Kentucky Gheens Foundation Grants — November 2026 Cycle

The Gheens Foundation is accepting applications through its 2026 grant process. The next published submission deadline is November 5, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. The Foundation generally notifies applicants within three to four days after the applicable board meeting.

Funding: The current philanthropy guidelines establish a $10,000 minimum grant request. The Foundation does not publish a universal maximum or typical award amount in its current public guidelines, and no universal mandatory match or cost-share percentage is stated.

Geographic and applicant eligibility: The Foundation primarily supports qualifying charitable organizations serving Metropolitan Louisville, including Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, and Trimble counties in Kentucky, plus Clark, Floyd, Harrison, and Washington counties in Indiana. Applicants generally must be qualifying 501(c)(3) organizations in good standing; certain Louisville Metro government-related entities may also qualify. First-time applicants must meet the published unrestricted-revenue threshold, and organizations may apply only once every 12 months when prior approved grants have been fully paid.

Program emphasis and exclusions: Education and human/social services are major areas of support. Current exclusions include hospitals, primary-care facilities, medical research, nursing homes, convalescent facilities, senior/retirement communities, long-term-care and geriatric organizations, along with individuals, churches, political entities, endowments, most foundations, fundraising entities, and sponsorship requests.

Application: Applications are submitted through the Foundation’s online Application & Report Portal. The current application questions require organizational and project information, financial data, a project budget when applicable, an organization budget based on the most recently completed fiscal year, board/officer information, the current Form 990 or qualifying financial documentation, and an IRS determination letter. First-time applicants are instructed to contact Foundation staff before submitting.

Atlas analysis: Atlas Opportunity Score 76/100. N9+ Fit 0/100. QC Healthcare Fit 5/100 conditional. This is a meaningful Metro Louisville education and human-services opportunity, but the explicit exclusions for hospitals, primary care, medical research, nursing and long-term-care organizations make clinical N9+ positioning inappropriate. Do not introduce N9+ in ordinary initial outreach.

Verification hold: The official deadline page states November 5, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. but does not state a time zone. Applicant-specific ORIGINAL outreach must remain fail-closed until the cutoff time zone, live portal requirements, applicant geography and eligibility, first-time revenue test when applicable, 12-month application history, verified Contact, Email_Opt_Out, permanent-bounce status, CRM/Deal/Atlas_Email_Queue history, authoritative send history, and cross-lane deduplication are all verified.

Official sources: The Gheens Foundation Grant Process and Philanthropy Guidelines.