The Fund for Lake Michigan is accepting pre-proposals throughout 2025.

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.

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 January 31st, Full Proposals February 28th
  • June Meeting – Pre-proposals April 11th, Full Proposals May 9th
  • October Meeting – Pre-proposals August 15th , Full Proposals September 12th
  • December Meeting – Pre-proposals October 17th, Full Proposals November 14th

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.