There are generally five sources of funds to make grants to the community:

1. Earnings from endowments held by the Foundation; if these are advised funds, the Foundation identifies community needs to founding contributors and works to facilitate a match between the fund earnings, the donor's interests, and community need.
2. Gifts to United Way from outside the County that are earmarked for Benton County grants
3. Gifts from Benton Community Foundation unrestricted funds that may be granted to the community at the Board's discretion
4. Gifts from Lilly Endowment Inc. to Benton Community Foundation that may or may not require a local match and are distributed at the discretion of the Foundation for good works in the County
5. Grants secured by the Foundation staff from outside the county to provided funding for short-term projects in Benton County, with the Foundation as lead agency.

The grants committee, composed of Foundation Board members and other community volunteers, matches grant application requests to an appropriate source of funding to maximize the use of resources for the community. Sometimes a site visit or phone interview between an applicant and the committee is necessary to make an excellent award. Sometimes the committee will make a "last dollar" award, i.e., an award contingent on the nonprofit applicant raising all other funds for the project before the Foundation award will be made. Most successful applications request matching funds from the Foundation to leverage funds from other sources.

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