Where to Look for Foundation Grants and Corporate Giving Opportunities

Information about grant opportunities is available from a variety of different media, including web sites, resource books, periodicals, CD-Roms, and other sources. Some resources are available for public use free of charge, while others are available for a fee.

Below is a listing of some of the resources that you might want to check.

Please note that individual organizations may provide both free and fee-based information. Note also that some of the information that is for sale might be available for your use free of charge in a nearby library.

***Important information before you get started***

The Foundation Center is a nonprofit organization that publishes many useful resource materials, including written directories, CD Roms, and other materials. It also has an excellent web site that you might want to visit first. (The web site includes helpful tutorials as well as listings of grant opportunities.)

Many of the resource materials developed by the Foundation Center are available for purchase. However, the Foundation Center has "Cooperating Collections" centers throughout the country. These centers, located in libraries and other organizations, make core Foundation Center materials available for public use free of charge. In addition, the Cooperating Collections centers may provide a more extensive range of resource materials, as well as limited technical assistance to grantseekers.

Three Cooperating Collection centers are located in Delaware:

• Dover Public Library 
  45 S. State St.
  Dover, DE 19901
  (302) 736-7030
• University of Delaware Hugh Morris Library
  181 S. College Ave.
  Newark, DE 19717
  (302) 831-2432
• University of Delaware Center for Community Research and Service
  100 W. 10th St., Ste. 812
  Wilmington, DE 19801
  (302) 573-4475

For more information, please visit the web sites of each of these centers in Delaware.  For a listing of centers throughout the country, see the Cooperating Collections page of the Foundation Center's web site.

A final note: The following list represents some starting points for your search for information on grant opportunities rather than an exhaustive collection of resources. Inclusion of products for sale is not necessarily an endorsement of those products, but rather, provided to offer an indication of the range of materials available on the topic.

***

Online Resources

• University of Delaware Foundations and Grants: Guide to Internet Resources
  (http://www2.lib.udel.edu/subj/foce/internet.htm)
  This site includes an excellent  listing of some of the resources available on the web.
• Delaware Association of NonProfit Agencies (http://www.delawarenonprofit.org/toolstemplates/fundfinder.php)
  This site contains list of major grantmakers along with links to their sites.
• Foundation Center Foundation Finder
  (http://lnp.fdncenter.org/finder.html)
  This site contains a free searchable database of foundations. The database provides brief descriptive and contact information for foundations listed. To access a foundation via this database, you must know the name of the foundation.
• Foundation Center Online
  (http://fconline.fdncenter.org/)
  The Foundation Center provides a fee-based on line subcription service. The service allows you to gain access to the Center's database from your desktop.
• Chronicle of Philanthropy
  (http://philanthropy.com/grants/)
  The Chronicle of Philanthropy offers a fee based subscription service which includes access to a database of corporate and foundation grants listed in its publication since 1995.

Books/Written Directories/CD's

• The Foundation Center Marketplace
  (http://fdncenter.org/marketplace/index.jhtml)
  As noted above, the Foundation Center has developed many resources to assist organizations seeking grant opportunities, including The Foundation Directory, The National Directory of Corporate Giving, National Guide to Funding in Health, Grants for the Physically & Mentally Disabled, and others. Some of the resource materials are available as written directories, CD-Roms, and on-line subcriptions. (See the University of Delaware Library's web site for a listing of the Foundation Center resources available there.)
• The Taft Group
  (http://www.galegroup.com/servlet/BrowsePublisherServlet?region=9&imprint=000&id=828)
  The Taft Group sells a limited number of publications to assist grantseekers. See the Taft Group's web site for more information.

Periodicals

• The Chronicle of Philanthropy
  (http://philanthropy.com/)
  The Chronicle of Philanthropy is a newspaper for nonprofits. It is published every other week, and contains information about current grant opportunities. Portions of the newspaper are available on the Chronicle's web site. See the site for subscription information.
• The Grantsmanship Center Magazine
  (http://tgci.com/magazine.shtml)
  The Grantsmanship Center, which specializes in training for grantseekers, has archived articles from its Grantsmanship Center Magazine, on the web. The magazine is no longer in circulation, but a free E-zine is coming soon.