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The Foundation maintains three distinct programs:
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Business
and Work (formerly the Business and Communities Grants Program); |
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Hitachi
Community Action Partnership and |
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The
Yoshiyama Program (formerly the Yoshiyama Award for Exemplary Service to the Community).
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ABOUT THE BUSINESS AND WORK PROGRAM |
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Introduction
Grantmaking Focus
Grantmaking Process
Eligibility Requirements and Decision-Making Criteria
Online Inquiry System
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Introduction:
The Business and Work Program reflects
our new strategic plan adopted by the Board in November 2008. This
program focuses on building an authentic integration of business actions and societal wellbeing in North America. The Foundation will identify suitable candidates
for grants and invite proposals. Due to limited resources, we will
not issue Requests for Proposals.
Proposals may only be submitted at the Foundation's invitation.
However we have a web-based system for inquiries from nonprofit organizations.
There is a link at the bottom of this page for the Online
Inquiry System.
More details about our grantmaking focus are in the first section
below. Eligibility requirements and decision-making criteria are discussed
in the second section. And the link to the online inquiry system follows.
Grantmaking Focus: Our strategy focuses on discovering and expanding business practices that create tangible and enduring economic opportunities for low-wealth Americans, their families, and their communities.
Our approach to advancing the fields of corporate social responsibility, or CSR, and corporate citizenship is to discover business policies and practices that both strengthen the business bottom-line and support low-income workers. This learning takes a three-pronged approach: identifying and working closely with business trailblazers; establishing sustained relationships with a few carefully selected communities ready and able to drive change; and developing standards or benchmarks that help define and reward their efforts.
We focus on the logic and incentives that influence the many tough choices business leaders make. Isolated interventions fail to address the complexity of the issues we are concerned about. So our approach operates at several levels: practices within the business entity, and community and macro-level efforts that reinforce business policies and practices. Within the business firm these include the policies and practices that help low-income individuals achieve career and economic success, such as training that takes place at the workplace and flexible workplaces. Outside the firm, these can include investor/financial market expectations and supply chain management.
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Grantmaking
Process: The Foundation will identify promising candidates
for grants and invite them to submit proposals. Due to limited resources,
the Foundation will not issue broad-based Requests for Proposals.
Proposals may only be submitted at the Foundation's invitation.
However, nonprofit organizations that may meet our eligibility requirements
may want to share initial information through our online inquiry system.
The link for the online inquiry system is found at the end of this
web page.
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Eligibility Requirements and Decision-Making Criteria:
Overarching eligibility requirements include: |
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Support is limited
to nonprofit organizations in the United States. |
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Organizations must
have Section 501 (C) (3) designation by the IRS. |
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The Foundation does
not make grants to individuals. Nor does the Foundation make grants
to for-profit businesses or to individuals for business start-ups
or expansions. |
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The Foundation does
not support capital drives or fund raising efforts. Funding for conferences
and seminars is considered only when there is an exceptionally strong
match with the Foundation's mission and strategic objectives. |
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Program-specific eligibility requirements include: |
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The project's primary
focus must be on creating tangible and enduring economic opportunities for low-wealth Americans, their families, and their communities. |
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The project's benefits
in terms of strengthening the business bottom-line and supporting low-income workers must be compelling and clearly articulated. |
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Local projects should
serve high poverty areas or communities as evidenced by poverty rates
or other indicators of need. |
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The project must demonstrate
effective and innovative corporate citizenship practices and/or promote
learning and adoption of good practices. |
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The project should
represent path-breaking work in our areas of focus and interest. |
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The project must define
expected outcomes for the target populations and measure and report
impacts over time. |
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We will give priority
consideration to projects that: leverage our support with other funding
sources; are replicable or have a model that can be brought to scale;
and/or focus on small to medium sized businesses in the targeted sectors. |
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Online Inquiry
System:
Our online inquiry system offers a user-friendly, universally accessible
way for nonprofit organizations to send us information about project
ideas and receive our response as to whether your project meets our
criteria for further consideration. If the idea meshes with the priorities
of our Business and Work Program, your organization
may be invited to submit a concept paper or a complete proposal. Please
review our Guidelines for Grant
Seekers before preparing and submitting the online inquiry
form. The guidelines detail eligibility requirements, grantmaking
objectives and priorities, and criteria for selecting projects for
support.
Click
here to enter the Online Inquiry System.
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