A corporation can have no visible “Apply for a Grant” button, no current Request for Proposals, and no listing on the major grant databases—and still be putting money into nonprofit programs. That is one of the most important pieces of intelligence to understand when learning how to find corporate grants for nonprofits. Corporate philanthropy does …
A federal grant application can fail before a reviewer evaluates the strength of the proposed program. The applicant may describe a serious community problem, present an experienced project team and develop activities capable of producing meaningful results, yet still lose consideration because one required attachment was omitted, an eligibility condition was misunderstood or a page …
If your nonprofit has spent the year submitting grant applications and receiving rejection after rejection, the next step should not automatically be finding another ten grants and sending out slightly modified versions of the same proposal. At some point, the strategy itself has to be examined. Many organizations respond to unsuccessful grant applications by increasing …
The word climate can strengthen a nonprofit’s funding request, but it can also expose every weakness in the project. Once an organization describes tree planting, solar installation, farming, flood control, or community education as climate action, reviewers begin asking harder questions. Which climate threat does the project address? Who faces the greatest risk? What evidence …
A community organization may spend months designing a youth soccer, baseball, football, or multi-sport program, only to discover that the field where the program will operate is unsafe, poorly lit, inaccessible, or owned by another organization that has not approved renovations. The organization may then search for youth sports facility and field improvement grants, assuming …
A community organization launches a girls’ basketball program, recruits volunteer coaches, secures access to a school gym, and begins searching for grants to purchase uniforms and cover transportation. The organization finds a corporate foundation that supports youth sports and assumes it can submit a request. After several hours of preparation, the team discovers that the …
A nonprofit may see a federal announcement describing billions of dollars for public health infrastructure, add the program to its prospect list, and begin planning an application—only to discover that the money has already been awarded to state and local health departments. Another organization may spend days preparing a proposal for a health foundation that …
A nonprofit discovers a federal food security program with millions of dollars available, begins planning an application, and only later realizes that the organization cannot apply directly. The funding may be restricted to state agencies, require participation in SNAP, demand a dollar-for-dollar match, support food-system infrastructure rather than food purchases, or flow through an established …
A nonprofit can design an excellent digital-literacy program, identify hundreds of residents who need computers, calculate the cost of broadband access, and still pursue the wrong funding opportunity. The problem often begins with a misleading assumption: because a government agency, foundation, or corporation invests in digital equity, it must accept grant applications from any nonprofit …
A youth sports nonprofit may describe its problem as “not having enough equipment,” but that sentence can hide several very different needs. One league may need twenty age-appropriate gloves that remain the property of the program. Another may need catcher’s equipment, batting helmets, bases, softballs, and team bags. A third may already own equipment, but …
