Frequently Asked Questions
ABOUT THE FOUNDATION & FOUNDATION GIVING
ONLINE GRANT APPLICATION
GENERAL GRANT INFORMATION
ABOUT THE FOUNDATION & FOUNDATION GIVING
What are the Maclellan Family Foundations?
The Maclellan Family Foundations were created by members of the Maclellan family, descended from Thomas Maclellan, one of the founders of the Provident Companies, Inc. of Chattanooga, Tennessee (See Family History). Through their personal testimony and the consistency of their lives, the Maclellan family members and other trustees have been and are, individually and organizationally, committed to the infallibility of the Scripture, to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and to the fulfillment of the Great Commission: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Visit the foundations’ homepages for further information on the Maclellan Foundation, Inc., the Robert L. and Kathrina H. Maclellan Foundation, the Hugh and Charlotte Charitable Trust, the Helen M. Tipton Charitable Trust, and the Christian Education Charitable Trust.
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Where can I find out information about to what types of ministries the Maclellan Family Foundations give?
All guidelines are for the various foundations and trusts can be found under “Giving Priorities” in each entities’ subsite, under Maclellan Family Foundations.
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Are churches or denominations qualified to receive funds from the Maclellan Family Foundations?
The Family Foundations and Trusts do not make grants to area specific ministries (with the exception of the Chattanooga area) such as churches or denominations. If you are a church or a denomination looking for funding, you may want to consider posting a proposal on the Generous Giving Marketplace, a Web site that will expose your organization to thousands of prospective givers.
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Do you provide grants to individuals?
No, the Maclellan Family Foundations only provide grants to non-profit Christian organizations. If you are an individual looking for financial aid, please consult our suggestions for individuals here.
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Do you have scholarship funds available?
While several scholarships at various institutions bear the Maclellan name, the Maclellan Family Foundations do not have scholarship funds available. Many confuse the Dora Maclellan Brown Ministry Scholarship as a work of our Foundation, but for information concerning these funds, please contact the Chattanooga Christian Community Foundation. Although we do not have scholarship funds available, The Foundation Center provides scholarship information and listings of grants to individuals to help you in your search.
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Can I join a mailing list or obtain an annual report?
At this time the Maclellan Family Foundations do not publish any annual reports, nor does it maintain a mailing list. We hope that all the information you will need about the Foundation will be found on our Web Site. However, if you wish to obtain a financial statement, we suggest looking on GuideStar.
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ONLINE GRANT APPLICATION
How do I upload attachments?
DO NOT SUBMIT THE APPLICATION UNTIL ALL REQUIRED ATTACHMENTS ARE UPLOADED. If you cannot find the page to upload attachments, go to the top of your screen and click on the number before the “Review Your Application” button. To upload attachments:
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Select the Title of the document from the dropdown list at the bottom of the page. Only those titles given on our site may be used to name attached documents. Please limit your attachments to only those for which we ask.
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After selecting the title, click on the “Browse” button to search your personal computer for documents. Double click on the desired document.
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When you see the document name and path in the screen, click on the “Upload” button at the bottom of the page.
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Repeat steps 1-3 for the remaining three to five documents.
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For an example of how your budget statement should look, please click here.
I am working with a ministry that does not have Internet access. Is there any way to obtain and submit an application non-electronically?
Please send an email to support@maclellan.net for further instructions.
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Is there a way to view the Grant Application before downloading it to my computer?
We provide an Application Worksheet that not only provides the questions that we ask on our online application, but also offers further explanation as to what type of information we are seeking to gain from you and your ministry. In order to obtain the correct Worksheet, please begin the online application.
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What questions does the grant application ask?
On our grant application, we ask a series of questions, which may be found here.
I chose the “Save and Finish Later” option. How do I log back into my account?
After entering your user information, our server should have sent you via email a URL to gain access to your account, along with your password. You should keep this email for your records. However, if you have lost this information, go to https://www.GrantRequest.com/SID_399 in order to log into your account.
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I forgot my password. How can I obtain it?
On our User Login Page click on “Forgot your password? Click here” and enter your email address in the space provided. You should be emailed your password at your account address. After receiving your password via email, enter your password in the login page and continue the application process.
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I need further explanation as to what the Foundations and Trusts are looking for in the last section of questions on the Grant Application. Is there a place where I can find this?
Further explanatory information about our application can be found on our Application Worksheets. You will find the correct worksheet by completing the online application process.
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What are “Outcomes”?
For an explanation of what the Maclellan Family Foundations mean by “outcomes,” please see Outcomes Guidelines.
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Do the Maclellan Family Foundations receive grant requests in any forms other than the online application?
At this time, we require that requests be submitted online. If, for some reason, you are unable to submit online, please send us an email at support@maclellan.net.
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May I attach or email a document containing further explanation of our proposal in addition to the documents requested on the online application?
In order to decrease the amount of information we need to process, we have designed our application as to most efficiently give us the information we need to know about your organization and the project for which you are requesting funds. For this reason, at this time, we do not receive proposals in any other form than that which is outlined in the online application.
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Is the site secure? Who else can obtain the information I give to the Maclellan Foundation?
All information is confidential, encrypted, secure, and will not be shared with any other organization or donor without your permission.
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What is a “Payee” or “Fiscal Sponsor”?
If a grant is approved, and the grant-seeking organization does not have 501(c)3 status with the IRS, the ‘payee’ for the purpose of receiving grant payments will be the organization named in Section III of the grant application (and on the submitted IRS 501(c)3 determination letter in Section VI) as the organization serving as the fiscal sponsor for the ‘grantee’ organization. Grant payments will be made payable only to the named organization on the relevant IRS determination letter submitted with the grant application. For further information on fiscal sponsorship, please read our guidelines here.
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My organization/request fits under more than one program area. What should I do?
If your request fits under more than one category, Please select the one category that best describes the area of your specific project. If you are applying for multiple projects in a single application, choose the one category that best describes the general purpose of your ministry. There may be a number of different areas that seem to overlap in your specific project or in which your ministry is active, but you must choose just one category for the purpose of this application. While we understand that these program areas may not be specific enough to adequately describe your project, they are set up in this manner to aid us in keeping a set classification for our grants and grant requests.
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If my organization/request doesn’t fit perfectly under any of the program area designations on the online application, is there an option to manually enter the area in which our organization serves?
If your organization does not fit under any of our program areas, first carefully read the material under our Grant Application pages to see if your ministry fits within the bounds of giving foci. If you do not, please reconsider submitting a request. However, if you fit into one of the broader categories and merely do not find the specific program area in which you work, please select the program area that most closely describes your ministry. We do not allow this portion of the application to be filled in manually in order to keep a set classification for our grants and grant requests.
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I’m having trouble formatting my application. Are there any guidelines I should follow?
(a) Text fields do not allow formatting such as bolding, italicizing, or underlining.
(b) Double-space between paragraphs.
(c) If you want to use bullets in a Word document to cut and paste into the application fields, set the bullet font on Verdana and choose one of the Verdana characters (general punctuation bullet works best) – other bullets fail to convert.
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To what address should I mail/email my organization’s 501(c)3 tax exempt letter?
If the file is too large to upload, please email letters to support@maclellan.net or fax them to our Chattanooga offices at (423)755-1640.
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I have received the following error message when filling out the online application: “This is not a valid integer between -32,768 and 32,767.”
If you have received this error message, please check the fields to make sure you have not entered a percent sign (%), a dollar sign ($), punctuation marks, or any other non-numeric character.
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How do I report on a grant? Is this required?
A post-grant report is required one year from the first payment on the grant or at the time of submitting the next grant application. Please see our Post-Grant Reporting Guidelines for a full explanation of what we require.
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How will I know that my application has been submitted and received?
As soon as your application has been submitted, you will be brought to a “closing page” thanking you for submitting your application. You will also receive an email message from support@maclellan.net confirming the submission, containing an application tracking number, and giving you a record of the information submitted. Please do not reply to this email. It will not be possible for you to re-open your application at this point to make changes or resubmit. However, on your account page (see FAQ “I chose the ‘Save & Finish Later’ option…), you may view submitted applications and those applications which are still “open” (i.e., in process). If your application is listed on your account page as “open,” or if you have not received the emailed confirmation message, please open your application and follow all the instructions, including the final step of clicking the “submit” button.
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GENERAL GRANT INFORMATION
Where can I find information on obtaining a 501(c)3 tax-exempt status?
The Internal Revenue Service provides information for charitable organizations on its Web Site at http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/.
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May a ministry apply for a grant while its nonprofit 501(c)3 status is pending approval?
No. Only an organization that is a formally recognized 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization by the United States government may apply for a grant. This being the case, a ministry must wait until it has fully obtained its 501(c)3 status (i.e. no pending checks) before applying. However, a situation may arise where a qualified ministry seeks to launch a “daughter” ministry that is to become a separate entity from the ministry that oversees it. In this case, the qualified overseeing ministry may receive a grant for the daughter/subsidiary ministry. But so long as the daughter ministry’s legal status is pending, all donations must be made directly to and processed entirely by the qualified overseeing ministry. Once fully recognized by the government, the daughter ministry may apply for grants independently of the Payee organization. Likewise, international organizations seeking funding must apply through a fiscal sponsor.
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What qualifications must my organization meet in order to be considered for a Maclellan grant?
To see if you qualify for a grant, please review our online Grant Application. Through answering the questions honestly, you will be able to determine whether or not you qualify for Maclellan funding.
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What is the Lausanne Covenant, and why must any ministry that applies for a Maclellan Grant subscribe to this document?
The Lausanne Covenant is a creedal statement drafted in 1974 by an international gathering of 2,750 Christian leaders from 150 countries. Its purpose is to set forth clearly what we believe in contrast to opposing views that were being promoted within the church at the time. Its principal framer was evangelical Anglican John R.W. Stott. The Maclellan Foundation does not regard the Lausanne Covenant or any other man-written creed as necessary or sufficient for salvation. Rather, it is merely a helpful (though imperfect) summary of hallmark evangelical beliefs: the authority of scripture, the uniqueness of Christ, and most of all the urgency of evangelism. Since the 1970s, subscription to the Lausanne Covenant has become an internationally recognized screen that distinguishes evangelical Christians from those who are not. Because the Maclellan Family Foundations seek to support those ministries that are faithful to Jesus Christ and His word, the Lausanne Covenant serves as such a screen. If any ministry outside of the Chattanooga community cannot in good conscience subscribe to this covenant, then it will not be considered for a grant.
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Does having obtained a past grant ensure future grants?
Although the Maclellan Family Foundations have an established history with many organizations, past grants do not ensure future grants. Each application is considered and weighed according to how closely it aligns with the heart of the Foundation or Trust and the funds available, not on prior granting history.
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What is the Maclellan grant review process? / When does your Boards meet?
When the Maclellan Family Foundations receive a proposal through the online application process, the Grants Manager first determines whether or not it falls within our selected focus areas and determines which Maclellan entity/entities should review the request. Boards meet at various times and various frequencies throughout the year. However upon application, you will be notified as to what course we are taking within two months of applying. It is our goal to complete this review process within three months, but requests that must be presented to the Board can often take longer to process.
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What is your deadline for receipt of proposals?
There is no deadline for submitting proposals; we accept proposals throughout the year. For further information concerning proposal submission, please see our Grant Application.
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How long does it take to review a proposal?
Review of a full proposal varies with the complexity of the issues it raises, but often the review process takes about three to six months.
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What is the average size of your grants and over what average period of time?
Dollars awarded and time periods vary widely and depend on the scope and significance of the project.
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How can I find out the status of my proposal?
To determine the status of your request, send an email to support@maclellan.net. However, please do not contact us until at least four weeks after submission in order to give us an adequate amount of time to process your request.
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Do you accept mailed proposals?
At this time, we require applications to be submitted online. If for some reason you are unable to submit an online application, please contact us at support@maclellan.net and we will give you further direction.
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