Grant Resources

A few other sources that offer great tips as you explore and apply for funding:

Grant Writing

• Grantspace, a service of the Foundation Center, is a comprehensive resource site for nonprofit fundraising information. They have an online classroom that hosts a range of web-based courses, many of them free (after you register on their site). They also have sample documents available (cover letters, proposals, letters of inquiry, etc.), which can be useful as you create your own proposals.

• The Foundation Center also hosts Cooperating Collections, which are free funding information centers in libraries, community foundations, and other nonprofit resource centers that provide a core collection of Foundation Center publications and a variety of supplementary materials and services in areas useful to grant seekers. Go here to find a location near you.

• GIFT, or Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training, is a well-respected technical assistance organization providing hands-on and accessible fundraising support. They have done extensive work in communities of color, and their resources online, including webinars and some articles in Spanish, are plentiful. Expect to pay a small fee for each resource (often $3-$20), but you can sign up for regular fundraising tips here.

Tools/Templates

• Writing a Grant Application for Funding from the Community Toolbox.
• Anatomy of a Grant Proposal, a collection of articles and examples from Guidestar.
• Proposal Writing: A short course is proposal writing from The Foundation Center
• Knowledge Base: How to Write a Proposal, a collections of articles and resources from Grantspace.
• Sample Grant Proposals, LOIs, Cover Letters, Project Budgets, and Other Documents from Grantspace.
• How to write a case statement.

Budgets & Financial Management

• StrongNonprofits.org, a web-based toolkit of free resources is designed to help nonprofits understand and manage their financial health.
• Program Based Budget Builder: Tool for building a nonprofit organization’s budget
• Jacobson Jarvis & Co.: A Certified Public Accounting (CPA) Firm based in the Northwest that focuses its nonprofit audit, tax, and consulting capacity on the not-for-profit community 

Board Tools/Training

BoardSource is the recognized leader in nonprofit board leadership and supports, trains, and educates nonprofit leaders from across the country and throughout the world. With almost three decades of experience, BoardSource provides leaders with an extensive range of tools, resources, and research data to increase board effectiveness and strengthen organizational impact.

Webinars

Several sites offer multiple webinars/audio training related to fundraising:

• A Checklist for New Nonprofits, from Grants Space, Free.
• Proposal Writing Basics Webinar, from Grants Space, Free.
• Grantspace. Registration required.
• GIFT Search for multimedia trainings on demand – Registration and payment required.
• Care2. Registration required, and be aware that they do a bit of advertising for their services within the webinars. Still solid, useful information.

Books

• Fundraising for Social Change by Kim Klein
• Grassroots Grants: An Activist’s Guide to Grantseeking by Andy Robinson
• Storytelling for Grantseekers: A Guide to Creative Nonprofit Fundraising by Cheryl A. Clarke