The Koch Foundation provides grants to Catholic organizations recognized as such by the Holy See that are engaged in evangelization. Organizations in the United States must be listed in the US Official Catholic Directory and/or have a letter from the IRS proving their exemption from federal taxes.
No. The Koch Foundation only provides grant awards to Catholic, non-profit organizations.
You do not have to be invited to apply in order to submit a request. Interested organizations must submit a formal request in order to be considered for an application. More information about our submission process can be found here.
No. Per our Guidelines, we do not fund sponsorships or fundraising events.
No. The Koch Foundation does not provide grants to individuals for any reasons. Superiors of religious institutes or diocesan ordinaries may request a grant for assistance to a member(s) of their religious institute or dioceses.
If you received a grant during our 2018 Cycle and/or applied for a grant for our 2019 Cycle, your organization is eligible to apply for the same, ongoing project for our 2020 Cycle on 1 January 2019 provided this will not exceed 3 grants within a 5-year Cycle. We do not expect our grantees to submit an Evaluation Report for a grant they received less than a year ago. We do, however, verify that an organization does not have any outstanding reports before sending an application.
The Koch Foundation’s Board of Directors is dedicated to ensuring an equitable distribution of funds and to that end has imposed certain limits on application requests. Organizations such as dioceses, archdioceses, eparchies, archeparchies, apostolic vicariates, and religious institutes of Pontifical Right are allowed to submit more than one application request per cycle. Individual parishes, schools or Catholic non-profits are permitted one application request per cycle. The Koch Foundation does not, however, provide multiple applications for the same physical location regardless of the applying organization’s status.
Amounts awarded have varied and depend on the scope and significance of the project. Over the years, we have made awards ranging from $500 to $1,000,000 but the average award amount is around $10,000.The time period for a project has always been one year.
There are several reasons the Koch Foundation may decide to decline a proposal; however, some of the most common reasons proposals are declined are listed below.
- The proposal did not fall within our guidelines
- The organization itself was ineligible to apply to the Koch Foundation
- The project was not described sufficiently
- The budget was not clear or did not correspond to the project description
Yes. To receive an application form, you have to either submit a completed Online Request Form or send to our office via post a letter which describes the project you wish us to consider funding, an estimated project budget and introductory information on your organization. Please bear in mind that submitting a request does NOT guarantee receipt of an application form.
No. Requests and applications are considered confidential documents.
We accept requests from January 1st through May 1st each year for possible funding the following year. Organizations whose request(s) align most closely with funding categories and the Koch Foundation’s mission of evangelization will be invited to submit an application. The form will specify the proposal due date. Please do not submit a full proposal without an invitation to apply.
You may either (a) submit a letter to our office via post describing the project you wish us to consider which includes the project dates and estimated budget, as well as a very brief introduction to your organization or (b) complete and submit the Request Form found on this website. We do not accept faxed or emailed letters of request. You cannot call our office and request an application. You cannot submit a grant request via the ‘Contact Us’ Form.
Yes. We only accept documents in English, unless a translation is provided.
After you have completed your online request and clicked ‘Submit,’ you will receive an automated email notifying you that the request has been received, along with a copy of the request for your records. It can take up to one (1) month to review a request. You will be contacted via email if additional information or follow-up is needed. If you are approved for an application, you will be notified via email.
The entire Grantmaking process takes roughly twelve (12) months. The Board of Directors, which makes the final funding decisions, only meets once a year therefore we will only fund once a year. Grant award notifications are mailed in March annually. Due to the high volume to notifications, staff is unable to respond to phone calls regarding grant notification.
A fiscal agent is the representative of a Catholic organization located in the United States and listed in the US Official Catholic Directory that has agreed to disburse Koch Foundation grant funds to an overseas recipient. Since the Koch Foundation does not transfer money directly overseas, all applicants located outside the United States must have a fiscal agent. We will not identify or assign a fiscal agent to you. Prior to submitting a request, we suggest you identify a fiscal agent. We will not contact your fiscal agent for you. It is up to the applicant to secure a Signed Fiscal Agent Agreement Form from the fiscal agent confirming that he/she personally knows the applicant and accepts responsibility for transferring funds overseas. Since 9/11 and the implementation of the Patriot Act, the Koch Foundation must ensure only genuine Catholic organizations receive funding.
Following the events of 9/11 an array of laws were enacted in the United States, several of which are intended to prevent the funding of terrorist or terrorist sympathizing organizations. Koch Foundation and other entities that make charitable contributions or donations, especially overseas, are subject to these laws. Most of these laws existed in one form or another prior to 9/11 however amendments and Executive Orders have altered their impact on charitable organizations such as the Koch Foundation, and require us to adhere to a much stricter code.
Only official representatives of Catholic organizations located in the United States and listed in the US Official Catholic Directory may serve as fiscal agents. The organization must notify the Koch Foundation of its willingness to accept responsibility to disburse funds to overseas recipients and must have personal knowledge of the grantee organization.
The Koch Foundation grantees are required to submit an evaluation upon expending all Koch Foundation grant monies or completion of the approved project, whichever occurs first. Evaluation Reports are expected to be a substantive record of the activities conducted during the year of the grant, how the goals set forth in the original proposal were met, and a detailed expenditure report showing how the Koch grant monies were spent.
Yes. The Koch Foundation awards only one grant per year to an organization with the expectation that the project will be completed within the year. If the project is delayed the grantee must notify the Koch Foundation either via email or post, explaining the cause of the delay. Depending on the situation, the grantee will be asked to provide either a revised timeline for when the project will be completed and an expenditure report for the funds to date, or to return the funds.
An average of 300 awards is made each year.
The Koch Foundation typically provides between $5-8 million in grants to Catholic non–profit organizations worldwide.
The Koch Foundation, Inc. is endowment-based. When our founder, Carl Koch, sold his American Beauty Company he set aside a portion of the profits to fund a foundation to promote the Catholic faith. Over the years, the investments have grown and with it so have the number of grants.