Adobe Employee Community Fund

Grant Applicant Guidelines and Resources Toolkit


Table of Contents
2 Introduction
3 Guidelines and Eligibility
6 Most Common Mistakes
8 Developing a Strong Proposal
9 Review Process
9 Grant Narrative
11 Financial Information
11 Organizational Finances
11 Grant Budget
12 Do’s and Don’ts
14 Frequently Asked Questions
Introduction
Thank you for your interest in the Adobe
Employee Community Fund (ECF)!
ECF is an employee-driven grantmaking
program that supports organizations
addressing challenges affecting the
communities where our employees live
and work. Each participating Adobe office
has its own grantmaking budget, and the
proposal you submit will be reviewed by a
panel of employees at that local office. In
2019, ECF awarded US $3.84 million in
grants to 192 organizations across 20 offices
worldwide. The proposal provides an
opportunity for us to learn more about your
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organization and for you to share ideas about
how ECF can support your programs should
you be selected as a grant recipient.
We developed this Guidelines and Resources
Toolkit to help you better understand what
makes a strong ECF proposal and to share
answers to the questions we receive the most
often from applicants. You’ll get a behind-
the-scenes look into who will be reviewing
your proposal and what they’ll be considering.
We also included some tips under our “Do’s
and Don’ts” section and a Frequently Asked
Questions section for those who are looking
for quick answers.
Guidelines and Eligibility
GUIDELINES AND ELIGIBILITY
Guidelines and Eligibility
Grant Terms:
ECF grants are in the amount of US $20,000 and are
for a period of one year from when grant funds are
disbursed.
Impact Areas:
Each local office voted on the impact areas that it
will prioritize investments in this year, and grants
must work to address the challenges facing the
community in one of these impact areas. The
full list of impact areas by site is available in the
proposal. You can also see if your work fits within
one of the eligibility impact areas by completing
the Eligibility Quiz at the beginning of the proposal.
Sites’ chosen impact areas change each year, so if
your work does not fit into one of these areas, we
encourage you to check back next year.
* Adobe strives to create a pleasant, productive, and creative work environment for all employees. To that end, we are committed to providing a workplace that is free
from unlawful discrimination and harassment against any person on the basis of sex, age, race, color, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, marital status, disability, veteran status, gender
identity or any other classification protected by applicable law. We want to partner with organizations that share these values with us.
Organization Status:
All United States-based grantees must be
organizations recognized by the IRS as 501(c)(3)
public charities, and organizations based outside the
United States must be registered as nonprofits or
charitable organizations in their local jurisdiction. The
term charitable includes, but is not limited to, relief
of the poor, the distressed, or the underprivileged;
advancement of education or science; lessening
neighborhood tensions; eliminating prejudice
and discrimination; defending human and civil
rights secured by law; and combating community
deterioration and juvenile delinquency.
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We cannot consider: Geography Served:
We will only fund projects or programs located in or
• Grants to for-profit organizations
near targeted geographies where Adobe has offices.
• Grants to private foundations, donor advised Grant activities and beneficiaries must be within
funds, endowments, or charitable gift funds 250 km of the office considering your proposal.
• Grants to churches and/or houses of worship
that will use grant funds for non-secular
activities
• Grants to individuals
• Grants to political organizations or organizations
intervening in political campaigns
• Grants to organizations that do not meet the
required standards regarding discriminatory
practices*
• Grants to organizations with an annual operating
budget of less than US $100,000 in the current
calendar year; a minimum US $100,000 budget
must be met by the implementing entity and
not by a fiscal sponsor/agent
GUIDELINES AND ELIGIBILITY
Use of Funds:
All grants must be related to a specific organizational
project and budget. We do not provide general
support grants. However, grant funds can be used
to fund the portion of operational expenses that
are for the project. In addition, grant funds cannot
be used for the following:
• Re-granting to or paying expenses for other
organizations.
• Purchasing Adobe products or software. Adobe
supports ECF grantees with a limited volume of
donated, free product.
• Projects that require or rely on volunteer
participation of Adobe employees to undertake
the proposed activities.
• Programs in which participants are not
selected on a first come first served basis. That
is, the program must be available to
participants on a first come, first served basis to
anyone who is eligible. Your organization must
not apply selection criteria to select one eligible
person over another to participate.
• Expenses intended to influence or advocate for
legislation or to prepare for such activities.
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• Expenses intended to influence the outcome of
any election or to fund a voter registration drive.
• Costs associated with fundraising events, event
sponsorship, or to expand development efforts.
Do not include any line items for fundraising
events or salaries of fundraising staff.
• Expenses incurred prior to your organization’s
receipt of the grant funds.
Most Common Mistakes
MOST COMMON MISTAKES
Most Common Mistakes
Please read these carefully. All of these
lead to automatic disqualification.
1. $20,000 USD budget on the
ECF budget template:
• Make sure your grant budget is exactly $20,000.
Budgets of $19,999 or $20,001 will be disqualified.
We know this sounds strict! But we don’t allow
any revised submissions and need all of our
$20,000 grant payments to exactly match the
budget amount.
• Use the budget template provided in the
proposal. No other formats are accepted.
• Triple check a budget is attached! We will
disqualify your proposal if no file is attached, or
the blank template is accidentally uploaded.
2. Fundraising costs:
Don’t include development staff salaries, a
fundraising percentage (%) allocation, fundraising
materials or any other references to fundraising or
development in the grant budget.
3. More than one request:
If this is your second (or third) proposal to the same
Adobe office during this grant cycle, STOP! We can
only consider one, so all that extra work is a waste
of your time.
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4. Vetting and onboarding:
ECF grants are disbursed through our partner
Benevity. All applicants must confirm whether their
organization has completed the necessary Benevity
vetting and onboarding steps. If not, you may proceed
with and submit your application, but vetting and
onboarding with Benevity must be complete by 28
February 2020 at 23:59 Eastern Standard Time
(GMT-05:00) for your organization to be eligible to
receive a grant through this program. If the process is
not complete by the date above, your proposal will be
disqualified.
Vetting and onboarding typically takes a minimum of
one month, and it is the responsibility of your
organization to ensure the timely completion of
various steps in this process.
If you require vetting and onboarding support, please
submit a request here.
An exhaustive list of restrictions is provided on page 16.
Developing a Strong Proposal
DEVELOPING A STRONG PROPOSAL
Review Process
After you submit your proposal, it is reviewed by
Adobe’s Brand Purpose team and a review panel
comprising employees at the local Adobe office.
Reviewers focus on the strength of the proposal
from programmatic, monitoring and evaluation,
financial, and overall perspectives.
Grant Funds
Grant Narrative
This is your opportunity to share a compelling
reason for why we should support your project!
We use this section of the proposal to understand:
• What you’re working on,
• Why it’s important,
• How you’ll implement the project,
• What this specific project will achieve, and
• How you’ll measure it.
Activities Outputs
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The strongest grant narratives allow the reader to
quickly and easily understand these areas, even if
your work is complex. It is the grant narrative section
that will be used by the reviewers to determine the
programmatic strength of your proposal and the
strength of your monitoring evaluation plan.
Outcomes
DEVELOPING A STRONG PROPOSAL
Five things we look for:
1. A clear description of the project:
ECF does not provide general support grants
or unrestricted funding. Your proposal must
support the efforts of a specific project or
activity of your organization and be tied to
specific, project-based outcomes. Don’t spend
the entire proposal describing your overarching
mission without describing the specific
project for which you are seeking funding. We
recognize that some organizations only have
one program; in this case the proposal can
describe this program, but be sure to share
what specifically will be made possible with a
grant from ECF.
2. A proposed project that addresses one of
the local Adobe office’s prioritized impact
areas: The proposed work must explicitly
relate to the local impact area that you select
on the proposal. We understand that many
non-profits have a broad social charitable
mission and conduct many projects under that
mission that vary in focus and scope. If any
of the impact areas for the local Adobe office
relate to projects that you are conducting, then
we encourage you to apply even if they are
not identical to your organization’s overall
mission. If the project for which you are
seeking funding could be categorized under
more than one of the priority impact areas,
please select the closest fit. Unfortunately,
if none of your organization’s projects or
activities relate to this year’s impact area
options for your local Adobe office, you are
not eligible for an ECF grant this year.
3. A clear logic model: A logic model is a way
of presenting how the grant activities you
plan to undertake connect with the intended
results and impact you expect to achieve. Use
this section of the proposal to describe grant
activities that link to measurable outputs.
These outputs should drive logical outcomes
that address the local challenges you have
described in the project summary.
Often, applicants convey a logic model that
is either too broad, which leaves the reviewer
to fill in the blanks, or doesn’t clearly address
the problem that was described in the project
summary.
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4. A monitoring and evaluation plan that
aligns with the project you are proposing:
Share an intuitive monitoring and evaluation
plan that is related to your logic model. The
plan should allow you to adequately track the
outputs and outcomes that you have proposed.
It will likely include a mix of quantitative and
qualitative measures, and short and medium/
longer term metrics, depending on your
specific program.
5. The big picture: Once you’ve finished the
grant narrative section, take a step back and
consider whether the proposal adequately
depicts the most important organizational
and programmatic information needed
for someone unfamiliar with your work to
understand your proposed project. Often,
valuable information is accidentally excluded
by answering the questions too specifically or
too broadly.
DEVELOPING A STRONG PROPOSAL
Financial Information
This section of the proposal is your chance to
share information about your organization’s overall
financial picture as well as how exactly you would
use the grant funds to achieve the proposed project.
Organizational Finances
The information you share about your organization’s
finances helps us understand your financial
sustainability as well as the ECF grant in the context of
your organization’s broader size and work.
Two tips:
• If your revenue/income has dropped
significantly over recent years or your expenses
have exceeded your revenue/income, provide
an explanation for why this has occurred.
• Share as much information as you can about your
existing donor base. Doing so allows reviewers
to understand whether we would be joining
the ranks of other reputable donors in the area,
helping catalyze the growth of a less-established
organization, or some other scenario unique
to your organization. The more informed the
reviewer the better!
Grant Budget
The budget allows you to describe how the grant
funds would be spent to accomplish the
proposed project. Include a budget that allocates
precisely US $20,000. Grants will not be awarded
in a higher or lower amount.
Five things we look for:
1. A completed budget template: You must
complete the budget template that is provided
in the online proposal form. Please do so with as
much detail as you can. Other budget formats
will not be considered, and incomplete grant
budgets will be deemed ineligible for funding.
2. Specific project costs: All grants must be
related to a specific organizational project.
We do not provide general support grants.
Practically speaking, the budget can include
salary costs and other operational costs
(many of our current ECF grant budgets do).
But, it should be clear to the reviewer why
and how that salary or operational expense
is connected to the proposed grant activities
and logic model.
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3. Costs that make sense given the proposed
project: The proposed budget should be
intuitive based the grant narrative section. For
example, avoid including a salary line for a role
that isn’t mentioned in the project description,
or food costs for a project that doesn’t
reference meals.
4. A sense of the full project needs and how
they will be funded: You may request a grant
that does not cover the full cost of a larger
program. Use the budget template to share the
full cost of the program, including which costs
will be covered by the ECF grant and which
costs will be covered with other revenue. If
part of the project still remains to be funded,
include your plan for ensuring the full needs
are met.
5. Eligible costs: Make sure that the budget
does not include line items for costs that we
will not fund. Refer to the Guidelines and
Eligibility section for the full list of ineligible
costs.
Do’s and Don’ts
DEVELOPING A STRONG PROPOSAL REVIEW
Do’s and Don’ts
Do:
1. Propose a specific project that ECF grant
funds can support.
2. Complete your proposal in English. All
proposal questions must be completed in
English to be considered for funding.
3. Complete the template budget form with as
much detail as you can, and allocate the full
$20,000 amount. Proposals that request an
amount other than US $20,000 - including
$19,999 and $20,001 - will be disqualified.
4. Pay close attention to what we will not
support, including the requirement to be local
in nature. If your grant proposes any ineligible
activities, it will be disqualified.
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Don’t:
5. Answer the questions being asked. 1. Leave sections of the proposal blank or note 4. Spend the entire proposal writing about
that “detail can be provided upon request”. the general organizational goals and
6. Be clear, concise, and specific.  Clearly state
Both will deem your proposal ineligible. achievements. Include adequate information
what you are working on, how the ECF grant
about the specific project that the grant
can support your efforts, and what the 2. Wait until the last minute to start your
funds will support.
expected outcomes will be. proposal. Well-thought through, compelling
proposals take time and proofreading. Some 5. Assume that the reviewer is familiar with
7. Give yourself adequate time to complete the
requested information may necessitate input the field that you are working in, with your
proposal. Your work will be automatically
from your colleagues, which could take organization, or its prior relationship with
saved, and you can return at any time until
additional time to compile. Adobe (if any).
the deadline.
3. Wait until the deadline to submit your 6. Expect the reviewer to do supplementary
8. Organize the content in your proposal to flow
proposal. Technical glitches may occur, and research to understand your organization or
logically from one section to the next,
we cannot guarantee immediate responses. proposed project.
providing all the relevant information that
the reviewer needs.
9. Provide adequate background context about
your work, and define any acronyms or
terms. Keep in mind that the Adobe
employees reviewing your proposal will likely
not have the same familiarity as you do with
the terminology of your field.
10. Proofread your proposal.
Frequently Asked Questions
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: When do I need to apply by?
The deadline to apply for ECF funding is
31 December 2019 by 23:59 Eastern Standard Time
(GMT-05:00)
Q: When will you announce the results?
You will be notified whether you received a grant
by 1 April 2020.
Q: If awarded a grant, how quickly will the
funds be disbursed?
Grant funds will be disbursed between April and
May to all selected organizations.
Grants will be processed through our partner
Benevity. Please confirm that your organization
has been vetted and onboarded by Benevity at the
time you submit your proposal. If it has not, you
can still submit your proposal but vetting and
onboarding with Benevity must be complete by
28 February 2020 at 23:59 Eastern Standard Time
(GMT-05:00) for your organization to be eligible to
receive a grant. If the process is not complete by
the date above, your proposal will be disqualified.
If necessary, you should begin vetting at the time
your proposal is submitted. You will receive a
prompt to do so when completing the application.
Visit https://causes.benevity.org to begin. This
process typically takes a minimum of one month,
and it is the responsibility of your organization to
ensure the timely completion of each required
step. If you require support in this process, please
contact Benevity using this form.
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Q: My organization’s mission is very different Q: I don’t have my non-profit or charity
from the five priority impact areas of the local registration yet, but I think I will by the time the
Adobe office. Can I still apply? grant decisions are made. Can I still apply?
We understand that many non-profits have a broad All United States-based grantees must be
social charitable mission and conduct many projects organizations recognized by the IRS as 501(c)(3)
under that mission that vary in focus and scope. If public charities, and organizations based outside
any of the impact areas relate to projects that you are the United States must be registered as nonprofits
conducting, then we encourage you to apply even if it or charitable organizations in their local jurisdiction
is not identical to your organization’s overall mission. at the time that the proposal is submitted. If your
If the project for which you are seeking funding could organization does not yet have its appropriate
be categorized under more than one of the priority registration, please consider applying next year.
impact areas, please select the closest fit.
Unfortunately, if none of your organization’s projects
or activities relate to the impact areas, you are not
eligible for an ECF grant this year. However, each
year Adobe employees at participating offices vote
on the local impact areas where they would like the
ECF funds directed, so these impact areas change
from year to year. We encourage you to stay in
touch about future ECF funding cycles.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ
Q: Can I submit a proposal that includes Adobe
employee volunteer involvement?
Do not reference or propose any volunteer
opportunities for Adobe employees related to grant
funding. Grant funds cannot be used on projects that
require or rely on volunteer participation of Adobe
employees to undertake the proposed activities. The
question in the proposal regarding volunteer activities
you have undertaken with Adobe is intended only
to provide a full picture of your prior collaboration
with Adobe. That being said, if you are selected as a
grantee, we will connect you with the local office so
that you can explore volunteer opportunities with
local Adobe employees.
Q: What types of grant activities will ECF
not fund?
All grants must be related to a specific organizational
project and budget. We do not provide general
support grants. However, grant funds can be used
to fund the portion of operational expenses that are
for the project. In addition, grant funds cannot be
used for the following:
• Re-granting to or paying expenses for other
organizations
• Grants to individuals
• Purchase of Adobe products or software. Adobe
supports ECF grantees with a limited volume of
donated, free product
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• Projects that require or rely on volunteer
participation of Adobe employees to undertake
the proposed activities
• Expenses intended to influence or advocate for
legislation or to prepare for such activities
• Expenses intended to influence the outcome of
any election or to fund a voter registration drive
• Costs associated with fundraising events, event
sponsorship, or to expand development efforts.
Do not include any line items for fundraising
events or salaries of fundraising staff
• Expenses incurred prior to your organization’s
receipt of the grant funds.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
Q: What is an event sponsorship and why won’t
ECF fund it?
A sponsorship is a fund request tied to a certain
event or a series of events. These events are typically
designed for fundraising and awareness rather than
program implementation. An example might be
a 5k run or a gala event. Companies sometimes
provide sponsorships as a form of advertising or
marketing and the primary purpose there is brand
awareness. ECF grants are focused on program
implementation and outcomes, so sponsorship
requests will not be funded.
Q: Can I talk to someone at Adobe about my
proposal?
For information on what we look for when we
review proposals, refer to this toolkit as your
primary source of information. Given the volume of
applications we receive, we are unable to provide
individual feedback on proposals or respond
individually to questions from applicants that are
answered in the toolkit or on the ECF webpage. We
developed this toolkit to share everything we can
about the process with every interested applicant.
For technical assistance with the online proposal
process, please contact our administrator, Benevity,
by clicking "Help" at the bottom of the proposal and
then clicking the red "Contact Us" button.
If you have specific issues that this toolkit cannot
answer and are not related to the technical issues
with the online proposal, please contact our
program team at aecf@adobe.com.
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Q: Does receiving a grant one year guarantee
funding in future years?
No, receiving a grant is not in any way linked to
future funding. Organizations are required to submit
an ECF proposal every year that they are interested
in being considered for funding.
Q: Can I submit more than one proposal?
You may only submit one proposal to each Adobe
office for consideration.
Organizations operating in the San Francisco Bay
Area may only submit one proposal to either the
Adobe Emeryville, Adobe San Francisco, or the
Adobe San Jose office, but not more than one.
adobe.com/createchange