Our Letter of Inquiry submission period is now open for proposals that are sponsored by one of our board members or are from one of our current grantees.

We have reached the maximum number of unsponsored proposals that we will be accepting this grant cycle, and have stopped accepting new unsponsored proposals in accordance with the guidance below. The information below applies to our 2022 – 2023 funding cycle.

The following is a description of our grants. Please read this before requesting support.

The Tomberg Family Philanthropies has made significant changes to our application process for the 2022 – 2023 grant cycle.

  • Limit On the Number of Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) We Accept: We will only be accepting a set number of Letters of Inquiry this cycle, approximately 50. Previously we accepted all LOIs received by a set deadline. Once the submission period opens, please do not delay submitting your Letter of Inquiry in order to ensure that your LOI will be reviewed.
  • Simplified LOI Form: We have significantly reduced both the complexity and the number of questions on our Letter of Inquiry form.
  • Funding Areas: This funding cycle we will again be accepting applications in all four of our funding areas, which are Education, the Environment, Health and Poverty Alleviation.
  • Current Grantees: We will accept requests up to the submission deadline for additional funding from all the projects we funded in the last grant cycle that are eligible for additional grants. We normally can only offer support for up to three years for each program we fund. This limit is by project, not organization. Current grantees will not be subject to the limit on the number of Letters of Inquiry we accept.
  • Sponsored Proposals: Proposals sponsored by a Tomberg Family Philanthropies Board Member also will not be subject to the limit on the number of Letters of Inquiry we accept.

We are making these changes in order to reduce the amount of time applying organizations spend working on applications that ultimately will not be funded. In our 2021 – 2022 funding cycle, we received 295 applications and were only able to fund 4% of them. These changes should significantly improve the percentage of projects we are able to support.
The Tomberg Family Philanthropies only makes grants to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations based in the United States and certain government entities or public institutions in the United States such as public schools and universities. We fund projects worldwide that are run by these organizations.
Our grants normally range from $5,000 to $20,000.
Due to the limited size and number of our grants, we normally are not able to support ongoing operations of existing programs. We look for funding opportunities such as pilot programs, demonstration projects, support of new programs, capacity building or evaluations that allow us to make a larger difference with limited funds than would be possible otherwise.
We normally can only offer support for up to three years for each program we fund.
In most cases, we initially will make grants to support individual projects only. We generally will not make grants to fund the operational expenses of non-profit organizations. After the first year, if continued funding is approved, a portion of the grants may be designated for capacity building efforts.
We do not make grants to religious organizations or to fund projects run by religious organizations.
In our 2021 – 2022 funding cycle, we were able to fund approximately 4% of the organizations that submitted Letters of Inquiry to us.
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