Fundraising

 

I am fundraising for an organization and looking to reach new donors—how can Resource Generation help me?

Resource Generation is not a funding organization. Due to our limited staff capacity, we are unable to meet one-on-one with organizations or individuals looking for fundraising advice. Resource Generation has compiled a list of some of the resources we know that may be helpful to organizations researching funding sources. We regret we cannot offer you direct assistance but wish you great success in your work.

Affinity groups are networks of funders that have a common interest. Contacting the administrator of the affinity group may put you in touch with issue-specific fundraising resources. See the Council on Foundation’s website (http://www.cof.org) to find a large list of affinity groups affiliated with the Council on Foundations.

Community Foundations exist across the country that provide resources to specific geographic areas. The Community Foundation locator has an interactive map to help you locate a community foundation in your geographic area (http://www.communityfoundationlocator.org).

The Foundation Center has many resources including foundation and grants directories, available online and in libraries across the country (http://www.fdncenter.org).

Guidestar is a national database of nonprofit organizations that provides information about the operations and finances of foundations (http://www.guidestar.org).

Grantmakers Without Borders is a network of trustees and staff of public and private foundations, as well as individual donors who practice global social change philanthropy. Their website has a listing of foundations and other organizations interested in international grantmaking (http://www.gwob.net/advicegs/index.htm).

Identity-Based and Issue-Based Public Foundations and Workplace Giving Programs across the country are funding sources. Changemakers Fund lists a number of them on their website (http://www.changemakers.org).

Kim Klein has written a number of books about fundraising for grassroots organizations, available from the publisher Jossey Bass (http://www.josseybass.com) and publishes the Grassroots Fundraising Journal (http://www.grassrootsfundraising.org).

The National Network of Grantmakers (http://www.nng.org) publishes theGrantmakers Directory: A Resource for Social Change Funders & Grantseekers.

Regional Assocations of Grantmakers are organizations for grantmakers (sometimes for nonprofits too) in geographic regions. Contact them to find out about funding resources in your area (http://www.rag.org).

Resist has a great fundraising resource guide on their website (http://www.resistinc.org), Finding Funding: A Beginner’s Guide to Foundation Research, 5th Edition.

Another great resource is Idealist.org, a project of Action Without Borders(http://www.idealist.org/about/about.html). On this site you will find over 45,000 nonprofit and community organizations in 165 countries, which many progressive individual donors use to research their giving areas, searching or browsing by name, location or mission. If your organization is not yet listed here, you can add it now for free! (http://www.idealist.org/ip/idealist/Org/New/default)