2025 APPLICATION DETAILS

Thank you for your interest in a 2025 Impact Award from ninety-nine girlfriends. Our next Letter of Interest (LOI) submission window will open on Monday, February 24, 2025. Our 2024 cycle has concluded.  We will award four Impact Awards (one in each of our focus areas), and four Finalist Awards (one in each of our focus areas). Our 2025 grant pool and the size of our awards will be announced in early May 2025 at the conclusion of our annual membership cycle. You can read more about the grant-making timeline here. 

REVIEW CRITERIA

We award grants in four focus areas: Child & Youth Educational Equity, Environmental Equity and Sustainability, Housing & Home Stability, and Women’s Economic Empowerment. We invite nonprofits to submit a request for support if their mission focuses primarily on one of these focus areas. See the history of our grants from 2016-2024 here. 

Our grant process begins with the submission of Letters of Interest which are due March 21, 2025, no later than midnight. Then, we use our internal processes to select those most aligned with our vision and values. These organizations will be invited to submit full applications.

Review teams will use the following criteria to decide which organizations will advance as finalists for funding in 2025. We will gather and review information from applicants’ websites and other sources in addition to application materials.

ELIGIBILITY

Ninety-nine girlfriends welcomes applications that meet all of the following criteria. 

  • The applicant is a 501(c)(3) or a Tribal Entity or has a tax-exempt fiscal sponsor.*

  • The applicant can show annual revenue of at least $100,000 in the most recently completed fiscal year.**

  • The applicant has operated as a 501(c)(3) or been fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)(3) in the state of Oregon and/or SW Washington for at least three full years as of April 1, 2025.

  • The grant funding will be used exclusively in one or more of the following Portland/SW Washington counties: Clackamas, Clark, Multnomah, and/or Washington.

  • The applicant  is submitting only one LOI though may be listed as a partner on an LOI from a different organization. [If this is the case, please contact the Grants Steering Committee for further discussion.]

*If you are not an independent 501(c)(3), you still must meet the annual revenue and years-in-operation criteria (see above).

** In most cases, we will verify this using the first page of your form 990. However, if your organization's budget includes significant in-kind professional services (e.g., you're a community health clinic staffed by volunteer doctors and nurses, or a free legal clinic staffed by pro bono attorneys) we will also accept internal financial statements showing the value of these services as part of your income/expense. These must be year-end statements for your most recently completed fiscal year.

USE OF FUNDS

Funds may be used for general operating support to advance your mission.  

RESTRICTIONS

We do not award grants to:

  • Organizations whose primary mission is to advance a specific person’s political campaign

  • Lobbying, as defined here: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/lobbying

  • 501(c)(4)s - Because ninety-nine girlfriends’ grants are unrestricted and cannot be used for lobbying or political campaigning expenses, we cannot grant to 501(c)(4) organizations

  • Endowment funding

  • General capital campaigns, as described here: https://www.donorsearch.net/capital-campaigns-guide/

  • Churches or church-affiliated programs receiving more than 30% of their base support from or through a church or religious organization.  

  • Any activities/programs/organizations that require adherence to religious/faith beliefs or practices as a condition of service or employment.