There are several types of resources that can help you learn about grants or locate potential donors in your subject field.
Electronic Resources:
Foundation Directory Online provides an unsurpassed level of comprehensive and accurate information on U.S. grantmakers and their grants through four searchable databases. The Grantmakers database can be searched by grantmaker location, fields of interest, geographic focus, types of support, and other categories. The Grants database can be searched by recipient location, recipient type, subjects, types of support, and more. The Companies database provides a quick pathway to corporate funders and can be searched by company location, business type, subsidiary location, and more. The 990s database provides keyword searching across all recent IRS Forms 990 and 990-PF for grantmaking organizations. Foundation Directory Online offers five subscription plans:
- Foundation Directory Online Basic provides detailed information on the nation's top 10,000 foundations by total giving
- Foundation Directory Online Plus provides detailed information on the nation's top 10,000 foundations by total giving and more than 1.1 million grants
- Foundation Directory Online Premium provides detailed information on the nation's top 20,000 foundations by total giving and more than 1.2 million grants
- Foundation Directory Online Platinum offers access to over 92,000 foundations, corporate donors, and grantmaking public charities and over 1.3 million recent grants
- Foundation Directory Online Professional is our top-tier grantseeking research tool that includes the complete universe of over 92,000 foundations, corporate donors, and grantmaking public charities; over 1.3 million grants; Search 990s capability with keyword-searching across all 441,000+ IRS Forms 990 and 990-PF; Search Companies capability, offering a quick pathway to corporate funders; funder portfolios containing recent news, jobs, and RFPs, publications, and key staff affiliations; custom-search options within the funder's grants list; full-color grant distribution charts analyzing giving trends for specific grantmakers; and Update Central with new and high growth grantmakers and changes to grantmaker profiles, plus FDO Update Alerts
FC Search: The Foundation Center's Database on CD-ROM profiles more than 92,000 grantmakers and contains a grants file with more than 1.3 million grants from the largest U.S. funders. FC Search and other resources published by the Foundation Center are available for purchase through our online Marketplace.
Foundation Directory Online Professional and FC Search are available for free use at all five Center libraries and at our more than 340 Cooperating Collections.
Foundation Finder is a free look-up tool that covers more than 93,000 grantmakers. Entries provide you with contact information, web site addresses (when available), basic financial information, and links to the most recent IRS Forms 990 and 990-PF. Please see our "Tips for Using Foundation Finder" for hints on how to conduct the most efficient search.
The Foundation Center offers free online access to IRS Forms 990 and 990-PF for foundations and other nonprofit organizations in PDF format. You will need to download the free Adobe Reader in order to view the returns. The most recent returns can be found using 990 Finder, Foundation Finder, Foundation Directory Online, and FC Search: The Foundation Center's Database on CD-ROM.
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 Philanthropy News Digest (PND) organized by category. You can sign up to receive the RFP Bulletin as a free weekly e-mail newsletter.
You might also try reading 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.
Print Resources:
Directories of foundations. This type of reference tool concentrates on information about the funders themselves rather than their grants. Each entry in The Foundation Directory, for example, includes the foundation's stated funding interests, when available. An extensive subject index to foundation fields of interest is also included, as are selected grants for the larger foundations.
Specialized funding directories. Foundations are also listed in directories that cover a particular subject field, population group, or type of support. The Foundation Center's Grants for Foreign & International Programs and Oryx Press' Directory of Research Grants are examples of specialized funding directories. Search for specialized directories with the Center's catalog, Catalog of Nonprofit Literature.
Indexes of recent grants. To scan grants in a specific subject area, this information is available in the Center's Grants Guide series. These guides contain grants of $10,000 or more awarded by more than 1,000 of the largest foundations. These funders account for more than half of all foundation grant dollars awarded. The Grants Guides are organized by subject; entries list the year, amount, and purpose of each grant, and back-of-the-book indexes enable you to access grants information by subject, recipient, and geographic focus.
These and other books are available for free public use at all five Foundation Center libraries and at more than 340 Cooperating Collections nationwide. Check our listing for the library or collection nearest you.
To learn more about Foundation Directory Online, try the Foundation Directory Online Guided Tour, or attend our free one-hour class, Introduction to Foundation Directory Online or our full-day, fee-based Foundation Funding Research. To learn more about FC Search, see our basic and advanced FC Search Guided Tours.
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