GUIDE TO SEARCHING THE WEB FOR FUNDING & INFORMATION

Prepared by: Southwest Mississippi RC&D, Inc.
PO Box 3670
Brookhaven, MS 39603-7670
Email: southwest@msrcd.org


The following links with step by step instructions are intended to guide the novice grants searcher through a number of websites that provide free information on sources of financial assistance from federal agencies, private foundations, corporate foundations and corporations. Suggestion: Print out the Guide for a desk reference before starting your search so you won't have to refer back for suggestions and instructions. NOTE: When finished with researching any links in this Guide, be sure use your BACK Button to return to the Guide.

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Foundations and Corporations
  1. Foundations Awarding Grants by Subject Area – 2000
    http://fdncenter.net/fc_stats/subject01_00.html:
    2. A list of the top 50 foundations (by dollar amount awarded) searchable by 22 different Subject Areas.

  2. Foundations Awarding Grants by Population Group Served – 2000
    http://fdncenter.net/fc_stats/pop01_00.html
    3. A list of the top 50 foundations (by dollar amount awarded) searchable by 15 different Population Groups.

  3. Foundations Awarding Grants by State – 2000
    http://fdncenter.net/fc_stats/states02_00.html: a list of the top 50 foundations searchable by state of grantee.


  4. 50 Largest Foundations by Total Giving by State – 2000
    http://fdncenter.net/fc_stats/grants_00.html: by state of grantor.


  5. Community Foundations by State:
    http://fdncenter.org/funders/grantmaker/gws_comm/comm.html


  6. Top 100 US Foundations by Total Giving:
    http://fdncenter.org/research/trends_analysis/top100giving.html


  7. Top 50 Corporate Foundations by Total Giving:
    http://fdncenter.org/research/trends_analysis/top50giving.html

To find out more information about a Foundation of interest go to Foundation Center's Foundation Finder and enter search information (foundation name, city and/or state). http://lnp.fdncenter.org/finder.html or go to Foundation Center's alphabetical lists of websites for:

Click on the Foundation name to get a summary, then proceed to Foundation website if desired. Note, the above 3 lists each provide a Search by Subject or Geographic Keyword capability, if you wish to refine your search. Or go to the Chronicle of Philanthropy's website for alphabetical lists of websites for:

If above fails to produce the Foundation, go to a search engine like www.yahoo.com and enter Foundation name.

For another free search of mostly non-government funders try the Fundsnet Services www.fundsnetservices.com site that provides search by topics of: Arts

Or check out Announcements from Funders http://www.fundsnetservices.com/Donors/notices07.htm issued over past 60 days with application deadlines approaching within next 90 days. One problem, this site provides no Subject Search so you get everything!

To search funding sources (foundation, corporate and government) by Application Deadlines go to this website of The Chronicle of Philanthropy http://philanthropy.com/deadlines and search among 28 subject areas. Combine 2 or more subject areas to refine search if needed.

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Check out their page on Internet Resources http://philanthropy.com/free/resources/resources.htm, providing Fund-Raising, Management and General Information arranged by subject areas.

To locate Foundations and Nonprofit Organizations within your geographic area (search by state or zip code), try this site of GrantSmart www.grantsmart.org/search/search001.html. Then use their posted IRS-990 Form to determine who they gave grants to in a given year.

GuideStar www.guidestar.org/search/index.jsp provides a similar service but adds City and Subject Area to the search potential. Find out what other nonprofits share your priority within your geographic area of emphasis!

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Federal Funding Programs

To search for Federal Funding Opportunities announced in the Federal Register, go to Notices of Funding Availability (NOFA) http://ocd.usda.gov/nofa.htm and search by:

Choose "All Keywords" and/or "All Agencies" for broad search or refine by selecting any combination of both. Select the List Order of "By Deadline" to give picture of how much time you have to prepare application!

Click on any announcement in the resulting list to get a one-page NOFA Summary identifying purpose, eligibility, maximum funding amount, contact information, etc. and including a link for full information under "See the complete NOFA from the Government Printing Office".

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Search the Federal Register http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces140.html. For current postings be sure to check(x) the most recent volume; usually it is set to default there. Also check(x) "Notices" under Federal Register Sections to confine search to "Notice of Funding Availability", both on the opening screen. Don't worry with Issue Date unless you have a specific date of interest. Then enter your own keywords under the Search Terms.

From the resulting list select "HTML" for the complete record or "SUMMARY" for the basics. A disadvantage of this site: your list does not show application deadlines (NOFA search above does), many of which may be already passed; cannot determine deadlines until you move on to SUMMARY or full HTML record. Also you get a lot of entries other than "Notice of Funding Availability" even after checking "Notices". Again, the NOFA site above does not have this problem. One advantage is you can choose your own keyword(s) and refine. For example, enter "rural health" AND "Notice of Funding Availability".

Since some federal funding notices have a short deadline (60 days) you may wish to check daily postings to Federal Register at The Grantsmanship Center's s http://www.tgci.com/fr/abtarchf.htm site. The brief summaries allow you to check a day's entries in a matter of minutes, then links to agency sites for more information if desired.

 

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance provides information on all Federal programs and is searchable by:

Functional Area/Grant Category is probably the most helpful!

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General Information: Resources and Benefits

FirstGov http://www.firstgov.gov/Citizen/Topics/Benefits.shtml provides information on a variety of Federal Benefits. This is not just a funder search; also provides information, statistics, etc.

    1. Select from a list of 32 government benefits available to private citizens, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, etc.
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    2. Search by State and keyword(s) of your choice (see upper left of screen)
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    3. Search by Topic (center left of screen): 13 topics on pull-down screen: Agriculture

FirstGov's Government Gateway (www.firstgov.gov/Government/State_Local.shtml) provides the same 3 search categories as above, plus numerous links to information under the following categories:

To search a specific Federal Agency or Department using their own search tool, try NonProfit GateWay's www.nonprofit.gov/links/exec.html site. Some are user-friendly, some are cumbersome!

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For a wealth of information and links to Top Government Web Sites, FedWorld www.fedworld.gov/gov-links.html offers 4 search areas:

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To search 30 million government web pages www.fedworld.gov/firstgov.html, try FirstGov.

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Preparing Your Proposal/Application

For guidance and suggestions in "selling your project or program" check out these free helpful sites:

  1. Proposal Writing Short Course http://fdncenter.org/learn/shortcourse/prop1.html by The Foundation Center. Note: At the end of Part I, be sure to click on "Part II" for the rest of the Short Course!
  2. Developing and Writing Grant Proposals www.cfda.gov/public/cat-writing.htm at the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance site
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Building Your Case: Statistics and Local Data

For a wealth of statistics from over 100 Federal agencies http://www.fedstats.gov check out the FedStats site. Among offerings are

    1. Topic Links A-Z www.fedstats.gov/cgi-bin/A2Z.cgi
    2. MapStats: www.fedstats.gov/qf Statistical profiles of States, counties, Congressional Districts, and Federal judicial districts.
    3. Agencies listed alphabetically www.fedstats.gov/agencies with descriptions of statistics they provide with links.
    4. Agencies by subject www.fedstats.gov with pull-down menu of 14 subject areas.

For statistics (people, geography, income) on Mississippi and each of the 12 counties served by Southwest MS RC&D, click below.

For statistics on other states, click http://www.fedstats.gov/qf and select your state from the pull-down menu.

Mississippi & USA http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/28000.html

Adams http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/28/28001.html

Amite http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/28/28005.html

Copiah http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/28/28029.html

Franklin http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/28/28037.html

Jefferson http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/28/28063.html

Jeff Davis http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/28/28065.html

Lawrence http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/28/28077.html

Lincoln http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/28/28085.html

Marion http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/28/28091.html

Pike http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/28/28113.html

Walthall http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/28/28147.html

Wilkinson http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/28/28157.html

For more detailed statistics on Agriculture, Business, Crime, Health, Environment, etc. click on the link "Browse more data sets for …" at the bottom of each of the above pages.

For more detailed statistics, go to the US Census Bureau http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet site, select the desired data-set description from the "Show Me" pull-down menu (33 to choose from!) and select the desired state, county, city in the "for" menu.

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Try Census Information by Subject http://www.census.gov/main/www/subjects.html for yet more data.

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For agricultural data, go to the Census of Agriculture http://www.nass.usda.gov/census site

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Finally, you may find the County and City Data Book: 2000 http://www.census.gov/prod/www/ccdb.html a more user-friendly site for Census Data; only problem – it takes a long time to load!

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Operation and Management of a Nonprofit Organization

The following sites provide excellent general information:

  1. Nonprofit Genie: www.genie.org Check out the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) link.
  2. CompassPoint's Nonprofit Web Links: www.compasspoint.org/resources/weblinks/index.html Pages of excellent links.
  3. Online Resources for Faith-Based and Community Organizations: http://www.hhs.gov/faith/features/resources.html Especially check out the links under Prospect Research and Grant Proposals.
  4. Establishing a Nonprofit Organization: http://fdncenter.org/learn/classroom/establish/index.html A tutorial covering 12 tasks you will need to accomplish from Filing the Certificate of Incorporation to Developing a Fundraising Plan.
  5. The Foundation Center's Learning Lab
  1. Virtual Classroom http://fdncenter.org/learn/classroom/index.html
  2. Frequently Asked Questions http://fdncenter.org/learn/faqs/index.html#examples
  1. Fundraising and Grantwriting Resources: www.fundsnetservices.com/grantwri.htm A great list of dozens of website links
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Discounted Prices on Technology/Software

For greatly discounted prices on software (operating systems, office suites, web tools, etc.) 501(c)(3) nonprofits should check out DiscounTech at techsoup.org www.techsoup.org. Other tools, resources and free downloads are also offered, along with a free newsletter, By the Cup.