Request for Proposals

- The RFP: An Explanation
- Required Online Application (2012 now closed)
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Locate your completed application.

FINANCIALS - Due March 16th at midnight
- Upload your organization's financial documents
- Financials FAQ (PDF)
- Financials glossary (PDF)
- Blank 2012 Financial Worksheet (one of the required financial uploads)

Overview

Our Mission is to raise visibility and resources for the best community-based nonprofits, and to make giving a more meaningful experience for donors. To that end we publish an annual print Catalogue that is distributed to 25,000 high net worth individuals, encouraging them to give to vetted, community-based nonprofits. In 2011 our partnership with the Washington City Paper meant that Catalogue nonprofits also appeared in a special issue ("Give It Up, DC!") distributed to an additional 72,000 individuals. Applicants apply to be featured in the print Catalogue and on the web, to win the Catalogue's "seal of approval," and to benefit from other resources and programs that we offer.

"The RFP: An Explanation" walks you through the questions in the online application which reopens on January 3, 2012.

Financial Supplement

Please see list of Financial Supplement related items above.

Schedule

Online applications open on the first day after the New Year's holiday and are due around the third week of February. Financial supplements are due two weeks later. Specific deadline dates will be posted on the site for each application cycle. The evaluation process takes place in March. Final decisions are usually made in early to mid-May. You will be notified by email whether the decision is positive or not. The new Catalogue comes out in early November -- in time for the "giving season."

Eligibility
501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations in the Washington region with operating budgets of $3 million or below may be eligible to apply. Organizations featured in our past three print Catalogues -- 2010-11, 2009-10, 2008-09 -- are NOT eligible to reapply this year. Please remember that reviewers consider "appeal to donors" when evaluating an organization: if your appeal is extremely specialized or your group is open to "members only," you may wish to reconsider before applying. See "The RFP: An Explanation" (linked above) for detailed information about eligibility.

In order to remain part of the Catalogue family, and to continue being featured on our website, Catalogue charities must reapply every four years. This means that those most recently featured in the 2008-09 Catalogue ARE eligible to reapply in 2012 and MUST reapply in 2012 if they wish to remain part of our network. They will participate in the same review process as new applicants. Those who applied last year or the year before and were re-ceritifed to remain on the web but were not featured in the print Catalogue may reapply this year if they wish. Organizations featured in print Catalogues subsequent to 2008-09 are NOT eligible to apply this year.