Grant Seeking Tips
Foundation Resources
The first 6 sources listed below are publications of the Foundation Center of New York, a national clearinghouse for information on foundations and grant sources.
FOUNDATION DIRECTORY. Annual.
Foundation Directory Online (public access)The major directory of U.S. private and community grantmaking foundations. Now in two parts to describe the largest and next largest foundations in terms of giving.
Part l: Lists more than 7,500 foundations with assets of $2 million or more that make grants totaling$200,000 or more annually. Arranged by state and within state by name of foundation. Entries include information on purpose, person(s) to contact, number of grants given, and the "high" and "low" dollar amounts of grants recently awarded.
IMPORTANT: Most foundations listed here specify they make no grants directly to individuals (i.e., most give only to organizations and institutions. See Foundation Grants to Individuals, described below). In addition, many of them limit their activities to selected geographic areas.
Part 2: Provides descriptive information on private and community foundations making grants totaling$50,000 to $199,999 and holding assets less than 2 million. Both parts indexed by foundation name, geographic area, personnel, subject, types of support, international giving interest, and by foundations new to the edition.
FOUNDATION GRANTS INDEX. Annual.
A valuable source of information about recent foundation interests. Describes grants of $10,000 or more actually awarded by over a thousand foundations. Gives the names and location of recipients, amounts of money awarded, and brief descriptions of each grant. Helpful in identifying the kinds of projects which have received support from large foundations in the previous year. Good subject and "key word" indexes, the latter made up of words and phrases selected from the grant descriptions themselves. Grants made directly to individuals are not included.
Supplemented by THE FOUNDATION GRANTS INDEX QUARTERLY.
FD SEARCH, CD-ROM
FC Search is a CD-ROM database of over 65,000 foundations, corporate givers, and grantmaking public charities. It is available at the Foundation Relations Office by appointment. Link to more information here.
FOUNDATION GRANTS TO INDIVIDUALS.
Identifies over 3,200 foundations that do give grants to individuals. The majority of these grants are for educational support. Other award categories include general welfare, arts and cultural support, grants to foreign individuals, awards, prizes and grants by nomination, and grants restricted to company employees.
CORPORATE FOUNDATION PROFILES.
Provides in-depth analytical profiles of 235 of the largest company-sponsored foundations in the U.S. These profiles are valuable as indicators of the current activities and interests of this group of foundations.
THE FOUNDATION 1000. Annual.
Provides in-depth profiles of the 1000 largest U.S. foundations, based on total annual giving. Indexed by subject, by interest in international giving, by type of support, etc.
GUIDE TO U.S. FOUNDATIONS, THEIR TRUSTEES, OFFICERS AND DONORS. Annual.
A comprehensive listing of all active grantmaking foundations, large and small. Many are not covered in any other reference sources.
FOUNDATION NEWS & COMMENTARY. Bimonthly
Contains announcements and articles of interest to foundation administrators and to potential applicants.
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