Nonprofits Still Can Turn to the Library and Foundation Directory Online in Search for Grants

Monday, May 4, 2020
By Kelly Mahon

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a must-do scenario for nonprofit organizations. It comes as foundations, amid heightened health concerns and the need for preventive measures, move to continue funding programs created to help the public.

Among those organizations is Candid, formerly the Foundation Center, which has opened up access to its Foundation Directory Online. Ordinarily, Library patrons wanting to use the directory must do it from the downtown Central Library. With social distancing required or recommended and all Library locations temporarily closed, Candid now is allowing remote access. Nonprofit organizations and grant writers can search for funds from their homes, offices, or other outside locations, going through the Library’s web page.

To search Foundation Directory Online:
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  1.  Go to www.kclibrary.org.
  2.  Click Resources/Research, and then “F.”
  3.  Scroll down and click on Foundation Directory Online.

In seeking coronavirus-related funding, using the Advanced Search & Filters feature, you might select “Health” in the Subject Area and “United States” in the Geographic Focus field. That will yield some 60,000 prospective grantmakers. You can narrow the search by changing the Geographic Focus to “Midwest (United States),” which pares the list of grantmakers to just under 22,000. And you can narrow it much further by typing “COVID-19” into the Keyword field, yielding 38 results.

When you click onto a particular foundation, scroll to the About section and click the Program Areas button for further funding details.

Of course, not every foundation identified in a search will offer a grant. However, with the onset of COVID-19, many foundations reacted quickly to combat its threat and Candid’s Foundation Directory Online provides a grant writer with a preliminary guide to those resources.

While the Library remains closed, I am available as its Funding Information Network Supervisor to assist you in finding grants. Send an email to kellymahon@kclibrary.org, and we can set up a virtual consultation via Zoom.