Applying for Private Foundation Grants Material Copyright Darren Meahl August 2, 2000 Instructor: Darren Meahl Grants Officer Michigan State University Libraries meahl@msu.edu (517) 432-5937 To begin the process of applying for a grant, you should have a clear idea of the project you want to implement. What do you want to accomplish? Who will benefit from the project? What will the measurable outcomes be? What is the time line for each activity involved? What is the cost for the project? Costs can include salaries, benefits, materials, daycare costs for participants, supplies, equipment, rent, travel costs, speaker payments, and anything else that may be involved. Each proposal may have different cost categories, depending upon the type of project you are proposing. Prepare a two page concept paper answering all of these questions in clear, non-jargon-laden language. You might want to use the Grant Proposal Planning Guide form on the next page instead of preparing a concept paper. GRANT PROPOSAL PLANNING GUIDE It is often helpful to outline your thoughts prior to developing a grant proposal. Briefly answering the following questions will help you to organize the information and test the validity of your ideas. 1. Name of Project 2. Who will do the work? Project Director: Others? 3. Where will it be done? 4. How long will it take? 5. Why do it? (What's the problem or opportunity?) 6. What specifically do you hope to accomplish? (Goals or Objectives) 7. How will you accomplish it? (Methods and Procedures) 8. Why are you (and/or your group) qualified to do it? 9. Are others doing similar work? How is your approach unique? 10. How will you evaluate the results? 11. How much will it cost? (Estimated Budget) Salaries: $ For Equipment: $ For Supplies: $ Other Costs: $ Total Estimated Cost: $ 12. Do you have a funder in mind? If so, who? 13. What led you to choose them? Have they funded similar projects? Explain. 14. In reviewing the kinds of projects the funder has supported, how does yours compare? 15. What will be your organization's commitment to the project? (actual dollars and/or in-kind support) 16. How will the work be sustained after the project period and funding ends? Once you have prepared a concept paper or filled out the Planning Guide, you need to find one or more funders who grant money for the type of project you envision. There are five major sources of grant money: federal money, state money, private foundations, corporate foundations, and corporate giving programs. We will be talking about private and corporate foundations in this seminar. There are between 40,000 and 60,000 private foundations in the U.S.A. that give money to applicants. They range from tiny foundations with only a few thousand dollars in assets to the huge foundations that one reads about in the New York Times, such as the Ford Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, which have assets in the billions of dollars. Private foundations are created for a variety of reasons, one of the most common being a desire on the part of the creator to leave a legacy that supports their interests in perpetuity. The vast majority of foundations are made with endowments, and the grants given out do not touch the capital, but are made out of the investment income on the initial capital. Thus, the foundation can last forever, and continue granting money. There are three basic types of foundation, the private foundation, the corporate foundation, and the community foundation. The private foundation is usually created by an individual or a family. A corporate foundation is created by a corporation, and is a way for the corporation to return some of its profits to the community. A community foundation is established for a specific geographic area, and all kinds of donors can contribute to this type of foundation. For example, community foundations handle bequests from those who do not wish to establish an individual private foundation, donations from corporations within the area, and donations from small givers. All three types of foundation are covered in the foundation literature, and the process for identifying appropriate foundations and applying to any type is identical. There is often both a private foundation and a corporate foundation of the same name, because the family that started the corporation establishes a private foundation from their personal wealth, and the corporation establishes a corporate foundation using corporate profits. For example, the William H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation was established by Mrs. Grace A. Dow in memory of her husband Dr. Herbert H. Dow, founder of The Dow Chemical Company. There is also a Dow Chemical Company Foundation, established by The Dow Chemical Company. The purposes of these two foundations are very different. It is important that you not confuse foundations with similar names. Even though their origins may be similar, their fields of grant-making interest rarely coincide. Material Copyright Darren Meahl ========== Pat Calloway ====== Equine Rescue - http://www.crt-stable.com/equinerescue To unsubscribe, send a message to equinerescue-request@imagicomm.com with unsubscribe in the body of the message. Please do NOT quote this footer in list responses or your note will NOT be posted. ============================================================ Applying for Private Foundation Grants (#2) Material Copyright Darren Meahl August 2, 2000 Instructor: Darren Meahl Grants Officer Michigan State University Libraries meahl@msu.edu (517) 432-5937 How Do I Find The Right Foundation? The literature on foundations is voluminous. The first source of which you should be aware is The Foundation Center. This is an organization whose sole reason for being is to compile and distribute information on foundations. "The Foundation Center is an independent nonprofit information clearinghouse established in 1956. The Center's mission is to foster public understanding of the foundation field by collecting, organizing, analyzing, and disseminating information on foundations, corporate giving, and related subjects.''1 The Foundation http://fdncenter.org/about/whatisfc.html Center publishes hundreds of books on foundations. It also has established library collections where you can use these materials for free. There are five major collections, that hold everything the Foundation Center publishes, along with other valuable information. These are in Atlanta, Cleveland, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The good news, however, is that there are numerous smaller collections, called Cooperating Collections, located throughout the U.S., with several in each state. These are located in public libraries, university libraries (including MSU), community foundation offices, and other nonprofit agencies. Cooperating Collections offer a core collection of Foundation Center publications for use by the public, and their staffs are trained to assist users in finding appropriate resources on funding information. Many Cooperating Collections also have directories and reports on local funders, as well as copies of IRS information returns for private foundations in their state or region. For the address and telephone number of a Cooperating Collection in a given location, go to http://fdncenter.org/collections/index.html or call the Center at 1-800-424-9836. In addition to the formal collections of the Foundation Center, many large public, college and university libraries collect the basic foundation materials for use by their own clientele, and these materials are generally available for in-library use by anyone. This is true at MSU. Check in the catalog of your nearest public or academic library for any titles mentioned here or on the Foundation Center website. The Bible of foundation research is The Foundation Directory. This publication of The Foundation Center is organized geographically and by key words. It contains basic information on foundations with assets of $2 million or more, or annual grants totaling at least $200,000. [The information in The Foundation Directory is also available on CD-ROM, and many of the Cooperating Collections have the electronic version as well as the paper version. MSU offers FCSearch (Foundation Center Search) on its CD-ROM server. You can use it in any MSU library, or via the Internet if you have an MSUNet ID.] You can use the directory in two ways, looking for foundations that are in your state or locale, or by the key words of the project you have in mind. Each entry is compiled from information that the foundation provides and/or information taken from the foundation's public IRS form (990-PF). The more information the foundation provides, the more complete the entry is for that foundation. If the foundation provides no information, the entry is based only on the public information available, and that may be sparse. You will find that the key word index gives you a number, and the number corresponds to the entry for that foundation in the front of the directory. Each foundation entry includes the proper name of the foundation, the address and usually a phone number. (If there is no phone number, the foundation does NOT want phone calls!) A contact person is listed, and that is the person to whom you would direct your written inquiries or phone calls. Basic information about the foundation includes: when established; who the donors are/were; type of foundation (private/independent, community, or corporate/company-sponsored); assets; expenditures; total of grants for year indicated, with a high and Iow amount that gives you an idea of the range of grants offered; purpose and activities; fields of interest; types of support; limitations; publications; application information; officers and trustees; and often a short list of funded grant projects. The assets, expenditures and total grants (a.k.a. qualifying distributions) tell you a lot about the foundation. If the assets are tiny, the grants will be tiny. If the assets are huge, the total amount of money available will be huge (at least 5% [ 1 billion = 50 million/year] of the total is required to be distributed each year). The high and Iow of grants tells you the range of projects funded. If your project costs more than the high grant, this foundation is not a good prospect for getting funding. For first time grant applications to a given foundation, you may want to approach foundations that give more than you need, so that you aren't asking for the maximum amount a particular foundation is willing to give. Material Copyright Darren Meahl August 2, 2000 Instructor: Darren Meahl Grants Officer Michigan State University Libraries meahl@msu.edu (517) 432-5937 ========== Pat Calloway ====== Equine Rescue - http://www.crt-stable.com/equinerescue To unsubscribe, send a message to equinerescue-request@imagicomm.com with unsubscribe in the body of the message. Please do NOT quote this footer in list responses or your note will NOT be posted. ============================================================ Applying for Private Foundation Grants (#3) Material Copyright Darren Meahl August 2, 2000 Instructor: Darren Meahl Grants Officer Michigan State University Libraries meahl@msu.edu (517) 432-5937 The Purpose and activities section, if present, gives a general statement of the funding interests of the foundation, and may include the goal of the foundation or its funding priorities. Not every foundation provides this information, so it is not present in all entries. When it is present, however, it is valuable because it tells you the why of their grant-making activity, so that you can relate that to your project funding needs. For example, the entry for the Hawley Foundation states "To serve mankind, strengthen family life, and give assistance to organizations without regard to race, religion, or other affiliations; support primarily for youth, child welfare and social service agencies, especially for new projects.''2 If you read only the Fields of interest entry, which includes the term "Education", you might erroneously conclude that the Hawley Foundation funds school programs, which it doesn't. The Purpose and activities section is not just a different way of stating the areas the foundation funds. It can provide more specific information, a rationale for funding, or information on current funding interests that go beyond just the subject headings listed in the Fields of interest section. The Fields of interest section is vital. From this you can determine whether the foundation is likely to be interested in the type of project you have in mind. The field consists of subject headings (using a controlled vocabulary) that the foundation has listed as areas in which it funds or which the Foundation Center has applied using public records of grants funded in the past. If the foundation's field of interest is Higher Education, and you need to fund an elementary school project, you can skip that foundation. Foundations hate to receive grant applications that are unrelated to their fields of interest, so pay attention to this section. The Types of support section is important also. This section tells you what types of grants the foundation is willing to fund. Some foundations only support building projects, some support only scholarships, some support only research, some only conferences, etc. Many foundations support more than one type of project, but few support everything under the sun. Foundations hate to receive grant applications for types of projects that they do not support, so pay attention. The Limitations section can save you a lot of time. This section gives you absolute things the foundation will not do. Most of the limitations are geographic in nature. Many foundations give only in specified geographical regions. If you aren't in within that region, you can quickly move on to the next possibility. Other types of limitations can be types of support, for example: "no grants to individuals", or "no support for religious organizations", or "no support for individual K-12 schools." If your funding proposal falls within the things the foundation does not do, you can move on without spending any more time on that foundation. The Application information section tells you several pieces of vital information. One thing to look for is the phrase "Contributes only to pre-selected organizations." This means that the foundation does not accept applications. If you see this phrase, move on quickly. If the foundation does accept funding proposals, this section tells you how to do it. It may state that an application form is required, in which case you would obtain an application from the foundation. If the foundation prefers that you contact them before filling out an application, so that they can approve of your project at the initial stage before having their entire board review the project, this section will tell you how they prefer your initial contact with them to be handled. If it says "Initial approach: Letter", the foundation would like you to write them a short (2-3 pages maximum, unless specified otherwise in the directory entry) letter describing your organization, the project, and the funds needed. If it says "Initial approach: Proposal", the foundation would like you to write a full funding proposal and submit it.If it says "Copies of proposal: 11 ", that means you provide 11 excellent quality copies of the proposal. If it says "Deadline: May 1 ", that means that your letter or proposal must be there before that date, or it will not be considered for funding. No exceptions. Some foundations have strict deadlines, many others accept proposals all year long. No matter what, follow funder's guidelines. The Officers and trustees section tells you who is making the decisions for the foundation. A lot of grants are obtained via the who-you-know method. If anyone on your school board or board of trustees knows anyone on the foundation's board, that personal contact can lead to a much better chance of obtaining funding. However, having no personal contacts with any foundation's officers is not a valid reason for excluding that foundation from your funding prospects. If the foundation exists to fund the type of project you are proposing, it won't matter if you know anyone there personally. The Selected grants section lists grants that were reported in the year indicated. Note that all of the grants reported are several years old. This is due to the time lag required to compile and publish all of this information. Even though the grants were funded several years earlier, they can still give you valuable information on the types of projects the foundation supports, and the dollar amounts it typically grants. To find out the latest grants that a foundation has funded, you need to look at the Publications section. Many foundations publish an annual report that lists the grants given in the previous year. Call the foundation and ask for it. The Annual Report will tell you whether the foundation has continued to fund the fields indicated in the directory, or whether it has changed it focus, and you need to look elsewhere. The annual report can also give you a lot of valuable information about the goals of the foundation, which can help you not only decide if your project fits their guidelines, but may help you tailor a proposal to more accurately fit that funder. If the foundation doesn't publish an annual report (and many smaller ones do not), it may publish a list of grants, which can provide the same information as an annual report in terms of the grants funded in the previous year. If there are no publications, but the foundation seems ideal, you may be able to obtain the foundation's IRS form (form 990-PF, public document), either from Foundation Center COoperating'Collection, on the WWW, or from the foundation. This form will list all the grants funded the previous year also. You need to look at the grants funded the previous year in order to be sure that your project fits into the foundation's current funding areas. The information I've just given you is twenty times longer than the entry for any foundation in The Foundation Directory. It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. By using this, or any other directory, you can quickly identify possible funders for your project. It is impossible to list all the directories that may be useful. In addition to The Foundation Directory, there are hundreds of directories that target funding in specific areas. Most work exactly the same as The Foundation Directory (or very similar to it, which is only to be expected, since The Foundation Center publishes many of them.) There are specific directories for the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, and many directories that break down these three subject groups in more detail (religion, library and information science, etc.) I STRONGLY urge you to take 20 minutes and look at the Funding Center on 1East. Even if you do no more than read the titles on each shelf, you will get a good idea of the breadth of information published about getting grants. [2The Foundation Center, The Foundation Directory, 1998 Edition, New York, 1998, p. 579.] Material Copyright Darren Meahl August 2, 2000 Instructor: Darren Meahl Grants Officer Michigan State University Libraries meahl@msu.edu (517) 432-5937 ========== Pat Calloway ====== Equine Rescue - http://www.crt-stable.com/equinerescue To unsubscribe, send a message to equinerescue-request@imagicomm.com with unsubscribe in the body of the message. Please do NOT quote this footer in list responses or your note will NOT be posted. ============================================================ Applying for Private Foundation Grants (#4) Material Copyright Darren Meahl August 2, 2000 Instructor: Darren Meahl Grants Officer Michigan State University Libraries meahl@msu.edu (517) 432-5937 What do I do after I identify possible funders? First you look at the Publications section of the funder's entry. If the funder publishes an Annual Report, call or write for it (depending upon the instructions in the Application Information section). The Annual Report will tell you whether the goals of the foundation are still the same as what was published, and what types of projects they are currently funding. If no Annual Report is published, often a list of grants made will be, and that can tell you the same information (although in less detail.) If the directory entry lists no publications, find the foundation's 990-PF, either online at http://www.guidestar.com/(search for the individual foundation, and if a 990-PF is on file, there will be a clickable link to it) or at http://www.grantsmart.org/search/search.html (search for the individual foundation, and if a 990-PF is available, there will be a clickable link to it). To view 990s on the GrantSmart site, you will need Adobe Acrobat, available for free download at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Be prepared---990-PFs can be several hundred pages long. Finding the relevant section that lists grants can be a pain. The 990-PF will list the previous year's grants. Reviewing the funder's directory entry and looking at the 990-PF and/or the Annual Report should give you a fairly good idea of whether the funder is a match for your organization's project. If you are sure that the foundation is a good match, look in the Application Information section of the directory entry. The most common initial approach methods are: phone call, phone call requesting application guidelines, letter requesting application guidelines or application form, letter, and proposal. You should always pay attention to how the foundation would like to be contacted, because they get irritated if you do not follow the information. Most foundations ask that the initial contact be a letter. Some foundations will make a decision based on the letter itself (usually smaller foundations), but most will evaluate the letter for fit with their organizational purpose before asking for a full proposal. Basic elements of The. Letter: Use official letterhead, and have letter signed by the highest person in the organization. If that person knows nothing about the details of the grant, include in last paragraph whom to call with questions. Address the letter to a specific person, by name. Contact names are given in the header information of the directory entry, just below the name and address of the foundation. Before you mail the letter, call the foundation and double check that that is still the person to whom letters should be addressed, and that you have the address correct. One sentence about your organization, establishing its validity and track record in its field. Title and Scope of the project, including duration dates. One sentence covering the problem statement. One sentence describing the Objectives (outcomes) to be expected from the project. Proposed solution to the problem. One sentence giving qualifications of staff who will be implementing the project One sentence giving a budget and explaining how the funds would be spent. If you have other funders providing money for this project, include that information here. Request that the person assess the project and let you know if it falls within the funding goals for the foundation. Make a reference to a follow-up phone call that you will make to the person within a specific time frame. Give the person at least two weeks to have your letter in hand before you call them. Sincerely, etc. The letter should include the information above, but not in a bullet format. It should be a business format, with the information about the project in two paragraphs at most. When foundations request that you send a one page letter, you must get this all on one page. Be succinct and clear. Do not use jargon; do not use long, complex sentences. Short and concise is the key. Fortunately, most foundations will allow two pages. But remember that you must have decent-sized margins, and make the letter readable. Use a minimum of 12- point type. Applying for Private Foundation Grants Material Copyright Darren Meahl August 2, 2000 Instructor: Darren Meahl Grants Officer Michigan State University Libraries meahl@msu.edu (517) 432-5937 ========== Pat Calloway ====== Equine Rescue - http://www.crt-stable.com/equinerescue To unsubscribe, send a message to equinerescue-request@imagicomm.com with unsubscribe in the body of the message. Please do NOT quote this footer in list responses or your note will NOT be posted. ============================================================ Applying for Private Foundation Grants (#5) Material Copyright Darren Meahl August 2, 2000 Instructor: Darren Meahl Grants Officer Michigan State University Libraries meahl@msu.edu (517) 432-5937 Basic Elements of The Proposal: Readability: Use a 12-point, serif font. Number the pages. The first sentence in each paragraph is the most important. The first 1-2 paragraphs in each section are the most important. Bold the headings of sections. Use headings and subheadings to make for easier reading. Keep sentences short and simple. If the proposal is less than 5 pages, single space. If over 5 pages, double space. Do NOT use jargon or acronyms without defining them. Don't assume any knowledge of your field, your location, or your institution. Use of underlining or italics is OK. Avoid using all caps. Put quotes in italics. Cover Sheet: The cover sheet for a foundation is usually a cover letter on letterhead stationary simply stating that you are submitting the attached grant proposal for $X to the ABC Foundation. Address to the contact person, and check by phone for correct person's name and correct address before you send it. Include a sentence about whom to call with · questions. It should be signed by the highest ranking person in your organization. Table of Contents: You will write this after you have finished the proposal. Simply reference pages on which the elements of the proposal start. Executive Summary: This is a maximum one-half page, single spaced summary of the proposal. One sentence from each substantive element is the usual method of creating the summary. It is written after the proposal is finished. Many funders will use the summary only to give a recommendation to the board on funding. It is also often used as a press release. So make it interesting, but short, short, short. Introduction: Two pages maximum, educating the reader about your organization. Establish the organization's credibility-who are you, what is your history and mission; location; demographics of your service community (lay the foundation for the reviewer to understand the community); people you serve (socio-economic characteristics, etc.); board of trustees; staff (strengths, publications, awards, experience); volunteers; evidence of fiscal responsibility (e.g. administrative costs in relation to the money that is spent on programs); licenses or accreditation (if applicable); how do you interact with peer organizations at the local, state, and/or national level. Look at the strong points of your organization and back them up. At the end of the Introduction, you want the reader to think "I think this organization can make a difference with this project." Problem Statement/Need Statement: Maximum two pages. The problem is never that you need money. The problem is the unmet needs of your constituency. It is not focused on sustaining your organization, but on focused on the people you serve. BE CLEAR. No one gets a grant if the funder can't figure out for what and why you need the money. State the situation of concern. Who is affected? Where? Use facts, and include contributing factors. What will the result be if the need is unmet? What does your research indicate about the problem? What is the cause(s) of the problem? You may include some feeling statements to paint the picture of the people who will be affected, but this is primarily about facts, not emotions. Objectives: The Objectives are the changes you desire to see as a result of your project. They should be measurable, outcome-oriented, related to the problem, time-specific, and realistic. They are not promises, but goals--the best guess of what you consider to be successful change. The Objectives must relate to how you have described the problem. Objectives are designed to decrease a negative phenomenon or to increase a positive one, and will often begin with or use these terms ("To increase the number of students who remain in college until graduation"; "To decrease the number of students who drop out of high school.") Focus on things you can realistically accomplish--don't try to be responsible for world peace or an end to world hunger in one grant. There are three types of Objectives: (1) straight outcome (80% of children enrolled in this program will be ready for kindergarten on the first day of school); (2) indicators, where you can't measure outcome, but can measure indicators, e.g. attendance, grades, number of times disciplined; and (3) proven process, where the process is already validated through research or experience, and you are extending it to X% or XYZ more persons. Objectives can be numbered or bulleted. Methods: Maximum 3 pages. The methods are a promise. They are the steps to be taken to accomplish the project (and spend the money). They are action verbs. They include two pages describing: what will happen; who will be responsible; qualifications of key personnel; where service will be provided; hours of service; how you will let people know about the service; how people will get to the service (if applicable); what training will be provided for providers of or users of the service; rationale (why you are using this approach over others). The third page should be a timeline listing each action to be done, by whom it will be done, and the date by which it will be done. Evaluation: Maximum 3/4 of a page. The basic question you are answering is: "How will we know if we accomplished the Objectives?" If you have numeric data in the problem statement, this is simple. If you have a capital project, the evaluation is also simple--was the building built? Evaluation can also be in terms of numbers of people served or participant satisfaction. The evaluation can be Summative (did you achieve your objectives) or Formative (how well did the process work). How successful does the process you tested work? Did you achieve the objective via the method you tested, or did you have to make changes? For demonstration projects, a large part of the goal is to find out if the project is replicable (and worth replicating), so the evaluation is crucial. The description of the evaluation is crucial, even if you have to design it yourself. You cannot just promise to have someone come in later and do it. The more you can use data that your organization already collects in your evaluation, the better, as it can show longer term trends. The more scientific you need the results to be, the more you need an outside evaluator. Some outside evaluators will design an evaluation on spec, hoping you will hire them to do the evaluation (and if you do so, be sure to include the cost in the budget). Future and Other Funding: Maximum one-half page. In the first paragraph, include: Who else is going to contribute to this project (do not necessarily include how much they are contributing, just that they are)? Will there be fees for services? Special event funds? In the second paragraph, include: Where will the money come from when the grant is over? (And the answer is NOT "We will write more grant proposals"!!!) You must have some way of continuing the service after the grant is over. Will it be self-sustaining through fees, sales, fund raising, efficiency, or what? It doesn't have to be cast in stone, but you do need some good ideas about where the money will come from. Budget: One page, ideally. For this item, and this item ONLY, it is OK to use a smaller font to get the Budget on one page. Always use a page break so that the Budget is on a page by itself. The Budget delivers the same information as the Method, just stated differently. Using the Methods, figure time and salaries of the people it will take to accomplish the activities. If you have significant equipment, be sure to explain how the equipment will be used and why it is necessary for the project. The Budget should indicate how you arrived at the numbers for salary (e.g., $3,000/month salary X 12 months X 100% of time - $36,000, the Project Director's salary.) Show funds in 3 columns, Total Needed, Total Requested (from this funder), and Other (which includes in-kind donations and matching funds). This shows how much of the project you are expecting the funder to cover. Attachments: Letters of support should be limited to two or three, and should only be used if they can show specific connections that relate to the project. You should include letters of commitment, from other organizations or people that detail how they will be involved in the project (money, staff, facilities). These should be specific to the project. Do not include extraneous attachments. Limit your proposal to what is asked for by the funder. Once you have completed the proposal, have it proofread by someone else. Make corrections and then make copies, checking each page of each copy. Do not put the proposal into a binder---staple the upper left corner or use an alligator clip. Ship via a secure method (don't use Bulk Mail or 4th class.) Information Private Funders Often Require: (1) 501(c)3 letter--a copy of the letter from the IRS granting your organization non-profit status. (2) List of board members, with addresses and who they represent. (3) Organization chart. (4) Resumes of key personnel (one page each). (5) Previous year's audit (if you don't have one, contact the funder for instructions). (6) Current year's operating budget. Keep a file of all these items ready to go in case the funder asks for them. Possible Responses to Your Proposal: (1) The funder might ask you to re-submit your proposal. Your task is to find out why. It may be that the funder ran out of money for this fiscal year, and wants you to resubmit at the beginning of the next fiscal year. (2) The funder might say "No". If possible, find out why. Don't be pushy about it. If the funder does not want to tell you, there is no way you can find out. But many will tell you if your proposal did not fit their organizational goals, so that you know not to resubmit to them. Few will tell you that it was a lousy proposal. If you have a personal relationship with anyone in the foundation, go that route. (3) Modify your proposal. This usually means that the foundation wants changes in the project so that it meets their organizational goals, or that they do not have sufficient funds to grant the entire amount requested, and would like to see a smaller project for less money. Be aware that if you accept a lesser amount, you are committed to doing the project that you describe for less money. Be sure to scale back the project accordingly. You can also ask the funder if they can suggest a source to fund the rest of the project. Foundations talk to each other a lot, and share information. (4) YES! Once you endorse and deposit the check, you are committed to doing the project. THANK THE FUNDER in writing. Ask the funder if they want public recognition. Ask what their reporting requirements are--do they want monthly reports or just one report on the project at the end of the funding cycle? Fulfill all the funder's reporting requirements exactly. If you cannot, for some reason, contact the funder BEFORE IT IS DUE and negotiate a different method of reporting. Always give credit to the funder when you talk or write about your project (unless the funder wishes to remain anonymous, of course!) Applying for Private Foundation Grants Material Copyright Darren Meahl August 2, 2000 Instructor: Darren Meahl Grants Officer Michigan State University Libraries meahl@msu.edu (517) 432-5937 ========== Pat Calloway ====== Equine Rescue - http://www.crt-stable.com/equinerescue To unsubscribe, send a message to equinerescue-request@imagicomm.com with unsubscribe in the body of the message. Please do NOT quote this footer in list responses or your note will NOT be posted. ============================================================