The Foundation Center is now offering free access at partner sites around the country to a set of its collection of funder databases.
Those databases cost about $1,295 per year to access directly at your home or organization. But in an effort to assist those groups and individuals who can’t afford that fee, the center has partnered with 500 organizations around the world to host the database collections.
Partners include local libraries, community foundations, and other nonprofit resource centers. Grant seekers can use the center’s online partner locator, and visit the location to gain free access, which is designed for under-resourced organizations.
These partner organizations agree to provide free access to the center’s online databases and assist in the research process, though the presence of a staffer trained on the database is not guaranteed, so be prepared to conduct the research on your own.
The collection of free resources includes:
The Foundation Directory: enables users to search grants, both domestically and internationally using multiple fields such as subject, geography, date/year, amount of grant, and topic. It also houses extensive information on individual foundations, including a history of their filed 990’s.
Philanthropy Insight: This service uses google maps and the data the Foundation Center has collected over the years to reveal patterns of giving in specific geographic locations. This may be able to help an organization determine where money has been going in their area and where there may be funding gaps for targeted issues or populations.
Foundation Grants to Individuals Database: Includes up-to-date information about foundations that will fund individuals, such as academic researchers and youth services consultants.
These tools may be helpful in identifying funders or during the proposal writing process. And despite a little legwork, it will save you or your organization money.