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In addition to careful proposal preparation, indepth research of targeted funders is essential for success.  Begin with funder mega-lists on the web, printed foundation directories, electronic databases, or a trip to a specialized fundraising library collection.  But then follow the leads on the following pages to identify additional prospective funders, discover details about grantmaker priorities, and determine the most competitive project for a given grantmaker.  Every hour invested in research increases your chance of success.  FUNDERS EXPLAIN THE IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH

“We get dozens of proposals from organizations that clearly never did a lick of homework, and waste our time and the precious funds of their members sending out hopeless proposals to the wrong funders. I often wonder if these same people try to buy their groceries in the hardware store.” -- Executive Director of the C.S. Fund, quoted in How Foundations Work: What Grantseekers Need to Know about the Many Faces of Foundations, 1998

“There are always two kinds of homework that an applicant must do before writing a proposal: homework about the project and homework about the foundation to which the proposal will be submitted. The homework about the project is quite important: Has anyone else tried something similar? Is so, what were the results? Are there any potential partners for this work? Are they interested in becoming partners? What other funders might support the project? All this information is necessary in order to place the request into a context. The homework regarding the foundation is … not trivial. Is the foundation interested in this topic? Has it funded similar projects in the past? Might the proposed project be improved by lessons from those past efforts? It is discouraging to receive proposals that make empty claims about their ‘uniqueness’ yet were clearly written as generic requests sent on spec to many possible funders. A good proposal describes the context of the idea and directly relates that idea and its context to the foundation’s programming interests.” – Joel J. Orosz. Senior Program of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Insiders Guide to Grantmaking: How Foundations Find, Fund, and Manage Effective Programs, 2000

“I would suggest that the very first step and one that is most important prior to writing anything is doing research on the foundation you wish to approach. The buzzword is homework. Do it well and thoroughly. It is more efficient and in the end more beneficial to send appropriate requests to fewer organizations than to send a shower of appeals in the hopes that one may land in the right place. While you may not receive an approval or even a hearing on the first attempt, if the appeal has been well thought out and is indeed within the guidelines of the foundation, the impression left is a positive one and the next time you try, you may be more successful.” – Ilene Mack, Senior Program Officer at the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, quoted on the Foundation Center web site

“Because the electronic grant search and grant application process has flooded the Foundation with more proposals than we have staff to process, we cannot respond in a personalized way to every proposal. We carefully read each proposal and respond with varying degrees of detail depending on how close the fit is between what you propose and what we are currently doing.” – Altman Foundation web site

“All letters are first reviewed to determine if they fall within the Foundation's Program Guidelines. Those that do not are immediately declined. Letters that are within the guidelines are then reviewed to determine the following: the priority of the proposed activity within the Foundation's goals, the impact of the potential results of the activities, and the availability of the Foundation's funds.” – Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation

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