The Grant Review Process

A Breath of Fresh Air...

The AIDS Walk Long Beach event has raised $2.4 million dollars since 1989 benefiting these agencies.  Over 35 agencies have received funding from AIDS Walk Long Beach since the beginning. 

Our goal is to ensure that what we fund is used in direct services for the community in services, education and prevention of HIV/AIDS.  The Long Beach AIDS Foundation does not fund capital improvements, indirect overhead expense or capacity building projects.  Funds raised are given to these agencies to make real impact on the lives of those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.

The Beneficiary Committee:  The Beneficiary Committee consists of community members from all backgrounds who are anonymous to the Board and Staff of the Foundation.  Only the Beneficiary Chair is known to the Board of Trustees.  The Committee usually consists of people with a work background of social services, finances, insurance, health care, legal and other professional services.  This committee usually comprises of 8 to 12 community members at large, none of which have any vested interest to the agencies being reviewed.

All Beneficiary Committee members must sign a Conflict of Interest Policy, Declarations of Conflict of Interests, Confidentiality Agreement and other documents prior to reviewing any grant applications.

The Initial Application Preview Process:  As the applications arrive at the Foundation, all applications are checked for missing documents so that agencies may be notified for the compliance deadline.  On the date of the deadline the Beneficiary Chair collects the RFP's for a cursory review for funding eligibility.  Any applications not eligible for funding are sent back to the Foundation for notification to the agency.

How Applications are Reviewed: The Beneficiary Committee and Chair establishes the criteria and objectives for R.F.P. (Request for Proposals) guidelines.  These RFP's are reviewed for compliance and completion of application. 

The Committee members review the applications, then divide up as a group,  visit agencies on site if necessary, determine effectiveness of the proposal, ability for the agency to deliver the program, ability to access additional funding to run the program, review any previously funded programs, learn about the staff and administration of the organization, understand the culture of the organization, and determine other factors that are reviewed.

Scoring the Applications: The Beneficiary Committee reconvenes at a later date to begin the scoring process.  Each agency is scored on their own merits of the application.  At no time is one agency compared to another for program funding.

Each agency is scored on 10 categories on a 100 point system.  Categories include but are not limited to: Proposal effectiveness, deliverability, program objectives, agency participation and promotion of AIDS Walk, staffing and culture, quality of results reporting from previous funding.

After the Walk, agencies are scored on their participation results and fundraising goals.  The Beneficiary Committee then scores the final totals and use a weighted factoring formula to achieve a objective final score.

After the Walk, the Beneficiary Committee presents the recommendations proposed by the Committee to the Board of Trustees for final approval and implementation of the distribution process.  Up to this point no dollars from the Walk have been allocated to the Beneficiary Committee so as not to influence the Committee's scoring process. 

The Board of Trustees, as a matter of transparency, remain objective during the presentation by the Beneficiary Committee, by not interfering with the scores presented.  Upon the Board approval to accept the Final Scores recommendations of the Beneficiary Committee, the Committee Chair then receives an envelope with the Funding Distribution Dollars to be factored based on the final scores.  This process ensures that each agency is scored on its own merits, that scores are not influenced by any member of the Board of Trustees, that is retains objectivity in the process and finally that it is not influenced by the available funds for distribution.

Distribution of Funds:  At the post-walk celebration awards, "The Red Ribbon Affair", the disbursement checks will be awarded to each of the funded Beneficiary Agencies along with a Grant Agreement.  Funding is provided in two payments.  The first payment is made at the awards event and the second grant is dispersed upon meeting the grant reporting requirements and deadline.  The final check is distributed in the second quarter after review of the reports but prior to the next Walk.

Agencies failing to submit a report or failing to submit the report by the deadline as outlined in the grant agreement forfeit the second payment. The remaining unused funds are then available for other AIDS Service Organizations and HIV/AIDS programs on a Small Grant basis.

Let's Make Change Happen!

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