Grants at a Glance by Dana Wilson

Grants at a GlanceBy Dana Y. Wilson

• President of Trinity Support Services, LLC www.trinitysupportservices.org

• President of National Educational Network, Inc. (NENI) 501c3 nonprofit www.nenionline.org

• State Secretary of the NJ Chapter of Grant Professionals Association (GPA) www.grantprofessionalsnj.org

• Co-organizer of Non-Profit Executive Directors (NED)

Types of Grants: C.O.P. Chart C = Capital grants: grants for buildings and equipment

(building repairs/maintenance, purchase, construction) Example: Capital Campaign: $2 million needed for ABC Daycare to add a new wing for an additional 75 infant / toddlers and to build a new infant /toddler playground.

O = Operating grants (also known as general operating or general support grants). Unrestricted funds help pay for overhead/indirect costs. Example: General operating support grants may be used to cover day-to-day

activities or ongoing expenses such as administrative salaries, rent, utilities, office supplies, technology maintenance, etc., as well as for project costs, capital, technology purchases, and professional development.

P= Program /Project grants: Funding for a specific department or project Example: Funding for an afterschool program for the YWCA

Types of Funders

Government (city, state, federal) Examples: CDBG Block Grants, NJ Department of Labor, US Department of Education

Foundations: What is a foundation? There are two principal types of foundations, private and public. 

Private Foundations There are three different types of private foundations:

Independent or Family Foundations receive endowments from individuals or families (and, in the case of family foundations, they continue to show measurable donor or donor-family involvement).

Company-Sponsored or Corporate Foundations receive funds from their parent companies, although they are legally separate entities. (Banks, Fortune 500 companies, etc: Examples: Bank of America Foundation, Johnson and Johnson Foundation)

Operating Foundations run their own programs and services and typically do not provide much grant support to outside organizations.

Public Foundations A public foundation (Also known as a "Grantmaking Public

Charity") is a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization;

receives funding from numerous sources and must continue to seek money from diverse sources in order to retain its public charity status;

is managed by its own trustees and directors;

operates grants programs benefiting unrelated organizations or individuals as one of its primary purposes;

makes grants, primarily to other nonprofit organizations; and is required to file a 990 form with the IRS.

Examples:

Community Foundations seek support for themselves from the public, but like private foundations provide grants. Their grants primarily support the needs of the geographic community or region in which they are located. Due to broad public support, the IRS does not consider these to be private foundations.

Women's Funds—examples include the Los Angeles Women's Foundation, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the New York Women's Foundation, and the Michigan's Women's Foundation.

Other Public Foundations include funds serving other population groups and field-specific funds, such as health funding foundations set up with proceeds from health care conversions—often referred to as "new health foundations."

Popular Grant Research Databases

Ecivis http://www.ecivis.com/

Foundation Center (Use for free when onsite at cooperating libraries) www.foundationcenter.org

Grant Station (free with GPA membership)

www.grantstation.com

grants.gov: free database to research federal government grants

*******(IMPORTANT: Discounted pricing on all many databases if you are a member of the Grant Professionals Association www.grantprofessionals.org)

This is a sample of the kind of information that you can find when you are logged into Grant Station:

Project Learning Tree: GreenWorks!c/o American Forest Foundation2000 M Street, NW, Suite 550 Washington, DC 20036 

Phone: 202-765-3641Fax: 202-827-7924Email: [email protected] Url: https://www.plt.org/apply-for-greenworks-environmental-education-grant Primary Contact:Mr. James McGirtPhone: 202-765-3531Email: [email protected] Geographic Scope: National Type of Organization: Other SourcesTotal Annual Giving:  Not Available

Grant Details: Grants of up to $1,000 are provided.

Eligibility Requirements: Pre-K-12 educators, schools (public, private, and charter), and nonprofit organizations

Application Deadlines: September 30, annually 

Areas of Interest:Project Learning Tree (PLT) is a national environmental education program for educators and their students in grades Pre-K-12.GreenWorks! is the service-learning component of PLT that provides grants of up to $1,000 to PLT trained educators for students to implement environmental improvement projects.GreenWorks! blends service activities with the academic curriculum and addresses real community needs as students "learn by doing."

Some examples of past grant projects include:•habitat restoration;•watershed improvement;•school gardens;•outdoor classrooms;•recycling; and,•energy conservation.Organizations (including community-based organizations), groups, centers, museums, schools, student clubs, before and after school programs, etc. that involve youth and environmental or conservation education are eligible to apply. Applicants must have attended a Project Learning Tree workshop and must involve at least one community partner. Also, the proposed project must secure at least 50% matching funds (in-kind support is acceptable).

Application Procedures:Application guidelines and forms are available on the PLT website.

EIN: 52-1235124

Last Updated: 5/1/2015 

Pointers for Non-Profits: Getting Grant Ready

Have all key documents ready for grant attachments (Examples: Board list, 990 form, IRS Letter of Determination, budget, newsletters)

Government grants often require more paperwork: (Examples: Certificate of Good Standing, DUNS Number, SAM registration, audit (if applicable), etc.)

Get an electronic version of all these key documents (scanner) for online grant submissions.

Learn about grant accounting /grant management Don’t try to hire a consultant on commission. This is

considered unethical in our field. Start building a budget for an in-house grant writer or consultant (payments usually are hourly, project-based, or long term retainer).

Join the Grant Professionals Association and the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Resources

https://www.grantstation.com/sog/sog_main.asp

The State of Grantseeking reports, produced twice a year, spotlight recent developments in funding so that organizations can be more strategic in their grantseeking. These free survey results reflect the grantseeking experiences of over 1,800 respondents.

The reports look at sources of grant funding in several ways: any funder, the largest source of total funding, and the funder of the largest individual award. In addition, the median value of the largest individual award, in total and by various subcategories, is provided as a benchmark figure throughout the report.

GrantStation, the Grant Professionals Association, and PhilanTech (an Altum company) compiled this report.

Contact info for Dana Wilson

Cell/Text: 732-277-8184

E-mail: [email protected]

Websites:www.trinitysupportservices.org

www.nenionline.org