Useful Links

• The Foundation Center's FAQ on proposal writing provides several topics on proposals including letters of inquiry, cover letters, etc.
• The Foundation Center's short online course on proposal writing covers information on all the basic components of a foundation proposal, including the proposal budget.
• With PolicyMap, a service from The Reinvestment Fund in Philadelphia, you can collect demographic data about virtually any community in the U.S., create customized maps and tables, and save these as PDF or JPEG files to include in proposals and reports to funders. The new on-line geographic information system provides over 4,000 indicators. Most of the information--including crime statistics, education levels, health, employment, and housing conditions--is publicly available and free. [Editor's Note: Watch PolicyMap's director, Maggie McCullough, explain who's using it and how.]

Types of Foundations

• Community Foundation: These foundations build their endowments and/or donor-advised funds through contributions from multiple donors, often within a given geographic region. They support charitable activities focused primarily on the needs of an identified county, city or state.
• Corporate Foundation: A corporate foundation is company sponsored, but considered a separate, legal organization subject to the same rules and regulations as other private foundations. The company-sponsored foundation often maintains close ties with the donor company and that company provides the funding for the foundation’s charitable giving. At Purdue, corporate foundations are managed by the Office of Corporate Relations.
• Independent Foundation: A grant-making organization usually classified by the IRS as a private foundation. Independent foundations may also be known as family foundations, general purpose foundations, special purpose foundations or private non-operating foundations.
• Operating Foundation: A 501(c)(3) organization classified by the IRS as a private foundation whose primary purpose is to run programs such as conduct research. Those operations are set by its governing body or establishment charter. An operating foundation may make grants, but most funds are used for the entity’s own operation.
• Private Foundation: A nongovernmental, nonprofit organization with funds (usually from a single source, either an individual, family or corporation) and a program managed by its own trustees or directors that was established to maintain or aid educational, social, charitable, or other activities serving the common welfare, primarily by making grants to other nonprofit organizations. (Source: The Foundation Center)
• Public Charity: A nonprofit organization that qualifies for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code. Public charities are the recipients of most foundation and corporate grants. Some public charities also make grants.

Frequently Used Terms

• 501(c)(3): Section of the Internal Revenue code which defines nonprofit, charitable, tax-exempt organizations.
• 990-PF: Financial report filed annually by a private or corporate foundation in accordance with federal and state tax laws. Items listed in the 990-PF include foundation assets, receipts, expenditures, compensation of officers, and grants.
• Challenge or matching grant: This grant is paid if the recipient is able to raise a set amount of funding from other donors.
• Executive summary (overview or abstract): This is often the most important part of the application as it is the briefest and the most read. This would include the project title, contact person, organization name and one-sentence statements about: the problem addressed, the project, outcomes, evaluation and budget.
• Letter of Inquiry: A brief, preliminary letter describing an organization and proposed grant request, usually sent prior to a full proposal. A template is provided here. It's also known as Letter of Intent, LOI, concept paper, white paper and pre-proposal.