Siemer Family Foundation

Grantmaking Focus

The Siemer Family Foundation is guided by Barbara Siemer as chairperson; Mrs. Siemer’s career experience as a high school English teacher and her many community volunteer experiences benefiting children inform the Foundation’s grantmaking interests. 

The Siemer Family Foundation supports programs that:

• Improve educational opportunities for school age children, including those during the school day and those outside of traditional school hours.  The focus of such programs may be related to specific academic areas or include those intended to enhance overall academic achievement;
• Provide young children access to opportunities that prepare them for school, especially those including a parental involvement component;
• Improve education and literacy throughout the community; or
• Improve the economic or housing status and physical well-being and safety of underprivileged families with the intention of creating greater stability for all family members, especially children.

The Foundation would like its grants to be broad both in terms of type of programs and areas of the central Ohio community that benefit. There are, however, some limitations for applicants to consider.

All grants are limited to central Ohio. In addition, grants are: 

• not awarded for capital campaigns.
• not awarded for computer hardware or software.
• not awarded for vehicles.

Grant Application Instructions

The Siemer Family Foundation has an annual grant application deadline on the first working day of June. Applicants are encouraged to contact our staff  via e-mail 60 to 90 days in advance of the proposal deadline to present project ideas prior to submission of a Letter of Intent (LOI). The deadline for 2010 has passed. 

New Application Requirement

Beginning 2010, a PowerPhilanthropy portrait will be required for Full Proposals. Please note that a portrait is not required for a LOI.

To create a PowerPhilanthropy portrait for your organization, contact Joyce Ray or Erin Scott at 614/251-4000 or by e-mail.

After submitting a Letter of Intent (LOI), only those applications that best fit the Foundation’s grantmaking interests and are strongly competitive will be forwarded to the full proposal stage. The applicants that move to this phase of the proposal process will be notified of the full-application deadline via e-mail.  Decisions for these applications are announced in October 31.

For those unfamiliar with the foundation’s application process, you are strongly encouraged to attend a workshop, which is held several times per year, to provide you an overview of the grant application process for all supporting foundations and The Columbus Foundation. Consult the community events calendar for specific dates and registration.

Examples of Grants

• Action for Children Council of Franklin County: $15,000 to support distribution of literacy kits to low-income families.
• Central Ohio Youth for Christ: $4,800 to support the volunteer tutoring program at Avondale Elementary for students struggling to learn fundamental reading skills.
• Columbus Literacy Council: $20,000 to support the Family Literacy Initiative, a partnership with the Salvation Army and the Columbus Housing Partnership.
• Gladden Community House: $10,000 to support the preschool program serving over 50 children ages 3 - 5 with multiple poverty-related risk factors.
• YWCA of Columbus: $20,000 to support an out-of-school program at the YWCA Homeless Family Center.
  
  

Reporting Requirements

The Siemer Family Foundation requires final reports from organizations receiving grants. Final reports are generally due 30 days following the project grant period.  Please refer to your grant award letter for the exact deadline date. Please submit your final report via e-mail using the attached Siemer Family Foundation Competitive Grant Reporting Overview.

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