Apply for a Grant through ECF: Puget Sound
The Employees Community Fund of Boeing Puget Sound (ECF) is an employee-owned nonprofit charitable foundation. The Board of Trustees consists of eight Boeing employees who serve a two-year term and are elected by Boeing employees who contribute to ECF. The trustees consider grants to 501(c)3 nonprofit Health and Human service agencies located in the Puget Sound area.
ECF accepts online applications at anytime and reviews them in the date-order received. There are no deadlines. However, due to the backlog of grant applications the time between receipt of the application and funding decision is approximately six months.
The Employees Community Fund should not be confused with The Boeing Company. They are two separate funding sources with different guidelines and strategies. You are in the Employees Community Fund application website, not the corporate site. For information about corporate funding strategies, please go to: http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/community/np_seek_sup.html
You are encouraged to phone the Grant Administrator at 206-544-9246 prior to applying for an ECF grant in order to discuss your request.
WHAT ECF FUNDS:
The Employee Community Fund considers funding to health and human service agencies in two areas:
1) Capital Grants:
- Equipment (office, kitchen industrial, furniture, etc.)
- Vehicles used to support clients and/or transport food
- Purchase or construction of new buildings
- Remodels and/or renovations (must hold at least a 10-year lease)
- Phone systems
- Computers for client use (if for administrative use only, there is a $10,000 cap)
2) Seed Money Grants:
Seed money grants support the first 12 months of a new program that promotes innovation in the delivery of services. It is not intended to support expansion of already existing programs. When reviewing applications for seed money, ECF considers funding for salaries and other operating expenses in support of the program being initiated. If an agency submits its application after the program has been started, ECF will consider funding for the remainder of the first year. Seed money grants do not include support of new, start-up agencies.
The Board of Trustees looks for the "direct client benefit" of each request. Although requests for capital to support purely administrative functions are acknowledged to be important for the efficient functioning of the agency, they are considered to have small direct client benefit and are not viewed favorably in the grant evaluation process
WHERE ECF FUNDS:
The trustees make grants to local 501(c) 3 nonprofit Health and Human service agencies in 11 Puget Sound counties where Boeing employees live and work. The 11 counties are: King, Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston, Kitsap, Skagit, Mason, Whatcom, Lewis, Island and Kittitas.
HOW MUCH ECF FUNDS:
The typical ECF grant ranges from $10,000 to $40,000. The request amount should be aligned with the budget for your agency. ECF looks for diversity of funding and community support for overall agency operations.
PUGET SOUND SPECIFICS:
Once you have logged into the Cybergrants application you'll be prompted to upload attachments such as the Audit, Agency Budget, Balance Sheet, 990 Form, etc. Because the Cybergrants application is used by other ECF's located at Boeing sites across the globe, we cannot format the application to fit all of our local grant specifications. Therefore, follow the Puget Sound specific instructions below:
- For capital requests upload a Bid Summary of three comparable bids/vendors. Do not upload the actual bids, just a summary and the vendor from whom you would like to purchase the items. Requests for capital building projects also must include specifics on the campaign, timelines and contractors estimates.
- Upload both Audit (with letter of finding) and 990. The application does not prompt you to do this, but the ECF Puget Sound trustees prefer to see both of these documents.
WHAT ECF DOES NOT FUND:
- Arts, Cultural and Environmental agencies
- Public and Private schools
- Tax-supported institutions (police and fire departments, city parks, etc.)
- New agencies that have been in business less than three years
- Recreational activities (Little Leagues, etc.)
- Individuals
- Medical research
- Hospital capital drives
- Vehicles for agency staff
- Warranties and equipment maintenance
- Reimbursement for items already purchased
- Paying off debt
- Fundraising and agency advertising
- National fund drives
- Specialized software for administrative use
REMINDER! Did you call the ECF Grant Administrator at 206-544-9246 to discuss your grant request? Make sure you do so prior to logging into Cybergrants. Thank you!
