| Important Note | Types of Individual Grants | Grantmakers who Support Individuals |
| Accomplishment Awards | Resources for Individual Grantseekers |PLEASE NOTE: Grantproposal.com focuses on private foundation grants for established nonprofit organizations. Personal assistance for individuals does not fit within the site’s area of expertise. Individual grantseekers should review the information below, but please do not email for specific advice. Due to the volume of email received, only queries from organization representatives will be answered. Although philanthropic gifts are normally designed to benefit individuals in need, foundation grants are almost always awarded to established nonprofit organizations. A funder considered about homelessness might award grants to social service agencies for overnight shelter services. A funder concerned with educational opportunities for underprivileged students might fund competitive, need-based scholarships at major universities. Some private foundations sponsor exclusive fellowships or academic research competitions for individual scholars but require nominations by Ph.D.-granting institutions. Corporate foundations sometimes sponsor scholarships, emergency loans, or essay contests specifically limited to their own employees and the children of employees. Types of Individual Grants Based on narrowly defined criteria, some funders support individual research, scholarships, student loans, fellowships, internships, residencies, book authorship, schoolteacher contests, and artistic works. Check in your town to discover if support is available through local social service agencies, professional societies, trade consortiums, United Way offices, churches, art councils, civic clubs, or Chambers of Commerce. The tax implications of individual grants are under transition, and the fortunate recipients must consult the appropriate professionals to determine whether taxes are owed. Many local public libraries carry the Foundation Center’s excellent publication Foundation Grants to Individuals. Throughout the directory, in bold print, is the following warning: “If you don’t qualify, don’t apply.” Heed these words of wisdom. The tenth edition included 740 pages of resources: 39% for educational scholarships, 8% for general welfare, 3% for arts and culture, 2% for international applicants, 5% for exclusive nominations only, 7% for research, 7% restricted to employees, and 27% restricted to graduates or students of specific schools. Examples of Grantmakers Who Support Individuals I periodically receive letters from single mothers who want a new washing machine or unemployed individuals who need car repairs. Very few options exist for this type of personal funding, beyond credit card debt and loans from relatives. Unless you happen to be a long-term resident of a rare community blessed by a local philanthropist or charitable society. For example, the Perpetual Benevolent Fund of Watertown, Massachusetts, supports local residents in need – with refrigerators or washing machines as an allowed request – but applications are only accepted from a small list of referring agencies. Similar funds exist in a dozen American communities, but note that the geographic restrictions are tightly defined and the vast majority of visitors to this site will never find this type of personal support. The Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauen-Hilfsverein provides temporary assistance to financially needy women and children of German descent who reside in the San Francisco Bay Area. Indigent sailors in Maine qualify for help from the Portland Seaman’s Friend Society. Dental treatment can be subsidized for low-income residents who live within one mile of Hazelton City Hall in Pennsylvania. The Bagby Foundation of New York offers less than ten modest grants each year for elderly musicians. A rare number of residents in Bourbon County, Kentucky, receive help with medical expenses; in Taylor County, West Virginia, receive school supplies; in Lamoille County, Vermont, receive senior citizen housing subsidies; in Polk County, Iowa, receive $200 worth of food; and in Brazoria County, Texas, receive cancer treatment assistance; in Peoria, Illinois, receive aid for blindness. Emergency grants for individuals in crisis are often administered by and paid to the hospitals or social service agencies that provide services. A foundation might fund prosthetic devices for a disabled child based on social worker nominations in a targeted city. Most funders of individual grants conduct careful screening through personal history forms, medical records, interviews, reference, and financial documents. Accomplishment Awards On the opposite end of the spectrum, some philanthropic grantmakers honor the most exceptional individuals in designated fields with honorary awards that include cash grants. The MacArthur Genius Awards are among the best publicized. But pay attention to the way the Daily Northwestern described the award process in a 1998 article: “There is no application for the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Grant that Mary Zimmerman won. In fact, she never even knew she was under consideration until the final decision had nearly been made. Somewhere between three and five years ago, the Northwestern theatre professor's name and hundreds of others were submitted to the foundation's board of directors by a pool of anonymous talent scouts. In the years that followed, the foundation kept track of Zimmerman's accomplishments in theater, sending scouts to watch the plays she directed and produced. The foundation confidentially solicited letters of recommendation from Zimmerman's peers. Then, several days before the official June 1 announcement, the phone rang and Mary Zimmerman learned she had won a ‘genius grant’ of nearly a quarter of a million dollars.” Be warned: submitting a proposal that describes your personal genius, no matter how justified, will be rejected – perhaps after a hearty round of laughter. Resources for Individual Grantseekers To see whether your person circumstances match the guidelines of these limited funding sources, please check your local library for the reference guide Foundation Grants to Individuals. A copy can also be purchased directly from the Foundation Center’s web site for $65:
http://fdncenter.org/marketplace/catalog/gtisam.htmlLibraries and specialized bookstores sometimes carry guides to specialized funding. For example, you might find PEN American Center’s Grants and Awards Available to American Writers, Bill Anschell’s 1993 Who Can I Turn To? A Guide to Jazz Funding Programs and Support, or Morrie Warshawski’s 1994 Shaking the Money Tree: How to Get Grants and Donations for Film and Video. © Grantproposal.com 2000