{"id":23014,"date":"2025-05-18T07:04:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T14:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:10053\/what-is-program-or-project-support\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T17:15:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T00:15:34","slug":"what-is-program-or-project-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/explainers\/what-is-program-or-project-support","title":{"rendered":"What is Program or Project Support for Nonprofits?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"margin-bottom:2%\" class=\"wp-block-genesis-blocks-gb-container explainer-heading gb-block-container\"><div class=\"gb-container-inside\"><div class=\"gb-container-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-genesis-blocks-gb-columns gb-layout-columns-3 gb-3-col-equal\"><div class=\"gb-layout-column-wrap gb-block-layout-column-gap-2 gb-is-responsive-column\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-genesis-blocks-gb-column gb-block-layout-column gb-is-vertically-aligned-top\"><div class=\"gb-block-layout-column-inner\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/learning-center-icon-new.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23311\" style=\"width:150px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/learning-center-icon-new.png 500w, https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/learning-center-icon-new-300x240.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-genesis-blocks-gb-column gb-block-layout-column gb-is-vertically-aligned-top\"><div class=\"gb-block-layout-column-inner\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/explainer-logo-for-detail-page.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23078\" style=\"width:300px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/explainer-logo-for-detail-page.png 750w, https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/explainer-logo-for-detail-page-300x152.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-genesis-blocks-gb-column gb-block-layout-column gb-is-vertically-aligned-top\"><div class=\"gb-block-layout-column-inner\" style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-genesis-blocks-gb-container gb-block-container\"><div class=\"gb-container-inside\"><div class=\"gb-container-content\">\n<p>Program or project support is a gift or grant given for a specific set of activities. Depending on the mission of the nonprofit, examples could include a research project, an art workshop, or providing mental health counseling for at-risk youth. The grant usually defines clear project parameters, including start and end dates, explicit objectives and a precise budget. The funds may not be used for any other purpose without funder consent.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Support for a specific set of activities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A limited gift or grant.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gives funders more control.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gives nonprofits less flexibility.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can lead nonprofits to shape their work to funder priorities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What\u2019s the point of restricting support in this way?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Program or project support gives funders more control and influence. They can clearly see the impact of their funding in a specific timeline and with clearly established outcomes. It can give funders a sense of ownership or pride around a particular endeavor that aligns with their mission and vision. And it ensures funds are used <em>only<\/em> for the project the funder supports, and not for some other project or purpose that they may not be as aligned with or excited about.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are the downsides?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Nonprofits have less flexibility with program or project support. Once a grant agreement is made, they cannot use the funds for any other purpose.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a lot of funders want to give program or project support and few want to fund overhead, staff salaries, or the other things that make a nonprofit run, an organization can struggle to sustain itself, even while being committed to execute a bunch of specific programs or projects.<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In some cases, being reliant on program or project support leads nonprofits to tailor programs to what funders want, which may not be the same as what the community needs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What\u2019s the alternative?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Program or project support is by far the most common in the philanthrosphere, but there are plenty of alternatives, including general operating support and capacity-building support, which offer added flexibility to the grantee to use appropriated funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">You might also want to check out:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/explainers\/debate-multiyear-general-operating-support-vs-project-support\">Debate: GOS vs Project Support<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/explainers\/what-is-general-operating-support\">What is general operating support?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/explainers\/what-is-capacity-building-support\">What is capacity-building support?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/explainers\/what-is-multiyear-funding\">What is multiyear funding?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">Program or project support is a gift or grant given for a specific set of activities. Depending on the mission of the nonprofit, examples could include a research project, an art workshop, or providing mental health counseling for at-risk youth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":true,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"content-sidebar","footnotes":""},"categories":[26779],"tags":[26780],"ppma_author":[32648],"class_list":{"0":"post-23014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-explainers","7":"tag-ip-explainer","8":"author-ipstaff","9":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"IP Staff","author_link":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/author\/ipstaff"},"authors":[{"term_id":32648,"user_id":470,"is_guest":0,"slug":"ipstaff","display_name":"IP Staff","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"IP Staff","writer-profile":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","linkedin":"","instagram":"","twitter":"","facebook":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23014"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212975,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23014\/revisions\/212975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23014"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=23014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}