E. F. Johnson Foundation
Grant Guidelines

E. F. Johnson Foundation

Focus Areas
E. F. Johnson Foundation focuses all its grant-making on organizations and programs in Minnesota. The Waseca County area gets special consideration because it is the birthplace of the foundation.

• The E. F. Johnson Foundation concentrates about 60% of its budget on education. A primary emphasis is placed on programs with scientific and technological focus, scholarships, and supporting career awareness and development initiatives.
• The foundation's secondary interest is human services and arts and cultural programs where it focuses about 40% of its budget.
• The E. F. Johnson Foundation prefers to provide funds for programs rather than capita grants. contributions intended fro capital, endowments, contingencies, reserve purposes or deficit reduction are not generally favored.

Guidelines

Programs must fit into one of the foundation's focus areas and meet the following guidelines.

• Eligible organizations must be classified by the IRS as tax-exempt governmental bodies or non-profit organizations
  (501(c)3) and maintain adequate accounting procedures.
• All grants are made in accordance with current regulations of the Internal Revenue Code.
• Pledges are made for one year at a time unless there are special circumstances.
• The foundation reserves the right to shift its focus in response to the needs of the community.
• Grant requests are due April 1st and October 1st.

Exclusions

The foundation will not approve grants for these organizations or purposes:

• Religious or political organizations.
• Capital campaigns
• Organizations less than a year old that do not have broad community support.
• Health-related programs
• National or local fund raising campaigns, ticket sales, fund raising dinners or similar activities
• National foundations or general funds
• Travel, conferences or administrative costs
• Individuals

Evaluation

The Waseca Area Foundation formed an E. F. Johnson Foundation Advisory Committee to evaluate grant requests for the foundation. The committee meets twice a year, in April and October. The committee evaluates all applicants form these perspectives:

• Extent to which the program meets the foundation's guidelines and fits into focus areas.
• Capacity of the requesting organizations to achieve the desired results.
• Adequacy and availability of additional sources of funding for the proposed program.
• Likelihood of program success and sustenance.
• Availability and quality of the applicant's plan for evaluating the results of the program.