FAQ

We are happy to meet with current or potential grantees. Please contact Robia Qasimyar, Program Associate, at Robia@WeitzFamilyFoundation.org (organizations A-M) or Emily Nguyen, Executive Director, at
Emily@WeitzFamilyFoundation.org (organizations N-Z).

If you are a current grantee who wants to ask questions/share updates or a potential grantee who hopes for an introduction, please contact your respective Program Associate. If your meeting objectives extend beyond those matters but still pertains to potential funding requests, please send a message to Emily Nguyen, Executive Director, at Emily@WeitzFamilyFoundation.org. Please see Dr. Katie Weitz’s blog for her reflection about our leadership transition.

Please explore the Yates Illuminates website to learn more about this project and the partnership between Yates and the Gifford Park Neighborhood Association!

Drafting an email or sending a one-pager to Emily Nguyen, Executive Director, at Emily@WeitzFamilyFoundation.org will allow us to see if there is a staff member or resource we can connect with you. Please know we want to make dreams come true, so providing us with as much information up front is helpful. Additionally this could include links, video, other resources, it does not need to be a formal presentation (although we love a good slide deck!)

As a private foundation, we can not give to individuals, including political candidates. We do fund advocacy work as allowable for 501(c)3 organizations.  For more information on what is allowable, see Alliance for Justice’s Bolder Advocacy program. 

Thank you for being considerate, and carefully reviewing how or whether your agency fits with our foundation. The Weitz Family Foundation prioritizes and supports systemic change that transforms our community into an equitable place to live. Being able to answer how your effort addresses racial equity is crucial. The next question would be, are you working at the level of direct service, systemic change, or something in between? Every piece of the work is vital to our community. We prefer to target our resources where we can have them be the most impactful whenever possible. Additionally, we are grateful there are many other funders who appreciate and respond to the appeals for immediate action.  

Have more questions?  Please communicate with our Program Associates: Robia Qasimyar at
Robia@WeitzFamilyFoundation.org (organizations A-M) or Diana Martinez at
Diana@WeitzFamilyFoundation.org (organizations N-Z).

• Beloved Community
  • Funding requests $20,000 and under
  • Focus on relief, recovery, and re-imagining life in Omaha
  • Shorter application
  • First-time applicants are eligible for consideration

• Capacity Building
  • Funding requests starting at $21,000
  • Focus on facilitating the success of a project, program, or agency at a higher impact level
  • Longer application
  • First-time applicants are not eligible for consideration
  • Capital campaign requests
  • Multi-year requests for eligible organizations:
    • Must have received a Weitz Family Foundation grant for 5 or more years, does not have to be consecutive.
    • Engaging in advocacy, community organizing, or supporting collective action to address the root problems of poverty, racism, or other inequities OR is meeting a unique need to provide culturally competent and accessible direct services in Omaha.
    • Actively working to improve their organization’s racial equity and accessibility.

Our grant applications open in mid July and close in late August. Notifications will be sent by mid-December. Please see our Process page for more details. 

When you visit the Tutorials page on our website, you will see a video that walks you through the GivingData website and application process. On that same page, you will also be able to access a document that serves as a guide with helpful directions and information. Please note that all organizations (including previous grantees) must create a new account to start the application.

No, you may only apply for one of the available grants. 

We recommend applying for Beloved Community if you have never been a grantee and/or if you have applied in the past but were not ultimately selected as a grantee. This grant is the best way to get introduced to the Weitz family and foundation team.

Yes! Please note that all of our funding is disbursed as general operating. We do not fund more than 50% of a specific position’s salary and/or more than 20% of total program budgets. For capital campaigns, we expect either 10% or the entirety of our grant (whichever is less) to go toward contracts with small and emerging businesses.

Agencies that work in the Omaha metro area are eligible to apply. We do fund several national organizations with satellites/chapters in Omaha. If your agency is primarily located and works outside of Omaha, especially outside of Nebraska, we will say no. We receive so many worthy requests, our criteria for funding begins with the simple geographic question. Please understand that although your proposal may be wonderful, if it is not taking place in the Omaha area, we are unlikely to be your funder.

We recognize that many people who use services in Omaha also live and work across the bridge and vice versa. Unfortunately, we have to draw some lines, and thus we will not fund agencies that are outside Omaha, including (but of course not limited to) Council Bluffs.

No worries! We are happy to find a solution that works for you. Please email Rose at Rose@WeitzFamilyFoundation.org.

Yes, your organization must be designated as a 501(c)3 to be considered for grant funding. If you submitted your application to the IRS and are pending approval, you are still welcome to apply. However, you will need to keep us updated about the status of your application and, if your application is approved, we may withhold funds until your designation comes through. If you do not have a 501(c)3 designation but secure a fiscal sponsor that does, you are eligible to apply for funding. You must disclose this and share the contact information for your fiscal sponsor in your application.

Every director and staff member of the Weitz Family Foundation is actively engaged in the community. It may seem confusing whether to approach an individual or the foundation. Unless you have an existing personal relationship, please do not solicit individual family members in addition to the family’s foundation. Program Associates are available to meet with agencies (Robia Qasimyar at Robia@WeitzFamilyFoundation.org for organizations A-M and Diana Martinez Diana@WeitzFamilyFoundation.org for organizations N-Z). However, this does not indicate likelihood of grant funding. If you are new to the Weitz Family Foundation, please reach out to your respective Program Associate to schedule an introductory meeting.

Sure. Our Beloved Community grants are meant to provide funds for the day-to-day costs of operating non-profit agencies that fit within our mission. If you are applying for a Capacity Building grant, overhead costs can be included. In these programmatic areas, we prefer to see overhead that doesn’t exceed 20 percent. Additionally, if you intend to use any portion of the grant to fund an event, please indicate that on your application.

While we do not have a maximum threshold for how long responses must be, you will see that we have word limit suggestions on our application. Ultimately, we are looking for responses that offer complete, direct, and honest answers to our questions. Provide enough information that will allow our team to get a solid idea of the picture you are trying to paint, but please do not feel like you must include every minute detail.

While we respect and appreciate the amazing efforts made by nonprofits of all kinds, due to budget limitations, we are unable to support all of them. Areas we do not fund include organizations centered on religion, sports, animals, and the environment. Our attention is drawn to systems-change, so organizations that are pantries and/or requests centered on pantries are unlikely to be supported.

No.

You’re welcome to contact us so that we can determine a means by which you can still apply for grant funding. Please email Rose at Rose@WeitzFamilyFoundation.org.

If requested (via email), we will do our best to provide specific feedback where we can (not to dispute the result), but it is also the case that difficult decisions have to be made. We hope you understand we receive countless worthy applications but, realistically, are unable to fund every one of them. 

Yes!

If you want the Weitz Family Foundation to be a sponsor of your annual or special event, you MUST use this application process. We will not consider underwriting letters or sponsorship appeals during the rest of the year. Please specify the amount you would like in underwriting or sponsorship and indicate what “level” of sponsorship this will secure. This is an additional question in the application so be sure to decide carefully. And yes, if we fund your grant, you will be able to use our name in your fundraising/marketing materials.

If you have an active multi-year grant from us, you are not eligible to apply for additional funding. The number of applications we receive as well as the amounts in requests increase every year while our budget remains the same, so we are only able to offer one grant per organization. If you are a current multi-year grantee and have questions about the status of your grant, please reach out to your designated Foundation contact.