How to apply for a grant

Between the moment you forward your application for a grant to the Foundation and the moment you receive the grant check, your application goes through three stages.

Preparation
You meet with the sponsor, who verifies the technical and financial feasibility of your project.
After examining the dossier and on the recommendation of the sponsor, the Foundation's permanent team decides whether or not to pass your application on to the Selection Committee.

Selection

If your project is eligible for a grant, it is submitted for examination to the Selection Committee, which meets every two months to decide on the allocation of grants. Some 20 to 30 projects are examined at each session.
If you are requesting a grant of over €150,000, the decision will be made by the Board of Trustees, which meets twice a year.

Grant
If the Selection Committee decides to support your project, you undertake to sign a "Sponsorship convention" with the Foundation.
This partnership commits both parties to bringing the project to fruition by setting a deadline for payment of the funds and a payment schedule, where applicable. The person sponsoring your project will hand over the grant check.

Monitoring and Evaluation
You must provide the Foundation, through your sponsor, with regular updates about the progress of your project by sending photos, invoices, progress reports, etc.

Once the project has been completed, the Foundation, assisted by the sponsor, drafts an evaluation of the project.

The nature of the projects
The Foundation acts within the framework of corporate patronage. The projects supported must be community-oriented, non-profit initiatives. Unlike sponsorship or sponsoring operations, no commercial gain is sought in return for the financial assistance granted.

Employee involvement
The Foundation does not simply provide funding. It gives preference to projects likely to mobilize the skills of Company employees, who support project leaders as sponsors.

Project assessment and feasibility
The Foundation ensures that project leaders provide a clear description of how they will use the grant for which they have applied, including information about the targets to be met and indicators to assess the effects of the grant provided.
It pays close attention to the technical and financial feasibility of each project, the experience of the project leader and the quality of its partners. It gives preference to projects that are original, exemplary and reproducible.

The nature and amount of the grant
The Foundation will consider all requests irrespective of their size. No maximum or minimum limit is set concerning the amount of the grant, although it may not exceed 50% of the budget of the project concerned. The grant is intended to supplement public and private subsidies or grants and the existing resources of the entity requesting it. The Foundation's aim is to give project leaders additional leverage and its grants are intended primarily to cover investment expenses, whether tangible or intangible.

Project leaders
They are typically non-profit organizations and companies running back-to-work schemes or, less frequently, public authorities in France or elsewhere. The Foundation does not approve grants for projects that are led personally by a Company employee.