GRANTS INTRODUCTION  LESSON #5
  

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Lesson 5: Resource Investigation

There are thousands of sources of money. You need to weed through all of these sources to find the right source of grant funds for your project. The real key to grant writing is matching funding to project. If you do that properly, the grant will virtually write itself. Lets see where to look to find the money.

Funding Directories: Funding directories are the number one source of unbiased, thorough, and up-to-date information on available grants. These massive volumes detail thousands of grant sources with details on how to contact the funding source and what they tend to fund. Most funding directories are set up in the following manner.

Source of funds: If you know the name of a foundation, you can look it up directly. Perhaps you’ve read about a foundation, but need more information. This is the start to finding it.

Type of project: Its more likely that you begin your search by looking under the types of project funding that are available. For example, you begin with "Education" as a topic and start down through a long list of foundations that give to education projects. You can eliminate any community foundations that don’t serve your area. These often take the name of the community that they serve as the name of the foundation. Focus on foundations with a familiar name. Remember, most corporation give where they have their major facilities or headquarters.

Geographic Target Area: Finally, most funding directories allow you to search by the geographic area that is served by the foundation. This may not be the best way to find money, because it will show only those foundations that exclusively serve an area. You won’t find national foundations listed under specific geographic areas and you won’t find foundations that give to multiple areas surrounding their major facilities.

GRANTS-SOURCES-LIST...$39.95 

One of the major directories is listed below. Visit our bookstore for more directories.

Now that you have developed a long list of potential funding sources, what’s your next step? Develop a form letter that you send to each agency. Ask for a copy of their application (if they have one) and any information on their programs. Also ask for the name of a contact that handles grant applications and request that your organization be placed on the agency’s mailing list. An annual report, if its available, is also very helpful More common for government programs than for the private sector, an annual report can give you important clues as to what the funding agency is looking for.

Annual Reports: Annual reports generally give an overview of the amount of money granted in the previous year and the number or proposals that received funding. Divide the money granted by the number of proposals, and you have the average award. If you are asking for much more than the typical award, you lessen your chances of being funded. From the annual report you can also see what types of projects received funding. For many programs, they like to fund projects similar to what they’ve funded in the past. This is especially true of the public sector. Annual reports may also provide you with an often untapped resource, contacts at other organizations that have received money. You’ll be surprised how often past grantees are willing to discuss their projects. Most will answer basic questions and give you some tips.

Funding Representatives: In addition to the annual report, you are hoping for the name of a contact at the funding source. As we talked about earlier, most private foundations don’t have an office, so a contact person may not exist. But we have never encountered a public sector source of money that didn’t have someone assigned to handle questions. These funding representatives are the true gold mine of grant information. There is no better source of information. Who knows better about a program than the person charged with administering those dollars.

There are two crucial questions that you want to ask of a funding representative: What changes are expected and Can a previously awarded grant be read?

Everything that you’ve looked at to this point, the funding directories and the annual report, are based upon the past performance of the agency. Asking the funding representative what changes are expected is the first indication of the future path of the program. This can save you time in putting together a proposal that will no longer be eligible for funding. It might also help you get the jump on the competition by revealing a new direction that the funding agency is taking.

The Rosetta stone of working with a funding representative is reviewing a proposal submitted by another organization. In our experience, this one tip has proven more valuable than anything else in the class. You can see how others have documented the need or developed a methodology for solving the problem. The source of matching funds are also revealed when you read other proposals.

Professional Memberships: Another source of information about grant funds is a membership in a professional or trade organization. These groups often have newsletters and seminars to give you updates about sources of grant money. The most important part of a professional organization, however, is the networking. You can learn more about grants after the seminar, from your colleagues, than during the class.

As you gather information about potential sources of money, you should be evaluating them. You are looking at these three basic elements as you assess which pot of money to apply for: Eligibility; Competitiveness; and Ease of Administration

Eligibility: In order to even be considered for funding, you must be eligible. There are two elements of eligibility, project eligibility and applicant eligibility. Some funders won’t give grants for capital improvement and others don’t fund operating deficits. The type of project you are proposing must be eligible. (See Lesson 1) If your project is eligible, your organization may not be.

Many funding sources won’t consider religious organizations, individuals, or businesses. For numerous federal grants, only municipalities are considered. There is occasionally a solution to this problem. You can find an eligible organization to serve as a "pass through". The eligible organization receives the grant and is ultimately responsible for its proper disbursement. The money, however, is passed through to you, and your organization carries out the project. You need to be clear with the funding agency that this is what you proposed to do to avoid any problems.

Competitiveness: After you have determined that you and your agency are eligible for funding, you need to determine if your proposal will be competitive. This is much more difficult assessment. Many government grants include the scoring sheet that the reviewer will use to grade your application. You can grade your own proposal to see how you score. You can also use this scoring sheet to find ways to strengthen your proposal. If you don’t have a scoring sheet, there are other indications of competitiveness. Is the dollar amount of your request within the average range of awards given out in the previous year? Is your proposal for a project typically funded by the agency? How many proposals are expected and how many will be funded?

Ease of Administration: You may think that grant writing is hard, but the real work will begin when you start the project. Many programs add restrictions, regulations, and requirements that may make it difficult to complete the project. These range from requiring you to include "This project funded by..." language in all of your marketing materials, to a CPA audit, to additional personnel. For historic preservation programs, the job specifications may become so onerous that the project is no longer economically feasible. Consider all of these factors when weighing where to apply for funds.

Congratulations, you have now completed two of the three components of grant writing: Needs Documentation and Resource Investigation. Its time to get to the science and art of Grant Writing (Lesson 6).