Kresge Challenge Grants:
Building Capacity, Not Buildings

By Jennifer Furla, Executive Vice President
Kansas City

In the earliest of planning for nearly every campaign, the question arises: What about support from outside of our area?  What about a Kresge grant?

While not appropriate for every campaign – those with a goal that is very modest, that will not seek broad community support or that will move at a rate that will outpace the Kresge review process – a Kresge grant can be a significant momentum-building boost to your campaign. But, more so, it’s a distinct opportunity to learn and follow best practices in fundraising and development.

The Kresge Foundation’s materials tell us that the Foundation is about more than issuing grants for capital campaigns. In 2005, they gave out more than $132 million in support. But look at how they describe the Foundation:

“The Kresge Foundation is a $3 billion national foundation that builds stronger nonprofit organizations—catalyzing their growth, helping them connect with their stakeholders, and challenging them with grants that leverage greater support."

No mention of the word capital campaign. Nor is it found in their mission statement:

“Our mission is to strengthen nonprofit organizations that advance the well-being of humanity. We believe that strong, sustainable, high-capacity organizations are positioned to achieve their missions and strengthen communities.” 

Strong, sustainable, high-capacity organizations are better positioned to achieve their missions and strengthen their communities. When you understand that this is more of what the Kresge capital challenge is all about, you’ll be more likely to receive a challenge for your campaign. Moreover, you will most certainly benefit from the grant application process.

The Kresge application process is lengthy: currently four to six months or more, and previously up to nine months if you included time to prepare for and attend a pre-application consultation. (The Foundation discontinued these as of February 2007). It’s time consuming and a bit arduous. Some question whether it’s worth it for a challenge that generally falls between $250,000 and $1,000,000, according to the Foundation’s guidelines.

It is my firm opinion that just the process of preparing a Kresge application can strengthen your organization and your development operations by engaging you in a thorough examination of what the Foundation is really asking for in the way of information, and by formulating sound responses to the questions they pose for your grant application narrative.

Are you diverse?  If not, in what measurable ways are you working to increase diversity to match or exceed the overall diversity that is reflected in your community or service area?

Do you have a strong board and volunteer organization? Are board members making significant annual gifts and helping to solicit gifts?

If you’ve conducted previous campaigns, what lessons did you learn and how has that served to inform your current campaign strategy? 

How will a Kresge challenge help strengthen your organization and bring in new donors and volunteers?  How will you leverage a challenge to reach broad constituencies?  What steps will you take to involve campaign donors in your annual appeals now and in the future?

The support forms that you must file with your narrative – the Kresge Fact Sheet, Gift Charts and Annual Support Form – offer an opportunity to scrutinize your campaign and project planning, your financial stability and the vitality of your development operations.

For the astute nonprofit manager or development director, the financial data you provide, the manner in which the Annual Support Form breaks down fundraising income by activity and source, the project and service information you provide on the Fact Sheet, and the manner in which you are asked to detail gifts received and prospective donors on the Gift Charts, all work together to quickly point out areas in which you should focus to succeed. They truly give you a 360-degree view of your organization, your fundraising and your campaign.

Once you’ve submitted your application, this is really just the beginning of your work and relationship with the Foundation. During the four-plus months that your application is under review, you can expect to be contacted two, three or maybe more times to provide updates of your campaign progress and to answer incisive questions about your organization, your project and your campaign plan.

The entire process is highly transparent and can be brutally revealing. It’s not a place to “sugar coat” your organizational strengths and weaknesses, or your financial and development picture. That being said, after receiving and successfully completing more than a few Kresge challenges, I can soundly recommend the Kresge challenge grant as a true capacity building opportunity for your organization.