How do I find a set of organizations I might want to support?

January 15, 2016

How do I find a set of organizations I might want to support?

The success of your grantmaking relies on your ability to select grantees whose missions align with your own, and whose work will contribute strongly to the impact you want to achieve. Remember, it is your grantees that make progress on the ground. You may already be aware of a certain number of organizations working in the areas you're interested in supporting—and it can be challenging to move beyond the realm of nonprofits you already know. But in order to achieve the greatest impact possible, it’s important to be sure that you are funding the organizations best suited to that purpose.

There are four major ways to develop a short list of potential grantees: Via your established Relationships; by conducting or synthesizing Research; by seeking out Respected Opinions; and by soliciting Requests for proposals from interested organizations. Consider a robust mix of the following:

Relationships

Example Activities

  • Let knowledgeable colleagues, acquaintances, and other philanthropists know what areas you are interested in and solicit their thoughts on high-quality organizations.
  • Build relationships with program officers at foundations that have a giving philosophy that complements your own. (Find out which foundations are interested in your topic areas at Foundation Center.)

Advantages & Considerations

  • This is the most commonly used approach—appropriate regardless of your experience or level of staff.
  • To consider: Your view will be limited; it's worth the effort to expand your horizons.

Research

Example Activities

  • Use databases like GuideStar to generate lists of organizations that fall within your topic / geographic focus.
  • Get engaged in your chosen focus area. Read the relevant news and leverage social media (e.g. follow key blogs).
  • Evaluate existing research to understand which approaches have shown promising outcomes for the target beneficiary (e.g., research on various education approaches).
  • Attend key conferences.
  • Conduct a landscape analysis (often done by large foundations). This involves mapping the organizations in your field of interest in a given region. Generally performed by a third party, this research can highlight the strongest nonprofits, and most promising approaches, within certain geographic boundaries. For more detail on different types of landscaping research, see GrantCraft.org—Scanning the Landscape: Finding Out What's Going On In Your Field.

Advantages & Considerations

  • This approach requires a larger effort, possibly hiring staff, or external resources.
  • To consider: Such research can be expensive, and if very broad, can result in a laundry list of organizations that is difficult and time-consuming to evaluate. Landscape research can prove efficient if you are focused on a particular geography, a focused beneficiary group or a specific approach.

Respected Opinions

Example Activities

  • As you get more knowledgeable in your topic area, you will be able to identify experts from whom you can seek advice. Assembling a group of advisors with unique perspectives (e.g. other philanthropists, academic experts, and people who work in the field) can be highly valuable.
  • You should also consider including people whose views may differ from yours to ensure you are considering multiple angles.

Advantages & Considerations

  • Highly valuable once you have started to narrow your interests.
  • To consider: Be aware of vested interests and competing agendas. Clarify what you are asking for at the outset, and also be clear about the boundaries of the experts' roles.

Requests

Example Activities

  • Requesting proposals from potential grantees is an approach generally only used by either large foundations with significant program staff or very targeted programs (e.g., social entrepreneurship fellowships). However, this approach may be worth considering if you have considerable scope and presence in the field already, along with a strong ability to market the request.

Advantages & Considerations

  • Generally only used if the request can generate a high level of interest from relevant potential grantees
  • To consider: Time-consuming process that can result in a poor yield of proposals. Requires carefully managing applicants' expectations.
Creative Commons License logo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license are available in our Terms and Conditions.

Related Content