The Alden Trust supports independent colleges and universities with enrollments of 1,000 to 3,000 full time traditional undergraduates located in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and the six New England states.
The Trustees focus their grant making on capital needs. Recent funding has included support for classrooms, libraries and laboratories as well as for the acquisition of scientific and technological equipment and infrastructure. The Trustees occasionally support restricted endowment for need-based scholarship aid and faculty development in addition to restricted endowment for the maintenance and replacement of technology. The Trustees primarily make outright grants, but will issue challenge grants with the goal of helping an institution generate increased and broader support from its constituencies. Current policy, absent exceptional circumstances, is not to consider grant requests more frequently than three years from the date of the last grant or from the date of any vote establishing a challenge grant. An institution whose proposal has been rejected may normally be eligible to apply again after one year.
The Trust accepts applications for support throughout the year. The Trustees consider proposals at five distribution meetings a year. Complete proposals received by the first of February, May, August, October, and December will be considered at that month's meeting.
The proposal should be made in reasonably brief narrative form. A summarizing cover letter, which includes the requested amount, should be signed by the president of the institution. Please provide the name, telephone number, and email address of a contact person.
The Trustees would like to understand the purposes to be achieved through the grant, with an appropriate revenue and expense budget and implementation timetable, and the reasons why the proposing institution is capable of achieving the purposes. In addition, the Trustees want to know how the grant will positively impact the students and/or faculty and help the institution to fulfill its mission.
All applications from colleges and universities should include the following information:- The institution's mission statement and a summary of its current long-range plan, if available, with progress to date
- Trend information of at least three years for total fulltime traditional undergraduate enrollment, including gender mix and minority representation; retention rates from first to second year; persistence rates to degree (four and six year rates); and percent of students on institutional financial aid, need-based and merit separately reported
- Trend information of at least three years for incoming students, including measures of achievement and preparation for college study, plus applicant, admit and matriculant numbers (chart form preferred)
- Trend information of at least three years for endowment performance (amount, and annual draw policies and practices), capital and annual fund-raising (with percentage of alumni and board giving), and tuition-room-board charges
- Summaries of the two prior and the current annual operating budgets (with explanation, if in deficit) and copies of the two most recent audited financial statements (e.g., 2007-2006 and 2006-2005)
- List of trustees and their other affiliations
- Evidence of appropriate tax-exempt status
- Such other information as the applicant feels may give the Trustees a better understanding of the institution, its distinctive value, and its proposal
Applicants, especially those who are new to the Trustees, are encouraged to contact the Trust by telephone, or make a visit, prior to submitting an application. It is often helpful to explore in advance the nature of the project, the need or opportunity that drives it, and the size of an intended request. The Trustees have found that such discussion generally results in the submission of a more effective proposal or forestalls a formal proposal for which there is little or no likelihood of success.
A single copy of the application and attachments is sufficient and should be submitted to:George I. Alden Trust
370 Main Street, 11th Floor
Worcester, Massachusetts 01608
Phone: (508) 459-8005
Fax : (508) 459-8305
trustees@aldentrust.org
Application Guidelines for Massachusetts YMCAs and Educationally Related Organizations in Worcester, Massachusetts
The Alden Trust supports YMCAs in Massachusetts due to Mr. Alden’s particular interest in the YMCA over his lifetime. It also occasionally funds educationally related nonprofit organizations in Worcester, Massachusetts.* The Trustees primarily focus their grant making on capital needs. Trustees consider proposals from such groups throughout the year at one of five distribution meetings. Complete proposals received by the first of February, May, August, October, and December will be considered at that month’s meeting.
The proposal should be made in relatively brief narrative form. A summarizing cover letter, which includes the requested amount, should be signed by the executive director. Please provide the name, telephone number, and email address of a contact person.
Trustees would like to understand the purposes to be achieved through the grant, with an appropriate revenue and expense budget and implementation timetable, and the reasons why the proposing institution is capable of achieving the purposes. In addition, Trustees want to know how the grant will positively impact an organization’s constituencies and help to fulfill its mission. The educational nature of the organization’s work should be described.
All applications from Massachusetts YMCAs and educationally related organizations in Worcester should include the following information:- Mission statement
- Long range plan, with progress to date. If there is no long range plan, please let us know what guides day-to-day operations
- Trend information (chart form preferred) for three years in these areas:
- Endowment performance and draw practices
- Capital fundraising
- Annual fundraising
- Rates of board member participation in each fundraising project
- Membership statistics
- Program participation rates
- Your two most recent (e.g., copies of both 2007-2006 and 2006-2005) audited or reviewed financial statements as required by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office
- Operating budgets for the current year and two prior years, with explanation if in deficit
- List of trustees and their affiliations
- Evidence of appropriate tax-exempt status
- Other information that the applicant believes will give the Trustees a better understanding of the institution, its distinctive value, and its proposal
Applicants, especially those who are new to the Trustees, are encouraged to contact the Trust by telephone, or make a visit, prior to submitting an application. It is often helpful to explore in advance the nature of the project, the need or opportunity that drives it, and the size of the intended request. The Trustees have found that such discussion generally results in a more effective submission or forestalls a proposal for which there is no likelihood of success.
A single copy of the application and attachments is sufficient and should be submitted to:George I. Alden Trust
370 Main Street, 11th Floor
Worcester, Massachusetts 01608
Phone: (508) 459-8005
Fax : (508) 459-8305
trustees@aldentrust.org
*Occasionally at year end the trustees make a number of unsolicited grants to Worcester organizations whose work is important to the community yet whose focus does not fall within the Trust’s specific areas of interest. In such cases the selected organization does not make application to the Trust. Beginning in 2008, receipt of such a grant is confirmation that the organization is not eligible to submit a proposal to the Alden Trust’s regular grant making process.