Esterman Fund

Application Guidelines Distribution of Funds

Application

To receive resources from the Esterman Fund, Conferences must submit an application by email to Council President, Paula Holmes. The request must come from the Conference President and should include the following:

A simple description of the neighbor's situation, noting what makes this need special and how meeting the need will be potentially life-changing for the neighbor.
What the Conference is able to contribute and/or how the Conference has helped the neighbor in the past.

Esterman Fund Application Review

The reviewer(s) may ask for more information to better understand the circumstances and the scope of the need.
The approval of an application from the Esterman Fund will often be based on the nature of the need, the resources of the conference and other agencies, and the likelihood that the individual or family will be able to use the money to effect a change in their circumstances.
The amount of money requested may also be examined by the reviewer(s).
The amount of money available often depends on how many requests are made and how much money is available at any particular time.
When necessary, the amount approved may be less than the amount requested in order to give other conferences access to this form of assistance. The trustees will respond with a recommendation to the Council President for approval or disapproval. The final approval must come from the Council President.

Guidelines

The money in the Esterman Fund (EF) is intended to be reserved for special needs that exceed the resources of a conference and which cannot be funded by other charitable agencies. Special needs are dire circumstance situations or one-time opportunities to affect an individual or a family and that has the possibility of lifting them up out of their desperate situation and helping them change the circumstances that resulted in their need.

There are a lot of requests. Funds are limited. Thus, we ask you to follow the steps described below to make your case for funding:

Step 1 - A conference has explored and investigated all potential resources in the community to assist in paying for this dire need, as evidenced by a person-to-person encounter with the neighbor. (for rental assistance, a home visit is required)

Step 2- Ensure that all financial information is completed in the database, including Medicaid, public assistance (ie: SSI, TANIF, ABD, Veteran and Senior services), child support, help from family members, and other income.

Step 3 - Every request must first be reviewed by a case manager (please send request to CMintake@svdpseattle.org) and make a note that this is related to an Esterman request. The conference president reaches out to SVdP Case Management for a consultation that will assist the conference in determining whether this case may be referred for Esterman funding.

Step 4 – Conference president emails trustees with the request. The request must include:

Detailed description of the nature of the need prompting this request.
Name the financial and other resources committed by your conference and other agencies to this case
Describe how these funds will assist in funding a life-changing circumstance - (in other words: what are the factors that make the request a dire or severe case)
Summary of assistance previously provided by any conference
Supported documentation if applicable; such as rent ledger, eviction notice, medical bills, price estimates, medical records, etc.

Step 5 – Trustees review the request from the conference and makes a determination based on:

The severity and acuity of the need
Recommendations from Case Management and Conference
Available funds in the Trust budgeted for the year (NOTE: Every year we designate an amount from the "trust" from the main account to a checking for budgeting purposes)

Step 6 – Trustee informs the conference president of the decision and copies Finance to cut a check – copies VincentianSupport@svdpseattle.org for alignment. (Checks will be made out to the Conference. Conference is responsible for collecting W-9)

Step 7 – The conference will follow up on the case (approx. a month later) to evaluate the impact achieved with this support.

Step 8 – If you have a success story from Easterman funds, send it to Vincentian Support and to the Board President to use as evidence of success with potential funders.

NOTE: The Esterman Fund was created to ensure that a designated support fund was available for rare occasions in which the needs from a neighbor exceed the capacity of a conference due to the nature of the request. Not necessarily due to a lack of funds in a conference (for that, we have the Conference Support Fund)

Distribution of Funds