Eden Area Foundation

21455 Birch Street
Hayward, CA 94541
(510) 727-6753

Background

Eden United Church of Christ accepted bequests from Gordon Oliver and Alden Oliver, who directed that the funds “be used for local church purposes.” In 1999, after an ongoing process of prayerful discernment, Eden Church created the Eden Area Foundation and transferred a substantial portion of the bequest to the Foundation; the Foundation maintains a permanent endowment of charitable funds.

The objective of the Eden Area Foundation’s stewardship and development of these philanthropic funds is to carry out donors’ wishes by serving the following purposes:

To support Christian outreach programs for the welfare of the local community;
To exercise such stewardship in ways that promote Christian principles, demonstrate Christian compassion in the community, and enliven Eden Church itself.

Grants

Eden Area Foundation awarded its first grants in January 2003. Our Grant Guidelines and Application Process document provides information needed by applicant organizations to apply for a grant.

To access the guidelines, you will need Adobe Acrobat. If you do not have it, a free viewer is available from Adobe.

Eligibility

To be eligible for funding, an application organization must:

be a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization,
provide services to residents of Alameda County,
include a significant representation of Alameda County residents on its governing board, and
have an annual financial audit in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

Special consideration will be given to organizations located in the Eden Area (including Hayward, San Lorenzo, Ashland, Cherryland, Castro Valley, and San Leandro).

Timeline

The application and award process for grants from the Foundation occurs over a three-year span and uses the following timeline. If a specific date is given and that date is not a business day, the next business day will be used. The Foundation strictly adheres to this timeline.

Application Year 2009 Funding Cycle

June 1 Letter of Intent due in Foundation office June 2, 2008

mid-July Selected agencies requested to submit full proposals mid-July 2008

September 1 Grant Proposal due in Foundation office September 1, 2008

November Status of request sent to applicant organization November 2008

Funding Year

January 1 Funding begins for approved projects January 1, 2009

July 31 Mid-year report due for grants of more than $5,000 July 31, 2009

Reporting Year

February 1 End of year report due for all grants February 1, 2010

Grantees must execute the Hold Harmless form in the Grant Guidelines in order to receive funds.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q:	Must an applicant organization have a “Christian” identity to apply?
A:	No. An applicant organization that meets the eligibility requirements and having programs that fall within the Foundation’s areas of interest may submit a Letter of Intent. Refer to pages 2 and 3 of the Grant Guidelines and Application Process for more information.
Q:	I am having trouble reading the file containing the Grant Guidelines and Application Process. What do I need to do to read it?
A:	The file is in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). To read it, you need to use the Acrobat Reader, which is available free from Adobe.
Q:	I tried using Acrobat, but I cannot read the file. Is it available in any other format?
A:	You may use the Rich Text Format version, which can be read by most word processors. However, important pagination and other formatting information may be lost using this version. You should use the Acrobat version if at all possible.