The Service and Justice Committee accepts grant requests from individuals or organizations looking to fund efforts that would promote service and/or justice in our local community, the nation or the world. The committee focuses on local charities, but also considers national and international charities for grants. Meetings are held four times a year, or as needed, to select recipients for grants.
Due to the Internal Revenue regulations governing Faith Weavers as a tax exempt organization, every grant given must go to a 501 (c)(3)charity or church organization that has declared their goals and report on how they spend their money. This committee does the research to make sure that recipient organizations meet the government outline for charities. Charity Navigator is a website that lists this information.
Grant requests are studied and discussed by the committee, looking for merit and impact. They are then prioritized by importance as determined by the committee. Some criteria used include: relevance to service or justice issues, impact the funding will have on the target population, any connection to Faith Weavers community, the potential that the project will go forward if not funded by Faith Weavers, the administrative cost of the requesting organization is between 0% and 20% of donations, past grants from Faith Weavers to the organization, how successful the organization has been in their performance of their mission. There may be other criteria used that are relevant to a specific request.
When more information is needed, someone from the organization or agency may be asked to come to speak with the committee.
Funding grant requests may be affected by how many requests are received during a granting period. Requests are sometimes held over to the next period when monies are not available.