Deihl Community Grants Program

The Greater Manhattan Community Foundation (GMCF) serves to promote, guide, administer and steward the charitable inclinations, intentions, and contributions of our donors and fund holders. 

The Lincoln and Dorothy Deihl Community Grants (Deihl) program has established three fundamental priorities; basic human needs, youth, and the arts and humanities. 

The Executive Board will use the following approach to identifying potential projects and to the awarding of Deihl grants:

1. The Board will focus a portion of the Deihl funds on major strategic initiatives broadly impacting the Greater Manhattan community; those projects that often require more significant resources;
2. The Deihl Fund will typically not encourage or support proposals for programs likely to require ongoing commitments or for projects less than $10,000;
3. The Board will provide an annual 'block grant' to Grants for Greater Manhattan (GGM) of $75,000 for basic human needs and the arts/humanities to support the sustainability and project components of the GGM process for requests under $10,000. The board will also provide an annual grant of $75,000 for the matching commitments to the YES! Fund (youth/education);
4. The Board will create a Contingency/Emergency/Opportunity Fund within the Deihl program with a $50,000 initial commitment (replenished as needed). These funds will be utilized when an emergency need is identified and approved by the Board.

                                                                                                       Lincoln W. and Dorothy I. Deihl History

General Considerations

1. The GMCF, with input from its Trustees and community leaders, will prioritize Deihl Funds to maximize community impact in the areas of Arts, Basic Human Needs and Youth.
2. Requests should be from 501(c)(3) or tax exempt entities, not government agencies or schools.
3. The GMCF will work with the City of Manhattan and Manhattan Chamber of Commerce to identify funding priorities and welcomes all questions and ideas.
4. After review, if a project is chosen for further consideration, a request for more information will be made.
5. The Deihl grants committee will meet on a quarterly basis to conduct interviews.
6. The Deihl grants committee will interview potential awardees, discuss the merits of the project, and transmit their analysis of the interviews through the committee chair to the Board for final discussions and a majority decision.
7. Funding requests with partial or match funding committed from community members, businesses, and other organizations will be looked upon more favorably.
8. Please contact GMCF staff if you have any questions or ideas of projects that may have a significant impact on the community of Manhattan.

If you have any questions about potential Deihl Community Grant funding that you would like to discuss, please contact the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation at (785) 587-8995 and ask for Vern Henricks or Edee Nichols or email Edee at edeen@mcfks.org.