Future of Blue Foundation reviews a select number of organizations for our top charity recommendation each year. This page provides information about our process for organizations that apply for a recommendation without receiving an invitation from Future of Blue Foundation.

A note about our constraints. While we appreciate all interest in our work, we only have capacity to conduct full, intensive reviews of organizations whose applications indicate they provide effective, science-based intervention programs for individuals 21 and older with Autism Spectrum Disorder. We plan to review and respond to all applications.

Steps to apply for consideration

1. Check your eligibility. We only review applications for our charity designation that meet our minimum criteria for consideration. Before deciding to apply, we encourage you to closely review the characteristics of top charities to gauge your fit for Future of Blue’s recommendation.

2. Prepare your documents. Gather all required documents, any contextual information you can easily share, and an index listing the documents in your application. Don't worry about oversharing; we prefer more detail to less. But please don't create reports specifically for us. We'd rather you ask whether they're needed.

3. Share your work. Submit your application by sharing it in a DropBox folder with futureofblue21@gmail.com and indicate which documents we have permission to publish on our website. We appreciate your submission and will reach out with next steps within 6 weeks.

More information on the application process

Minimum criteria:

• Science-based services. Applicant organizations must provide science-based services to adults with autism. Services should include a life skills program, personal and career development services and/or supported employment programs.

• Willingness to share information. Future of Blue Foundation is dedicated to publishing the full details of our analysis to help donors decide where to give. Becoming our designated program of choice means providing detailed information about your programs and being open to having most or all of the information published on our website to share with potential donors. We only publish materials with explicit permission.

How to support your application

Required Documents:

Description of projects implemented

Describe the programs your organization has implemented over the past 3 years or since your organization was founded (if less than 3 years ago).

Monitoring and evaluation of past activities

Submit any technical evaluations of past programming that have been implemented and any raw data your organization collects to monitor implementation of your program. If you are submitting: 

• Survey data: Describe the methods for selecting participants to survey, who collected the data, who analyzed the data, and any audit checks performed. Please also include an example of the survey instruments. 

• Technical evaluations: State the complete methodology for data collection and analysis for each evaluation if it is not otherwise specified. Please also specify the proportion of your organization’s past projects that the submitted evaluations cover.

Past spending

Submit a breakdown of your spending for the past 3 years or since your organization was founded (if less than 3 years ago). This information should enable us to understand how your organization has spent funding in total and how it has spent funding within the program for which you're seeking a Future of Blue Foundation donation recommendation. We prefer spending reports that present how and where funds were spent to implement your program to accounting reports.

Narrative of plans for utilizing additional funding

Describe as specifically as possible how you would utilize additional funding.

Other documents you may wish to include but which are not required:

Where your clients have employment placements

A narrative describing the companies that the organization has partnered with for supported employment programs.  Information should include the process for selecting locations to work and how you applied this process in at least one location.

Organizational history

A narrative describing how your organization was founded and reached its current stage.

Staff

Organizational chart and a list of key program staff, their role supporting the program, and their qualifications.

Next steps after applying

1. Timeline for our review. For applicants under serious consideration as potential top organizations, we estimate 3-6 months of engagement before our review is complete. A review that reaches the final stages will include: 

   • Sharing documents with Future of Blue Foundation, most of which are likely to already exist in some form. 

   • Email correspondence with Future of Blue. 

   • Your review and edits of summary notes prior to publication on our website. 

   • In most cases, a multi-day site visit with Future of Blue Foundation.

2. Ongoing engagement. Top organizations should expect to: 

   • Review and comment on our review of their work before publication. 

   • Participate in ongoing updates (2-4 times per year) that each include sharing updated documents, collaborative conferences, and, likely once per year, reviewing and commenting on our written update before publication.