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Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
I. Pre-Application Calls or Visits
Because of the large number of proposals the Foundation receives, it is not possible for staff to meet with all potential applicants or review ideas for proposals prior to the grant cycle. You are encouraged to review the Grant Application Guidelines closely for answers to your questions.
Trustees generally prefer that applicants utilize the staff of the Foundation for discussions and correspondence regarding their organizations and grant applications. Most trustees are willing to communicate with applicants and each has expressed the method of preferred contact. You may contact the Foundation office for a list of trustees and their stated preference for how they wish to be contacted.
II. Eligibility
501(c)(3) Status
Yes. However, if a grant is approved, it will not be paid until the certification is received.
No. The Foundation will not make a “pass through” grant to one organization for use by another organization.
Grant Recipients
No. The Foundation makes grants only to nonprofit, charitable organizations exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code or to governmental units.
Yes, the Foundation respects efforts of organizations to work together. The primary issue for a coalition or collaborative effort of different non-profits and the application is determining the fiscal partner. The fiscal partner needs to serve in a policy-setting role for the work, be a non-profit, and be willing to be responsible for fiscal management and reporting related to the project. The fiscal partner should be the applicant and would be recipient of the grant if one is awarded.
Organizations located outside of North Carolina may only apply for a grant if they are requesting funds for work in the state of North Carolina.
Re-Application
No. You must submit a new application, including all required materials as if you were a first-time applicant.
Yes. You may apply as many times as you wish regardless of whether a grant is approved or not. If you are a prior grant recipient, you must have submitted the required reporting forms in order for a new application to be considered.
III. Deadlines
The following Monday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
IV. Submission Process
Accessing My Application
We do not mail, fax or e-mail application forms. Application forms must be submitted using the Foundation’s online submission system found at IGAM access.
The Foundation will not accept proposals by mail, fax or e-mail, and such proposals will not be considered as having met the deadline. All applications must be submitted using the Foundation’s online submission system found at IGAM access.
Please click here to examine the list of state Internet access sites. You may work on your application and save it online using any computer with Internet access. If you are still unable to complete your application online, please contact the Foundation; staff will provide you with an alternative method of submitting your application.
Online Application Logistics
After you have started your application, click on the save and finish later button on the bottom of the page. You will be asked to provide your e-mail address (which will be used as your account I.D.). If you are a new applicant, click the New Applicant box and then click continue. You will be asked to create an Applicant Account (later referred to as MY ACCOUNT). YOU MUST CREATE AN ACCOUNT OR YOUR APPLICATION WILL NOT BE SAVED. In creating your account, you will choose a password. You will later use your e-mail address and password so that you or others in your organization can access this account in the future.
You may click on this link or go to the Forms and Publications section of the Foundation's website. Enter your e-mail address, choose "I am a returning online applicant, enter your password and then click ‘Continue.’
Please read the entire list of Frequently Asked Questions and other relevant application information on the Foundation’s website at www.zsr.org. If you still have problems, please contact the Foundation.
Completing My Application
The Foundation suggests, but does not require, the use of Times New Roman, Arial, or a similar universal font in size 12. Please do not use smaller fonts, except for when necessary in budget documents.
Click browse to search for the appropriate file and then click on upload.
Each question will state the number of available lines after the question in parenthesis. Hopefully, this will help you plan your responses. The text box for each question, however, will not cut your response off when you have reached your limit. Please count your lines to be sure they meet the Foundation’s length restrictions. If you need more room, please attempt to condense or re-state your answer. Any text longer than the number of lines requested will not be seen by the Foundation’s staff and Trustees. The final question on the application, however, is designed to allow you to tell us whatever you did not have the opportunity to state previously.
No, but the amount requested should be reasonable in relation to your overall budget and operations.
| Microsoft Word | Online Application | ||||
| 4 lines/340 characters | 10 | ||||
| 7 lines/520 characters | 15 | ||||
| 9.5 lines/690 characters | 20 | ||||
| 12 lines/865 characters | 25 | ||||
| 15 lines/1,030 characters | 30 | ||||
| 23 lines/1,730 characters | 60 |
Submitting My Application
You will receive an e-mail from the Foundation confirming that your application has been received.
Each application should be submitted separately through the Foundation’s online submission system.
V. Financial Information and Budgets
General Budget Information
- Financial documents generate the most common source of incomplete materials submitted to the Foundation. The Foundation seeks to request documents that organizations are likely to have prepared already and tries to minimize the need to create new documents just to apply to the Foundation. At the beginning of this set of frequently asked questions, the Foundation offers the following definitions to help clarify what we seek in financial information:
– The budget is a working document adopted by the organization’s board of directors that shows the sources from which the organization plans to raise its income (also referred to as revenue) to support its work for the year. The document also shows the ways in which the organization plans to spend its income (that is, what programs, operations, etc. does the organization plan to pay for). Both the revenue and the expenses need to be listed on the budget document, and the total of revenue expected needs to equal the total of funds to be expended.
– This statement tracks how the organization is doing financially toward both raising anticipated revenue as well as spending toward planned programs and activities. The Foundation asks for both year-to-date actuals as well as actuals for the most recently completed fiscal year. Many organizations typically submit the budget but overlook submitting the statements of actuals. The Foundation does not need a line-item spread sheet of expenses. Grouping together different types of expenses under one header (for example staff travel) is preferable to specific statements of each trip taken and the expense paid.
- A fiscal condition which may occur at the end of a fiscal year, whereby expenses for a fiscal year exceed the actual revenues during the same period plus the prior year’s carry-forward.
Transferring My Budget Information
The Foundation recognizes that different organizations have different fiscal years and that creating reports for recently completed fiscal years can be challenging based on the Foundation’s deadlines. For example, for an organization with a calendar fiscal year (January 1 – December 31) that is applying by the February 1 deadline, audited statements are not usually available for the most recently completed fiscal year. Therefore, the Foundation accepts statements which are prepared by the organization’s management. You can label the documents “management prepared and unaudited.” For the August 1 deadline, organizations with a fiscal year that runs July 1 through June 30 encounter a similar problem. Whether audited or management prepared, the Foundation is looking for a statement of the most recently completed year’s actual revenue and expenses.
Timing of Budget Documents
What the Foundation needs is a budget for the period over which the organization plans to spend the funds requested in the grant application. There are several factors that create questions for non-profits in terms of providing the next fiscal year’s projected budget. One issue is the organization’s fiscal year relative to when the funds requested will be used. For example, an organization with a fiscal year that runs July 1 through June 30 might apply by the August 1 deadline for a project that starts in the following January and runs for twelve months. The organization would have its current budget, and it could show how the funds would be spent in the last six months of the current fiscal year. However, for the remaining six months, the Foundation still needs to know how the funds would be spent though the organization would not have adopted the budget for the next fiscal year. What most organizations do is submit a draft budget for the following year. A draft projected budget is sufficient for this situation. Organizations submitting multi-year requests encounter similar problems. It is permissible to submit a multi-year combined draft budget for requests that would expend funds beyond the organization’s currently adopted budget.
Budget Income and Expenses
The Foundation views the budget as the working financial document that shows what the Board approved to guide fiscal operations through the fiscal year. Once that fiscal year is complete, the Foundation is looking for a statement of how the organization’s income (or revenue) as well as expenses compared to what was projected for the previous year. Some organizations find it easiest to combine the prior fiscal year’s budget with another column showing the actual income and expenses for the organization. This format is fine and provides two of the requested documents on one sheet. Please label the document to indicate what information is being presented and over what time frame. The statements can be management-prepared if audited figures are not available.
Budget Audits
The Foundation does not require an audit as a prerequisite to receiving a grant, though the Foundation recognizes that one of the best financial management practices for maturing organizations is to perform an audit within the parameters of standard accounting practices.
VI. Universities
Please submit the operating budget for your project.
If your project has an Advisory or Governing Board or Committee, please submit information on this Board. The information provided on staff should reflect the staff of your project.
Please submit documents for your specific project.
VII. Application Content
Please refer to the sample responses for each question found on your online application. In addition, you may read over the Grant Application Guidelines.
VIII. Application Decisions
The Foundation notifies applicants in writing within a week of the Board meeting date. Formal notices to organizations receiving grants may take two or three weeks to process.
Payment of grants may be requested as soon as the grant paperwork is complete. Grantees should request payment at least 30 days prior to the desired payment date. Checks will be issued during the first week of the month following the request for payment.
No. All decisions are made by the Board and announced after its meetings.
IX. Foundation History
No. The Foundation was created by the brother and two sisters of Z. Smith Reynolds, and is sustained by two trusts created by Reynolds family members. Beyond this historical connection, there is no affiliation between the Foundation and R.J. Reynolds companies.
