Nonprofit Eligibility Requirements

All nonprofits submitted for funding consideration should meet the following requirements. Please ensure that you’ve gone through this checklist before making your submission.

Designated Category. First, only organizations that fall within the quarter’s theme will be considered. Please double check that the organization you are submitting fits within the designated category. If it doesn’t, wait to submit at an appropriate time of year.

WINTER Quarter (January 22, 2026 meeting): Issues Impacting Basic Needs - Ensuring everyone in our community has access to essentials like food, housing, and employment. Includes efforts to address housing instability, homelessness, food insecurity, unemployment, and to support low-income residents. 

SPRING Quarter (April 27, 2026 meeting): Issues Impacting Children, Youth & Families - Helping kids and families thrive through support, education, and opportunity. Includes youth development programs, child advocacy, family support organizations, and initiatives addressing legal or social issues impacting children.

SUMMER Quarter (July 21, 2026): Issues Impacting Social Justice & Inclusion - Building a more equitable and connected community for everyone. Includes organizations addressing racial and social justice, immigrant and refugee issues, peacebuilding, and efforts to bridge divides through civic dialogue and polarization reduction.

FALL Quarter (October 21, 2026 meeting): Issues Impacting Health & Wellness - Promoting mental, physical, and emotional health for individuals and families. Includes mental health services, addiction prevention and recovery, and whole-health supports for parents and caregivers navigating stress, childcare shortages, and healthcare access. 

501c3 status. Nonprofits should have their 501c3 designation, or be supported by a fiscal sponsor with 501c3 status. (A fiscal sponsorship arrangement allows a small startup or charitable project to accept funding even though it does not have tax-exempt status from the IRS. The fiscal sponsor is a nonprofit with 501c3 status that provides financial and administrative services to help build the capacity of a startup organization or charitable initiative.) Most nonprofit websites will provide their 990 form and EIN #. These are good pieces of information to review when considering a donation, and for Impact | West Seattle, we ask that you provide the EIN# and link to the 990 with your submission of an organization.

Donations will not be made to religious or politically affiliated organizations.

Location. While the donors in our giving circle are comprised of women in the West Seattle area, our giving has a bit wider focus. All grants made by our giving circle should impact the city of Seattle and its residents and environment. This might mean a grant given to a small organization working directly with a specific Seattle neighborhood or it might mean a large nonprofit that works in many neighborhoods across the city. It might also mean a nonprofit outside of our area that has a project that impacts Seattle residents. There could be a case made for a local Seattle nonprofit that does work outside of our region, and this would be something the group could consider on a case by case basis. Essentially though, the work of the nonprofit should benefit and support the people who live in the city of Seattle.