OCPL Home -> Search Tools -> Librarian Picks -> Business & Investing -> Grants
Grant Seeking, Proposal Writing & Philanthropy
by Peg Elliott, Librarian
Visit the Nonprofit Resource Center at the Robert P. Kinchen Central Library to:
Locate potential funders for your nonprofit agency;
Find information on how to write grant proposals;
Research philanthropic giving trends;
Please choose from the following:
Directories
Books
Magazines
Databases
Websites
Directories
[Available only in the Central Library]
Contains:
Foundations with assets of $2 million or more or total
grants of at least $200,000 (7,549 foundations).
Use for Finding:
Detailed information on giving interests and restrictions,
application guidelines, names of officers and directors,
and selected grants (when available)
Contains:
Foundations with assets between $1 million and $2 million
or whose total giving is between $50,000 and $200,000
(5,075 foundations)
Use for Finding:
Detailed information on giving interests and restrictions,
application guidelines, names of officers and directors,
and selected grants (when available)
National Directory Of Corporate Giving
Contains:
Corporate charitable activities, including direct corporate
giving (non-foundation) programs approx. 669) and company-sponsored
foundations (approx. 1,972)
Use for Finding:
Detailed information on companies and their giving
interests and restrictions, application guidelines,
and names of program administrators
Foundation
Grants To Individuals
Contains:
Detailed descriptions of more than 6,000 foundation programs
that fund students, artists, researchers, and other individual
grantseekers.
Use for Finding:
Educational support – scholarships, fellowships,
loans, and internships
Students and graduates of specific schools, arts and cultural
support
Awards, prizes, and grants by nomination, research and
professional support
Foundations Today Series
Contains:
Unique collection of facts and figures on private and community
foundations and their giving contained within the following
three individual titles:
Foundation Giving Trends: Update on Funding Priorities
Examines 2004 grantmaking patterns of a sample of more
than 1,000 larger U.S. foundations, and compares current
giving priorities with trends since 1990
Foundation
Growth and Giving Estimates: Current Outlook
Provides a first look at estimates of foundation giving
for 2005 and final statistics on actual giving and assets
for 2004. It also presents new top 100 foundation lists.
Foundation
Yearbook: Facts and Figures on Private and Community Foundations
Documents the growth in number, giving, and assets of all
active U.S. foundations from 1975 through 2004.
Books
‘Must reads’, published by the
Foundation Center
Foundation
Fundamentals: A Guide for Grantseekers
by Kief Schladweiler
Foundation Center's Guide to Proposal Writing
by Jane C. Geever
Foundation Center's Guide to Winning Proposals
by Sarah Collin
New books added recently to the OCPL collection
Proposal Writing for Grants
Complete Book of Grant Writing
by Nancy Burke Smith
Grant Proposal Makeover: Transform Your Request From No to Yes
by C. Clarke
Perfect phrases for Writing Grant Proposals
by B. Browning
Winning Grants Step-By-Step
by M. Carlson
Nonprofit Organizations
Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations
by M. Kaiser
Information gold mine: innovative uses of evaluation
by P. Mattessich
Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission
By H. Ross
Model Policies and Procedures for Non-for-Profit Organizations
By E. McMillam
Revised Form 990: A Line-By-Line Preparation Guide
by J. Blazek
Fund Raising
Fundraising Habits of Supremely Successful Boards: A 59-minute Guide to Securing Your
Organization’s Future
by Jerold Panas
Fundraising: Hands-on-Tactics for Nonprofit Groups
by L. Peter Edles
Effective Fundraising for Nonprofits: Real-World Strategies That Work
by I. Bray
Essential Nonprofit Handbook
By M. Sand
Fundraising Basics: A Complete Guide
by B. Ciconte
Fundraising for Social Change
By K. Klein
Fundraising Mistakes that Bedevil all Boards
By K. Grace
Fundraising When Money is Tight: Effective Strategies & Practical Steps for Surviving Tough Times and Thriving Into the Future
by M. Warwick
Magazines
Philanthropy Annual
A yearly overview of the news, issues, people, organizations, and giving trends shaping the field. Contents are drawn in part from Philanthropy News Digest, the Foundation Center’s daily online news service, as well as from selected Center research findings. Available for free use at the Central Library or downloaded for $19.95 from the website.
Sign up for the PND e-newsletter or RSS feed. Includes searchable archives and RFPs
Databases
For an index to more articles on grant seeking, see OCPL’s Online Databases. Here you can access magazine and journal articles, newspapers, and reference books 24 hours a day using your OCPL library card and PIN.
For in-library use of the online databases, please see a librarian.
Foundation Directory
Online
[available only at the Central Library]
Find information on more than 98,000 U.S. foundations including direct corporate giving programs and company-sponsored foundations, 900,000 recent grants, and more than 400,000 key decision-makers.
Foundation Grants to Individuals
[available only at the Central
Library]
Quickly search through detailed descriptions of more than 6,500 foundation and public charity programs that fund students, artists, researchers, and other individual grantseekers.
For articles about grant seeking, proposal writing or philanthropy, see OCPL’s Online Databases. Here you can access magazine and journal articles, newspapers, and reference books 24 hours a day using your OCPL library card and PIN.
Business & Company Resource Center
An online database linked from the Online Databases page, can provide you with access to thousands of magazine articles.
Newsbank
A database containing searchable full-text of all locally written articles from the Syracuse newspapers from December 1986 to the present.
Use for finding:
- Articles about local foundations, local fundraising activities, giving trends and grants awarded in the greater Syracuse and Onondaga County community.
- News announcements about upcoming information and training sessions on grantseeking and proposal writing.
Websites
The Foundation Center
The Foundation Center's mission is to strengthen the nonprofit sector by advancing knowledge about U.S. philanthropy. Use the Find Funders section to look up basic information on grantmakers in the U.S.—including private foundations, community foundations, grantmaking public charities, and corporate giving programs. The 990-PF Search provides online access to IRS returns offering basic financial data, a complete grants list, the names of the foundation's trustees and officers, and other information on the foundation. The 990-PF may be the only source where grantseekers will find complete grants lists for smaller foundations. Use the Gain Knowledge section for access to free online proposal writing and budgeting basics short courses and tutorials.
Many more websites on these topics can be found on the Library’s Grants and Nonprofits Internet Links page.
Last updated: June 24, 2010