A little over a year ago, the Case Foundation , together with partners Network for Good , Causes on Facebook and Global Giving , and corporate partner Parade Magazine, encouraged thousands of individuals to compete online for donors, donations, and matching awards for their favorite charitable causes as part of the Foundation’s first-ever Giving Challenge. Now the Foundation, together with two venerable social media gurus Allison Fine and Beth Kanter , have put out a report summarizing what they learned. Nearly $2 million was raised for charities. It was one of the

From The Foundation Center... Deadline: August 30, 2009 Tom's of Maine, "50 States for Good" Initiative Offers Program Funding for Nonprofits With a total community action fund of $100,000, Tom's of Maine's "50 States for Good" initiative is celebrating and rewarding nonprofits from across the country whose efforts are focused on lasting, positive change in the community. Tom's of Maine is hoping to inspire participation from nonprofits of all sizes and is excited to hear about the community projects that matter

It is an interesting fact that more and more I see foundations have either completely switched to only accepting grant proposals online, or they have a hard date set when they will no longer accept paper grant proposals (applications), and it's often sooner than later. The foundation staff probably reads through applications at a faster pace because the web application prompts can be programmed to send received information to the proper staff, and can even be written to read the documents itself (though, I do not know of any foundations doing this, yet). It is a new shiny era.

In order to look for foundations who will give to your organization, you must know your own organization in detail. Know what projects and programs you will be looking for grants for (foundations generally do not fund past projects, programs, or debt; they like to fund new programs/projects). Second, know who else in your local community or region is looking for grant money that does similar work as your organization, and know the difference between your org The search for possible grant donors for your organization is called "prospecting" in the grant writing jargon lexicon.

The Foundation Center , without a doubt, is one of the most professionally well regarded, current, and informed nonprofit resources that exists. It may seem, from its name, that it is a resource for foundations (those entities who donate grants), but it is a resource for the entire nonprofit sector (nonprofit organizations and all). The Foundation Center is an excellent resource to learn best practices from (which provides much Again, and again, in this blog I reiterate that it's imperative (especially in today's difficult economy, more than ever) that nonprofit volunteers, leaders, and staff require themselves to know professional nonprofit best practices so that the organizations that they work for have a better chance of raising more, growing, and without reinventing the wheel (or expending more money or time than need be).

Today, grant donors such as foundations (community, public, and private) are equally effected by our slowed economy. As such, they are attempting different survival tactics designed to either keep their foundation operating or to be able to pay debts after it folds. Some foundations have become programs of other foundations. Other foundations have merged, and still others closed. One tactic that is unfortunately more prevalent right now among foundations (perhaps more than ever before) is foundations that use to accept funding inquiries from any nonprofit

With matching grants offered by The Case Foundation for those causes raising the most over this time, the Causes Giving Challenge on Facebook led to over $500,000 being raised by over 25,000 donors for nearly 4,000 different causes. This is good news for online community fundraisers, as it introduces an older generation of online charity supporter likely to have greater disposable income and a greater inclination towards supporting nonprofits financially. ...Tags: Great news from the folks behind ‘Causes’ last week, with the announcement that they just passed the $10m point in donations since launch back in May 2007 .

be sure to have planned out: the timeline, staff, action items, expected results, research the target audience, understand what the real need in the community is that your new item/program is addressing, etc. Research foundations , corporations, etc. Do not print a list of foundations who operate near your town and decide the organizations on the list are who you're 10. Have done your homework - whatever your organization knows it needs grant money for (e.g.

Council on Foundations offers information and links to community foundations serving those affected by Hurricane Katrin

A foundation executive approached me recently with an idea that I found downright inspiring. Her idea: Create a training program that would help her foundation’s grantees acquire new skills to help support themselves and sustain their missions. Because her grantees are spread out geographically and because the foundation’s budget was limited, we chose to use technology to deliver the course online. She said, “We want to use the current recession as an opportunity to help our grantees emerge stronger than ever before.” It was the first time I’d heard “recession” and “opportunity”