6 Places to Locate Grant Money for Non-Profits

Finding grant funds is quite possibly one of the most difficult areas of running a non-profit organization. The reality is, many non-profits don’t even tackle grant writing if they have additional sources of funding because they simply don’t know places to look! Some have been so busy running quality programs for our community that they don’t have time for research. However a qualified grant writer can open up some doors that you haven’t even peeked into before.

Here are six sources to help you find the grant money you’ve been looking for:

1. Community foundations – This is where you should be starting when you initially start running your non-profit. Community foundations are interested in enhancing the community they operate in. These foundations will probably consider funding newer or smaller organizations as they definitely possess a better grasp regarding the needs throughout the community as well as where the gaps in services are.

2. Corporate funders – Another excellent place to seek funding is asking corporate funders. Your sources within the corporate sector should be corporations with locations in your area. You need to further narrow down the list by looking at corporations that are close to those same problems you care about.

3. Grant databases – There are several databases available that will aid you to do additional research when it’s a chance to really start using to other organizations. Traditionally, grant seekers had no choice but to go with expensive databases that cost thousands of dollars every year as a consequence of the costs of keeping them constantly updated. While these databases are still an excellent source for searching for grants, locating someone who has authority to access one of them might be almost impossible. However, you are able to visit a nearby library to get use of reliable databases. Grant Station is one of the databases more than a few libraries have membership to.

4. City agencies – One of the very common grant programs for larger cities may very well be the block grant program. Those programs undoubtedly are a pass-through for federal funds granted to large cities. These are generally geared toward non-profits which are building the community in due course, whether it’s through building or providing services that aid in citizens to improve their quality of life. The block grant program gets progressively more competitive yearly, especially as

5. State agencies – State agencies are an additional supply of grant money for organizations, although once again we are dealing with large volumes of competition. I never advise that new organizations look for state grant money for the reason that states like to see a history of success before it’s going send cash to them. If you don’t have any history yet, then there’s nothing for the government to judge you for and you’ll be denied. Generate a pattern of successes first, and subsequently make application for state money.

6. Federal agencies – Like state money, there exists large amount of competition for federal grant money. However, you multiply your competitors by 50 over what you now have for state money. You will find a small number of organizations that will be large and prominent enough to attract federal money.

Non-profit organizations everywhere can and must be taking a benefit from the multiple funding sources that have been available. There is certainly grant money for every cause that’s out there-all you really want to do is find it.


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