Grant Process

Grant Eligibility

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) and be dated within one year of the grant being submitted. 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 and be dated within one year of the grant being submitted. 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 uploaded to our website for consideration. All requests will be reviewed for eligibility by the Directors/Officers of the Foundation at their monthly meeting.

Grant Request Preparation

1

Grant requests will be reviewed for eligibility by Directors/Officers of the Foundation at their monthly meeting and voted on for approval based on need and available funding. Any Director/Officer who is a family member of the requesting person must recuse himself/herself from the review and approval process.

2

Include a competitively priced vendor bid on official letterhead with details regarding service agreements. Bid documentation must include vendor name, detailed information for the item(s) as well as pricing for each requested..

3

Include verification and endorsement, as outlined above.

4

If a previous grant request was purchased by the family 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 at their monthly meeting and voted on for approval based on need and available funding. Any Director/Officer who is a family member of the requesting person must recuse himself/herself from the review and approval process.

Submit a Grant Request

Grant Process

Grant Eligibility

Grant Request Preparation

Grant Approval

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