EIII'S GRANTS TIPS AND SITES

HAVE A PROJECT YOU'D LIKE FUNDED?

HERE ARE GRANT TIPS AND SITES YOU MIGHT FIND HELPFUL.

Rather than doing the fishing for you, we'll give you some hints on where to fish and how. If you've never written a grant before, the best way to learn is by doing. Doing the research yourself will give you more of a "feel" for what kinds of projects foundations like to fund. First, of course, you need to have a project in mind.

One thing to remember, though, is to not get locked into one way of fulfilling a project or to keep thinking only on one approach or old idea. If there is a foundation that has guidelines that are close to your goals (but not exact), consider molding your project to fit those guidelines. In fact, working with the guidelines and brainstorming in a group about how to make the project more appealing to a particular foundation might actually put some details into your plan that YOU find to be awesome! We've discovered that the search for grant-funding and reviewing various foundation guidelines has actually given our projects the flair and "wow" quality they had lacked when we first thought of them.

Let's review some of the available web sites that will be helpful in your search for a grantmaker.

http://www.grants.armstrong.edu/glossary.htm
Before you go too far in your search for a grant, you may want to take a quick review of this glossary of terms. If you don't know what an RFP or "in-kind contributions" are, this is the site to see.

http://fdncenter.org/searchzone/
This web site is a good place to start in your search for funding. You can search by type of grantmaker.

http://www.fundsnetservices.com/contents.htm
This website lists grantmakers per state. (Some grantmakers fund only projects within their own region.) Also note that when you click on a particular subject (arts, for instance), you will be linked to a page full of grantmakers who contribute to projects of that nature.

http://www.uwrf.edu/grants/fdts.htm
This site gives a fairly good list (certainly not complete) of grantmaking foundations and corporations. At the bottom of this page, it also lists other web sites with similar lists.

Now, let's get down to the nitty-gritty:

This site tells you the steps to successful grant writing:

http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/K12/ARRTI/Grant-Writing-Outline.html

Some of the grant-writing lessons we've learned:

Review the grantmaker's RFP (Request for Proposal) and follow their guidelines carefully.
Review your proposal for grammar and punctuation accuracy as well as the overall logic. Then, do it again. Have several other people read through it. If it doesn't make sense to them, listen and rewrite the confusing sections until the proposal does make sense AND shines with enthusiasm about the project. A grantmaker wants to know that your project will be an exciting success and will keep making a difference long after the grant funds are depleted.
Learn all you can about the particular grantmaker you are targeting and try to think from their perspective. Most grantmakers appreciate publicity about their contribution to worthwhile projects. If you list steps of action in your proposal, you might mention that you plan on notifying the media of your receipt of a grant from that grantmaker.
In the same light, when you receive a grant (or a loan, too) from a foundation, corporation, or other such grantmaker, make sure you thank them.
If you have already written a grant proposal for a project and it was not funded, do not merely slap on some new volunteer names and organizations and send it to the next grantmaker. Rewrite the proposal to match the next grantmaker's RFP and grant guidelines. Custom-design your proposal for the next grantmaker. It is worth the time it takes to do this. Reviewers can often spot a grant proposal that was written for another grant, was not funded, has been simply readdressed, and sent out again. Show them that your minds can meet.
Avoid "grant-ease." It is the biggest complaint we've heard from reviewers at grantmaking foundations with whom we've visited. Keep your proposal short and concise wherever possible. Don't get hung up on buzz words such as "capacity-building," "empowerment," or "facilitate." If it's a boring read for you, think of the reviewer who has a stack of 30 to 40 of these fluff-packed things in front of him.
When you send your proposal, make sure you mail it certified mail with a return receipt requested. One of the worst nightmares a proposal writer, who worked days in painstaking writing and editing, could experience is to not hear from the grantmaker, call up, and to find that they "never received the package."

This site gives you more good tips on grant-writing:

http://www.seanet.com/~sylvie/grants.htm

Don't give up! There are a lot of options. If you have a concise proposal on a worthwhile project, there is probably a grantmaker "out there" who will be interested. If getting a grant eventually turns out to seem unlikely, you can always consider a loan of some form or a local fundraising campaign.

Best wishes for success in your project.

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