The Mary Louise Dobson Foundation grants shall primarily be for education, human services, health, civic or cultural purposes, with priority given to youth-related projects and current initiatives, according to the following guidelines.

1. The Mary Louise Dobson Foundation considers applications from and makes grants to 501(c)3 organizations and public charities in Wharton County. In the past, some projects for organizations lying outside this defined geographic area have been considered and/or approved when the specific project benefits citizens of the specified counties.

2. Grants shall be for capital and/or operating purposes on a single or installment grant basis, with or without matching funds.

3. Applications will be considered and reviewed with the Grants Committee for positive or negative recommendation to the Board of Directors for its consideration.

4. The Foundation does not make grants to individuals or loans of any type. Although the Foundation supports scholarship programs, the Foundation does not select individual scholarship recipients. The Foundation prefers not to fund galas or gala-like, testimonial, advertising, promotional or fund-raising events. MLDF grants shall be primarily for specific, identifiable projects or purposes, rather than in response to general fund-raising programs by other charitable organizations. Grants to national charitable organizations or local chapters thereof will generally not be considered.

5. The MLDF Grants Committee will have authority to originate and present for recommendation to the full Board pro-active grants conceived by individual committee or board members of the committee or board as a whole.

6. Before an application can be considered, proof is required that the applicant has an exempt classification as described in Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code, and that it is considered “not a private foundation” within the meaning of Section 509(a) of the Code. An applicant may qualify under Section 170(c)1 if its requested grant is shown to be for public purposes only as described in the Code.

7. A decision to decline funding should not be interpreted as a negative evaluation of a program or organization. It is not feasible for the foundation to discuss with applicants’ reasons for declining a request, and the foundation does not provide critiques of proposals.