On “Free Money”

I found a great post today about “free grant money,”  written by a fellow Grant Resource Center person in Ohio.  Please read it!   I cannot tell you how often I am forced to break the “free grant money” myths, and how frustrating it is when people don’t believe me, or think that surely I must be hiding something.

Tools for Individual Grantseekers

Last week, I held my first-ever round of Foundation Grants to Individuals classes.  To create this class, I actually combined two separate classes:  Finding Foundation Support for Your Education and Grantseeking in the Arts.  I combined the classes because both use the same database for research, the Foundation Grants to Individuals Online, but I’m still not sure if it was the right thing to do.  Many of my participant feedback forms said that attendees needed more information on the grantseeking process as a whole, not just on the research-for-funders aspect.  (Yes, I really read and rely on that feedback!)

Here, I present individual grantseekers with some more tools and resources to aid in their grantseeking.  Please let me know in the comments if you found anything helpful here!

First, on FoundationCenter.org:

• Guide to Funding Research  |  Beginning Your Research 
• FAQs  |  Individuals
• Reference Guide  |  Proposal Writing for Individuals
• A Bibliography for Individual Grantseekers  -  If there is a book on here you’d like but that is not yet available on our bookshelves, let us know.  We may be able to get it for you through Interlibrary Loan.
• Proposal Writing Short Course  -  Not necessarily for the individual grantseeker, but this free, self-paced course offers a wealth of information on proposal writing and foundation funding.  I recommend this course to everybody. 

And, on the rest of the internet:

• FastWeb  -  Searchable database of scholarship opportunities, free registration required.
• Michigan State University Library’s Grants for Individuals Index  -  Lots of worthwhile links here.
• Funding Sources for Individuals from the University of Madison-Wisconsin’s Grants Information Collection.