There are several types of resources that can help you learn about grants or locate potential funders for nonprofits in Puerto Rico.
Electronic Resources:
The Foundation Directory Online database provides an unsurpassed level of comprehensive and accurate information on U.S. grantmakers and their grants. The Search Grantmakers file contains over 90,000 institutions and can be searched by fields of interest, geographic focus, types of support, and many other categories.
To search for funders interested in Puerto Rico, use the Geographic Focus in the Search Grantmakers file to select grantmakers that have a stated geographic preference that includes "Puerto Rico". You might want to include "National" in your Geographic Focus search to identify funders funding in all states and territories.
In addition to searching by geographic parameters, you could also enter these terms in the Fields of Interest in a search of the Search Grantmakers file: "Hispanics/Latinos" OR "Minorities", in addition to other terms that describe your organization's work. Be sure to research the Puerto Rico Community Foundation, the community foundation of Puerto Rico, to see whether it is a good prospect for your organization to approach.
The Search Grants file can be searched by subject, recipient type, year authorized, types of support, and many other points of entry.
In the Search Grants file, "Puerto Rico" appears in the Recipient State/Country field. Searching by this term in this field will help you identify additional funders that awarded grants to organizations in Puerto Rico but that do not necessarily identify themselves as funding in Puerto Rico.
Grant records include the names of the recipient organization and funder, the subject of the grant, grant amount, and when awarded or authorized. After reviewing grant records and identifying what look like good prospects, you can search to see whether the funding interest of these prospective funders are aligned with your organization's mission.
The Search Companies file allows you to search by business type, company state and city, subsidiary city, state, and country, and many other fields, for U.S. companies that have grantmaking programs or foundations associated with them. You might want to find companies that have grantmaking vehicles with subsidiaries located in Puerto Rico. The company-sponsored foundations or corporate giving programs whose companies have subsidiaries in Puerto Rico might be interested in looking to fund nonprofit organizations there.
To get more comprehensive information about grants awarded to organizations in Puerto Rico, you can also use the Search 990s file (only available in the Professional subscription level). The 990s database contains IRS returns of foundations; these information returns include full lists of private foundation grants. As a first search, enter "Puerto Rico" the Keyword Search field. The result of this search is a listing of foundation IRS returns. When you open each IRS return (they are in Adobe® PDF format), you will see highlighted the terms of your search. This may point you to additional potential funders by identifying others who have awarded grants in Puerto Rico.
The Foundation Directory Online Professional is available for free use at all five Center libraries and at our more than 300 Cooperating Collections.
Foundation Finder is a free look-up tool that covers more than 90,000 U.S. private foundations, community foundations, grantmaking public charities, and corporate giving programs. Entries provide you with contact information, web site addresses (where available), basic fiscal profiles, and links to their most recent Form 990-PF or Form 990 (for direct corporate giving programs, only a brief profile is provided, as the tax returns of corporations are not required to be made public). You must have all or part of a foundation's name in order to use Foundation Finder. Please see our "Tips for Using Foundation Finder" for hints on how to conduct the most efficient search.
The Foundation Center's RFP Bulletin provides current Requests for Proposals (RFPs). Each listing includes a brief overview of a current funding opportunity offered by a foundation or other grantmaking organization, along with the date the RFP was posted and the deadline. The RFP Bulletin can be found in the Philanthropy News Digest organized by subject category. You can sign up to receive the RFP Bulletin as a free weekly e-mail newsletter.
You might also read Philanthropy News Digest (PND), an online compendium of weekly news abstracts on foundations and grants. There are two searchable PND archives, one dating back to January 2001 and the other from January of 1995 through 2000.
For information about print resources, please refer to our FAQ on finding grants in specific fields of interest.
Can't find the answer you're looking for in our FAQs? Ask our Online Librarian.
