One major source for grants is the government web site http://www.grants.gov/ . The site has information not only on available grants, but also valuable information on how to write a grant application that actually gets you money (as opposed to having your grant disappear into a stack of rejections).
When you are searching for a grant, one of the earliest factors you need to watch for are the restrictions and requirements on who can bid. Don’t waste your time reading a grant that you aren’t eligible to apply for.
For example, as the Executive Director of a community nonprofit agency, perhaps you want to find money for solar energy. In the main page of grants.gov, you go to the left side of the screen and click on “Find Grant Opportunities,” then click on “Basic Search,” and then enter “solar energy” as your keyword. The day I tested it, I got 276 results. One of the first set sounded likely, so I clicked on the grant titled “Energy for Sustainability” from the National Science Foundation. I scanned the synopsis, and because it sounded as if it might work for our mythical Executive Director, I went to the full grant application. What I was looking for are indicators that a small nonprofit might be an eligible bidder. I checked on who had been awarded grants and learned by quickly scanning the list that all the recipients were post-secondary educational institutions. That would not be our mythical nonprofit—however, maybe I have a network connection at a nearby university. Could I convince the school to sponsor this grant? Highly likely, especially if the mythical nonprofit director writes the grant and includes the agency as the subgrantee. Or, if there is little likelihood of partnering with an institution, then I (in my role of nonprofit Executive Director) would move on to another possibility.
When you are searching for a grant, one of the earliest factors you need to watch for are the restrictions and requirements on who can bid. Don’t waste your time reading a grant that you aren’t eligible to apply for.
For example, as the Executive Director of a community nonprofit agency, perhaps you want to find money for solar energy. In the main page of grants.gov, you go to the left side of the screen and click on “Find Grant Opportunities,” then click on “Basic Search,” and then enter “solar energy” as your keyword. The day I tested it, I got 276 results. One of the first set sounded likely, so I clicked on the grant titled “Energy for Sustainability” from the National Science Foundation. I scanned the synopsis, and because it sounded as if it might work for our mythical Executive Director, I went to the full grant application. What I was looking for are indicators that a small nonprofit might be an eligible bidder. I checked on who had been awarded grants and learned by quickly scanning the list that all the recipients were post-secondary educational institutions. That would not be our mythical nonprofit—however, maybe I have a network connection at a nearby university. Could I convince the school to sponsor this grant? Highly likely, especially if the mythical nonprofit director writes the grant and includes the agency as the subgrantee. Or, if there is little likelihood of partnering with an institution, then I (in my role of nonprofit Executive Director) would move on to another possibility.
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