One source of non-institutional or government grants are foundational grants, which can be open to institutions and individuals. These foundations often base their funding on a specific area of interest that is near and dear to their heart. This means that there are many human health based foundations, e.g., Fox Foundation supports Parkinson’s Disease research, and Susan G. Komen supports breast cancer research.

This does not mean that they are ONLY health based foundations! Foundation types are as numerous in types as they are in number. For example, there are many diversity, teaching, and environmentally based foundations. Some are very broad in the types of topics they will consider.

One example is the Ford Foundation offers, which offers both organizational grants and individual fellowships. They look for “fresh thinking and for innovative people and organizations” doing work that will “reduce poverty and injustice”, while “advancing human knowledge, creativity and achievement”. They also provide links to other philanthropic organizations/foundations.

Yahoo has philanthropy directory that is beautifully organized to help you find an organization. Google has its own philanthropic division at Google.org – it might come off as for non-profits only, but you can dig up some other opportunities in there.

The point here is that these organizations often offer rolling grant submission, and have a SHORT turn around time. This allows you to seek funding quickly and get an answer in a few weeks to months vs. 6 months or more. The requirements for these grants are often much simpler than government grants = small page length limits. This will mean you have to be VERY concise in what you say to them = good practice on distilling your research.

Short length also means that they often have a very precise idea of what they want to you to present. Most of these foundation grants will provide you with a layout they want you to follow, and a description of what makes a successful grant in their eyes. Take these to heart.

You might have to think outside the box to get you or your research to fit into the mission of a foundation, but this is always a good creative exercise. It is rare that your research perfectly fits into a granting group’s mission, but the more you see how your research can be beneficial beyond the obvious the better. This is why I think it ridiculous when such a big deal is made about certain projects the government funds, e.g.,  social insect projects. These projects, taken out of context, might seem like a ‘silly’ thing to fund, but remember they can often lead to discoveries that benefit everyone in phenomenal ways.

The first questions I get from most students is, “How do I find grants”?

This is something that is pretty specific to your field, but there are a variety of ideas that should work for most people.

Before we hit the Internet highway and the traditional grants search suggestions, I’m going to discuss a few other resources you can look into first.

First, thing you should do is talk to your senior lab mates and students in your department. See what grants they have applied for in the past. If they have been successful ask for a copy of the grant and any comments they might have gotten. Both are useful to help craft your grant. Some departments ask students to submit a copy of successful grants that they keep on file for other students to look at. If you department doesn’t do this, ASK THEM TO DO IT!!

Second, go the library and talk to a librarian. Ok, this sounds antiquated, I mean when was the last time you actually went to the library? If you are following my other advice, you have been recently to copy out some old articles (that is if your university doesn’t have an online request system that get a work study student to go pull the periodical and scan it as a pdf to you <– BTW, This is AWESOME if it is available to you). Most libraries have subject specific librarians. They can often help you with information related to grants in your field, and can be an amazing resource.

Third, think outside the box. The Internet has opened a lot of opportunities to help funders FIND YOU! (shocking I know). One I suggest is called Rockethub – this is open to any scientist, artist, or entrepreneur. The fun thing about this is you get out of having to write a normal grant proposal. Instead, you get to use your (or a friend’s) AV skills. Make a video that sells your research and then write a little bit about it to back up the video. This is GOOD practice on how to make your research sound exciting and interesting, because lets admit it now; not ALL of us do researching that most of the general populous will find important and exciting (let alone interesting). The nice thing about something like Rockethub, is you can set it up quickly and then go work on finding other funding while money comes in.

I have found some other non-traditional funding sources, but they are more area specific. Let us know if you have found some good non-traditional sources.

Next time I’ll talk about more traditional  routes for finding funding, and keep building on the non-traditional.