1. Introduction to Foundation Center
Mission: To strengthen the social sector by advancing knowledge about philanthropy in the U.S. and around the world.
Foundation Center has been around since 1956 and we are one of the leading sources of information about philanthropy worldwide. We’re actually headquartered in New York and have five regional offices with library/learning centers like this one – including New York, as well as in Atlanta, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C. We are a nonprofit as well, and have about 140+ employees. We also have some 450 partners as part of our Funding Information Network. We call them FINs and they include mainly public libraries, but also other nonprofit resource centers that make our databases available to the public. We have 17 in the Bay Area, from Santa Cruz to Stockton to San Rafael, which are on your handout.
More than six million people use our services every year in person and online. Those services include….

2. Foundation Center West
The San Francisco Bay Area has always been a center for innovation. At Foundation Center West, we embrace creativity in problem solving, and know how to improvise and experiment. We are here to help you fuel your passion and further your impact.

3. FC Resources Foundation Directory Online (FDO)
Grants to Individuals Online (GTIO)
Donorsearch
Grantspace grantspace.org
Grantcraft
Issue Lab
Philanthropy News Digest philanthropynewsdigest.org
Reference & Circulating Collections
Classes & Training / Room rental
Funding Information Network (FINs)

4. Foundation Directory Online (FDO)
Because fewer than 10% of foundations have websites!

5. Scope 140,000+ grantmakers (professional version) 9.5 million grants
500,000 recipient profiles
500,000+ decision makers and leaders
5,000+ corporate foundations and giving programs
30,000+ non-US grantmakers
NEW Government grantmakers

6. Creating a Prospect List
Step 1: Screen
What funders in my geographic area are broadly interested in my mission and/or the people I serve
Step 2: Evaluate
Who are potential funders for my organization, based on their funding history, program areas, support strategy, etc
Step 3: Prioritize
Who are the best prospects right now; who do I approach first and how

7. Creating a Prospect List
Step 1: Screen
What funders in my geographic area are broadly interested in my mission and/or the people I serve
Step 2: Evaluate
Who are potential funders for my organization, based on their funding history, program areas, support strategy, etc
Step 3: Prioritize
Who are the best prospects right now; who do I approach first and how
SCREEN. The database will do this first step for you. The key is to select the right terms that will result in a targeted and manageable list of prospects. You should expect to do more than one search.

9. Note 2,207 Grantmakers. Maybe we want to refine this
Note 2,207 Grantmakers! Maybe we want to refine this. It’s a lot to go through.

13. Creating a Prospect List
Step 1: Screen
What funders in my geographic area are broadly interested in my mission and/or the people I serve
Step 2: Evaluate
Who are potential funders for my organization, based on their funding history, program areas, support strategy, etc
Step 3: Prioritize
Who are the best prospects right now; who do I approach first and how
EVALUATE. The database provides the information to help with this step, but it requires really reading through the profile and looking for a match to your organization’s goals and needs. (We have training on how to develop a project budget and write a proposal.)

14. Your results will come in four buckets – Grantmakers, Grants, Recipients and 990s. The first and most important is Grantmakers

16. Lets take a look at a grantmaker profile
Lets take a look at a grantmaker profile. There is a mountain of information here. I’m going to tell you how to tackle it.

17. First click on Menu and go to Applications/RFPs
First click on Menu and go to Applications/RFPs. The first thing to check is Giving Limitations. Common limitations: geographic, religious, political, individuals. Other: general support.
Applications or no? Discuss. Lots of information out there about how to cultivate donors that say “no applications accepted.” Will be longer-term prospect. But I’ll tell you how to exclude these.

18. You should spend some time looking over the other grants your prospect has made. The best indicator of what a grantmaker will fund is what they’ve already funded.
(Finish reviewing profile.)
Now lets back up and go back to our initial results. Lets look at grants that have been made in our category overall, to get a picture of the types of programs being funded.
Recipients lets you see the types of organizations being funded; this is your competition. Don’t mean that in a bad way…. Look for organizations that are similar to yours (you should know who’s working in your space) and see how much they’re getting, from whom and for what. May add funders that you would have overlooked.

21. Creating a Prospect List
Step 1: Screen
What funders in my geographic area are broadly interested in my mission and/or the people I serve
Step 2: Evaluate
Who are potential funders for my organization, based on their funding history, program areas, support strategy, etc
Step 3: Prioritize
Who are the best prospects right now; who do I approach first and how
How prioritize? Funders for whom my area is a priority. Who have funded similar organizations, for similar amounts. Whether accepting applications or not, how do I approach and through whom? Upcoming deadlines or RFPs?

22. Takeaways Screen. Evaluate. Prioritize.
Expect to do more than one search
Be specific, but not too!
“Applications not accepted” doesn’t mean “no”
Use search fields; try to avoid keyword search
Find resources at