- $10
How to Find Funding for Your Organization
Whether you are new to grantseeking or seeking a refresher, this course is designed to build your skills in key areas, including how to find information about funders and grant opportunities, evaluate opportunities to determine if they should be pursued, track prospect research results, and increase your organization's visibility among potential donors.
LOCATED OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES? For tax reasons, you will need to purchase the course through another vendor, Lemon Squeezy. After purchase, you will automatically be enrolled in the course on Podia.
What You Will Learn
- An assessment process to determine what kind of funding and funding amounts your organization should target
- Grantmaker database options: an introduction to the different types, their benefits, and their cost
- A selection of resources (free and paid) that you can use to manage your prospect research
- Ways to position your organization to increase its visibility and success
Who Should Take This Course?
This course covers fundamental topics related to grant seeking, including how and where to look for funding sources for nonprofit organizations.
For those new to grant seeking, we believe this course will provide you with a strong foundation to begin searching for grant money.
If you have some experience with grant seeking, the course may introduce you to new prospect research tools and techniques that will enhance what you are already doing.
To learn more about the course content, please scroll down to review a breakdown of the course modules.
Contents
Course Introduction
To start things off, we're going to review what the course covers and introduce ourselves and what we offer.
Chapter 1: Setting Reasonable Expectations for Your Grant Targets
The first section of this course covers getting into the grant mindset. When we speak of the "grant mindset," we are referring to setting realistic expectations of what grants are and are not and what they can and cannot do for an organization.
Introduction
Getting into the Grant Mindset
Chapter 1: Setting Reasonable Expectations for Your Grant Targets: Quiz
Finding Funding: Need Assessment
PreviewChapter 2: Generating Effective Search Terms
In this chapter, we provide suggestions on how to go about generating keywords for your funder research. We've also provided a template you can use to track the search terms you've experimented with and how they worked.
Relevant Results: The Challenge of Finding the Right Search Terms
Generating Search Terms
Chapter 2: Generating Effective Search Terms: Quiz
Chapter 3: Resources for Finding Funding Opportunities
In this section of the course, we highlight several resources for funder research.
Choosing Your Tools and Methods for Funder Research
Funder Research
Finding Funding: Evaluating Databases
Supplemental Reading: Methods for Finding Funding Opportunities
To complement the material covered in the course, we're including several blog posts on related topics from our website, peakproposals.com.
Conducting Prospect Research Using Google
Working Backward: How to Follow the Funding Trail (or, how to find funding opportunities without a funder database)
Seeking Funding from the US Government
Seeking Funds for International Projects
Video Tours of Funder Databases
We created four short videos to introduce you to Philanthropy News Digest, GrantStation, grants.gov, the USAID Business Forecast.
Review of Philanthropy News Digest
Tour of Grants.gov
Chapter 4: Leveraging Partnerships
For small organizations that want to grow, or organizations of any size that want to gain access to larger awards or new funders, the traditional and well-tested route is to leverage partnerships.
Introduction to Organizational Partnerships
The Benefits of Partnerships
Finding Funding: Partnerships
Chapter 5: Following Funding Trends
It is a good idea to subscribe to the newsletters and social media feeds of the funders you are currently receiving funding from or that you hope to apply to in the future. If a funder decides to change its programmatic priorities, this is something you'll want to learn about as soon as possible.
What You Don't Know Can Hurt You: The Importance of Tracking News about Funders & Funding Priorities
Following Funding Trends
PreviewChapter 5: Following Funding Trends: Quiz
Chapter 6: Tools & Templates to Track Research Results
In this section of the course, we offer suggested approaches and tools for tracking your research findings. It's important to have a system that you and your colleagues are committed to and willing to use, so we encourage you to customize the tools to create a system that will work in the context of your particular work environment.
Introduction: Choosing a Tracking System for Your Prospect Research
Free Tools for Tracking the Results of Your Prospect Research
How to Use Trello for Grant Research & Writing
Video: Introduction to Trello
Chapter 6: Tools & Templates to Track Research Results: Quiz
Key Points: Tools & Templates for Tracking Funders
Chapter 7: Evaluating Opportunities
Deciding whether to pursue a particular opportunity is referred to as the “go/no-go” decision. All organizations, regardless of size, should institute a formal decision making process to evaluate opportunities. Ideally, this should happen through an in-person go/no-go meeting.
Opportunity Evaluation: The Who, What, & How of Evaluating Potential Opportunities
Evaluate Opportunities
Overview of the Go/No-Go Meeting Process
Chapter 7: Evaluating Opportunities: Quiz
Finding Funding: Evaluating Opportunities
Bonus Material
We've added a bonus chapter to discuss the importance of your organization's reputation. We've done this because, no matter how good you are at finding relevant donors and writing grant proposals, if your organization doesn't have a good reputation, it's unlikely to get funding.
The Relationship between Your Organization's Online Presence & Its Ability to Attract Funding
Finding Funding: Bonus
Bonus Material: Quiz
Resources
We've created a list of the resources mentioned in this course, which you can download for later reference. We've also included a PDF of one of our most popular blog posts, which summarizes free resources you can use to research potential sources of grant funding.
Additionally, as part of this course, you also receive access to a collection of prospect research templates.
Resources
PDF Download: Free Resources for Researching Funders & Funding Opportunities
Customizable Prospect Research Templates
Summary
Congratulations! You've reached the end of the course. We hope you've learned a few new things. This last section includes a summary of some of the main points covered in the course materials.
We've also included a link to a course survey, which we hope you'll complete. Your feedback helps us improve our content.
We've also included a link to a course survey, which we hope you'll complete. Your feedback helps us improve our content.
Key Steps for Finding Funding & Tips for Success
Next Steps
Course Feedback
FAQs
How long do I have to complete the course?
You have as much time as you need! Your access to the course does not expire.
Will I get a certificate after completing this course?
Yes! You will receive a completion certificate at the end of the course.
Are there any assignments that I need to complete and submit?
No, there are no formal assignments. We have included suggested homework as part of the course but it's up to you whether to complete the activities.
Can all the course materials be downloaded?
All PDFs included in the course can be downloaded. Text files and course videos must be viewed online.
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