Foundation for Financial Planning (Washington, DC)Click map for a full size active view.
The Mission of the Foundation for Financial Planning is to help people take control of their financial lives by connecting the financial planning community with people in need. We achieve this by supporting pro bono advice and outreach activities.
Grant Guidelines
All grants are made at the sole discretion of FFP, based on its evaluation of individual applications, its determination of relative priorities, and its availability of funds. The FFP reserves the right not to award any specific grant for any reason, or for no apparent reason, no matter how clearly the proposed project may seem to relate to FFP’s mission, and no matter how closely the requester has followed the guidelines and procedures.
GRANT MAKING FOCUS
The FFP support its initiatives that further its mission. In doing so, it makes grants to those organizations with programs that utilize financial planning practitioners in the delivery of services. Outreach must:
• Utilize financial planning professionals, or local affiliates of financial planning organizations, in pro bono activities; generally through and with community based organizations, to:
o Deliver programs to specific target audiences who are underserved by the market, in need of financial guidance, or in a financial crisis with particular emphasis on adult and/or young adult populations who are generally not being served by the market and/or cannot pay for financial planning advice;
o Provide financial planning advice and counseling to military personnel and their families;
o Support pro bono advice programs to provide opportunities to obtain unbiased financial advice in time of crisis or disaster; or
o Utilize financial planning professionals offering pro bono advice and counsel to those of diverse social economic levels
To be considered, projects need to incorporate the involvement of financial planning professionals as community volunteers and in pro bono activity, or in partnership with local affiliates of financial planning organizations.
Priority will be given to the following:
• Projects utilizing financial planning professionals in the delivery of one-to-one consultation to people in need;
• Larger projects with impact on larger numbers of underserved;
• Projects that can be easily replicated on a regional or nationwide basis; Approved projects must agree to share program materials, handouts, presentations and other related materials to FFP for dissemination for use in other programs and areas, and/or by other organizations.
• Projects targeted to disadvantaged, underserved or special need populations;
• Projects that are sustainable beyond FFP Funding
Requests are encouraged from programs that are collaborative in design, with partners such as social service agencies, youth agencies and community-based adult education centers.
ELIGIBILITY
Applicants must be tax-exempt under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code, and must be classified as “not a private foundation” under Section 509(a) of the Code.
RESTRICTIONS
The Foundation will not fund:
• Organizations that have not been designated tax-exempt status according to Internal Revenue Code Section 501 (c) (3) or its equivalent for colleges and universities. (Note: Pending status is not sufficient.)
• Organizations that discriminate on the basis of age, color, disability, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status
• Organizations and/or Project Principals and team members who fail to meet requirements of the USA Patriot Act and related regulations
• Foreign organizations
• International programs or projects
• Organizations whose projects include re-grant of FFP funding.
• Endowments or capital campaigns
• Fees or stipends to Financial Planners
• Political, fraternal or sports organizations or campaigns
• Books and magazines; articles or advertising in professional journals
• Fundraising activities such as benefits, charitable dinners or sporting events
• Legislative or lobbying efforts
• Loan or loan-guarantees to non-profit organizations
• Individual Development Accounts
• Incentives for individuals
• Programs for religious groups, except where they provide needed services to the community at large and do not include or promote a particular religious instruction or belief
• Individuals
Please note the Foundation does not generally fund indirect costs. The board may reconsider on a case by case basis.
The Foundation for Financial Planning is the foundation for the financial planning profession. It was started in 1981 as the IAFP Foundation (created by the International Association of Financial Planners prior to its merger with ICFP in 2000 to form the Financial Planning Association (FPA). The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization designated under the Internal Revenue Service codes and regulations.
The original purpose of the Foundation was to assist the IAFP in its public awareness activities, acting as an implementing rather than a grant-making organization. Its first project was the development of a series of television programs intended to educate the public about financial planning. In 1985 the mission statement was changed to read that the purpose of the Foundation was, "to motivate and help all Americans to be more financially responsible for their own lives."
Despite its considerable activities through its first seven years of existence, by 1988, the effectiveness of the Foundation was being impacted by the difficulties the IAFP experienced as a result of the continuing malaise in financial markets. While still an arm of IAFP during this time, the IAFP placed the Foundation in a caretaker posture but retained its structure with the approval of the existing directors.
A New Era Begins
The Foundation continued in this caretaker mode until November 18, 1994 when the bylaws were revised. On January 6, 1995, the first meeting of a completely new Board of Directors was held and the Foundation was restructured as an independent entity and its name was changed to the Foundation for Financial Planning. While the Foundation is independent from the IAFP (FPA), it maintains a close relationship with FPA and other professional industry associations. The leaders of the Foundation’s new life had a vision to operate the Foundation as a resource development and grants-making organization, not an implementing one.
They knew additional financial resources were needed to grow the vision and mission of the Foundation. A survey of financial planning industry leaders showed a deep and wide interest on the part of financial planners in the restructuring of the Foundation as a grant-making organization to help people in need take control of their financial lives. There was enthusiastic support for a proposed fund-raising effort to create an endowment fund and the Foundation embarked on its first endowment fund campaign.
In 1997, as the gifts and pledges to the endowment campaign began coming in, Foundation leaders established a grant-making policy. In October 1998, the Foundation awarded its first grant - a $10,000 challenge grant for a project to identify the financial planning needs of college students; and a $20,000 grant for the development of a community-based financial education center.
Since those first grants, beginning in 1998, 47 grants have been awarded to various non-profit organizations, bringing together people in need with the financial planning community.
As the financial planning profession’s foundation, the Foundation for Financial Planning reaches out to individual financial planners and the companies that provide support and products for planners, for tax-deductible contributions in order to support its mission. As one planner said,
“A gift to the Foundation is the best way for me to give back to this profession. The work of the Foundation touches so many more people than I could ever reach, no matter how hard I would try. The further and deeper the message of financial planning goes, the more people everywhere will make smarter financial decisions and the better-off we will all be as a result.”
FFP provides grants to a range of community-based and national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations whose programs reach underserved families with free, quality financial advice from Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) professionals. We focus on funding programs that enable planners to meet one-on-one with people in need so that guidance can be personalized and customized to individual circumstances, as opposed to programs that provide financial literacy in group settings without the opportunity for one-on-one interaction.
For more information, visit http://ffpprobono.org/our-work/grants/how-to-apply/
Questions, or if this is your first time applying, please contact Rachel Roth at rroth@ffpprobono.org.
Grantmaker accepts unsolicited and solicited applications.
Grant
| Cycle name |
Applications opened |
Applications closed |
|---|---|---|
| Year | January 15 | May 1 |
| Name | Notes |
|---|---|
| Project Budget.xlsx | Project Budget |
| Project timeline.docx | Project timeline |
| Q1 Grant Report.pdf | Sample Grant Report |
| 7 Steps_Engage Volunteer FAs_3.2.pdf | 7 Steps to Creating a Pro Bono Financial Planning Program |
| 2021_11 FFP Sample Engagement Letter FINAL.docx | Sample Letter of Engagement |
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Foundation for Financial Planning accepts grant applications for the Financial Planning Organizations Community Grants (formerly Micro Grants) on an on-going basis. These $1,250 grants are awarded to financial planning organizations (e.g. Financial Planning Association, National Association of Personal Financial Advisors) that seek to help underserved members of the community.
Financial workshops with question and answer forums are beneficial yet they do not address sensitive personal financial situations. Therefore, these grants will be awarded to chapters that develop programs that provide greater opportunity for adults to meet with pro bono planners in confidential one-on-one sessions.
Examples of programs that this grant supports includes: Financial Planning Days, financial educational clinics that offer one-on-one sessions. Note that financial planning organizations or chapters should apply for grant funding prior to the event.
Note: U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations should apply for grants via the Annual Grant Application.
Questions rroth@ffpprobono.org
Grantmaker accepts unsolicited applications.
Grant
| Cycle name |
Applications opened |
Applications closed |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous | Continuous | Continuous |
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