Community Power Initiative RFP Update

We would like to thank all those who submitted a proposal for funding support through our the Community Power initiative. We have had the opportunity to perform an initial review on all the applications and wanted to provide a mid-process update.

• We received 209 submissions, including 27 collaborative proposals.
• They represent nonprofits and other community-based organizations from every corner of the county (and a few beyond that serve the people of Marin).
• The applications also represent a broad range of organization sizes and issue areas.
• The total amount being requested by the 209 applicants is $47 million.

We deeply appreciate the time and effort that was taken to develop the applications. They clearly reflect the commitment every single entity has in its desire to support Marin’s most marginalized communities. Our team has been poring through the submissions and has dedicated the next month to a thorough review of every single one, several times over, to ensure each receives the focus it deserves. We were hoping this new approach would reveal new organizations to us, and it has proven to be true!

With a total of $10 million allocated to this initiative, we want to emphasize a point we included in the RFP: we won’t be able to support all worthy organizations that have submitted proposals. We will also likely have to give many applicants grants that are lower-budget and/or shorter-term than what they applied for. We understand the outcomes will be disappointing to many of you — and we will be disappointed too — but hopefully this process will enable all of us to learn a lot and ultimately become even stronger organizations.

This initiative is MCF’s attempt to explore a new model to support Marin’s nonprofits by embracing an open RFP process and by offering multi-year, general operating support. We are piloting this because we want to reduce your administrative burden and because we want to convey the trust we have in you as organizations. We’ll learn, adjust, refine, and improve as we move forward. We encourage your candid feedback as we try to establish this as a viable grantmaking strategy for the future.

Grant awards will be announced by May 30, 2024. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact our community engagement team at ceteam@marincf.org.