We view our investment in grantees as a partnership towards common objectives. We look for “fit” in a few primary ways, described below.
Generally speaking, the Brown Sisters Foundation seeks proposals from St. Louis faith-based organizations that support disadvantaged communities and that seek to strategically strengthen their donor base through a challenge grant.
Please see below for additional detail on the Foundation’s funding priorities. For more information about our grant timeline and process, check out our grant process.
Service Area
Your organization must be located in and provide services in the Greater St. Louis, MO region (within a ~25 mile radius of Forest Park) to be eligible for funding.
Mission fit
We seek to fund organizations that:
- Seek to bring the hope and love of God to under-resourced communities. We fund Catholic and Christian Protestant organizations that operate with a clear commitment to faith and mission.
- Work in a way that creates transformative change for their constituents, and operate within a clear outcomes framework to most effectively trigger that transformation.
- Seek to empower and dignify the people they serve.
- We are particularly passionate about working with young people, and helping to create strong trajectories for their future.
- Operate with passion, urgency, and unflagging commitment to their cause, with a clear and contagious sense of dedication, and a compelling strategy and framework for channeling their passion into traction.
- Demonstrate fiscal responsibility, transparency, accountability, and sustainability – exhibit a viable financial position, carry minimal debt load, and that practice and move toward long-term sustainability. We typically fund organizations with operating budgets under $2 million.
- Understand the value of collaboration, and engage in authentic partnership with likeminded organizations where appropriate.
- Operate in a mode informed by best practice with a spirit of innovation – avoid the duplication of services, pursue unmet needs, and advance best practices for their field or demographic.
Project fit
We seek to invest in projects that generate significant leverage for our partners. We look at leverage in two ways:
- Financial leverage — we fund primarily through challenge grants, such that our gift can be used to attract new or increased funding to your organization. Our goal here is to broaden your organization’s overall donor base and sustainability for years into the future.
- Missional leverage — we look for proposals that increase your organization’s ability to accomplish your work, deepen your impact, expand your capacity, become more sustainable, launch new initiatives, innovate, or provide leverage to advance your mission in some other way.
Click here to learn more about how we seek to create leverage through our grants.
Partnership
The Brown Sisters Foundation views our investment in grantees as a partnership toward common objectives. As challenges or changes come up during grant implementation, we stay in close communication our grantee partners to figure out the next best step forward.
What we don’t fund
There are a few areas outside of our focus:
- General core support requests
- Operating deficits
- Grants or loans to individuals
- Event sponsorships
- Lobbying
- Response to existing matched funding opportunities
- Endowments
- Projects/services located outside of the St. Louis, Missouri region
Sounds good? Learn more about our grant process and join our mailing list to get periodic updates from us!
