Turning to Grants for Funding

Nonprofits, many of which are working on the front lines to help their communities cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, are seeing reduced donations. This is mostly due to donors now being forced to make room in their budgets in order to sustain their operations and stay afloat. Additionally, social distancing restrictions make it nearly impossible for most nonprofits to host traditional fundraising events.

In an earlier post, we shared how nonprofits can find funding through loans from the federal government. However, there is another avenue that many nonprofits may find helpful: applying for grants. For nonprofits working to help their community handle COVID-19, a number of grants may be available. Here’s how to find them:

Use a Grant Finder

A number of organizations have compiled searchable lists of grants that may be available to your nonprofit. One grant finder you may find useful during these times has been generated by Candid, an organization formed as a merge of Guidestar and the Foundation Center to help connect nonprofits, foundations, and individuals to the resources they need to do good. Their compiled list of over 600 funds was specifically established in the wake of the coronavirus. View it here, and search the list by geographic area served and/or keyword. Another useful grant finder tool is found at Grants.gov. Run by the federal government, it contains a general list of open grants as well as an immense amount of supportive information. 

Here is a list of more resources that can help you generate a list of potential leads:

• GrantStation

• Funding Opportunities

• FundsforNGOs

• Grant Gopher

• Philanthropy News Digest (PND)

• Terra Viva Grants Directory

• The Chronicle of Philanthropy

• The Community Foundation Public Awareness Initiative

• National Center for Family Philanthropy

• Council on Foundations

• Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act

Solicit a Grant 

If you have difficulty finding a grant that aligns with what your organization is aiming to accomplish, consider soliciting a grant by submitting a proposal explaining what you do and why you need the funds. The Open Road Alliance is just one organization that provides grants and loans to organizations via a proposal process.

To date, businesses and nonprofits have had a difficult time accessing relief funding from the federal government. Despite the good intentions of federal lawmakers, there hasn’t been enough funding for the historically high number of organizations that need it. At Resilia, we are here to help your organization weather the current economic struggles. We hope the resources we’ve provided here will put you on the right track to securing additional funding for your nonprofit.

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