And while we’re on the subject of on-line databases…you can find non-profit organizations at TaxExemptWorld.Org
You can search by name, zip code, county or city. Full results of your search with enhanced data can be downloaded into a spreadsheet for $10.00.
The Foundation Center web site has a two-page Foundation Giving Preview which is a prelude to their full report to be issued in February 2007.
Education and health remained the top priorities of private
and community foundations included in the Foundation
Center’s grants sample in 2005. Support for most major
subject areas grew, with international affairs and the
environment posting the largest gains. By type of support,
the share of foundation grant dollars allocated for capital
projects rose to 18.5 percent, following five consecutive
years of decline. These findings are based on all grants of
$10,000 or more awarded by 1,154 of the largest
foundations.
The site includes a free search engine for foundations for searching on name, state or zip code. Once you have found a list there are links directly to the 990 reports for each foundation. There are prospect worksheets for both institutional and individual donors. They have listings of Requests For Proposals as well as a training materials for proposal writing.
This week’s Chronicle of Philanthropy has a couple of themes:
The cover story is about conservation, land trust, and housing organizations.
Inside there are several articles about foundations, and how foundations need to be more accountable and transparent.
This week the Chron quotes a study by the Center for Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College which compares giving by state, adjusted for the state’s cost of living and tax burden. Utah is listed as the top giving state, with an average after-tax income per household of $53,425, and an average charitable donation of $3405. The data is from 2004. In the study, there is an extensive discussion of Massachusetts demographics and giving.
Also this week is a discussion of non-profit blogs, with a list of “10 Non-Profit Blogs That Get Attention”. (the main article is free, the list of ten blogs requires registration).
In the November 23rd edition of the Chronicle of Philanthropy
Big discussion about the how aggressive fund-raising techniques are alienating donors. Some donors get hacked off after being contacted by telephne on a monthly basis. Well, who wouldn’t?
The MacArthur Foundation will spend 50 million dollars over five years to fund research into the effect of digital media and the internet on the education and social development of children.
Recent non-profit tech conferences:
March 22-24 2006 in Seattle – Non-Profit Technology Conference
March 25 2006 in Seattle – Penguin Day, potential and challenges of using open source software
Nonprofit groups should expect no change in the efforts of the Seanate Finance Committee to tighten laws and regulations affecting nonprofit accountability and political involvment, since the views of the possible new Democratic chairman, Montana’s Sen. Max Baucus, seem to be similar to those of the outgoing one, Iowa’s Sen. Charles Grassley.
Just got word that tgc is coming to our neck of the woods (Northern New England).
I took the seminar years ago and found it was outstanding.
The Grantsmanship Center’s signature Grantsmanship Training Program is coming to Laconia, New Hampshire, December 4-8, 2006. The program will be hosted by The Teen Center of the Lakes Region.
The Grantsmanship Training Program covers all aspects of researching grants, writing grant proposals and negotiating with funding sources. More than 100,000 nonprofit and government personnel have attended this comprehensive 5-day workshop, which now includes a full year of valuable membership services.
During the workshop, participants learn The Grantsmanship Center’s proposal writing format, the most widely used in the world. In addition to practicing the most advanced techniques for pursuing government, foundation, and corporate grants, they develop real grant proposals for their own agencies.
Upon completion of the training, participants receive free follow-up, including professional proposal review, access to The Grantsmanship Center’s exclusive online funding databases, and an array of other benefits.
Tuition for the Grantsmanship Training Program is $825 ($775 for each additional registrant from the same organization).
To ensure personalized attention, class size is limited to 30 participants. To register online, to learn about scholarship opportunities for qualifying organizations, or for more information, visit http://tgci.com/gtptraining.shtml. Or call The Grantsmanship Center’s Registrar at (800) 421-9512.
The Grantsmanship Center
PO Box 17220
1125 West 6th Street, 5th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90017
(213) 482-9860
FAX (213) 482-9863
www.tgci.com
Seen in the NPQ Winter 2005 edition.
For all donors, unrestricted grants are the most positive financially and should be the rule and not the exception. This is because anything else, generally speaking, create cost for the recipient. There may be exceptions, and giving unrestricted funding does not mean that funders cannot or should not be actively involved in communicating with the recipient about plans for the funds, budget, and program strategy. However, anything but unrestricted grants genreally creates cost within the grantee’s operation.
From this week’s Chronicle of Philanthropy
A report, “Exploring Foundation Financial Investments in Nonprofit Capacity Building” by the Human Interaction Research Institute determines that foundation support for so-called “capacity-building” grants, those that are used to improve agency operations are in decline. From the synopsis in the Chron:
In 2004, more than $5.9-billion in such grants were awaded, down from $6.5-billion awarded by foundations in 2002. The 2004 figure, while down from two years earlier, was still significantly greater than the nearly $3.7-billion given out in 1998.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy has a technology section each week. Two items of interest this time:
describes the Aidmatrix logistics software package which is used to manage the distribution of products and goods from warehouses to the field.
“A study of nearly 10,000 e-mail messages sent by 28 non-profit organizations and political groups over a two-month period found that 24 percent of the messages did not make it to the e-mail boxes of the people who requested them.”
The findings of the study , by Mindshare Interactive Campaigns, can be seen here.
A study from John Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies cited in the Chronicle of Philanthropy May 4th issue suggests that thirty-seven percent of agencies seeking grant funding for technology were successful in obtaining it. Only 25% were able to get grant funding for program development. The study found that the three most crucial items that agencies sought funding for were technology, program development, and staff development and strategic planning.
Except for one notable exception, technology headed the list of capital needs for nonprofits in all fields and of all sizes. Even among the small and medium-sized organizations, 84 percent reported a need for capital to finance new technology, and among museums and theaters it reached 95 percent of the responding organizations.
And how did agencies fare when attempting to raise funds?
…the two top ranked needs—technology and program development—ranked third and last in terms of success. Thus, while 91 percent of organizations indicated a need for capital to acquire new technology,only 37 percent reported success in raising such capital. Similarly, while 80 percent indicated a need for capital for program development,” only 25 percent were able to report success in raising the capital they needed for this purpose.
Of the successful organizations, housing and elderly service organizations were the most succssful in raising captial funds. Child and family service organizations were the least successful. Community development and arts/cultural organizations fell in between.
Links:
The study, “Investment Capital: The New Challenge for American Non-Profits” is online at the the Center’s web site. This is part of the Center’s Listening Post project.
Found in The Chronicle of Philanthropy (registration and subscription required).
tfnp 