Welcome to BCYF’s 2026 Grassroots Fund Application! 

The Baltimore Children and Youth Fund, Inc. (“BCYF”) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was created as a dedicated fund to support programs for Baltimore’s young people.

BCYF partners with organizations to create new opportunities for the city’s young people to learn, thrive, and succeed.

BCYF does much more than grantmaking.

We collaborate with Baltimore’s grassroots organizations and community leaders to ensure programs for children and youth have the resources they need to equitably serve all our young people. 

Your application must be submitted by 11:59 P.M. EDT on February 13, 2026.

Once you submit your application, you cannot make any edits, so please review all of your information carefully.   

Attachments 

Attachments will be uploaded at the end of your application. Here is what you will need to prepare. These documents may belong to your organization as a stand-alone nonprofit, or you may need to request them from the fiscal sponsor you are applying through.

• If you are Fiscally Sponsored, please submit your current Fiscal sponsorship agreement 

• Organization Budgets: Last Fiscal Year, This Fiscal Year, Next Fiscal Year

• NOTE: A fiscal year is a one-year period that a company uses for financial accounting, budgeting, and measuring financial performance. Some companies choose to match their fiscal year with the calendar year (ending December 31) and some choose a non-calendar year (ending June 30 or October 31).

• 990 Form

• Your or your fiscal sponsor's (if applying through them) 2024 990 form, an annual IRS filing required of all nonprofit organizations. Please note that if your organization or the fiscal sponsor that you are applying through has not been in existence long enough to have filed a 990 form with the IRS, you will not be able to receive funding at this time.

• Financial Review of the most recent fiscal year for organizations with budgets between $300,000 and $749,999

• Proposed Year One Grant Award Budget

• Provide a $50,000 budget detailing how you would spend funds in the first year of this multi-year grant. You may use this Budget Expense Template to prepare your responses.
• In order to use the template, click the link above to open the file in a new tab. You may then either download the file to your computer by choosing File > Download and then selecting a filetype, or if you have a Google Account choose File > Make a copy and you can work on the sheet directly.
• Please be sure to include a detailed narrative for each budget line item, adhering to the Budget Narrative Guidance and Budget Narrative Templates

Once your application is submitted, the BCYF team will obtain and review the following documents on your behalf during our internal review process. If there are any questions about the documents below, a member of our team will contact you.  

Good Standing in the State of Maryland

Verify your Good Standing in the State of Maryland here. If you are currently not in Good Standing, please take the necessary steps to correct this before we review your application. 

Need help with your application?

1. You can get help from an expert at many of our events designed to support you in submitting a successful application. For more information about our Technical Assistance Series, please visit us at https://bcyfund.org/grants/pata/. We also advise that you review our Rocket Resource Hub.
2. Before starting each section, watch the video guidelines that are embedded in the application. 
3. If you need immediate assistance, please email us at gmta@bcyfund.org.

Welcome to BCYF’s 2026 Community Accountable Fund Application! The Baltimore Children and Youth Fund, Inc. (“BCYF”) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was created as a dedicated fund to support programs for Baltimore’s young people. 

BCYF partners with organizations to create new opportunities for the city’s young people to learn, thrive, and succeed. 

BCYF does much more than grantmaking. 

We collaborate with Baltimore’s grassroots organizations and community leaders to ensure programs for children and youth have the resources they need to equitably serve all our young people. 

Your application must be submitted by 11:59 P.M. EDT on February 13, 2026. You cannot make any edits to your application once you submit it, so please review all of your information carefully.    

Attachments 

Attachments will be uploaded at the end of your application. Here is what you will need to have prepared.

• If you are Fiscally Sponsored, please submit your current Fiscal sponsorship agreement 

• Organization Budgets: Last Fiscal Year, This Fiscal Year, Next Fiscal Year

• NOTE: A fiscal year is a one-year period that a company uses for financial accounting, budgeting, and measuring financial performance. Some companies choose to match their fiscal year with the calendar year (ending December 31) and some choose a non-calendar year (ending June 30 or October 31).

• 990 Form

• Your or your fiscal sponsor's (if applying through them) 2024 990 form, an annual IRS filing required of all nonprofit organizations. Please note that if your organization or the fiscal sponsor that you are applying through has not been in existence long enough to have filed a 990 form with the IRS, you will not be able to receive funding at this time.

• Financial Review of the most recent fiscal year for organizations with budgets between $300,000 and $749,999

• Proposed Year One Grant Award Budget

• Provide a $75,000 budget detailing how you would spend funds in the first year of this multi-year grant. You may use this Budget Expense Template to prepare your responses.
• In order to use the template, click the link above to open the file in a new tab. You may then either download the file to your computer by choosing File > Download and then selecting a filetype, or if you have a Google Account choose File > Make a copy and you can work on the sheet directly.
• Please be sure to include a detailed narrative for each budget line item, adhering to the Budget Narrative Guidance and Budget Narrative Templates 

Once your application is submitted, the BCYF team will obtain and review the following documents on your behalf during our internal review process. If there are any questions about the documents below, a member of our team will contact you.  

Good Standing in the State of Maryland

Verify your Good Standing in the State of Maryland here. If you are currently not in Good Standing, please take the necessary steps to correct this before we review your application.    

Need help with your application?

1. You can get help from an expert at many of our events designed to support you in submitting a successful application. For more information about our Technical Assistance Series, please visit us at https://bcyfund.org/grants/pata/. We also advise that you review our Rocket Resource Hub.
2. Before starting each section, watch the video guidelines that are embedded in the application. 
3. If you need immediate assistance, please email us at gmta@bcyfund.org.