Improving Investor Protection:
Request for Proposals

Proposals Accepted
January 5 – February 26, 2007 and June 14 – August 10, 2007.

Proposal Due Dates
There are two deadlines for the General Grant Program in 2007. Applicants submitting proposals postmarked on or before Monday, February 26, 2007 will be notified of decisions in July 2007. Applicants submitting proposals postmarked on or before Friday, August 10, 2007 will be notified of decisions in late December 2007.

How to Apply
This program closed on August 10, 2007. Applications are no longer accepted.

Purpose
The General Grant Program funds research and/or educational projects to improve investor education and protection in the United States. In 2007, the FINRA Foundation is especially interested in applications that focus on the following areas:

• Behavioral finance
• Retirement income security of older Americans
• New marketing and distribution channels for investor education

Additional funding priorities are specified in the Grant Guidelines. The guidelines also specify eligibility requirements and general grant criteria.

For educational projects, the FINRA Foundation places a high priority on broad distribution and replication. Successful education projects will be highly practical and serve large numbers of Americans. Preference will be given to projects that can be sustained beyond the term of grant funding. Applicants should develop viable outreach plans to attract and reach the target audience. In addition, applicants are encouraged to collaborate and partner with organizations that can assist in distributing project deliverables.

Grant Amounts
There is no set minimum or maximum grant amount. In considering grant requests, the merits of the proposed work are the primary focus. In 2006, grants ranged from $153,725 to $629,310; the average grant award was $421,031. Proposal budgets are carefully scrutinized for compliance with the grant guidelines and justification for the efficient use of funds. Funding is provided in installments contingent upon achieving established project milestones.

Grant Duration
Projects should be completed within 18–24 months of the grant award. Those exceeding 24 months will be considered if justification for the additional time is included in the proposal.

Questions
If you have questions regarding this grant opportunity, please contact the FINRA Foundation’s Robert Ganem (202-728-8362, or via email) or Susan Sarver (202-728-6948, or via email).

Conference Call for Prospective Grantees
The FINRA Foundation will hold conference calls to answer general questions about this grant opportunity. All prospective applicants are encouraged to participate in one of the calls. Register in advance by sending an email to finrafoundation@nefe.org with your name, organization affiliation, email address, URL, and telephone number. Please do not submit your general inquiries through this email address; it is for the conference call registration only. Upon registration, you will be provided specific call-in information.

• Wednesday, January 24, 11:00 am Eastern
• Friday, February 9, 2:00 pm Eastern
• Wednesday, June 27, 11:00 am Eastern
• Tuesday, July 17, 2:00 pm Eastern

All grant proposals are subject to evaluation by the Foundation. A request to submit a grant proposal does not guarantee that a grant will be awarded. The Foundation reserves the right not to award any specific grant for any reason, or for no apparent reason, no matter how clearly the proposed grant may seem to relate to Foundation grant criteria, and no matter how closely the requester has followed the guidelines and procedures. The Foundation does not critique unsuccessful proposals.

Formerly known as the NASD Investor Education Foundation, the FINRA Investor Education Foundation is a nonprofit, 501(c)(4) organization established in December 2003 in response to both the current environment in the markets and a survey showing that investors still have fundamental questions and misunderstandings about important investment issues. In 2007, the Foundation’s parent, NASD, consolidated with NYSE Member Regulation to form FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. At that time, the Foundation became the FINRA Investor Education Foundation—but its mission of serving investors remains the same.