FOUNDATION CENTER NETWORK DAYS, PART TWO: RESOURCES FOR CHALLENGING QUESTIONS

The Foundation Center offers an “Ask Us” librarian chat service Monday through Wednesday, 9:30 am - 8:00 pm, Thursday and Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm (Eastern Time). Questions can also be submitted by email. They answered 4,000 chat & email questions in 2010.

A good place to start before asking a question is the Grantspace Knowledge Base, which replaces the old Foundationcenter.org FAQ. It includes tips on how to get started with proposal writing, starting a nonprofit, charitable statistics, and fiscal sponsorship. Fiscal sponsorship is when an individual or organization that does not have 501(c) (3) status partners with one that does. This increases the potential grant pool by a factor of at least 10, although there is usually a 5-10% fee. The new site Fiscalsponsordirectory lets you search for fiscal sponsors by state or area of interest.

In these challenging economic times, the Foundation Center librarians often get questions from people who need help for themselves, rather than getting a grant for their organization. Health and disability needs are the most common. If they need help right away, United Way’s 211 service is a good place to refer them. Benefits.gov offers easy access to government assistance programs. It asks you a series of questions, then gives you a list of assistance you may be eligible for. This makes it a good complement for the Foundation Center databases, since they do not include any government grants or programs. Ed.gov is a good site for adults returning to school or looking for vocational training. For people with disabilities, www.disabilityresources.org has funding information for assistive technology, vocational rehabilitation, and health care.

Although for-profit businesses are generally not eligible for grants from foundations, the Foundation Center offers links on where to get started for business loans and other assistance. Social Enterprise, which combines a social mission with business methods, is a hot trend these days. These are some good links that the librarians recommend to get started.

Nonprofits may need help with legal issues from time to time. The Nonprofit Law Blog is written by attorneys who cover topics like governance, fiscal sponsorship, forms, and intellectual property. If they want to know what to pay their new residence supervisor, the Economic Research Institute has a salary calculator that can be refined by state or zip code. If a nonprofit needs statistics in order to discover giving trends, the Foundation Center has some, as does the Center for Charitable Statistics and the Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University.

So, if you have a real foundation-related stumper, the Foundation Center librarians will be happy to help. I have contacted them a few times--once for a scan from a publication in their library, once to find out if they could recommend a title or not, and they were very helpful.


--Andrea @Central

THE FOUNDATION CENTER NETWORK DAYS PART ONE: STATE OF THE FOUNDATION CENTER

At the Foundation Center’s annual conference, its president Bradford K. Smith discussed trends in philanthropy and how they affect the Foundation Center.

The top five philanthropy trends are:


1) Growing--There are more billionaires every day. The Gates Foundation is encouraging all billionaires to give away half their wealth. It is predicted that giving will go up 2 - 4% in spite of the economy.


2) Global--The wealthiest man in the world is Mexican. There are a couple of Chinese billionaires in the top ten. The Foundation Center is adding more international foundations to their databases.


3) Not just about giving money--foundations are increasingly using targeted investing and subsidized loans as tools. They also offer staff, advice, and long-term business plans.


4) Technology--There is an expectation that organizations will be available online, on social networks and through mobile devices. Online giving sites, like Global Giving, connect directly to donors with no mediation. On the other hand, only 23% of foundations have web sites and 76% have 4 staff or less, so they are still filling out tax forms by hand in some cases. The Foundation Center is encouraging foundations to embrace technology by requesting electronic submissions and suggesting grant management software, as well as showing which Foundations are using Twitter, Facebook, etc. Their new web site Grantcraft offers guides, videos and training for Foundation staff who want to learn about best practices in the field.


5) Transparency--in this information age, there is an expectation that information on who gives what to whom is available. The Foundation Center is encouraging this trend with its web site, Glasspockets.org.




The Foundation Center and its cooperating collections help both grant seekers and grant makers deal with the changes in philanthropy. To quote a conference attendee, “The Foundation Center assists doers who want to do better. If your org/enterprise wants to be the best it can be, you need the Foundation Center's resources and services."

--Andrea @Central

Grantspace

Grantspace is a new website from the Foundation Center. It does not replace the http://www.foundationcenter.org/ web site, but acts as a supplement to it. The latter is a site for everyone (grant-seekers, grant-makers, media, politicians, etc.) while the former is especially geared to grant-seekers and teaching them how best to use the Foundation Center’s resources. So a lot of the links are familiar, but now they are all in one place.

The four main parts of Grantspace are Subjects, Skills, Classroom and Tools. Subjects are divided into the five main areas of grant-making: Arts, Education, Environment, Health Care and Human Services. Grant-seekers can find jobs, RFPs, news, Funder tweets, reports, and podcasts in their area of interest.

The Skills area has information on planning, proposal writing, management, legal issues, and using Foundation Directory Online. It includes sample cover letters and proposals that can be downloaded as pdfs .

The Classroom area has a training calendar with free and paid in-person classes and webinars. A search of the calendar can be limited by location or skill area.

The Tools area has a knowledge base of questions and answers, sample documents, the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature (a catalog of all the Foundation Center library’s books and articles, some of which are available online), a collaboration database, and the TRASI database for evaluating the social impact of a program.

Registration at Grantspace is not required, but it allows the patron to make comments, share items, create a profile, and subscribe to free e-newsletters.

If a patron is interested in a Foundation Center class at the library but is unable to make it in that day, or they want to learn more about grant-seeking before they come in to search Foundation Directory Online, please introduce them to Grantspace.

--Andrea @Central

POWER SEARCH!

The Foundation Directory Online has a new search option: Power Search! Now a patron can search FDO's four main databases at once: Grants, Grantmakers, Companies, and 990s. In addition, it searches news stories, RFPs, PubHub reports, and The Catalog of Nonprofit Literature. Pubhub is a collection of foundation-sponsored reports and the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature is the catalog of the Foundation Center's own libraries.

A phrase surrounded by quotation marks or a string of keywords can be entered into Power Search, for a more "Google-like" experience. "And" is implied between a series of words. Once a search is entered, options appear on the left to guide further searching. FDO now gives you options to narrow your results. I like the way numbers of hits are listed with each option. You can also search with results by putting a keyword in the search box at the top. if you change your mind about narrowing, simply uncheck the box on the left to go back to your old results.

Don't forget though, when you search the individual databases the default is still "or". For example, in Search Grantmakers if you want to find grantmakers who have a geographic focus of either Minnesota or the whole country, you view the index and click on "Minnesota", then "National". "Or" will be added automatically. If you want an "and" search, you have to type in "and".

Foundation Grants to Individuals Online Webinar

Foundation Grants to Individuals Online is a database for people who are seeking grants, but are not part of a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. As far as searching the database goes, it is the same basic structure, but keep in mind that there are only about 8,000 grants in this database, as opposed to 90,000 or so in Foundation Directory Online. As in FDO, searching by fields of interest is best, just click on the words "field of interest" on the search screen to bring them all up. Since there are relatively few entries, using more than 2 fields of interest will probably result in zero hits. If the patron isn't having any luck, try the text search (truncation with * is allowed), then look up the fields of interest in the most relevant results. It is also recommended to try the most specific field of interest first, then broaden the search.

In addition to the grantmaker search, the front page of FGTIO also has a place where patrons can sign up to be emailed requests for proposals; reference guides for different types of indivduals such as artists, musicians, students, filmmakers, etc.; and topical research lists, which are bibliographies of publications and electronic resources.

If the patron doesn't know where to get started, the Foundation Center web page has a handy guide. The worksheets at the bottom can help them focus their search. The patron should try to determine if they have any affiliations that could help them: schools, employers, religious affiliations, trade associations, clubs, or the military. Grants may also be available for children, spouses or other close relatives.

Another option for an individual is fiscal sponsorship, where they affiliate themselves with a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit. This means that they could search throgh the larger body of grants in the Foundation Directory Online, but there is usually a small fee. If the patron is actually looking for help starting a business or other for-profit enterprise, that is beyond the scope of the Foundation Center databases, but they do have some links on their web page to get them started.


One final fact: According to this webinar, only 5-10% of foundations have a web site, which underscores the importance of these databases.

--Andrea

FOUNDATION CENTER VIRTUAL NETWORK DAYS, DAY 2

HOW FOUNDATIONS BEHAVE DURING AN ECONOMIC DOWNTURN

The Foundation Center does a great deal of research on foundations. Steven Lawrence, the Senior Director of Research, discussed the effects of the current economic situation. He said that foundation giving decreased by 1% in real dollars from 2007 to 2008, not as much as expected. Two-thirds of foundations expect to reduce giving in 2009 but one-fifth expect to increase giving. Most funders expect to maintain the number of programs and geographic areas, even dipping into their endowments to do so, but are less likely to add new ones. 100 foundations were affected by the Madoff affair, and two have closed completely.


THE ROLE OF THE CC SUPERVISOR IN PROMOTING CENTER SERVICE AND RESOURCES TO HELP YOUR COMMUNITY

This webinar was presented by the Foundation Center's Director of Marketing and VP for Communications. The Foundation Center is very active in outreach to grantseekers, grantmakers, and policymakers. Tools included the following: e-newsletters, emails, brochures, specials events, Facebook, Twitter, the Foundation Center web site, and ads in non-profit newsletters and web sites. 60% of the Foundation Center's income is from fee-based services: In addition to Foundation Directory Online and the other databases, they will do grantseeking research for a fee for non-profits without the staff to do it themselves. Cooperating Collections are advised to promote the Foundation Center services with flyers, on their web sites, on Twitter, in press releases (the Foundation Center has templates for this), and at computer terminals. A downloadable form is available for patrons who want to opt-in to Foundation Center emails.


THE ONLINE LIBRARIAN: WEB SITES FOR HARD-TO-ANSWER REFERENCE QUESTIONS

This was my favorite webinar. Two librarians who staff the Foundation Center's Ask Us email and chat reference for the public talked about the most common questions they get. These include the following:

How do I get government assistance?

How do I get funding to volunteer abroad?

How do I find out about social entrepreneurship?

How does my group get funded without 501 (c) (3) status?

How much should our new director get paid?

How many nonprofits are there in the U.S?

For the most common questions, there is also an excellent FAQ on the Foundation Center homepage. The librarians use delicious to organize their bookmarks.


BEST TITLES FOR YOUR COLLECTION WHEN FUNDS ARE TIGHT

Jimmy Tom, the Manager of Bibliographic Services, talked about resources the Foundation Center has for collection development. The Foundation Center's library holdings are searchable online and also have a blog and rss feed for keeping track of new acquisitions. Topical resource lists and reference guides that include books, articles and electronic resources are also available. The periodicals Philanthropy Annual and Philanthropy News Digest have book reviews. Two new acquisitions he highlighted were the DVD Ready, Set, Raise: Your Guide To Grassroots Funding, which might be good for a library program, and Prospect Research: A Primer For Growing Nonprofits, which helps the reader analyze the wealth of individual donors.


Handouts, interesting articles, and bibliographies for the conference are available here. There was also a Twitter page, a LinkedIn group, and an Ning group for the conference. All in all, the virtual conference went well, although I would have liked a little more interaction. I had technical difficulties with one webinar, but there should be archived versions available soon.

FOUNDATION CENTER NETWORK DAYS, DAY 1

MIDWEST COOPERATING COLLECTIONS MEET-UP

The first session was a chat with other Midwestern Cooperating Collection supervisors moderated by a librarian from the Cleveland branch of the Foundation Center using Cover It Live. Trends in use of the Cooperating Collection were discussed. Most reported skyrocketing demand and patrons needing more help. Some have reported success in getting funders to work with them and offer "meet the grantmakers" programs at their library, while others said that grantmakers are reluctant to participate due to reduced funds. Hot trends included giving circles and urban gardens. Most supervisors were encouraging patrons finding it hard to obtain 501 (c)(3) status to look into fiscal sponsorship instead, as the requirements are less onerous. It was suggested that these meet-ups be offered on a quarterly basis, which I think would be a good idea.



STATE OF THE FOUNDATION CENTER

The President and Vice President of the Foundation Center discussed what's going on there now and in the future. Did you know there are now Cooperating Collections in Thailand, Mexico, Nigeria and Brazil? The business model of the Foundation Center blends earnings from the databases with grants, so they are doing OK considering the economic climate. In order to continue to be a high-tech, high-touch operation, they are working on a new web platform that combines the databases, training, and Web 2.0 aspects, to come out some time this year. Focus on the Economic Crisis is a new page on the Foundation Center web site that collects research, news, videos, and a map of stimulus funding by state.



BEST PRACTICES FOR BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH NONPROFIT CLIENTELE

Linda Leovic Towery, CC Coordinator for the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, discussed how she works with internal and external customers. With administration and other librarians, she invites them to classes and makes sure to get feedback for annual reports. She also recommends publicizing the resources to elected officials, as they often get requests from non-profits and people in need. Other staff must be trained so that they can assist patrons when the CC Coordinator is not around, and the CC Coordinator should be given the opportunity for outreach in the community.

For patrons, libraries can be intimidating and looking for grants can be scary. Towery built an in-house database of the names and phone numbers or emails of everyone who asks her about the Foundation Collection. She has monthly classes for nonprofits and lunchtime guest speaker programs which she publicizes by sending emails to patrons in her database. Towery reminded us that the Foundation Center wants us to teach people how to use the Foundation Directory Online, not do searches for them. She always asked the patron if they are a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit, and if they want grants to individuals, she lets them know that there are only 6,000 such grants, mostly for research and education, and not a complete list of educational grants by any means.


SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS FOR NONPROFITS

The two presenters of this webinar feel that there is no downside for a nonprofit in using Web 2.0 tools, but it's good to try them first to see what works best for you. Instead of thinking of it as "extra work", us Web 2.0 to have a conversation and learn from others, rather than doing things the old-fashioned way: closed, small and proprietary.

--Andrea

CHARTS AND MAPS!

The Foundation Directory Online has a new feature: charts and maps!

• New interactive U.S. and world maps show funder-specific grants by state, county, city, and zip code, international grants by country; roll-over summaries show total grant dollars, recipients and grants.
  
  
• New interactive charts detail funder-specific grants by primary subject and recipient type; drill down to second and third levels of detail; roll-over summaries show total grant dollars, recipients and grants.

They are available as tabs in each grantmaker record. The maps and charts can also be saved and printed. Let the patrons know about this great new feature.

--Andrea

FOUNDATION CENTER NETWORK DAYS

The Foundation Center is located in New York, NY. They also have five regional offices (ours is in Cleveland). Their mission is “to strengthen the nonprofit sector by advancing knowledge about U.S. philanthropy”. They connect grantmakers and grantseekers, but do not give grants themselves. I attended their annual conference in New York. They also have training events at the regional centers, at library conferences, and will sometimes train staff on-site.

If a patron is just starting out in the area of grants and foundations, the Foundation Center’s web site is the place to start. It contains resource guides for different type of grantseekers, short online courses (some free with registration), grant application forms, grants and grantmakers statistics,foundation-sponsored reports, their e-newsletter Philanthropy News Digest, and their catalog of materials at their libraries, the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature. Some searching of foundations can be done, but the online database has more information. The frequently asked questions section has useful information such as the difference between a grant and a business loan. If that doesn’t work, a question can be submitted by email.

Foundation Directory Online is four databases in one: grants, grantmakers, companies and 990s. When you enter a database, it is best to click on the search field heading to bring up the index on the left-hand side and browse through those. Browse by alphabet, then click on the most relevant one to have it appear in the search box. Clicking on more than one type of support or field of interest will create an “or” search, not an “and”. You can add a term to the keyword box to create an “and” search. One thing to note: “Grantmaker State” may not be the same as “Geographic Focus”. They may be located in one state and give to another. 990s are forms that nonprofits are required to file by the IRS. They list who they gave to and how much. If you are not having success with your search in the other databases, try a full-text search of 990s. What the foundation’s profile says they support may not match what their past giving says they support, or there may not be a complete profile in the database yet. Search results can be printed, emailed, or saved as an Excel file.

Foundation grants to individuals are a very small percentage of grants (5,000-6,000 out of 90,000). Most of these go to artists or higher education. Most foundations prefer to give to nonprofits rather than individuals because of the paperwork involved. In a few cases, nonprofits will make a legal contract with an individual to help them receive grants. This is called “fiscal sponsorship”, and the nonprofit receives a fee of 5%-10%. In the future, the Foundation Center will allow Foundation Grants to individuals Online to be available at all branches of a cooperating collection. For more on inflated claims of free money to individuals, see this web site .

CCNet is a special web site for institutions with cooperating collections. It contains scripts and presentations for classes, sample brochures and logos, a link you can put on your web page, online ordering of materials at a 40% discount, an events calendar, archives of past training materials, registration for free courses, and an online message board to which one can submit questions. If you are doing training at a remote location, you can ask for a temporary (one week) password for the databases.

The Foundation Center itself has an impressive library which uses its own cataloging system. Most of the books are familiar, but what I noticed was the enormous collection of periodicals. The Foundation Center will fax articles and chapters of books, but they do not lend out whole books or videos. Anyone can go to the centers to do research, but staff will only do research for fee-paying members, and then only to a certain extent. One of the librarians has a blog describing new titles added to the library.

Handouts, notes and other supplementary material are available in the FYI basket in the fourth floor workroom.