Prospect Research · Prospecting · Best of Connections
Foundation Prospecting 101 and Free Foundation Prospecting Resources: Part 2
By Kristin Blankenheim | October 20, 2022
Editor's Note: This article is featured in Best of Connections 2023. Read Apra Content Development Committee Chair Jennifer Moody's editor's message to learn more about the top articles of the year.
As part of my work at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), I recently had the great opportunity to present to a few community environmental justice organizations who had asked for EDF’s assistance in identifying new foundation prospects. Not only was the project an incredibly meaningful way to work directly on EDF’s mission, but I also enjoyed taking a deep dive into the world of free foundation prospecting tools.
I’ve written this article with some basic information so it can be used by people with a wide range of comfort levels related to foundation prospecting. The resources I mention are free at the time of this writing.
Be sure to go back to Part 1 for the basics and learn how I create a list of foundation prospects.
Qualifying and Disqualifying
After putting together a big list of potential prospects, you’ll want to whittle it down based on the criteria I mentioned previously (or any other criteria specific to your organization): gift and grant sizes, giving interests, giving locations, whether they accept applications and whether there are any other limitations that might disqualify your organization.
Your first stop should always be the organization’s website if they have one. Unfortunately, many do not. Foundation Directory Online (FDO) has great individual foundation records that include information on giving interest, grants, leadership and contact information, as well as helpful visualizations for where they give, how much they give and their primary giving interests.
If you can’t get to the library to use FDO for this portion of prospecting, there are two great free sources for viewing foundation IRS form 990-PF: Guidestar and ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer. Which one you choose is personal preference, but if you can’t find your foundation in one of them, always try the other.
The IRS form 990-PF is the foundation (PF is for “private foundation” and differentiates them from charitable nonprofits) equivalent of your personal tax forms. Candid, who owns FDO and Guidestar, has a great primer on how to read a 990-PF and I highly recommend you become comfortable with them. A 990-PF provides foundation contact information, assets, donors, grants, governance, giving interests, whether they accept applications and often much more. Use this information, along with anything else you can find on a foundation, to qualify or disqualify prospects from your list.
Finding Contact Information and People in Common
If your “perfect fit” foundation doesn’t accept applications, don’t give up yet (but also have reasonable expectations)! A lot of foundations don’t accept applications, like most family foundations, and you need to know a board or staff member to be considered for funding.
One way to get your foot in the door is a cold call or email. I can’t say it’s highly successful, but if you have a motivated fundraiser it might work. You can find phone numbers on the 990-PFs and on FDO’s individual foundation record. However, my fundraisers are increasingly interested in email addresses. To find email addresses, I have used Email Hunter personally, and Rocket Reach comes recommended from a colleague, but there are a lot of free email finding services out there to try.
Another way to get in touch with a foundation prospect is to find someone you might already know associated with the foundation or someone who can introduce you to a staff or board member. Use the board and staff information from the 990-PF and ask your board members and volunteers to review it for anybody they know. Program staff are also great people to review board lists because they sometimes meet foundation representatives at conferences or while doing their work. If you are friendly with any of the organizations a foundation has funded previously, you might be surprised by what they would be willing share on how they obtained the grant, or what information they have on the foundation that might help you further qualify or disqualify them.
LinkedIn can be used in a couple of ways to connect with the foundation. First, you can connect with the public pages for the foundation or any staff and board members. Just by viewing their records, LinkedIn will show you who you have in common. Ask those people if they can introduce you. You can also use LinkedIn’s messaging platform to reach out, which some of my fundraisers have found to be successful.
FDO’s search function has a section for a Who’s Who search where you can run the board members of your “perfect fit” prospect to see what other boards they serve on and if you might know somebody that can introduce you. Similarly, ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer has a tab to search for people and see what other boards they serve on to make connections.
Other Tips and Resources
Your best prospects are those who have already donated to your organization. Check the 990-PFs of your current foundation funders to see how much they’re giving elsewhere. If you’re not at the top of that list, put together a strategy to ask for more.
In addition to connecting with foundations, staff and board members on LinkedIn, you could follow them on Twitter to get an idea of who they’re funding and what they’re thinking about. Be sure to sign up for e-newsletters of any foundations you’re interested in, too.
Visualping is a tool that will send you a notification if any changes are made to a website, both visually and in the text. This can be used to monitor a foundation’s website for updates to their grantmaking interests, news, staff and board members or requests for proposal (RFPs).
With a free Gmail account (I create a separate one for my job) you can set up email alerts for all your favorite prospects. To make it effortless, I recommend auto-forwarding your alerts from the Gmail account to your work email.
There are also organizations dedicated to helping community nonprofits with resources and learning opportunities. Two that I know of are Council for Nonprofits and United Philanthropy Forum. Candid has a large training library with numerous on-demand courses, many of which are free, as well as a YouTube channel with videos on a variety of fundraising topics. Another great resource is Helen Brown Group’s Research Links, a curated list of research tools, both fee-based and free, organized by use and geography.
Finally, check with your local libraries and higher education institutions to see if they offer services for community nonprofits. For example, public university libraries may allow the general public to access their computers and they may have access to FDO if you’re on campus. Librarians are fantastic people. I encourage you to reach out to your local libraries and ask if they have resources that might help you find foundation prospects for your organization.
Happy prospecting!
Summary Resource List
Kristin Blankenheim
Project Manager, Environmental Defense Fund
Kristin Blankenheim is a project manager on Environmental Defense Fund’s prospect research team. With nearly 15 years of experience in fundraising and prospect development, she has worked at higher education, environmental, and cultural institutions. She received a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, a master’s degree in nonprofit management from DePaul University, and attended Northwestern University’s predictive analytics program.