often these grants are designed to move new programs forward until they are able to obtain funding from more traditional sources or become self-sustaining. As a general rule, multi-year grants will not extend for more than two or three years.

17 Do you fund general operating expenses? We only fund these expenses in the context of a particular program that we support. Exceptions to this policy are extremely rare.

18 Do you require a letter of inquiry before we submit a proposal? No.

19 Should we wait to hear from you before we approach others? No. Regrettably, we are unable to support the vast majority of the proposals that we receive. It is always a good idea to submit applications to many sources of funding.

20 Are their areas where you do not make grants? Yes. Please see "What we do not fund."

21 Should we send letters of support with our proposal? Letters from politicians and from happy recipients of services are generally not helpful. Letters from individuals and organizations providing financial support and indicating why they do so can be helpful.

22 Will you visit our organization? We only visit applicants when we determine that their application has potential. We will contact you if we feel a site visit would be useful. We usually visit all applicants before we fund their proposal.

23 Do you fund scholarships? We do not fund scholarships for individuals.

24 How many grants are awarded each year? The number varies but usually between five and ten grants are made each year, excluding very small calendar year-end grants which we have traditionally made to five or six community institutions.

25 What is the average grant award? The average has ranged widely, but on an annual basis is between $25,000 and $100,000.

26 Where can we find a list of recent grants you have made? A list of grants is included in these materials. More detailed descriptions of some recent grants appear under the headings "Recent Cultural Grants", "Recent Environmental Grants", "Recent Educational Grants" and "Recent Medical Grants."

27 If our proposal is receiving favorable consideration is there a list of information that you are likely to request? Yes. Here is the list:

Financial information, including audited financial statements if your organization has annual revenues of $500,000 or more, or in-house statements signed by the chief financial officer and the chief executive officer if your revenues are less than $500,000.
A list of your directors, together with a short biography of each director.
Budgetary information, if relevant to the proposal under consideration.
Status report on other funding for the proposal under consideration.
More detailed information on the proposed endeavor, including a list and description of the qualifications of the individuals who will be in charge of day-to-day activities.