The Chrest Foundation supports organizations whose missions complement the program areas. The Foundation invites experimentation, innovation, and creativity in addressing the issues described above, basing its partnerships with grantees on the following principles:

Since the Foundation believes communities are best able to determine their own needs and find solutions to complex social problems, grant funds, to the extent possible, are awarded to community-based organizations where the Foundation’s activities are concentrated, primarily in Colorado and Texas in the United States. In addition, local experts and resources utilized in efforts also come from the communities the Foundation serves.

Enhancing the impact of the Foundation’s work requires long-term collaboration with grantees; therefore, the Foundation takes a more comprehensive view of its relationship with grantees. The Foundation will, in some cases, allocate funds in addition to those in the grantmaking program to allow grantees to attend training seminars, build their organizational capacity, and to carry out periodic research efforts, which may enhance the effectiveness of their programs.

Long-term commitments emerge as a result of partnerships based on trust, understanding, and shared goals. In addition to sharing the goals of the Foundation, grantees should demonstrate promise and excellence in their:

• Understanding of and responsiveness to their respective fields;
• Articulation of and commitment to a vision of change;
• Implementation of programs;
• Facilitation of relationships across social divides; and
• Leveraging of other resources (financial, technical, and human), that add value to the Foundation’s grantmaking programs.

In recognition of the importance of organizational well-being for the success of grantee programs, the Chrest Foundation believes that:

• Organizations should demonstrate excellence in all areas, honesty in all communications, and personal integrity in all projects the organization is involved with; the Foundation will reciprocate;
• Organizations should have sound management and be efficient in their use of funds;
• Organizations should be transparent in their financial dealings with their financial reporting produced in a professional and systematic manner; and
• Chrest Foundation’s support should be complemented by other sources of funds.

The Chrest Foundation believes that evaluating endeavor or institutional impact is important to building an organization’s capacity to achieve its goals. The Foundation asks grantees to develop their own evaluation indicators and techniques as part of their proposal and prepare final reports that reflect on these indicators. This process is meant to serve not only as a measure of endeavor or institutional success, but also more importantly as a tool for internal learning and reflection.