All applicant groups must be open and inclusive, actively engage diverse community members, and be significantly composed of people who live and/or work in Seattle. Groups can have only one NMF project open at a time across all Funds except the Tree Fund.

• Formal and informal neighborhood and grassroots community groups with annual organizational budgets of less than $25,000. (If a group does not have a tax identification number, it must use a fiscal sponsor for funding requests more than $600.)

• Neighborhood-based groups, community-based organizations, ad-hoc groups and business groups (such as chambers of commerce) who want to do a project to build stronger connections in their neighborhood.

• Community groups that do not have a geographic base, such as a racial or ethnic group, GLBT groups, a disability community, etc.