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How to Get Foundation Funding
Charles Dobson
Extracted from: The Troublemaker's Teaparty: A Manual for Effective Citizen Action 2003
January 29, 2008

Robert Bothwell, director and president of the National Committee of Responsive Philanthropy, conducted a study of 21 foundations and 26 grassroots organizations in the US to identify why foundation funding wasn't reaching grassroots organizations.

He followed the study with a series of recommendations, summarized here:

• Grassroots groups should market themselves more effectively. They need to use the media, tell their stories, and become publicly known for something important. This was the number one recommendation from foundations. Many grassroots groups ignore marketing, naively thinking they will become known by their good works alone.
• Grassroots organizations need to commit more resources to fundraising and increase their fundraising savvy.
• Grassroots groups should identify more foundation funding possibilities and submit more proposals.
• Grassroots organizations should contact the foundations they identify as possible funders, do follow up telephone calls and office visits, and generally seek to build relationships with foundation staff and trustees who seem interested in their work.
• Grassroots organizations should work in consortia and coalitions to amplify their work, visibility, and attractiveness to funders.
• Grassroots organizations with paid staff, or with mixed paid and volunteer staff, are much more likely to obtain foundation grants than organizations with just volunteer staff, or with no staff and a volunteer board of directors.

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