By Susan Whitmore
The Moran Company
“We find great nonprofit executives”
How do you uncover foundation prospects that might be interested in funding your nonprofit organization’s programs or operations? It may not be as difficult as you think.
The quickest and easiest way to find local, regional and national foundations with areas of interest in alignment with yours is to do an Internet search. If you are starting from scratch, a good place to look is Foundations.org (www.foundations.org) that lists links to over 85 private and corporate foundations and 40 community foundations across the United States. Each foundation website gives detail regarding current RFPs (Requests for Proposals), areas of interest, and application guidelines.
Another way to utilize the Web is to do a topic search using a common search engine such as www.google.com. Key in your agency mission’s key words (such as “arthritis,” “hospital” or “dance, etc.) and add the word “foundations” and see what pops up.
The best way to locate foundations, however, is through a subscription service such as the Foundation Center (www.fdncenter.org). There are levels of subscriptions that vary in price and the number of accessible listing, usually ranging from $20 to $150 per month. A service such as this provides detailed information about thousands of foundations you can access at a glance, including: contact information, areas of interest, what the foundation will and will not fund, how to submit an application, deadlines, a board and trustee list, total current assets, average grant ranges, and a list of grants given in the previous year.
In all cases, the goal is obviously to match your mission with a number of foundations. Once you’ve done this, you can create a prospects chart to keep track of your applications.
A Foundation Prospects Chart
The aim of a prospects chart is help keep you on track with the preparation, submission, and follow-up of grant requests over the course of six months or a year. If you stick to a schedule, you will not overburden your administrative office with too many proposals to submit or track at one time. A number of requests submitted over time will also hopefully insure a steady stream of funding.
Download Foundation Prospects Chart and instructions.
© 2008 The Moran Company
www.MoranCompany.com
“We find great nonprofit executives”
