About the Nonprofit Excellence Program

Throughout their lifecycles, nonprofits routinely struggle with limited bandwidth, resources, or know-how—capacity gaps that can make it more difficult for them to advance their missions, scale up, and adapt to challenges. An initiative of the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, the Nonprofit Excellence Program is a unique capacity-building accelerator designed to fill those gaps, strengthening the long-term sustainability and efficacy of select high-impact organizations serving Northwest Arkansas through targeted support and funding.

 

Eligibility Guidelines

The Nonprofit Excellence Program (NEP), supported by and in partnership with the Walton Family Foundation, is open by invitation only to organizations who meet all of the following criteria:

  • a Walton Family Foundation Home Region – Northwest Arkansas grantee, and
  • a public charity, including a 501(c)(3) organization or a public school per IRS Section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi), and
  • an organization working in one or more of the following missional areas:
    • Community cohesion and engagement
    • Entrepreneur education/economic development activities
    • Housing and transportation
    • Workforce education

 

Program Structure

The Nonprofit Excellence Program will support 15 nonprofit organizations with targeted, practical, and results-oriented support that includes:

  • $20,000 in grant funds awarded to each nonprofit grantee to go toward consulting engagements with a consultant selected from a pool of vetted NEP consultants. The engagements must fall within at least one of the following capacity-building categories:

  • access to a pool of vetted, expert consultants who can provide targeted technical assistance, training, and capacity-building support, and
  • informational nonprofit resources provided by CNE staff. These resources will be responsive to grantees’ needs as identified during onboarding and mid-project meetings, or by consultants throughout their engagements with the grantees. Examples of resources include templates, toolkits, sample documents, research, and guidance documents.

 

Program Timeline

  • February-March 2026: Application window for nonprofit organizations to apply to the NEP is open through March 6, 2026.
  • April 2026: Applicants will be notified of decisions by April 15, 2026.
  • May 2026: Grantees and CNE staff will hold onboarding meetings to review capacity-building needs and project plans; CNE staff will make specific consultant recommendations as appropriate; grantees will reach out to consultants to explore engagements and finalize contract(s).
  • June 2026: Projects will begin getting underway.
  • September-October 2026: Grantees and CNE staff will hold midpoint check-in meetings to share or discuss feedback, updates, and questions.
  • February 2027: Projects wrap up this month and must be completed no later than February 26th. Project completion report,  a post-program 7 AP Organizational Assessment, and a feedback survey will be due to CNE by February 26, 2027.

 

How to Apply to the Nonprofit Excellence Program

The application deadline is Friday, March 6, 2026 (11:59 pm CT).

 

Applicant Evaluation Process

All eligible applications will be reviewed and evaluated by the Nonprofit Excellence Program’s Advisory & Review Committee. The Committee comprises four professionals with nonprofit capacity-building expertise and experience who represent the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, Tennessee Nonprofit Network, Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy, and Walton Family Foundation.

The Committee will select up to 15 grantees. To the extent possible, the Committee will also seek to ensure even representation across the four missional categories (community cohesion and engagement, entrepreneur education/economic development activities, housing and transportation, and workforce education).

Throughout its selection process, the Committee will prioritize applications that demonstrate alignment with the following criteria:

  • Need: The application clearly identifies the organization’s most pressing capacity challenge and how it affects the organization.
  • Impact: The application clearly describes how addressing this challenge will advance the organization’s mission and increase its impact.
  • Readiness: The application clearly shows how the organization will devote resources to the project and how it plans to incorporate the outcomes of the project into its systems, processes, approaches, etc.
  • Program fit: The applicant’s capacity-building challenge and desired consulting engagement match the program’s capacity-building focus areas and consulting pool expertise.

CNE will notify applicants of final grant decisions no later than April 15, 2026.

 

Application Instructions

  1. Before starting the grant application, applicants must complete the 7 Actionable Principles for a Strong Social Sector (7AP) Organizational Assessment (click here to access the assessment in SurveyMonkey). The assessment includes 21 Likert-scale questions and will inform one of the required application questions, which asks you to reflect on your results. To learn more about the 7AP framework, click here.
  2. Before starting the grant application, please familiarize yourself with the program’s six capacity-building categories and sample projects, shown above OR click here.
  3. Our grant reviewers will be evaluating responses for depth, nuance, and specificity to your organization. Please keep this in mind when composing your answers, especially if you are using AI to help compose your responses.
  4. If you navigate away from the grant application form before you finish filling it out, you may lose information. We recommend composing your responses in a separate document and then copying and pasting your answers into the form when you are ready to submit.
  5. If you have any questions or need any assistance with the application or assessment, please reach out to Jen Jacobs at jjacobs@thecne.org.

 

Application Link

Eligible organizations can access the grant application here. The grant application will close at 11:59 pm CT on Friday, March 6, 2026. Only one application per organization is permitted.

Apply

About CNE

Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, with offices across the Commonwealth, CNE works to advance equitable, thriving, and just communities powered by healthy nonprofits. We serve as a champion, learning partner, and advisor to nonprofits through year-round advising, training, consulting, and convenings.

Through our partnership with the Walton Family Foundation, we are excited to extend this work to Northwest Arkansas and support high-impact nonprofit organizations through the Nonprofit Excellence Program.