Tool Box
Six “how to” information tools to simplify your grantseeking.
Successful grantseekers are typically involved in one or more of the following activities.
Five New Additions
- Info on privately held companies that you might approach
- Securities and Exchange Commission Info (click oon EDGAR database)
- Compare 30 metaseaerch engines (click on “Translate” to get the English version
- Child health info from Children’s Defense Fund
- Health Policy and Statistical Information from Kaiser Family Foundation
1. Identifying Funding Sources
All links lead to funding opportunities of different types
- Federal Government Contracts
- Identifying Corporate Contacts
- Grants.Gov: Portal to Federal Government Grants
- Private Foundtion Tax Records via Guidestar
- Foundation Center Pathway to Private Foundations
2. Planning and Developing Proposals
All links lead to specialized information.
- U.S. Census Data
- National Center for Education Statistics
- Broad Range of Federal Government Statistics
- Google Search Engine
- County-level Health Statistics
- NIH PubMed Health-Related Literature
- Department of Justice Statistics
- KidsCount Data Base
- NSF Program Evaluation Strategies
- Google Scholar Search Engine
- Scirus Scholar Search Engine
3. Developing Proposal Budgets
Links lead to two major federal grant budget forms
4. Ensuring Regulatory Agency Compliance
Links lead to further information on various types of federal regulatory agency requirements
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2. Blog
Click here to subscribe to our Blog.
While our Grantseeker Tips (GT) Newsletter provides “sound bites” on current grant hot topics, our Blog provides more in-depth information on select topics. For example, our latest Blog, explores the extent to which private foundations use Twitter as a social media tool to disseminate grant-related information. You may find the results of our research very surprising.
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3. Grant Reference Books
Miner and Associates has authored three grant books to help you become a successful grant seeker. They are loaded with practical tips that you can immediately apply to your situation.
Proposal Planning and Writing
Writing successful proposals can be daunting, difficult, and time consuming. This book offers specific examples, models, and step-by-step instructions to guide readers through the process of grantseeking for public and private funds. This guidebook of grant fundamentals assists you with the following:
- Developing ideas
- Identifying funding sources
- establishing systems and procedures
- Writing proposal components
- Forecasting budgets
- Submitting proposals
This up-to-date edition presents scores of concrete writing examples and many time-saving tips drawn from successful grantseekers. To order the book directly from the publisher, click here.
Models of Proposal Planning and Writing
In intimate detail previously unpublished, this book illustrates an integrated process of planning and writing persuasive proposals. This book contains actual proposals submitted to private and public sponsors, including paragraph-by-paragraph analyses of the key features that made them persuasive.
This book contains an examination of the verbatim reviewer comments and grant award notification letters sent from the sponsors. These annotated models serve as a springboard from which grantseekers can begin to develop their own fundable proposals.
In sum, you will learn not only what was funded but more importantly why three proposals were funded.
To order directly from the publisher, click here.
Collaborative Grantseeking: A Guide to Designing Projects, Leading Partners, and Persuading Sponsors
As it becomes increasingly difficult to obtain public or private funding, collaboration may become absolutely vital to some nonprofits’ continued existence. Effective grant collaborations always comprise a critical attribute: they are led by individuals who not only understand the benefits and barriers affecting collaborations, but are highly skilled in managing them.
This reference text explains the nature of the collaboration and a critical examination of the role of the grant leader, giving nonprofit fundraisers a competitive edge in collaborative grantseeking, especially for those individuals without previous experience in this complicated arena. No other book comprehensively explains every step in a successful collaborative grantseeking effort, nor provides real-world strategies and proven practices. Readers of Collaborative Grantseeking: A Guide to Designing Projects, Leading Partners, and Persuading Sponsors will also better grasp the humanistic aspects of designing and leading successful collaborative projects and be able to write more persuasive proposals.
This book includes, four samples of funded collaborative grants, complete with annotations and reviewers’ comments, provide a starting point for developing your own collaborative proposals. Also readers will find a collection of 179 sample questionnaire items useful for generating a customized Collaboration Rating Form for your specific situation.
To order directly from the publisher, click here.
4. Grantseeker Tips (GT) Newsletter
Purpose
Grantseeker Tips is a free electronic newsletter that attempts to inform — and motivate — as you close the financial gap between your needs and your resources. Our topics are driven by whatever is current at the moment in the world of grants. Funding programs and priorities change. Grantmaker expectations increase, particularly in terms of evaluation and accountability. New data sources for grant proposals appear and disappear. What works today may not work tomorrow. The challenge is keeping current with a moving target. That’s how Grantseeker Tips can help you.
Cost
Free, of course!
Subscriptions
We publish Grantseeker Tips whenever we find something news worthy, usually every two to three weeks. We don’t maintain an archive of back issues because most of the tips have a short shelf life and don’t merit the permanency of an archive. To subscribe click here.
Feedback
If you have a particular question you’d like answered or a special topic you’d like to see discussed in a future Grantseeker Tips issue, please click here.
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5. Twitter
We won’t be sending out tweets every time we change the oil in our car, unclog the gutters, or go hunting night crawlers on Astroturf. Instead we will make judicious use of time-bound information on such topics as late-breaking grant opportunity announcements, changes in grant application procedures, agencies looking for grant reviewers, updates on grantmaker Web site, new grant facts, relevant retweets, and announcements of new Facebook postings. When the mood strikes us, we’ll even tweet a little bit of Friday Fun.
Scan Our 80+ Tweets Now
We’ve joined this social media tool and will use it as a grant bulletin board. We follow many grantmakers – public and private.. When we see something of special interest to the grantseeker community, we will post a message on our Wall. It’ll serve as an early alert since we assume you don’t have the time or resources to monitor them. Our three latest posts on Facebook:
- March 21 Avoiding Grantosis Nervosa
- March 26 Getting a Job as a Grant Writer
- March 28 Pink Slime Proposals
