After suspending its grant making last August because of the lame economy, the Byerly Foundation is once again accepting concept letters for grant proposals.

The foundation will accept concept letters through Sept. 15 as it opens up a new grant cycle that could provide up to $200,000 in grants for projects in the Hartsville area that work with education, economic development and improving the quality of life.

The foundation’s Board of Trustees will begin reviewing grant requests in October, according to Richard A. Puffer, executive director of the foundation. Puffer said the board anticipates awarding some grants in November.

The foundation suspended its grant-making cycles over the past year because the multi-year grants it had made previously consumed available grant funding, Puffer said.

The weak economy was hampering the foundation’s investments, which now stand at around $20 million, Puffer said.

The foundation is required under tax regulations to provide 5 percent of its assets annually to philanthropic activities, Puffer said. Multi-year grants, including one to Hartsville Middle School for $1.5 million, have allowed the foundation to meet that requirement during the suspension of grants.

Puffer said the board estimates that the foundation has about $200,000 available for grants for the next fiscal year.

“Our board is focused on programs that fit the mission of helping to make Hartsville one of the best places in the world in which to live, and we are looking for programs and ideas that will have that type of impact,” said Ronnie Holley, chairman of the foundation board.

The Byerly Foundation funds nonprofit 501 (c) 3 organizations as well as schools, colleges and governmental sponsored community projects.

The grant making process begins with concept letters, Puffer said. Letters should include information about an organization or project’s eligibility for foundation funding and should state clearly the concept, the planned outcomes for the proposed project and the amount of funding sought from the foundation.

The board reviews the concept letters and either approves going ahead with the grant or informs the requesting organization that it will not be funded in the current round of funding, Puffer said.

Organizations seeking grant funding may be asked for additional budgetary information or program data if the board determines that the project might be something that would fit with the foundation’s goals.

“We have been using concept letters as the first step in the foundation’s grant-making process so that the organizations and the Byerly Foundation board can save time in the event projects are not funded,” Puffer said.

“We generally have requests that far exceed the grant-making funds available, and we think the concept letter is a much more cost effective method for organizations than a fully developed grant proposal,” he said.

Puffer said concept letters should be one to two pages in length and should discuss the basic programs the organization hopes to implement with grant funding. The letter should include the goals and outcomes the program is expected to deliver, a time line for the program or project and the details of what organizations might be involved.

Letters should also be specific about how the project will affect the Hartsville area, Puffer said.

The board will review letters and select projects for which it may desire additional information.

“We believe this process will alleviate some of the long hours that organizations spend in the full grant-writing process,” Puffer said.

Puffer said anyone with questions about concept letters or the foundation’s grant-making process can call him at (843) 383-2400.

The $1.5 million, three-year grant to Hartsville Middle School, announced in June of 2009, is the largest single grant in the 15-year history of the Byerly Foundation.

The funding supports the school’s Team Foxes Learning Academy, a program aimed at improving the success of students who often find school difficult for a variety of reasons. The program includes about 20 percent of the students at the school. The program’s primary goals are to help students be more successful at the middle school level and to better prepare them for high school.

The school just completed the first year of its grant, but the Team Foxes program has been going on for about two years, Puffer said.

“The foundation board expressed a strong interest in focusing grant funding on a project that could make a lasting difference for our community, and the Team Foxes Learning Academy appears to have that potential,” Holley said.

The Byerly Foundation was established in 1995 with proceeds from the sale of the former Byerly Hospital in Hartsville.

Members of the foundation’s board serve three-year terms and are eligible to serve up to two terms. In addition to Holley, other members include David Blackmon as secretary, Jerry Cheatham as treasurer, Johnna Shirley, Month Bell, Tony Floyd, Maureen Thomas, Rob Tiede, Flossie Hopkins, Charles Hupfer and Steve Avant.

The foundation office is located at 101 N. Second St. in Hartsville on the corner of East Carolina Avenue and Second Street near the campus of Coker College.