Fundraising Principles and Practice, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER EIGHTEENGRANT FUNDRAISING

Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Describe the foundation marketplace.
2. Conduct research and prioritize potential grant makers.
3. Write proposals or submit applications to obtain grant funding
4. Describe the “Grant Cycle.”
5. Understand the importance of feedback and reporting to foundation supporters.
6. Discuss the reasons applications to foundations might fail.

Introduction

There were 127,595 active independent grant-making, community, and operating foundations registered with the Internal Revenue Service in 2021 according to Candid (2022) (formerly The Foundation Center). These foundations contributed $90 billion to nonprofit organizations in 2021 (Giving USA Foundation, 2022) and together they account for 17% of all philanthropic giving in the US. In this chapter, we will review the different types of foundation, explain how to plan for foundation fundraising, and illustrate how fundraisers can build a successful relationship with their target organizations.

Definitions and Categories

There are two main categories of foundations: operating foundations and grant-making foundations (Prewitt, 2006). Operating foundations provide their own range of programs. For over two centuries, operating foundations have funded and managed universities, hospitals, schools, orphanages, cultural institutions, relief agencies, and many ...