How to Apply
We’re not your typical funder.
Rather than having static grant cycles, Catalyst takes a proactive approach. We are currently between grant cycles, working to identify Sonoma Valley’s most pressing needs before designing our next phase of grant criteria.
WHY CATALYST? OUR APPROACH OUR IMPACT HOW TO APPLY
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Reimagine Grants support innovation and seeding of new ideas that result in significant positive social impact and help solve key community challenges in Sonoma Valley. These grants fill a gap in funding for nonprofits that want to innovate and reimagine how we can solve complex local issues in our community.
Reimagine Grants include all phases of innovation: research, experimentation, pilots, and partnership development , with a focus on:
Efforts that involve critical cooperation and collaboration among key actors who must work together for a solution.
Efforts that involve leveraging government resources, or utilizing them better; public-private partnerships.
Ideas for new solutions that need to be tested, piloted and designed further (including building an organization’s capabilities to execute the new solution).
Research and convenings to define an emerging or chronic problem and seek solutions that no single organization can address alone.
Examples of outcomes could include:
Increasing the adoption of evidence-based measurement tools, data collection and tracking.
Improving access to government funding sources.
Enhancing shared client outcomes.
Testing a new idea or seizing a new opportunity to create a more united, just and resilient Sonoma Valley.
A project doesn't need to meet all these criteria, but the more it meets, the better the fit. Items 1 and 2 below are especially fundamental aspects to a Reimagine Grant.
It addresses a key issue/gap at the community level, not just at the organizational level.
It is a collaboration. A collaboration is joint problem solving between two or more entities, not just communication between organizations.
It is a reimagining of what needs to be done or how it could be done or both.
It can be planning or researching a problem; or anything from initiation to execution along the spectrum of innovation.
It creates something new and meets a new need OR addresses an old need in a new way. It is not a program expansion.
It can be anything that measurably impacts the quality of life here for Sonoma residents.
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Grant criteria.
We proactively reach out for grant requests when our research and development identifies opportunities for innovation, and we launch phases of grant criteria—based on current community needs—that organizations can apply for during those grant cycles. Before our next phase of grants opens, nonprofits are welcome to reach out with bold ideas that align with our Reimagine or Research & Development grant criteria.
Step 1. Let’s talk.
Our application process is based on conversations and discovery with the people we are supporting. We start with an understanding of the challenges and dreams of your organization and the people you are serving, and will guide you through the creation of meaningful and impactful funding requests.
Reporting.
We are dedicated to making nonprofit work more effective. Every time we make an investment, we are creating an opportunity for deeper understanding and impact. Some grants yield important data we want to understand and share, while others seed worthwhile innovations that don’t just show up in numbers.
That means our reporting process is case-by-case, creating accountability without being unnecessarily cumbersome—it might look like a short report and conversations over coffee, or spreadsheets that track data across organizations.
Timing? It depends.
Because the national context and types of problems our community faces are always evolving, our grant-making approach is flexible, nimble, and responsive.
We are currently between open grant cycles.