Funding Opportunities
Information for Grant Seekers
Our best advice: remember that no two foundations are exactly alike. They each have different funding priorities and criteria. Carefully research each grantmaker to see if your proposal is a good fit. When writing your application, be sure to follow their guidelines.
Hot tip: Before you submit your proposal to a funder, show it to your neighbor or someone who is not familiar with your work. If your writing is compelling and jargon-free, then your friend will share your concern about the problem and be excited about the specific steps you’ve planned to solve it.
Here are some sources for local and national funders.
RWJF Portfolios - quick links
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
As an independent philanthropy devoted to improving health policy and practice, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation works with a diverse group of dedicated people and organizations to address problems at their roots and to help make a difference on the widest scale—particularly for the most vulnerable among us. To be eligible for funding, projects must address one of the program areas listed on the left.
Applying to RWJF
Only the RWJF Pioneer Portfolio accepts unsolicited proposals specifically for projects that pursue innovative approaches to solving problems in health and health care. Each of the other program areas issues Calls for Proposals and/or Calls for Ideas. See what Calls for Proposals are currently open or to sign up for e-alerts when new ones are announced.
Foundation Center
Foundation Center
The Foundation Center has been a leading source of information on philanthropy, fundraising, and grant programs for five decades. Their website provides several valuable search options:
- Search for funder by name, state or zipcode
- Search for a 990 for a given organization
- Requests for Proposals (RFP's) as posted in their newsletter, Philanthropy News Digest.
- Subscribe to the Foundation Directory Online , with over 100,000 grantmaker profiles.
The Forum
Forum of the Regional Association of Grantmakers
The Forum is a national philanthropic leader and a network of 35 regional associations of grantmakers.
Members represent more than 4,000 foundations, corporations, organizations, and individual donors. Their website offers Knowledge Centers with specific information about racial, ethnic and tribal funds, rural philanthropy, giving circles, family foundations and more.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
The Chronicle of Philanthropy is the No. 1 news source, in print and online, for nonprofit leaders, fund raisers, grant makers, and other people involved in the philanthropic enterprise. For more than 20 years, The Chronicle has been connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas.
- LFP has always had an ear to the ground for new pathways to address community health needs. The field of philanthropy –particularly at the local level –has changed dramatically since the inception of the program.
- The first funding partners were established independent and community foundations. What we’ve seen is that the openness of the Local Funding Partnership model made it ideal for new conversion foundations, donor advised funds and small community foundations to connect with a national philanthropy to test innovative programs.
- The local dollars matched are impressive but the conversations LFP applications prompted among RWJF and local grantmakers is really the most valuable part of the program.
Jane Isaacs Lowe, Senior Program Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation