Grants

To date, the Oceanside Charitable Foundation has granted out $82,000 to deserving nonprofits serving the Oceanside community. 

Cycle 4 – Science & Technology

Focus:

In its fourth cycle of grant making, the Oceanside Charitable Foundation (OCF) will accept proposals that address issues regarding Science and Technology. The goal of the Science and Technology grant cycle is to support programs that prepare us to be competent, capable citizens in our technology-dependent society.

Program Criteria:

Grant applications must be administered by a viable 501 c (3) nonprofit organization. The proposed grant project must impact the Oceanside community in one, or a combination of, the following ways:

1. Education
   - Grades 1- 8
   - Math, Science, Technology
   - Preparing boys and girls for the demands of a technological job market
2. Preparing and strengthening teachers’ abilities to teach in the areas of math, science and technology
3. Workforce development – Develop an emphasis in cooperation, teamwork, social skills, and collaboration among program participants.

Past Grantmaking

Grants 2011-2012

In its third cycle of grantmaking, the Oceanside Charitable Foundation granted $30,000 to local nonprofits, focusing on programs that addressed environmental education, water quality and conservation, and / or water habitat and wildlife preservation.

Grants were awarded to the following organizations and programs:

Energy Tech Career Pathway: Environmental Impact and Energy Conservation - El Camino High School
$15,000 will help educate El Camino students about the importance of energy and the unique needs of the area’s environment. Students will learn about environmentally sensitive areas in Oceanside and the importance of alternative energy. In addition, students will establish a working greenhouse to grow plants for habit restoration in Oceanside.
 

Environment Extended Learning and Enrichment Program – The Kid’s College
$15,000 will support after-school environmental and extended learning programs for elementary and high school students in Oceanside. The Environmental Education program for elementary school students will introduce students to local habitats and the concepts of conservation and preservation. Additionally, The Kid’s College will provide Energy Pathway students at El Camino High School with an eight-week guest speaker program featuring local energy experts talking about wind, solar and water environmental issues, opportunities and career paths.
 

Grants 2010-2011

In its second cycle of grantmaking, the Oceanside Charitable Foundation granted $22,000 to local nonprofits, focusing on Health and Human Services and more specifically, Access to Food. Over the past few years, food service organizations in the area have noticed the changing demographics of those seeking assistance; today, over 85% of those in need are families with children.

Grants were awarded to the following organizations and programs:

The San Diego Food Bank: Oceanside Neighborhood Distribution Program

$18,390 helped to bring The San Diego Food Bank's Neighborhood Distribution Program to Oceanside. The program distributed over 50,000 pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables and nonperishable foods to families in Oceanside. The Food Bank also assisted 66 Oceanside families attending the distribution with successfully applying for Cal Fresh benefits (formerly known as food stamps). As no other agency in Oceanside assists families with the complicated CalFresh application process, the OCF-funded program provides two benefits - the short term benefit of distributed food, and the long term benefit of access to food through the CalFresh program.

Brother Benno Foundation Food and Hot Meals Program

$3,610 went to support the Food and Hot Meals Program that provides nutritional hot meals and packaged food to the working poor, the homeless, low-income seniors, and the handicapped in Oceanside. Serving Oceanside since 1976, The Brother Benno Foundation’s Food program consists of three components: a hot meal served to the public six days a week at the Brother Benno’s Center, a sack lunch provided six days a week at the Oceanside Center and a monthly distribution of boxes filled with ready-to-cook packaged food.

Grants 2009-2010

In its first year of grantmaking, the Oceanside Charitable Foundation awarded $30,000 to local nonprofits. The grant focus area was Civil Society, with a special emphasis on programs that serve Oceanside Youth.

Oceanside Civic Leadership Project - North County Lifeline, Inc.
$24,900 went to support the Oceanside Civic Leadership Project, which helps to make community service meaningful and rewarding for Oceanside youth aged 10 – 18. Participants, drawn from North County Lifeline’s juvenile diversion, delinquency prevention, gang prevention, mentoring, and after-school programs, were youth who had community service hours mandated by the school district or courts. The goal of the program is to take community service from an act of simple restitution to an opportunity for at-risk youth to redirect their behavior into positive channels, to build confidence and leadership abilities and to experience the rewards gained from helping others and giving back to the community.

YMCA Street Outreach - YMCA Youth and Family Services
$5,100 supported the YMCA Street Outreach program, which encourage homeless Oceanside youth to move off the streets and into shelters, and which works to empower homeless youth to be healthy, self-sufficient, and contributing members of society. YMCA Street Outreach Workers frequent areas where runaway and homeless youth congregate to talk about the dangers of living on the streets and to distribute Survival Packs with toiletries, non-perishable foods, bus tokens and resource information.
 

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Grant Process

Each year the Oceanside Charitable Foundation’s Grants Committee selects and recommends to the Board an “area-of-interest” on which to focus its grant making. The committee’s recommendation is based on input from the membership, the community and research. The areas of interest include: education, health and human services, the environment, arts and culture and civil Society.

Discovery
After the Board approves the focus area, the Grants Discovery subcommittee researches relevant national and regional materials for background and context, and conducts interviews with Carlsbad community leaders, citizens and experts in order to promote an open dialogue, collaboration and idea flow. Based on their findings, they narrow the focus area and write the Grant Guidelines. The Guidelines are then ratified by the Board and released to the community for applications.

Grant Forum
Once the guidelines are made public, the Grants Committee begins a public relations effort to encourage all relevant and interested parties to attend its Grant Seekers Forum. Here, grant seekers learn how to submit grants to the foundation, receive answers to any questions about the granting process, and meet other Oceanside organizations/nonprofits seeking funding in the focus area. During this session, the foundation actively encourages organizations to work together to find ways they might collaborate in seeking funds to more fully benefit the community.

Process
All grant applications are first read by the San Diego Foundation to assure thoroughness and adherence to Oceanside Charitable Foundation requirements.

Following grant reading training, committee members read all proposals and score them. Based on these scores, the committee determines which organizations will receive a site visit from a team of committee members. Every committee member making a site visit must undergo a special site visit training provided by the Grants Committee in conjunction with The San Diego Foundation.

Each site visit is rated by the site visit team and results brought back to the Grants Committee. After presentations by the teams and subsequent discussion, the committee decides which qualified organizational candidates should be placed on the final ballot. The committee makes it ballot recommendations to the Board for its approval.

Member Voting
After Board approval of the ballot, members vote to determine how grant funding will be allocated for that grant year. Winners are notified and Grant Agreement Letters are mailed. Grant monies are distributed in the second quarter of the following year.

Award Ceremony
The Oceanside Charitable Foundation holds an awards ceremony to publicly announce the grant winners. It is an occasion for the membership to meet the grant recipients and to support the visionary role of the Oceanside Charitable Foundation.

Impact
The Grants Impact sub-committee follows up with each grantee at six month intervals to assess how grant monies are being spent and update membership on the grantees’ progress.

Assessment
The Oceanside Charitable Foundation Board and Grants Committee is intent on making this grant process one that uniquely reflects Oceanside and the foundation’s vision. To that end, the Grants Committee assesses the process each year (seeking representative input from all parties concerned) and submits any recommendations for change to the Oceanside Charitable Foundation Board of Directors.

Conflicts of Interest
All Grants Committee members are required to sign a Conflict of Interest document. During the proposal reading and site visit process, any committee member holding a position of influence with an organization seeking a grant through the Oceanside Charitable Foundation is not allowed to partake in discussion or voting involving that organization.

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