The Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation is a private foundation based in West Palm Beach, Florida. The late Mrs. Cornelia T. Bailey founded the Foundation to carry on her philanthropic interests, which included the arts, education, and the environment, among other initiatives. Mrs. Bailey was a resident of both Connecticut and Florida and enjoyed supporting many initiatives in those regions. To learn more about our funding initiatives, please visit our funding map.

The Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation was founded in 2007 by Mrs. Bailey to support organizations that she and her late husband, Glenn W. Bailey, were passionate about. Read more about Mrs. Bailey and her legacy on our About page.

Eligible applicants are 501(c)(3) organizations whose programs and initiatives help to further our Foundation's mission and whose services benefit individuals and organizations identified within our priority funding areas.

Our Foundation does not grant to individuals, political organizations, lobbying groups, fraternal organizations, foreign organizations, civic organizations, or other private trusts/foundations.

Our Foundation does not grant to individuals, political organizations, lobbying groups, fraternal organizations, foreign organizations, civic organizations, or other private trusts/foundations. You may be able to contact an organization, such as a local United Way, YMCA, or Cultural Council, which might agree to partner with you on your proposed project, but we are in no way able to help with that process. We will only fund 501(c)(3) designated organizations.

The only way to know whether a project or program is something we are interested in funding is to submit an LOI or Program Application. Our staff cannot determine from an email or web inquiry whether the board will vote to move forward with a full grant application or approve a program application.

After reviewing our FAQ, please visit either our General Grants or Program Grants pages. For General Grants, regardless of whether you are a first-time grantee or not, please take our eligibility quiz. If, after taking the quiz, you determine that your organization is a good fit, please submit a Letter of Inquiry. If visiting our Program Grants pages, please select the appropriate program and submit a program application (this does not require an LOI first).

Please allow our staff at least eight weeks to review your LOI or 12 weeks to review your program application. We will contact the email address submitted on the inquiry to notify you of our decision and any appropriate next steps.

Potential Grantees can submit only one LOI and wait for a determination, or submit one Program Grant application. Please do not submit applications to multiple grant programs within the calendar year - they will be denied. Please do not submit an LOI and a Program Application in the same timeframe; the latter will be rejected. Organizations can receive funding from the Foundation only once per calendar year.

The Foundation's Board meets monthly, and Letters of Inquiry, Program Applications, and Grant Applications are reviewed on a monthly, rolling basis from February to October, with a small backlog. There are no specific deadlines or due dates. The Foundation operates on a calendar-year budget, and most submissions take up to 12 weeks to review.

The Foundation does not typically seek recognition for its philanthropic activities; however, we recognize the value a grantee organization may find in leveraging its private funding to demonstrate support for its programs and attract additional resources. The Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation reserves the right to approve all public uses of its name. Please contact us at info@ctbfoundation.org before doing so.

The Foundation will entertain requests for multi-year grants, which will be decided on a case-by-case basis. Grant applicants may apply for additional grants each year if a multi-year request is not approved. Each request will be considered independently. This does not apply to P/Arts, New ERA, or Eager grants, as they are strictly one-year grants. We do not award multi-year grants to new grantees.

As of 2025, the median grant from our Foundation was $25,000.

Suppose, through the Letter of Inquiry process, we invite your organization to submit a full grant application, and you feel that a site visit will help us better understand the application. In that case, we are happy to schedule a visit to your location and meet with your staff to learn more about your operations and the proposed project first-hand. Use the Contact Us page to submit a request.

Unless otherwise stated, you will have one year from the date of the award letter to submit your grant report (located on the Reporting page of our website). No future grants will be awarded if the report, utilizing our form, is not submitted. Emailed general reports are not acceptable and do not constitute or fulfill the reporting requirement. Please search for your organization’s name on our Grantee Map and check if all reports have been submitted.