Grant Making Process

This year, Komen Puget Sound awarded $1.6 million to 11 local nonprofit organizations. Grant recipients are selected based on their ability to meet the needs identified in our community profile report and move forward our mission of ending breast cancer forever.  The following is an outline of how Komen Puget Sound makes its grant awards. 

An Overview of Komen Puget Sound’s Grant Making Process

1. Use the Community Profile to establish priorities, goals and objectives
Every three to five years, Komen Puget Sound performs a community needs assessment. The purpose of the Community Profile is to take a timely assessment of the state of breast cancer in the Affiliate’s 16-county service area. This report examines statistics, services and community perspectives to identify disparities, gaps in service and barriers to care that prevent women who live in our community from accessing care and surviving breast cancer. Read Community Profile Report

2. Develop the Request for Applications (May – August)
Our Grants Committee, consisting of Board Members and community representatives with breast health expertise, uses the findings in the Community Profile Report to develop the service and population/community grant priorities. In addition, criteria by which applicants will be rated are established.

3. Solicit Applications (September -  November)
Funding priorities and criteria are announced and distributed to the community and potential applicants through a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) process. Wide distribution is essential in order to make the grant process competitive. Komen Puget Sound holds two grant writing workshops and offers technical assistance/capacity building small grants for a contracted grant writer or consultant to help potential applicants better respond to our LOI/RFA. LOIs are due mid-November. Applicants must be invited to submit an RFA due early January.

4. Review Applications (January – February)
Grants are reviewed by a Grants Review Panel made up of community representatives. The panel members review, score, and rank the applications; Komen Puget Sound Staff and Board members are not involved in the scoring and ranking of applications.

5. Approve and Award Grants (March)
Once the Grants Review Panel has finalized their recommendations, the slate of grants is submitted to the Grants Committee. The Grants Committee reviews the slate to ensure the Affiliate’s priorities are met. Funding scenarios are made based on available resources. As a final step, the Komen Puget Sound Board of Directors approves the grant slate.  View 2012 Grantees

6. Manage and Monitor Grants (April 1 to March 31)
The Affiliate closely monitors all grantees to guarantee the awarded funds are used as intended and not used outside the scope of our promise to save lives and end breast cancer. The monitoring includes six-month and final reports, a site visit, and partnership meetings.

Question and Additional Information: Contact Elisa Del Rosario, Director of Grants, Education & Advocacy at elisa@pskomen.org  or 206.633.0303 ext. 105