Grantmaking
P.O. Box 3558
Chapel Hill, NC 27515-3558
Strowd Roses, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Before you apply, please review our eligibility guidelines and restrictions, and get answers to common questions.
If you have any questions, please reach out to our executive director, Hudson Fuller at executivedirector@strowdroses.org.
Eligibility & Restrictions
Expand the sections below for more information.
Eligibility
- Applicants must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in good standing or a local government entity, or be an organization that is fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)(3) or a local government entity.
- Applicants must have a current North Carolina charitable solicitation license or current statutory exemption.
- Proposals are only accepted from organizations serving the residents of Chapel Hill and the local surrounding community. Nonprofits may be located outside of Chapel Hill, as long as the services or programs benefit residents of Chapel Hill and the immediate surrounding areas.
- Consistent with Strowd Roses’ policies and values, all grant recipients must support an environment that is free from discrimination in their hiring and service provision on the basis of gender, race, race, ethnicity, creed, color, religion, political affiliation, national origin, socio-economic status, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, familial status, sexual orientation, veteran status, or physical or mental disability.
Restrictions
- No funding will be awarded to individuals or endowments.
- No funding will be granted for programs held in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools or specifically for CHCCS students. (Strowd Roses provides an annual block grant award to the Public School Foundation to support school-based projects).
- No funding be granted for summer camp programs. (Strowd Roses provides an annual block grant award to the Public School Foundation for students to attend summer camps).
- No funding will be granted for UNC-affiliated programs, organizations or clubs. Strowd Roses defines UNC-affiliated as any one (or more) of the following:
- The organization’s board of directors is comprised of UNC’s Board of Trustees
- The organization is physically housed at a University school/unit
- Paychecks to the staff are from UNC-Chapel Hill
- The application is filled out by University Development staff
- The organization is not a separate 501(c)(3)
- UNC students are the primary beneficiary of programs
- The organization is a registered student organization that receives funding from UNC
- No funding will be granted specifically for sectarian religious purposes but funding can be made to religious organizations for general community programs.
- No grant funding shall be used to attempt to influence legislation or to intervene in any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office.
Frequently Asked Questions
Expand the sections below for more information.
What do you look for in a grantee partner?
Strowd Roses values the following criteria when reviewing grant applications from organizations:
- Emphasis of the organization on serving the needs of Chapel Hill and the surrounding communities (note that while applicant organizations may serve constituents in other areas, our grant funds must be used solely for the benefit of Chapel Hill and surrounding communities).
- Alignment of the organization’s work with one of our four focus areas.
- The organization serves a local community need that is not otherwise being met.
- The organization is well positioned in the local community to meet that need.
- The organization demonstrates a sound governance structure and financial health.
- Funding from Strowd Roses will make an appreciable impact in the local community.
- If a repeat applicant, the organization has been a demonstrated good steward of Strowd Roses’ funding.
Before I submit a grant application, may we discuss our proposal with you to see if we are a good fit for your grantmaking?
Absolutely! If you have any questions at all, please reach out to our executive director, Hudson Fuller at executivedirector@strowdroses.org. And if your organization has never received funding from Strowd Roses or it has been more than 3 years since you last received funding, you must set up a “meet and greet” virtual meeting before applying. We want to make sure that you are eligible for consideration before you spend your time working on the application.
What size grants do you award?
Award amounts will vary based on the applicant’s organizational capacity, the scope of services provided to the Chapel Hill community, the needs of the community, and the total funding amount to give each year.
Most of our grants will be $5,000 or $10,000 with a few smaller and larger grants.
New applicants, as well as organizations that have not received funding from us within the past three years, will generally be limited to grants of no more than $5,000.
Do you fund operating expenses or indirect costs?
Our grant funds must be used for the benefit of Chapel Hill or Carrboro residents, must be used for charitable purposes, and must be used before the end of one year. Other than those restrictions, our grant funds are unrestricted. This means you can use it to pay the electricity bills or pay for project supplies, or however best will help your organization serve your clients and the community.
If we meet your eligibility criteria and fall within one of your focus areas, will we get a grant?
Each year, we receive many worthy grant requests and unfortunately cannot support all of them. If you are not successful one year, your organization is welcome to apply the following year.
When will we find out if we were awarded a grant?
Our board of directors will make funding decisions in early June of 2027 and grant checks will go out at the end of June. You will receive an email from us either way.
What reporting will we need to do if we get a grant?
Any reporting and evaluation expectations will be outlined in your grant award letter. What you will need to report will depend on the size of the grant. We do not want to create lots of work for you so any reporting that will need to be done will not require you to keep separate accounting forms or statistics than you are likely already doing for other funders. Since all of our grants are unrestricted for the most part, you will not have to keep receipts or give us line items of how funds were spent. We will mostly be interested in hearing about how the year went for you, what were some of your struggles and successes in serving the Chapel Hill community, and how we can be of help in the future.
What is your policy regarding publicizing our grant?
We do not require grantees to publicly acknowledge or publicize their receipt of funding from Strowd Roses, but are thrilled if you wish to do so.