Yes, I know that it sometimes is frustrating finding those perfect grant funders for your nonprofit – but could it be that you're making it harder than it has to be? Start with the basics, I always say.
My number one piece of advice for beginning to find funders for any nonprofit organization is to first find a similar nonprofit to the one you're requesting funding for and then start digging! Do a little nosing around their website where you'll more than likely find their funders listed on their donor page – including grant funders. Start investigating those for your own nonprofit. Let's say, for example, that the nonprofit you're working with is a not-for-profit hospital foundation. I use this example because at one time this happened to be one of my clients. A hospital foundation is broadly centered on community health, preventative health measures and patient care. For the sake of example, we'll call our nonprofit the ABC Hospital Foundation.
But before investigating grant makers for the ABC Hospital Foundation, let's just make a little visit to the website of the XYZ Foundation – oh yes, which also happens to be a not-for-profit, grant seeking hospital foundation in the same local community. No one has to know, right? ;) All the basic elements of the organization are the same here including similar cause and same location. So on our expedition on XYZ's Foundation website we hit paydirt and find a donor page which lists the individuals and grant makers that have financially supported them. Eureka! It's all right there. This is your beginning point. Get out your pen and paper and start making a list of these grant makers because this is where your research is going to begin.
What to do next? Head on over to the Foundation Center where you're going to find even more information on these grant funders – for free! No expensive search engines needed. On the Foundation Center's homepage you'll see a box allowing you to search for grant givers by name. Simply type in the name of the grant funder and voila! Information about the funder will appear such as contact information, the EIN number, basic financial data and the funder's website.
What's also interesting to check out is their 990-PF. All grant making foundations, in compliance with the IRS, have to submit this form and it's public information. You'll find more detailed financial information such as assets, expenditures and a list of grant recipients with award amounts. This last piece is critical information because it's important to know the range of funding to request. The 990 is a very basic, but powerful, tool in finding grant makers that give to organizations such as yours.
So, there you have it. It's simple advice but it's amazing the expense that some organizations will go to to get the same result of what I just described here. There's your starting point now – the rest of is up to you with how you'll use the information provided. And that's a topic for another day. :)
My goal is to make you the best grant writer you can be to write winning grants. If you wish to turn that skill into a career, consider downloading my f.r.e.e. ebook You Can Become a Grant Consultant.
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