Chapter 5
Finding Funding Sources on the Web

The purpose of Chapter 5 is to give you an overview of funding sources and other grant seeking resources available online. You are introduced to selected portals and other sites that are useful places to start your searches for both government and foundation sponsors. You will want to recall and apply the search strategies you learned in Chapter 3 to help you save time with your Internet searches. This chapter works in tandem with Chapter 4 to help you locate sponsors. It is important to use this chapter in conjunction with Chapter 4 because many of the available resources are not yet online, and some of the online foundation resources ask that you purchase access to searchable databases. So you can save both time and money by starting your search in the library. Also, the print resources found in the library offer additional information and indices that can help you target your search, find more funding possibilities, and identify a match more easily. You will want to focus on the quality of the sponsors and how closely they match what you want to do, not on quantity. The closer the match between your project and sponsor's priorities, the easier it will be for you to write a winning proposal.

Learner Outcomes

After completing this chapter, you will be able to
  1. Conduct a search for federal funding sources online

  2. Locate general Websites to help you find independent foundation, community foundation, and corporate foundation sources

  3. Identify databases that can help you locate sponsors

  4. Use listservs to help you find funding sources

  5. Overcome the common pitfalls of searching on the Internet

Key Terms

1999 Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act—This act, also known as Public Law 106-107, was set up to "to improve the delivery of services to the public and the effectiveness and performance of Federal grant programs. Federal agencies are working to: develop uniform administrative rules and common application and reporting systems; provide electronic processing in administration of grant programs; and identify statutory impediments to grant program simplification." This law mandates the electronic processing of federal grants.

501(c)(3) status—501(c)(3) status is nonprofit status granted by the IRS in a letter of determination. Most foundations require an organization to have 501(c)(3) status to be eligible for awards.

Association of Small Foundations—The Association of Small Foundations is an association for foundations with few or no staff.

CFDA—The Catalog of Federal and Domestic Assistance (CFDA) is a federal resource which contains the general program descriptions of federally funded programs, but not specific RFPs or RFAs.

Community foundation—A community foundation is supported by the public, usually a combination of individuals and businesses, in a specific geographical location (such as the Minneapolis Community Foundation).

Corporate foundation—A corporate foundation is supported by a corporation that gives in communities where the corporation has a substantial presence.

FedBizOpps—FedBizOpps replaces the Commerce Business Daily and contains information on all government grants, contracts, and transactions over $25,000.

Federal government agency—Federal government agencies are top-level agencies directly funded through federal legislation. For example, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a government department. At the HHS GrantsNet Website, grant seekers are directed to funding opportunities through HHS agencies.

Federal government subagency—A subagency is a unit of the federal government whose funding is determined and distributed through a federal government agency. For example, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Federal Register—The Federal Register is a daily publication by the federal government that contains, among other things, notices issued by federal agencies that pertain to grants, RFPs, and RFAs. The Federal Register is used daily by experienced grant seekers to keep track of government notices for funding.

FedWorld—FedWorld is a Department of Commerce site that offers access to many other government resources including the 30 million pages in FirstGov.

Fellowship—A fellowship is a monetary award for financial support often granted to an individual for an academic project such as a dissertation or research project.

FirstGov—FirstGov is a federal government portal that connects about 30 million pages; it is designed for individuals, organizations, and government agencies.

Foundation Center—The Foundation Center is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help connect sponsors with the nonprofit organizations they fund. The Foundation Center publishes a wide variety of resources for those seeking funding.

Guidestar Nonprofit Database—Guidestar is a database that lets you access summaries of information about foundations, as well as copies of their recent IRS 990 tax forms.

Independent foundation—An independent foundation is formed by wealthy individuals, families, or groups of individuals to fund projects of particular interest to members of the foundation.

Information overload—Information overload is the result of getting too many hits for your Internet searches because you are not effectively narrowing your search.

IRS 990 tax forms—The 990 tax forms are filed by foundations and show total contributions, gifts, and grants paid, as well as a summary of the foundation's four largest charitable activities for the year with the expenses for each. These tax forms help you decide whether or not your project fits within a foundation's past giving pattern.

Match—A match is a sponsor whose priorities and goals are met, at least in part, by the outcomes of your project.

Portals—Portals are Websites that act as gateways to related sites so that you can search more efficiently within a specific domain. They organize information from a number of different Websites.

RFA—An RFA is a request for applications, usually issued by a government agency.

RFP—An RFP is a request for proposals, usually issued by a government agency.

Search strategy—A search strategy is an essential tool for planning your online search, so that you do not waste time on the Internet. Your search strategy usually consists of determining the parameters for your search and keywords ahead of time.

Activities

Limit your search

Set up a search plan using the nine-step process from this chapter:
  1. Define the problem and need for funding
  2. Brainstorm for keywords
  3. Ask colleagues about possible funding sources
  4. Define Web search goals
  5. Set up a search strategy
  6. Search in portal Websites
  7. Use search engines
  8. Scan sponsor Websites
  9. Compile search results
Remember that these steps are only a start. We usually bring the class into the computer lab and help them locate major sites. When you have a sense of the possibilities, write out your search strategies and share the steps that worked best for you with your peers so you can learn from one another.

Strategies for Finding Sponsor Websites

To get to the sponsor Websites, you can use search engines with sponsor names or keywords as your criteria, or browse through general grant seeking sites and portals, such as the Foundation Center, the Association of Small Foundations, or Grants.gov Websites. Once you find a potential sponsor site, you can use the following process to quickly decide whether your project is a potential match for the sponsor's objectives.

  1. Scan the site for sections on "grant seekers" or "guidelines for application." Check to see whether you fit the criteria for funding.

  2. Look for award amounts. Are the dollar amounts mentioned here enough to fund or partially fund your project? Decide whether the award amounts are sufficient.

  3. Look for a foundation mission statement and/or program descriptions. Check to see whether your project fits the foundation's current priorities.

  4. Check into recently funded project descriptions. Look for patterns that characterize the kinds of projects funded by the foundation. You may also want to do an Internet search to find other references to the foundation or foundation projects.

  5. If you are having difficulty finding information on the foundation and their giving habits, check out their 990 tax forms at GuideStar.org http://www.guidestar.org. These tax returns will give you a good idea of how much funding the foundation has.

After you have completed your Web search and bookmarked or saved your search by e-mailing it to yourself, print out copies of the key information from the Website and enter it into your Project Development Notebook. We suggest that you print out this information because sometimes Web addresses change without warning. By printing out the information, you will have a paper trail to follow.

Summary

In Chapter 5, you have learned about the pitfalls of searching for funders on the Internet: incomplete information and information overload. You also were given strategies to avoid these pitfalls so that you could search more efficiently. After a sample search which illustrated our nine-step search strategy, you were taught to search online for both government and foundation Websites. You learned to use government portals, government agency Websites, and online publications to search for federal and state funding. You also learned about the Foundation Center Website and examined sample foundation Websites for different types of foundations: a large independent foundation, a corporate foundation, a community foundation, and a small independent foundation. Finally, you were introduced to useful databases and listservs as alternate ways of finding information about sponsors. Now that you have learned to search for sponsors using both library resources and online, it is time to identify the best matches you found and begin writing a proposal that follows the sponsor's guidelines.

You can click on the attached list of funding links to help you get started. These links reflect the sites in the book and will be updated approximately every 6 months.

Writing Assignment

To begin this assignment, open your electronic notebook to your problem need statement and keyword lists from Chapters 2 and 3. You will need them to complete these assignments.

  1. Complete a search for sponsors using Internet resources, following the nine-step process used in the chapter example. Be sure to take notes and copy URLs and screenshots to your electronic notebook to keep track of possible sponsors for your project.
  2. Report your search results. Write a summary that answers the following questions:
    • Which portals were most helpful in accessing the appropriate sponsors?
    • Which sponsor sites do you feel match your project best and why?
    • Did you develop your own search strategies? If so, what were they?

Sponsor Information Worksheet

The worksheet in Chapter 5, Report on Internet Funding Sources, is nearly the same as the worksheet in Chapter 4, with an added place for the sponsor's URL. Because pages on the Internet frequently change, you should to print out the relevant pages as well. Download as many copies of this worksheet as you need.

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