CHAPTER 4 SOME IDEAS ABOUT THE RESEARCH YOU’RE
GOING TO HAVE TO DO IF YOU WANT TO GO AFTER THEIR BUCKS
WITH ANY HOPE OF SUCCESS
The purpose of the research process is to target
potential funding sources that appear to most
appropriately fit your specific needs. This can be
thought of as a process of elimination, in which you
start big and focus down to those prospective funders
with whom you can establish common ground.
If you’re serious about looking for resources, we
suspect that you’ll end up spending more time doing
research in the Nonprofit Resource Library than you ever
anticipated. We also suspect it will be time well spent,
since the single most prevalent reason that proposals
for funding fail is because they request money for
something outside the prospective funder’s guidelines.
According to the California Community Foundation,
some proposals sent to them indicate little more than
the would-be applicant’s assumption that the Foundation
has some money to spend. It takes more than that to get
a grantmaker’s money. It’s true that funders can be hard
to pin down sometimes, that their guidelines change or
are subject to varied interpretation on their part, but
it’s equally true that applicants “ain’t doin’ their
homework,” as one federal bureaucrat once said.
Following are six items to consider in narrowing down
your possibilities. Each is an important facet of making
a judgment about whether to approach a grantmaker. All
of them, together with the right answers to the
questions raised, should move you closer to common
ground.
- What fields of interest does the funder appear to
support through its grantmaking? This could refer to
specific target populations as well as programs. Are
the fields of interest narrowly or broadly defined?
Are they consistent over a number of years in
retrospect? Is there a fit between their interests and
your pursuits?
- Does their grantmaking have geographic
limitations? Do they abide by these limitations or
make an occasional exception? This factor should not
be ignored. Most funders impose some type of
geographical imprint on their spending, and if you are
not located in the requisite spot, you won’t get their
money. For example, the California Community
Foundation consistently receives proposals from
organizations all over the world, even though its
grantmaking is geographically restricted.
- Is there a fit in terms of the type of support
your organization is seeking — seed funding, capital
or equipment grants, general operating funds and so on
— and what they are willing to fund?
- Are you the type of recipient they like to fund?
This relates not only to the type of organization
yours is, such as a hospital, performing arts group or
the Boy Scouts, but may also include whether or not
you receive a substantial amount of government or
United Way funding, either of which could be a plus or
minus depending on who you are approaching.
- Is the amount of your request within their comfort
zone for grants? Virtually all funders have such a
comfort zone or dollar range within which most of
their grants fall. If you need more than they appear
willing to fund, what are the implications? Will you
need more than one funder? A smaller program on your
part?
- Are you aware of the protocol for applying? Are
you sending them what they require when they require
it? If the prospective funder has a required format,
you have to adhere to it. Remember, many funders have
specific deadlines for receipt of proposals. If you
miss them, you’ll also miss any money that might have
been forthcoming.
Many of the research publications cited in this
handbook will either provide you with answers to the
questions just posed or lead you to other resources to
get answers (these might be additional documents or
people). You’ll need the answers before you can make an
intelligent decision about approaching a prospective
funder. Here are a few more comments about research
strategies:
- Much of your work will involve cross-referencing
publications. You’re not going to find a single,
all-encompassing publication with all the
answers.
- You will often find that the introductions to
resource publications will provide you with excellent
overview information, including solid annotated
bibliographies. So do yourself a favor and take the
time to read the introductions to the following, each
of which will be referenced elsewhere in this
document: Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance, Foundation Directory and the
National Directory of Corporate Giving. As in
all matters, information is strength, and in funding
research, acquiring this type of information will
strengthen your research tactics.
- Consider local funding sources first. It makes
good sense, for instance, to approach local
foundations before or in addition to larger, less
geographically restricted foundations not necessarily
located in the metropolitan Los Angeles area.
- If going after general operating funds, you will
probably need to approach more than one prospective
funding source to underwrite needed costs for a
project or your organization, especially if costs are
substantial.
- If you have a particularly difficult type of
support to fulfill, such as deficit reduction or an
emergency loan, you’re going to find slim pickings out
there. There just aren’t a lot of “Funders for
Foundering Nonprofits” among us. Take heart,
though—some foundations will consider deficit
reduction. Take a look at the Index of Types of
Support in the FC Search database and the
Foundation 1000, profiled in CHAPTER
8, and you’ll see a category for deficit
funding.
- Don’t limit yourself when defining your funding
needs. Come up with as many descriptive terms for your
organization or program as possible to use when
consulting research publications. Only when you get to
the point of approaching a prospective funder with a
proposal will it make sense to narrow your
focus.
- Research is a great job for some volunteers. We
constantly hear about organizations not knowing how to
involve volunteers effectively and about volunteers
not being well utilized by nonprofits. This is an
opportunity to change things for the better. The
Grantseeking Basics class offered by the Center
for Nonprofit Management is a great way to get
volunteers oriented to the grantseeking research
process. Schedule and online registration are located
at http://www.cnmsocal.org/library/.
- Develop a clear, strong approach to your
organization’s needs (based on a clear, strong
awareness of community or participant or client needs)
so that those working with you can undertake research
as suggested above.
- Keep a paper trail or good, clear notes so that
you don’t duplicate work, and so that you know where
you found your information and can update it as
needed.
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