Finding Out About Private Grants
Private grants come from both foundations and corporations. There are more than 65,000 private grant foundations in the United States. Every year, they award more than $20 billion to those people who ask for it. Federal law mandates that foundations must give away 5 percent of their market value assets or interest income each year, whichever of these amounts is greater.
Foundations must follow the 5 percent rule or they risk losing their taxexempt status.
Right now there are about 15 percent of the private foundations that actually maintain websites that offer grantrelated information, and that number is slowly growing. There are two major Web sites that maintain links to these particular foundations. One of them is maintained by the Foundation Center:
http://www.fdncenter.org
The other one of them is maintained by the Council on Foundations: http://www.cof.org.
Foundations award grants to businesses and groups that are presenting a convincing case that they will help the foundation reach its longterm goals.
Some foundations make their money available for specific purposes, such as building funds, operating support, equipment, or seed capital. Some foundations make their money available for specific businesses. Of course, others have their own specific priorities and interests, which determine the types of programs they are willing to support. I would suggest your researching this to be sure you are eligible first.
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