Location: 150 N College St Nc1-028-17-06, Charlotte, 28202 NC
EIN: 20-0721133
31%
69%
6 hours
Median
34%
66%
47%
53%
2017 Deadlines:
Types of Grants Awarded:
Geographic Focus:
For Fiscal Year
Total Assets:
Total Grants:
Change in Assets FY :
Amount of Grants to Minnesota Nonprofits:
Largest Grant:
Smallest Grant:
Average Grant:
Grant Applicant - applied in 2023
Such a long and complicated application. Is it necessary?
North Carolina
Grant currently pending
2023
Bad
You have to copy multiple screens and clean up the formatting to create a working template of 16 pages.
Average
Please make your application more equitable to smaller organizations that don't have time to create their own working template and fill out so very many fields.
12
Grant Applicant - applied in 2021
Like others have said, consider carefully before completing their onerous application process. The local contacts are great and open to meetings, but I think they have limited control over their local funding ability. Colorado does not seem to be a high priority for them.
Friendly, Likes site visits, Responsive
Colorado
Current or former grantee
Funded for lesser amount
2021
Good
The team is often at nonprofit events and fairly quick to respond to emails.
Average
Friendly and open to connecting to the community, but lack the follow through, or perhaps they aren't able to be transparent about guidelines from BofA headquarters.
10
Grant Applicant - applied in 2020
Near impossible to understand how to get a larger grant. Seem to match the guidelines in a significant way, but gift stays (at best) low and flat year to year.
Bureaucratic
California
Grant currently pending
2020
Bad
Never know who to call. Rarely get a response when I do reach out.
Bad
They say it is tied to volunteerism, yet our organization has been trying for years to build a meaningful volunteer model with B of A and conversation always hits a dead-end.
Have dedicated staff who are honest and transparent and reachable.
6
Professional in the field
This is a very long, invasive application with low chance of award. Consider carefully before you spend your precious time on this beast. I am a grant writing consultant and this is possibly the worst application I have to complete, among about 100 apps submitted annually. They ask a ton of questions, and everyone applying has to provide their bank information, putting thousands of nonprofits at needless risk. They ask if they can contact one of your clients (!!!) I don't know who wrote this RFP but it's a hot mess.
Bureaucratic
Arizona
Professional in the field
Other
2020
Bad
No contact is ever listed, no one to ask questions, no ability to receive feedback. Ivory tower city.
Bad
I think they are typical of many banks that talk about helping the community but in reality do very little. Their RFP illustrates they have received piecemeal information but know very little about nonprofit reality. Another ding is that they used to fund food banks and food programs and now have started their own program instead. I see many companies that do this and its beyond frustrating because its duplicative of current efforts and usually the company does very little compared to what the nonprofits they used to fund accomplish.
Your applications need to meet the awards. The current application is for $20,000 and above, but it's far too long for a $2,500 gift. Also, please STOP RIGHT NOW asking for bank account information in the request. If awarded, the nonprofit will provide. If they don't, you don't want to fund them anyway. Also STOP RIGHT NOW asking to contact clients, this is horribly, egregiously offensive and unethical. There is NO WAY it is appropriate for you to contact clients of nonprofits. If you want to set up a site visit and ask to meet someone in that context that's different. Please only ask for site visits if you are giving at least $20,000.
Look at their 990, all 4,000 pages, to get an idea of where they fund. You won't be able to discuss your request with anyone, that's the only way to find out more.
I've applied to them for several clients, one funded at ask amount, one for much less (asked $20K received $2,500) some no response
They offer general operating support.
0
Reviewer 1223 - Grant Applicant - applied in 2018
Local bank branch staff are not aware of the grants process. You must establish a relationship with the regional director. Unfortunately, that is very hard to do. It is difficult to get simple questions answered. It's grant application is complex and onerous considering the amounts awarded.
Difficult to work with
New Jersey
Current or former grantee
Funded for lesser amount
2018
Bad
Increase the number of persons who can answer questions for grantseekers.
Their goals are clear. What is not clear is "does my organization fit the funder's goals?" Receiving advice on this topic is hard to achieve.
They consider funding operating support. They have deadlines at specific times of the year, each deadline relates to a specific funding priority.
18
Grant Applicant - applied in 2017
On a recent call with the program officer, we were told they are now making fewer, but larger grants. We have received several small ($2.5K) grants from them in the past. Their website is confusing and it is difficult to access a person to talk to.
Connecticut
Current or former grantee
Funded for lesser amount
2017
Average
not very accessible but average for an online application
Good
Make the website more intuitive for prospective grantees.
16
Reviewer 9138 - Grant Applicant - applied in 2019
You need someone from your regional BofAs to push your application forward, preferably someone with rank who can serve on your Board. Once you get a local champion, if they don't actively move your application along, they may as well actively disparage it--same effect. Prioritize your relationship.
Inadvertently exerts negative influence in the field, Doesn't "get" nonprofits and issues, Difficult to work with, Risk averse
California
Current or former grantee
Other
2019
Average
They're very clear on their website about their giving areas and application process. It's relatively easy to submit your application. They do accept unsolicited requests, yet primarily fund (in my experience) based on 1:1 local relationships as opposed to merit of the application. Applying is easy, but there is an invisible "wall" between submitting the application and actually getting funded.
Bad
If the overall goal is to stretch their dollar and have a broad portfolio with a lot of recognition across many organizations, they accomplish it. But that doesn't really accomplish the philanthropic goals they promote. Their grant sizes are far too small.
The new generation of banking customers is increasingly in favor of philanthropic dollars that eliminate barriers, improve access, and actually make a difference. They want to SEE the change in their community. You can achieve this in a relatively painless way: increase grant size (e.g., fewer grants at larger amounts, and/or multi-year grants) and set aside a portion of funds, maybe at lower amounts, for organizations without a local contact (then, help them find one). With larger grants and relationship building, your impact will be more visible and marketable because nonprofits will have more time to recognize your support, rather than just chasing the tail of the next cycle.
We were funded for many years at our request amount, then suddenly stopped funding us this year without any feedback.
They have multiple funding priorities and one is likely to fit for most organizations. They also divide their grant deadlines between two categories, and the timeline is well-paced. It's a very consistent and clear application process.
5
Reviewer 9878 - Grant Applicant - applied in 2019
You must have a champion, I suspect a bank employee but perhaps another nonprofit that they have funded for a very long time. I have tried unsuccessfully for a few years. We are partnered with others that they fund and I think the alignment is there but nothing. Trying to get feedback is tough.
Doesn't "get" nonprofits and issues, Culturally incompetent, Risk averse
District Of Columbia
Applied and not funded
2019
Bad
Find someone who can make an introduction to their CSR staff. It appears that once you are in, you are fine but getting in feels impossible.
6
Grant Applicant - applied in 2018
BoAF will be supportive once you get to know the officers and decision makers. As long as they like your work, you will have a champion. However, in our experience we rarely saw an increase in grant funding, even though a bank should understand inflation.
District Of Columbia
Current or former grantee
Funded for amount requested
2018
Average
Average
The Bank is pretty clear on their goals but unlike Foundations they will not consider multi-year grants which would be helpful to many nonprofits.
Please consider increasing grants over time. I worked at several organizations that received BoAF's support and for over 10 years they always gave the same amount of funding even when we asked for nominal increases due to inflation. Banks should understand this. It would be great if BoAF would consider multi-year grants as their applications are fairly simple, but it would save time to write one proposal and report for 2 to 3 years rather than do this every year.
They were very generous when we had specific milestones as an organization.
5 to 10 hours
Reviewer 770 - Grant Applicant - applied in 2019
Read all the way through the application first. Some of the items you might normally include in a narrative section will be asked later, so you can save your character count for something else.
Pay attention to word counts! The "Detailed Grant Description" gives you an insufficient number of characters. Use them wisely.
Missouri
Grant currently pending
Funded for amount requested
2019
Average
Average
In their Expanding Access to Housing Opportunities program, they are clearly trying to impact opportunity zones and support specific kinds of housing rehabilitation program. They also seem interested in green building initiatives. They are trying to impact low to moderate income people and other vulnerable populations.
In your Detailed Grant Description narrative question, you ask the writer to address about five different areas, but only give the character count to give each of these areas about one or two sentences. Also, it says 2,000 characters, but when copying from Word, it actually only lets us have about 1,600 (or 350 words). We writers understand the need to be concise, but I believe you are selling yourself short by forcing such an incomplete picture of the the organizations and projects you are considering. I would make this question 5,000 characters.
Consider your request size and the fit of your project before spending your time. I would ask for an award amount that will be quite meaningful for your organization. The proposal is a bit more detailed than the average corporate foundation and they have specific boxes they are looking to tick off. I wold read them all before beginning to write.
Thorough application process tells me they have specific goals and metrics they are targeting. Their guidelines are pretty clear on their website. You can actually find the application portal.
10 to 15 hours
