This grant program aligns with the Foundation’s primary strategy: capacity-building.  It is designed to support strong organizations that are at a point of critical change or growth and are part of the Foundation’s ongoing goal to deepen our partnerships with nonprofits by matching substantial funding with other critical support to achieve greater outcomes. The Cape Cod Foundation defines nonprofit capacity building as: intentional efforts to increase organizational ability to effectively fulfill its mission and build long-term sustainability through strengthening an organizations’ core systems, skills, resources, knowledge, operation, and management practices.

The Foundation is pausing applications for this program in 2025. We plan to launch a revised Capacity-Building Grant Program in 2026, which will be responsive to community needs, input from past grantees, and impact data from past grant programs described below.

1 Year Targeted Nonprofit Capacity-Building Program

This grant program was piloted in 2021 and continued for 4 years. Grantees were selected through a competitive grant process and received $15,000-$25,000 to become more effective, far-reaching, and efficient in the fulfillment of their missions through specific capacity-building project implementation. They also participated in cohort-based peer-learning programming.

PRIOR GRANT RECIPIENTS
2021  |  2022  |  2023  |  2024

Multi-Year Comprehensive Nonprofit Capacity-Building Program

This pilot program launched in Winter 2021 via an invitation-only application process and has concluded. Grantees from this two-year grant program received $10,000 for immediate general operating support and $30,000 for capacity-building project implementation over the course of the program. They also participated in cohort-based peer-learning programming, assessed their capacity-building needs, and then planned and implemented a capacity-building project to address those needs. The Foundation partnered with industry expert TSNE to conduct a capacity-building assessment with each nonprofit and to provide the Foundation with technical assistance throughout program design and implementation. The exact project each nonprofit undertook was based on the organizational assessment and developed by each grantee based on individual input and needs. 2021 RECIPIENTS