Lenovo Hope Fund of Triangle Community Foundation
Grant Program – Application Deadline: Extended to April 21, 2008

The Lenovo Hope Fund is a donor-advised fund created by the Lenovo Group, a cutting-edge, global leader in the PC market headquartered in the Triangle and a well respected philanthropic company nationally and across the world.   The mission of the Lenovo Hope Fund is to support organizations and causes which are important to Lenovo’s employees and the company. 

Successful grant requests will be from nonprofit organizations that have significant involvement from a Lenovo employee, contract employee, spouse, or retiree.   All areas of work will be considered as long as this requirement is met, though preference will be given to organizations whose objectives complement Lenovo’s philanthropic mission of supporting entrepreneurship in distressed communities.  Significant involvement is defined as having Lenovo staff on the board of directors, as founder of the organization, or as a key volunteer.

Restrictions

• Maximum grant request is $10,000
• No grants will be given for political or religious purposes
• No grants will be given for capital campaigns
• Organizations based outside the United States cannot apply for general operating funds.  Please see below for more details.

 Requirements and Restrictions for Organizations Based Outside the United States

• All grant applications must be submitted in English.
• International organizations must meet expenditure responsibility requirements of the Foundation.  In addition to the grant application, a pre-grant inquiry form will be required from organizations based outside the United States before they are approved for a grant.  Organizations should not submit it at this point.  The Foundation will request the form if it is needed.  If you would like to see the form there is a link below. Translations into English must be provided for all documents submitted as part of the pre-grant inquiry.
• The grant must be for a specific project and the funds must be managed in a separate account. 
• Please submit any questions about requirements for organizations based outside the United States the by email to Sandra Rodríguez – sandra@trianglecf.org.  Your questions will be answered within two business days.

Equipment

As a technology company, Lenovo will give preference to organizations and projects which make innovative use of Lenovo’s products.  Therefore, Lenovo will consider equipment requests from organizations applying for a grant.  Lenovo cannot guarantee that precise configurations requested will be available.  The specific equipment will be determined by Lenovo Group based on availability at the time of the request.  Equipment donations will be handled by Lenovo and not by Triangle Community Foundation.  The Foundation will receive the requests, process them and will communicate with grantees if equipment is awarded.  Equipment will be shipped to the grantee directly from Lenovo Group.

All recipients of Lenovo equipment grants will be required to sign an Affirmation of Non-discrimination and a Patriot Act Compliance form.

Requests for preconfigured notebook or desktop computers will be considered as part of the $10,000 maximum grant request amount.  For the purposes of this application a notebook computer will be valued at $1,000 and a desktop computer and flat panel monitor combination will be valued at $750.  Your total request including equipment must not total more than $10,000. 

Grant Amount and Application deadline

Grants will be of up to $10,000 including cash and equipment requests.  To apply, please complete the Lenovo Hope Fund Application and email it to Sandra Rodríguez, Donor Relations Officer at sandra@trianglecf.org by 5:00 p. m. Eastern Time on Monday, April 21, 2008.  Proposals will not be accepted after the due date/time. 

There are two grant cycles every year in October and April.  The next application deadline is October 1, 2008.  Funding will be for one year and a final report is required at the end of the year.  Provided that all reporting requirements are met, recipients will be eligible to apply for additional funding the following year. Organizations will not be funded for more than three consecutive years.  If an organization applies in the spring cycle it may only apply again in the fall cycle if it was not funded.

U.S. based organizations must be nonprofit charitable organizations with 501(c)(3) status from the Internal Revenue Service.  International organizations must meet expenditure responsibility requirements of the Foundation (see guidelines above).

For more information please contact Sandra Rodríguez at sandra@trianglecf.org or 919-474-8370 ext. 127.