Resource B—How to
Research Funders

ORGANIZATIONS NEED TO CONDUCT effective prospect research to
identify funding institutions that best match the organization’s mission
and programs. The most up-to-date, robust resources for all kinds of
funding – foundations and governmental – can be found online.

The Foundation Center (http://foundationcenter.org) is rich with
information and is the primary source of information on the field of
philanthropy. It is a nonprofit organization itself, established back in 1956,
and it maintains a comprehensive database on foundations, which can
be accessed through its website, its five regional hubs, and its network
of more than 400 funding information centers located in public libraries,
community foundations, and educational institutions around the world.

The Foundation Center provides some of the more basic foundation
information for free, including each private foundation’s IRS Form 990-PF.
This form, which assesses compliance with the Internal Revenue Code,
lists the organization’s assets, receipts, expenditures, and compensation of
directors and officers, and it lists grants awarded during the previous year.
There are many ways to access a foundation’s 990-PF including:

990 Finder (http://foundationcenter.org/find-funding/990-finder)

Foundation Director Online Quick Start (http://foundationcenter.org/
find-funding/fdo-quick-start)

GuideStar (www.guidestar.org)

Economic Research Institute (www.erieri.com)

Pro Publica (https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/)

Note that this information is merely baseline data that will provide the
following: contact information, type of foundation, IRS exemption status,
financial data, and employer identification number (EIN).

Accessing the more comprehensive data such as previous grants,
annual report information, and board and staff leadership is available for

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126 Resource B—How to Research Funders

a fee through a Foundation Center resource, the Foundation Directory
Online (http://fconline.fdncenter.org), which offer more comprehensive,
in-depth information available on U.S. grantmakers and their grants.

Another option is to go directly to the source, which is each foun-
dation’s individual website. Most foundations have websites containing
extensive information about its leadership, theory of change, funding
areas, previous grantees, and – in most instances – its grant guidelines.

Grant Space (grantspace.org), a project of the Foundation Center,
offers a free tutorial for getting started in grantseeking. They also offer
a resource for those seeking scholarships, fellowships and awards at
gtionline.foundationcenter.org.

Philanthropy News Digest, also a project of the Foundation Center,
offers a resource of available Requests for Proposals (RFP) for various
funding opportunities (http://philanthropynewsdigest.org/rfp).

As for public funding, here are some of the better resources to get
started:

Assistance Listings (formerly Catalogue of Federal Domestic
Assistance) – A running list of all available public funding from the
federal government and includes live links to each official Request for
Proposal grant guidelines. (https://beta.sam.gov/search?index=cfda)

GRANTS.GOV – It is currently the single access point for over 900 grant
programs offered by the 26 federal grantmaking agencies, allowing
organizations to electronically find and apply for competitive grant
opportunities. A downloadable app is available from this site.
(https://www.grants.gov/web/grants)

National Institutes of Health—The largest funder of biomedical research
in the world, NIH funds research in just about every area that’s remotely
related to human health and disease. (http://grants.nih.gov/grants.oer
.htm)

National Science Foundation – An independent federal agency, the U.S.
National Science Foundation funds approximately 20 percent of all
federally supported basic research conducted at America’s colleges and
universities. www.nsf.gov/funding

Community of Science – Community of Science claims the “largest, most
comprehensive database of available funding,” with 700 member
institutions. Individuals can register for free, but this won’t get you
access to the funding database. http://pivot.cos.com

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Resource B—How to Research Funders 127

Whether focused on foundation grants, individual scholarships, or gov-
ernment public funding, prospect research, when done correctly, should
lead to the following:

• The identification of prospect foundations, corporations, and public
funding opportunities – those whose interests most closely match what
the organization is seeking.

• A comprehensive understanding of the specific interests of each
prospect to better target each proposal accordingly.

• The identification of any connections between the organization and
one or more prospect funders; the connection might be through
someone who is on the organization’s board of directors or staff or
who is a volunteer or donor.

Here are some steps to online funder research:

1. Identify the search criteria to be used in advance of starting the
research. These can include key words, subject matter, geographic area,
target audience, gender, race and ethnicity, and any other criteria that
fit the organization’s interests. Doing this in advance will help
grantseekers refine and target the research.

2. Determine the subject areas and type of support indexes (new
program, capital, general operating, and so on). Those funders that
fund within the type of support being sought and that also express an
interest in one or more of the subject areas are likely to be the strongest
prospects. Keep an eye out for funders located in the organization’s
geographic area, as they are the ones most likely to consider the
grantseeker’s proposal.

3. Study the information on each prospect identified to learn everything
possible about it, because this will allow the grantseeker to further
determine whether there is truly a match.

4. Once funding sources that best match the organization’s funding
needs are identified, visit the foundations’ websites and get to know
them even more. Review their annual reports, success stories of
previous grants made, staff biographies, and everything else they
are sharing with the public. Visiting each prospect funder’s website
to check guidelines is also a critical step because guidelines do
change over time – and sometimes the changes are significant –
but the changes may not have made their way yet into the online
directory.

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128 Resource B—How to Research Funders

5. With all the information obtained from prospect funder websites, get a
much clearer sense of how to target the proposals to “speak” to each
funder in a language to which its program officer is likely to relate.
Grantseekers will also have a grasp on how much they can reasonably
request from each funder.

6. It is strongly advised that grantseekers employ a prospect grid that lists
every prospect identified; the organization’s program that most closely
aligns with each prospect’s funding interests as outlined in its grant
guidelines; the proposed request amount; deadline dates; and all other
pertinent information. There are several online tools and spreadsheet
software that can be used for this purpose. Share the prospect list with
the organization’s board and staff to determine whether anyone has a
personal contact on the board or staff of any of these prospect funders.

Here are a few additional, more creative, ways to identify funder
prospects:

1. Visit the websites of nonprofit organizations that are similar in their
mission, geographic area, or target audience and review their donor
pages. What foundations support these other organizations? Once
those foundations are identified, look up the websites of these
foundations to find out more about these potential funders.

2. Grantees should survey their surroundings. Are there any corporate
headquarters close by? Or maybe franchise outlets of popular chains
(of restaurants, retail stores, conveniences stores, and the like)? Contact
their corporate headquarters and find out about their corporate
contribution programs – for both funding grants and in-kind support.

3. Look on the donor walls of the local hospitals, universities, and
museums. Make note of the foundations and corporations that
support these institutions, and then look them up online to find out
more. Who knows? Grantseekers just might find a match, especially if
the organization is of the same type.

4. Go to the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers (www
.givingforum.org) to locate the local regional association of
grantmakers, and then visit that local association’s website to see
what resources and leads it might provide.

5. See whether a meeting can be set up with the donor-relations staff
person at the local community foundation. The goal is to find out more
about the donor-advised funds at the community foundation and see if
there are funds where the donor advisors’ interests potentially match
the grantseeker’s programs.

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