Foundation Center

Adriance Memorial Library's Foundation Center Cooperating Collection is one of over 400 collections in the United States affiliated with the Foundation Center. The Foundation Center's mission is to gather, analyze and disseminate information about foundations to organizations and individuals looking for grants. Adriance's Cooperating Collection is available for use whenever the Library is open. The Reference Foundation Center Cooperating Collection and the computers to use Foundation Directory Online are located in Adriance's Reference Room. Ask at the Reference Desk to be directed to the circulating collection of books and videos at Adriance.

Find Funders

Come to Adriance, and use Foundation Directory Online Professional (FDO) for free in order to find funders for your nonprofit organization. This database is the Foundation Center's premier searchable database of over 92,000 U. S. grant makers. (Printing FDOL records at Adriance costs $.10/page. It is also possible to save FDOL records to a disk or memory stick and to e-mail them.)

Search the Catalog

Search the Mid-Hudson Library System online catalog for books and videos on issues and information pertaining to nonprofit corporations.

For fundraising, planned giving, grant proposal writing, use the following subject heading:
Nonprofit organizations-Finance

For nonprofit boards, planning, executive director, communications, use the following subject heading:
Nonprofit organizations-Management

For directories of foundations and grant givers, use the following subject heading:
Endowments-United States-Directories

Use the Library Catalog's Request-a-title option to request books and videos to be sent to the most convenient library for you to pick them up.

Web Sites for Nonprofits

Association of Fundraising Professionals
"Advancing philanthropy through education, training and advocacy"

Board Café
"The monthly internet newsletter for nonprofit boards"

Chronicle of Philanthropy
News for nonprofit organizations, grant seeking, foundations, fundraising, managing nonprofit groups, technology and nonprofit jobs

Foundation Center
Provides public access to information about U. S. grant makers and philanthropy and on the grant seeking process

Grants.gov
"A unified site for interaction between grant applicants and the U. S. Federal agencies"

Guidestar
"The leading source of information on U. S. nonprofits."

Internet Prospector
"Publishes a monthly electronic newsletter and serves as a world wide web reference desk for prospect researchers"

IRS Tax Information for Charities & other Nonprofits
"Important Federal Tax information for non-profits"

NYS Attorney General's Charities Bureau Page
Supervises charitable organizations in New York State

NYSCSS
Association of nonprofits in New York offering high-quality affordable technical assistance and more

Getting a Grant

To find out what is involved in getting a grant, go to the Proposal Writing Short Course   and the Proposal Budgeting Basics course on the Foundation Center's web site.

Foundations rarely give grants directly to individuals. Private foundations usually give to nonprofit organizations that help individuals with services and programs.

Use the Foundation Grants to Individuals Online (FGTIOL) database for free in the Reference Room at the Adriance Memorial Library to search for the few grants that foundations do give to individuals. Most of the grants to individuals in this database are for education, or for artists and writers.

The book entitled Foundation Grants to Individuals is available at Adriance and other Mid- Hudson Library System libraries.

Financial Information

These three guides may be used at Adriance Memorial Library to find out how you can pay for graduate school, postgraduate studies or academic or artistic pursuits:

Money for Graduate Students in the Social and Behavioral Sciences

Annual Register for Grant Support: the Complete Guide to Postgraduate Funding Worldwide

Grants Register: Awards for Students at or above Postgraduate Level or for Professional or Advanced Vocational Training

Use the online database Foundation Grants to Individuals Online (FGTIOL) for free at the Adriance Memorial Library to search for grants that foundations give to individuals for education and artistic or scholarly endeavors. Ask a Reference Librarian how to access this database.

The book Foundation Grants to Individuals can be used at Adriance and several other Mid Hudson Library System libraries. You may also use the online Foundation Center resource for individual grant seekers.

When an individual works under the "fiscal umbrella" of a nonprofit organization, it is called "fiscal sponsorship." Search the Mid-Hudson Library System online catalog for books on fiscal sponsorship, or look at the Foundation Center web site's FAQs on Fiscal Sponsorship and Guide to Fiscal Sponsorship.