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FINDING AND RESEARCHING GRANTGIVERS

Once you start researching grants, you’ll find no shortage of material on the subject. Here are some of the best resources to start with, for beginners and seasoned pros.

The Foundation Center’s database, which lists some 76,000 grantmakers, is probably one of the best tools for locating potential funders. The database is available online for a fee, or for purchase as a CD-ROM. The Foundation Center has also partnered with libraries and other resource centers across the country to offer access to a core collection of Foundation Center materials, including the CD-ROM database, for free. To find Cooperating Collections in New York State, visit: http://fdncenter.org/collections/ccny.html.

The Foundation Center database allows you to refine your search by a number of criteria, allowing you to narrow the field down to the best candidates among potential funders. Despite the sophistication of the searches one can do with the Foundation Center database, it’s fairly easy to learn how to use. The Foundation Center website and the Cooperating Collection sites have instructional materials to get you up and running in short order, and staff at a Cooperating Collection may also be able to give you some hands-on instruction. The Foundation Center also publishes Philanthropy News Digest, and their website features a section called “Learning Lab,” which offers tutorials and information on just about every aspect of grantwriting. Visit the Foundation Center’s website, http://fdncenter.org/, for more details.

GuideStar (http://www.guidestar.org) is a national database of U.S. charitable organizations that gathers and distributes data on more than 850,000 IRS-recognized nonprofits. It is a good tool to help you research potential funders’ activities once you have identified them through the Foundation Center database, or by other means. To take advantage of all of GuideStar’s online features you’ll need to sign up, which is free. One noteworthy benefit to signing up is that it allows you to access scanned IRS Form 990s submitted by both non-profits and grantmakers. A 990-PF submitted by a grantmaker will list all the non-profits the funder has donated money to in the last year. (The Foundation Center website also provides this feature.) Non-profits must also list all their funders for the year on their own Form 990, and by researching organizations that do work similar to yours you can find out who is funding them.

Looking for Federal grants? The Federal government has introduced a new website, Grants.gov (http://www.grants.gov), which allows organizations to electronically find and apply for competitive grant opportunities from all Federal grantmaking agencies. It’s not as user-friendly as it could be, although it is making the effort to give grantseekers a “one-stop shopping stop” for Federal grants. Agencies that rely on Federal funding, or who want to begin applying for Federal funding, owe it to themselves to become familiar with this tool because the Federal government is positioning Grants.gov to become the primary portal through which grants are located, downloaded, and submitted. Since it is so new (launched Decmber 9, 2003) improvements may be added once user feedback starts coming in.

The Catalog of State and Federal Programs Aiding New York’s Local Governments is revised every two years by the New York State Legislative Commission on State-Local Relations, New York State Assembly Committee on Local Governments. The title is a little misleading as this thick book (the 2003 edition runs over 576 pages) does list grants that are available to non-profits: check the Eligibility entry. The Catalog also lists the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number (CFDA number) for Federal grants, which you can then plug into the Grants.gov website to bring up information and application materials for the specific grant in which you are interested. It also has a small section in the back on general information for grantseekers. A free copy of the Catalog can be ordered by calling New York State Legislative Commission on State-Local Relations, New York State Assembly Committee on Local Governments at (518) 455-5035. It is also available on the NYS Assembly’s website at http://assembly.state.ny.us/comm/StateLocal/20031120/.

The website of the New York State Library (http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/), which is one of the Foundations Center’s Cooperating Collections, has a page devoted to links to materials for grantseekers, http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/reference/grantsref.htm#gra. This page was last updated in 2001 so it won’t have the most up-to-the-minute information, but it does have links to information and tutorials on grantwriting in general. And don’t forget to ask your local public library or the libraries at nearby colleges if they have a reference collection on foundation and grant resources.

Other sources for possible leads include the business section of your local paper, and the weekly or monthly business publication covering your area – check for announcements of grants awarded by corporate donors in your area. The newsletters of other non-profits offering services similar to yours may announce new grant awards they have received, and you can use this information to identify potential grantmakers donating funds in your particular geographic region, or to programs serving the same populations you do.

Personal networking is the least predictable, but sometimes most fruitful way of uncovering other grants. While you don’t want to be seen as “poaching” grants from other agencies, another agency might have uncovered a grant possibility they decide to pass on because their goals and the funder’s aren’t a good fit. Your agency’s proposal, on the other hand, might dovetail nicely with the funder’s interests. Ask around. Expand your search by asking your board members to ask members of other boards or staff in other agencies they are in contact with. And be sure to return the favor when possible.

When you've located a grantgiver, you may also want to read the companion Skills Development Sheet, Ten Tips for Applying for Grants.