comply with pre-application guidelines.”
Illustration by Ryan Sneed
FIGURE 2-2: Make a chart to track multiple potential funders for one program.
Conducting a federal funding search
Thankfully, the federal government aids your federal funding search with its one-stop grant opportunity information website, Grants.gov (www.grants.gov). Visiting this site is the quickest way to conduct a federal funding search.
After you log on to Grants.gov, choose Grant Opportunities from the Search drop-down. Then type your search terms in the Keyword(s) Search field. Sample keywords include “after school,” “capacity building,” “rural telecommunications,” and “prevention.” Your search should produce a list of federal grant opportunity announcements that contain your keyword(s). Simply click each one to read the announcement and determine whether it fits your specific funding needs.
Performing a foundation or corporate funding search
When you’re ready to conduct a foundation or corporate funding search, the place to turn to is Candid (https://candid.org/). This center's resources and online grant-research database (Foundation Directory Online by Candid) provide grantseekers, grantmakers, researchers, policymakers, the media, and the general public with up-to-date information on grant funding and other nonprofit-related issues.
Through the Foundation Directory Online by Candid, you can download profiles of foundations whose interests, priorities, and types of funding support match your funding needs. These profiles include the foundation’s address, website, contact person, funding priorities, award range, preferred method of initial approach, and much more. To conduct your search, you can either subscribe to the directory (varying levels of subscriptions are available, beginning at as little as $31.58 per month for a locked-in, two-year contract) or use Candid’s website to locate a Funding Information Network (FIN) near you that has a subscription to the directory.
http://fundsnetservices.com). It’s accessible, free of charge, and has pages of international funders listed.
Talking to potential funders
Some funders indicate in their grant database profiles or on their websites that a potential grantseeker should call and speak to one of their program officers before submitting a letter of inquiry or attempting to submit an online e-grant application request. The purpose of this request is to circumvent any applicants that have funding requests that do not align with their mission, values, funding priorities, or preferred geographic areas.
In other words, funders do not want to be bothered with unnecessary paperwork from organizations they do not intend to fund. This saves time on their part and on your part. Don’t chase lost leaders, aka funders not interested in receiving any form of written information from you or your organization.
If you do have an opportunity to email, call, Zoom, or meet in-person with a potential funder, you might wonder what you should say. Here’s a few short lists of guiding scripts for every possible form of contact with potential funders:
Contact via email:
Introduce yourself and your organization to the funder.
Tell the funder why you are contacting them (shared mission, previous funding from them, Board of Director connection, attendance at one of their technical assistance meetings or webinars, or some attention-grabbing connection).
State your problem.
Give the solution.
Share the amount of funding needed.
Ask for permission to submit a full funding request based on their guidelines.
Thank them for their time.
Proofread and send the email.
Follow up in five days.
Video meeting or telephone contact:
Be ready!
Have a written script!
Have a timer (or a three minute hourglass).
Keep it simple!
Speak
