Find the Right Funder

After developing your basic project concept and consulting with a CFR officer about possible funding avenues, you can begin your funding search by keyword and/or category in GW’s Funding Opportunities Database and additional grant search tools to which GW has a subscription, or explore corporate funding.

Take note that there are many types of private funding streams--both foundation and corporate--with very specific guidelines.

Parameters to check include:

• The funder’s goals for their initiative
• The demographic and geographic foci of the initiative
• Whether GW has listed the RFP as a Limited Submission Opportunity (LSO)
• If there is a pre-proposal step (or steps) to complete before submitting a full proposal
• The grant range and total available funding for the funder’s initiative

If you don’t find a Request for Proposals (RFP) or a foundation with a rolling submission policy that matches your project, you may be able to modify your scope and approach slightly to fit foundation guidelines.

The top reason grant proposals are rejected is because the project does not meet the criteria and format described in the RFP.

For assistance, please contact Susan Boerstling, Executive Director, Foundation Relations at [email protected] or 202-994-7384.