The trustees have established a set of informal guidelines:

• We prefer to fund projects that are Vermont-grown and Vermont-focused. Projects that duplicate or extend work done in other states, or that carry Vermont-based work outside the state are of less interest than projects that spring from the unique physical, human, and political landscape of Vermont.

• Projects should involve members of the communities they affect whenever appropriate. A proposal for a school curriculum project, for example, should identify teachers, administrators, parents, and others who will be prepared to support the project.

• We prefer to fund special projects or initiatives. We generally do not provide operating funding for existing organizations.

• We prefer to be a primary funder for projects rather than meeting existing challenge grants. However, the trustees welcome cooperation with other grant-making organizations in jointly evaluating and funding projects.

• When a project has activities partly inside and partly outside of Vermont (for example, the project’s boundaries are watershed-driven, as opposed to political), we will consider funding the Vermont portion of the project, but other funding must be found for the non- Vermont portion.

• We are open to experimental projects even when a successful outcome is not assured, provided the impact of the projects is significant. We believe that a failed project that discovers why it failed may in the long run be more valuable than a successful project that learns nothing from its success.

• Specificity, clarity, and brevity are encouraged.

PROJECT EVALUATION
We are particularly interested in educational aspects of any given proposal, as well as evaluation of the project. How will you measure the success or failure of your project, and how will you share that success or failure with others? When appropriate, proposals may request funds specifically for the evaluation, but the scale of the evaluation should match the scale of the project.