The Fund for Lake Michigan is accepting pre-proposals throughout 2024.

• The Fund accepts pre-proposals on a rolling basis throughout the year.   You can submit a pre-proposal to the Fund on a time-frame that works best for you and your project.
• We make grant decisions four times a year at our quarterly board meetings (March, June, October and December).
• Deadlines: To have your grant considered at our quarterly board meeting the latest dates that we will accept pre-proposals and full proposals:
  • March Meeting – Pre-proposal February 2nd, Full Proposals February 26th
  • June Meeting – Pre-proposals April 12th, Full Proposals May 10th
  • October Meeting – Pre-proposals August 16th , Full Proposals September 13th
  • December Meeting – Pre-proposals October 18th, Full Proposals November 15th
• We estimate that a grant request will take three to six months to process from the time we receive a pre-proposal to when we issue a grant contract.
• We use a two-step grant making process (a pre-proposal followed by an invitation to submit a full proposal).
• All grant materials – including pre-proposals – must be submitted electronically through Foundant, our online grant management system.  Instructions for accessing our grant portal and submitting a pre-proposal can be found below.
• We plan to award between $700,000 and $900,000 in grants each quarter.
• Applicants may submit more than one pre-proposal during the year and may have multiple active projects with the Fund at any time.