Committed to a relationship-centered approach to partnership and grantmaking.

Thank you for your interest in partnering with the Arthur Dean Family Foundation. At this time, we are not accepting inquiries from potential new partners. We are choosing to pause so that we may prioritize responding to those organizations that have already reached out. We appreciate your understanding and wish you the best as you seek new investments partnerships for your mission and work.

We invest in long-term, holistic partnerships with youth-serving organizations working to help young people thrive.

The Arthur Dean Family Foundation investments are focused on helping young people and the organizations that serve them thrive. Our grant making process reflects our belief that deep, sustained philanthropic impact occurs over time and through relationships with grantee partners that are reciprocal, equitable, long-term, and informed by our collective learning along the way. 

To remain in authentic, transparent partnership with the communities we serve, we share the following guiding parameters for how we engage with new and returning grantee partners. The Arthur Dean Family Foundation award funding:

  • Focused on helping young people thrive. We define young people as being 5 – 25 years old.
  • To organizations that are designated 501c3 organizations and serve one or more of the counties we support: Hamilton, Marion, and/or Whitley. 
  • Through an invitation-only process. We do this out of respect for the time and capacity of interested organizations. 
  • To new and current grantee partners to allow our foundation to both invest in long-term philanthropic relationships and remain curious and open to learning about the important work happening beyond our portfolio and awareness. 

Our goal is to make our grant process as streamlines as possible so our grantee partners can focus on their core mission, not paperwork. 

Investment Areas

Education

Keeping kids engaged and progressing along their chosen educational path. 

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Youth
Development

Providing kids with access to opportunities and positive environments that prepare them for success in school, career, and life. 

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Youth Employment & Career Pathways

Exploring career pathways and options for life beyond high school. 

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Communities We Support

Marion County Skyline and Canal

Marion County

As the largest county in Indiana, Marion county is home to the state capital Indianapolis.

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Carmel Art and Design District

Hamilton County

Located just north of Marion County, Hamilton County is the second largest county in Central Indiana.

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Whitley County

Whitley County is located in the northeast corner of Indiana, near Ft. Wayne.

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Types of Support

In order to meet organizations where they are and provide the right support, we offer a variety of support levels. Invited applicants will have the opportunity to apply at different levels based on their relationship with the foundation. Interested applicants are invited to review the different funding opportunities.

Operating Support

Unrestricted funding that supports the general work and advancement of an organization’s mission rather than a specific program or project. 

Operating Support

Program Support

Funding that supports a specific set of activities, programs or projects that align with an organization’s mission and have their own, specific budgets.

Program Support

Timing

We host two invitation-only grant rounds per year in the Spring and Fall. Potential grantee partners are provided a link to the application and a detailed description on how to get started ahead of the grant deadline. All invited applicants should feel comfortable reaching out to Arthur Dean Family Foundation staff to seek guidance prior to beginning your organization’s application. On occasion, the foundation will consider awarding grants outside of these timelines.

Spring

Proposal Deadline: March 31

Board Review & Notification: May

Fall

Proposal Deadline: August 31

Board Review & Notification: November

Going Beyond the Proposal

We have found that proposals rarely reflect all the great work being done by our invited organizations, so we like to dive deeper. Once an organization has submitted a request to The Arthur Dean Family Foundation, we will notify them immediately that the application has been received. Then, Foundation staff will individually contact all applicants to secure a mutually-agreed upon meeting time to discuss the proposal, ask questions, and provide initial feedback within 7-10 business days of receiving the application.

After meeting with the organization and reviewing the request, Foundation staff will develop a formal recommendation that will be presented to the Arthur Dean Family Foundation Board of Directors. At that time, the board will make a funding recommendation on the proposal. Shortly after the meeting, Foundation staff will notify applicants of the decision. The whole process is generally completed within three months.

Reports

At Arthur Dean Family Foundation we treat reporting a little differently. Throughout the course of the grant, we have scheduled check-ins with all our grantee-partners to see what is working, what isn’t, and what they’re learning.

It’s all about the relationship. At the end of the grant, all we ask for is a simple, streamlined grant report.