by Beth Jantz, Senior Vice President
You know that you need more grant funding to support your mission, and you see other nonprofits on social media celebrating grant wins every day. How do they do it? Where do they find all these grant opportunities?
More than likely, the answer is prospect research.
Unfortunately, like most things in life, there is no quick and easy shortcut to identifying great grant prospects. Prospect research is a detailed task that requires patience, diligence, and systematic thinking.
Before you begin researching grant prospects, you should talk with your leadership team and identify your organization’s top funding priorities for the coming year. After that, you’re ready to start digging.
Finding Grant Prospects
The first step of the process is raw data mining. You will want to cast a wide net and develop a large list of potential funders to review. After that, you can vet each prospect to determine whether they are going to be a good fit for your organization. There are a few basic ways that you can find that initial unfiltered list of grant prospects:
Strategy 1: Online Grant Databases
There are a number of grant databases on the market, including Foundation Directory Online (FDO), Instrumentl, Grant Gopher, Grant Station, and many others. Each one has its own strengths and weaknesses.
At Let’s Build Hope, we usually use FDO. It is subscription-based, but if you don’t have the budget for your own subscription, you can access FDO for free at certain public libraries. FDO offers highly detailed search functionality, and it presents a great deal of information about each funder’s giving history.
A database search is a fantastic place to start. I usually pull a big list into Excel and then vet each one individually.
Strategy 2: Google
Although it might seem basic, it is always a good idea to run a quick Google search on your topic. You won’t find a lot this way, but you might discover unique opportunities that wouldn’t turn up in a database. Especially for newer funders or one-time funding initiatives, a Google search might be your best bet!
Strategy 3: Peer Research
We can all learn a lot from our peers. Check out the websites, newsletters, and social media posts of your peer organizations – that is, organizations that are doing similar work to yours. Very likely, you will be able to find lists of grant funders in their annual reports or recognized on their social media. If you see a funder there that your organization doesn’t have a relationship with yet, there may be an opportunity for you to build one.
Strategy 4: Email newsletters
Grant newsletters are a wonderful time saver, and they can help you keep on top of new Requests for Proposals (RFPs) as they come out. Some examples include Grant Station Insider, Grant Gopher’s Grant Roundup, and Candid’s Philanthropy News Digest. You can also sign up for email updates from local funders, and many specific nonprofit fields have their own field-specific newsletters. For example, if your organization serves youth, there may be a local networking organization for youth services that distributes a newsletter.
Strategy 5: Word of Mouth
Ask your colleagues, board members, and professional network to send you any opportunities that they hear about. As a grant writer, I’m always grateful when someone takes the time to forward a potential funding opportunity my way! They won’t all be winners, but the more RFPs come across your desk, the better the chances that you’ll find a winning opportunity.
Once you have pulled together your big list of funders, the next step is to vet your prospects and identify the best opportunities for your organization. We’ll will tackle that topic in a future blog post.
In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about grant writing, feel free to check out our Grant Boot Camp or contact us about Grants for Growth consulting services.