Grant Applicant FAQs

If you have had an active grant from COSF in the past 12 months and plan to submit an application for the same program, you do not need to submit a Pre-application. You are welcome to submit an Application.

If you have had an active grant from COSF in the past 12 months and plan to submit an application that differs significantly from your last grant (such as a different program or a significantly larger request), or if you have not had an active grant from COSF in the past 12 months, please complete a Pre-application.  When you Start a new Pre-application or Application, we will ask you a few basic questions, and you will be routed to the appropriate option.

It depends. We accept unsolicited Pre-applications for the following focus areas:

• Community Services
• Jewish Community (in Cook County and/or Lake County).

We do not accept unsolicited Pre-applications for the following focus areas:

• Education
• Jewish Community (outside of Cook and/or Lake County)
• Medical Research

Generally, as discussed on our Getting Started Criteria, we require applicants to have received at least $75,000 in private revenue in your prior fiscal year. For a definition of private revenue, please see our Eligible Gifts FAQs. If you are a new organization and you meet all of our other Getting Started Criteria, please contact us.

Yes. We will consider grants from organizations within Our Focus that have strong track records and are interested in expanding to Cook County and/or Lake County.

The Programs and Services section of your Pre-application or Application should describe the program or programs within COSF’s focus areas for which you are requesting the grant, not how you plan to raise funds to meet the challenge grant. Please note that the Challenge Grants section of the Application asks for your specific plan for utilizing a challenge grant.

While we do provide general operating support and programmatic grants, we generally do not support specific special events. You may send us invitations and donor solicitations to keep us “in the loop.”  While we appreciate these invitations, please understand that we generally do not attend many events. Further, because of the number of such invitations we receive, we typically do not respond to these items unless we are able to attend. We prefer to receive invitations or other printed material electronically if readily available to you.  If you do send us any printed materials, please send us only one copy.

We do not accept unsolicited applications for capital grants.  If you currently have a grant from us and you wish to apply for a capital grant, please contact your Program Officer.

Yes, but only to organizations with which we have an established funding history.

Circle of Service reviews Pre-applications and Applications on a rolling basis – unless we have told you otherwise, we do not have specific deadlines. Most organizations will hear from us within 45 days of the submission of a Pre-application and within 90-120 days of the submission of an Application. Further, given our challenge grant orientation, we strongly encourage you to consider your fundraising calendar when determining when to apply for a grant.