time_and_money As I coach others to write their own grants, one complaint (okay – an observation to put it more mildly) I hear on a fairly regular basis is some variation of this: “I can’t find grant funders to fund my organization.” Yes, I get it. All of us grant writers do. It can be hard to sift through the lists and lists of grant funders to think you’ve found the perfect one until you come across the dreaded “applications not accepted” or the “we only accept grant applications from every state but yours.” ;) But I’ll share with you what I share with my downtrodden clients –it comes down to time and patience to find suitable grant partners.

Remember that word – partner – because it should be prominent in your mind when digging for grant money. Your missions should match and you should never consider chasing dollars that have nothing to do with furthering your own organization’s intent. As you become more adept at grant research you’ll begin to find it easier to strike through those foundations whose interests aren’t your own.

So, let’s get back to that time and patience thing because that’s important as well. What is your willingness to do the work to find good, suitable partners for your organization? What is it worth to you? If you only spend a couple of hours researching possible grant opportunities and become discouraged after you only find a handful, my take on that is that the opportunities don’t mean enough to you. Truly focus on what grant funding can mean to your organization long-term:

The funds to hire new staff and offer expanded, or even new, programs
The opportunity to serve more people in need
The long-term financial security your organization has been looking for
Credibility in other funder’s eyes

Quit trying to make excuses and truly focus on the needs of your organization to help spur you on in finding suitable grant partners. Ignite the passion that will allow you to dig just a little deeper.

I’ve been studying the multiple websites (some free and some paid) that offer grant research and am preparing a report on those so be on the lookout. In the meantime, here are just a couple of good FREE websites that have been brought to my attention recently for you to try out:

Grant Gopher – a resource center of available grants for nonprofits – http://www.grantgopher.com

Duke University Funding Opportunities – provides an extensive database on searchable funding sources – http://researchfunding.duke.edu/search.asp

Don’t give up! Let me remind you again that last year more than $40 billion was given by private foundation funders in the U.S. alone. Isn’t that worth a bit of your time? You can bet that those nonprofits who hung in there are mighty glad they did! Join them, won’t you?

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Director of Economic Development
written by Katie Howard, August 01, 2011

Thanks for this information and all of other information you have posted. I just used the information on sustainability yesterday on an application!

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Perseverance for the pay off
written by Sherry Truhlar, July 29, 2011

Betsy, great examples of the long term pay off for researching to find the right grant funder. It does seem that grant research is similar to sales in that you have to have perseveranceand believe that you will find the match for your organization.

Thanks for listing the free resources, too.

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Thanks for the shout out!
written by RachelU, July 29, 2011

Hi Betsy -

What a nice surprise to see our website mentioned on your blog! Thank you so much!

We do post a lot of grant announcements (free - yay!). What we hope is that the information will spark some 'ah-ha' ideas for grant writers. For example, maybe that grant we posted about the Rotary Club is out of the geographic area that you are researching but might remind you to check with the Rotary Club in your area.

Of course we have a paid service too, but we think the free stuff is pretty darn good.

Cheers!
Rachel (head gopher)

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written by Melinda Wood, July 29, 2011

These comments are 100% right on. In fact I'm employed full time at a large-ish non-profit where a major part of my job is simply doing this tedious research to find good matches for the staff who are busy researching, training, writing, and all the other things they do. To be successful in my matchmaking I also have to spend considerable time talking with staff members to find out where they have gotten money in the past, where they tried but failed, and exactly what kind of work they do and what they want to focus on in the future. Oh, and it's really helpful to get writing samples to see if they need additional help with writing, organizing, budgeting, and most importantly, "pitching" or marketing themselves. These are very smart people with advanced degrees (as am I) so they are not too inclined to admit, "I'm a lousy writer," but by studying their previous work I can find diplomatic ways to improve their proposals.