Grant Process

Grant Eligibility

New members of the Foundation must attend six of nine regular membership meetings in their first year of joining.

Verification of the child’s legal blindness must be provided. This verification must be submitted on official letterhead by the child’s licensed optometrist (OD) or ophthalmologist (MD). For purposes of Grant Eligibility, legal blindness occurs when a person’s central visual acuity (vision that allows a person to see straight ahead of them) is 20/200 or less in his or her better eye with correction. (With 20/200 visual acuity, a person can see at 20 feet, what a person with 20/20 vision sees at 200 feet.) In determining legal blindness, visual field (the part of a person's vision that enables them to see what is happening to the side of them) is also considered. An individual with a visual field of 20 degrees or less is considered legally blind.

All grant requests for new computer systems/software/dedicated note writers (e.g. Braille Note) printers/mobility systems, etc., must be accompanied by a statement of endorsement or assessment from the child’s vision specialist (Braille teacher, orientation and mobility instructor) and/or a state or local vision center assessment. Accompanying statements of assessment/endorsement should indicate the child’s level of readiness for requested equipment and need for training. Equipment upgrades and replacements will not require such a statement unless they involve recent technological advances as determined by the Foundation.

Completed grant requests must be sent to the Foundation’s President two weeks prior to a regular membership meeting for the grant request to be considered at that meeting.

Grant Request Preparation

1

Include a letter of request from the member or child outlining the nature and rationale for the grant request.

2

Include a competitively priced vendor bid on official letterhead with details regarding service agreements. Invoices for equipment from vendors should be copied to the Foundation.

3

Include verification and endorsement, as outlined above.

4

If a previous grant request was approved for an individual, invoices from that grant must be submitted to the Foundation before a new grant request can be considered.

5

The Envision Foundation gives priority to first time requests. All requests are considered based on need and available funding.

Grant Approval

1

Grant requests will be reviewed for eligibility by Directors/Officers of the Foundation prior to voting at the regular membership meeting. Any Director/Officer who is a family member of the requesting person must recuse himself/herself from the review and approval process.

2

Board-approved grant requests shall be presented to the general membership for a final vote of approval. A majority vote of membership present is required for approval. Members who are related to a person submitting a grant request are ineligible to vote on such grant requests.

Submit a Grant Request

Grant Process

Grant Eligibility

Grant Request Preparation

Grant Approval

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