HOW TO IDENTIFY PROSPECTIVE FOUNDATION FUNDERS

How to Identify Prospective Foundation Funders

You may want to seek support from foundations for a new project or for your station’s overall work in the community. But before you can do this, you need to identify which foundations might be interested in supporting your work. Doing this is a three-step process:

1. Who’s Out There? Identifying a Pool of Prospects

There are more than 75,000 foundations in the United States. How do you find the ones that are right for you? Several resources can help you develop a pool of viable prospective funders:

• The APTS Grant Center: The APTS Grant Center includes profiles of foundations, large and small, that have a history of supporting public media. While there are many foundations that support media that are not yet in the APTS Grant Center, it’s a great place to start. You can review national funders, or search by your state or by topic. Each profile includes contact information, a list of sample grants, and information about how to apply. In addition, the APTS Grant Center offers free, custom foundation research to public radio and television stations to help identify the funders that are right for you.
• The Foundation Center: Every state has at least one, and often several, Foundation Center “cooperating collections,” usually located in public libraries. These are collections of resource materials associated with the national Foundation Center, a New York-based organization that is the nation’s best source of information on U.S. foundations. The Foundation Center maintains five major reference collections in libraries across the country (New York; San Francisco; Washington, DC; Cleveland, OH; Atlanta, GA). Most states have regional guides to foundations that are also often available at your public library. If you are regularly researching foundations, it is worthwhile to purchase the directory for your state and keep it in-house.
• Databases: A variety of online search tools and subscription databases are available that enable you to search for foundations by giving priorities, region, etc. These include:
  • Foundation Finder: This free searchable resource offers basic information on foundations as well as links to their tax returns.
  • Foundation Directory Online: The Foundation Center offers multiple subscription-based options to access this useful database. Prices vary depending on how much information you want. In general, this database allows you to search by foundation name, giving priorities, past grants, geographic region, keyword, and in some cases, board members. Your station may find it useful to subscribe to a searchable database service such as Foundation Directory Online if you are:
    • Seeking national funding.
    • Regularly generating new pools of foundation prospects, especially over a sizable region.
    • Regularly conducting in-depth foundation research.
• Other Organizations: When you’re looking for foundation prospects, pay attention to who is funding other organizations in your community or region. You can sometimes get this information online by visiting the websites of like-minded organizations in your area and seeing if they list their supporters. Or, when you go to a play or a concert, or to a museum or library, pick up the annual report, save the program, and look at the donor recognition walls and plaques.

2. Creating a Target List

When you have collected a list of foundations that might support your station, it’s time to sort out the ones that look like the best targets. In general, the most important things to look for are:

• Has this foundation made grants to organizations or projects similar to my own?
• Does this foundation support organizations and projects that are like mine in mission, action, and spirit?
• Is this foundation particularly committed to my local community or region?
• Do we have any contacts with board or staff members at this foundation?
• Do I have some other piece of information that leads me to believe that this foundation will be a good fit for us?

If you can answer yes to one or more of these questions, then it’s worth putting the foundation on your target list and advancing it for further research. You should expect that your target list will evolve over time.

3. Researching Your Top Prospects

Once you have created a target list, the next step is to research the foundations that look like the best fits for your organization and project. This is a very important step. Foundation staff often bemoan the number of people who call them to ask about applying for a grant without first reading the foundation’s guidelines or visiting the foundation’s website. The more information you can gather about your prospects, the better able you will be to place a compelling request before them.

Fundamentally, the most important thing to remember about foundations is that they are interested in making the world a better place. They might differ wildly in what they understand that to mean, but their goal is to invest money in projects that they believe matter. Your goal is to develop an understanding of the “personality” of each of your foundation prospects and, in particular, what each foundation wants to achieve in the world.

So, how do you do this?

• Review Foundation Websites: Most, but not all, foundations have websites where they post anything from a general description of their purpose and interest to detailed descriptions of application procedures, program priorities and past grants. Some foundations make their most recent annual report available online, as well as news updates, program updates, links to grantee websites and even strategic planning documents.
• Read Tax Returns: Every private foundation is required to submit an annual tax form, called a 990-PF, to the IRS, providing information on its assets, expenditures and grants. If you can’t find a list of grants on the foundation’s website, be sure to check the 990-PF. You can access 990’s online through the following sources:
  • Foundation Center’s 990 Finder
  • National Center for Charitable Statistics
• Screening Lists: Ask your board members, key staff and other volunteers who help your station with fundraising to screen lists of foundation board members from time to time. Especially in the case of local or regional foundations, you may discover contacts or information that could be helpful to you as you prepare an approach.
• Local Nonprofit Councils: Sometimes, local or regional nonprofit service centers (e.g., Councils of Nonprofits or Councils on Foundations) will sponsor foundation information sessions. These can be a good way to gather useful information on foundations in your area.