In Tough Times, Where Can Researchers Find New Money?

In Tough Times, Where Can Researchers Find New Money?

Researchers seeking funding for their work in today’s uncertain world economies must be creative, innovative and open-minded in their approach. Since many areas of federal and state grant funding have been drastically reduced, researchers in all areas of business, the sciences, medicine, the arts and humanities, social sciences and environmental studies are quickly turning to other sources for financial support. In addition, because the majority of large private foundations award grant funding almost exclusively to nonprofit organizations, individuals in search of grants must travel different avenues.

As an individual in need of funding for your current research project, you have several helpful approaches to choose from. First, if you have direct affiliation with a college or university, contact the departmental office related to your area of research. Some of these departments offer sponsored programs to manage grant requests and aid researchers in locating the best funding opportunities. They can also put you in touch with three highly effective sources for locating funding: COS, IRIS and SPIN. In addition, they can help you plan and structure your grant proposal and strategy. Or, if you are proposing a research project in a specific area of the business sector, ask colleagues and co-workers about the most suitable paths to financial support. The local offices of numerous national business organizations offer funding to individual researchers, as well. If you and several other researchers in your field form a small group, you may find a much wider range of available funding sources.

Without question, you will find that one of the best methods of locating research funding is by contacting a nonprofit organization interested in serving as your fiscal sponsor. This step will definitely open up a much more comprehensive field of funding opportunities for you. Fiscal sponsorship is a formal affiliation allowing a 501(c)(3) public charity to act as sponsor for a research proposal which may not have exempt status. Rather than starting a nonprofit of your own, you can now apply for grants and open your doors to tax-deductible donations under the protection of your sponsor’s exempt status. In general, these sponsorships involve a written contract between you as the researcher and your fiscal sponsor. In addition, some sponsors charge a fee for this affiliation.

Many grant proposals can be greatly empowered by fiscal sponsorship. In some cases, such sponsorship is a funding requirement. For example, a mathematician with a grant proposal which depends on complicated computer program software as well as trained technical staff definitely needs direct affiliation with a university or research facility. Yet, an inventor with his or her own research lab and equipment may get suitable grant funding from a foundation as an individual applicant. If an artist wants to propose creating a large mural to enhance the appearance of the local community center, the best route for obtaining funding would probably be to contact a local business, corporation, social organization or family foundation. However, if a medical researcher needs funding for a research project examining how certain antibodies combined with enzymes can attack a disease, sponsorship by a primary medical research institute or foundation is required. Remember, grant givers don’t always have expertise in all areas to adequately understand and oversee research subjects from a scientific viewpoint.

One young researcher, a linguist/speech pathologist, recently wrote a grant proposal to study and compare the developmental speech patterns of children in New York City over the past 80 years. Her idea was to do this by studying both written records and audio recordings (including early movies, newsreels, and later on, television programs), as well as public health and education records. After being turned down for funding by several government funding agencies and large foundations, she contacted the New York Historical Society. With their help, she connected with a fiscal sponsor who is now enabling her exciting research to go forward.

The major reason foundations, corporations and other grant givers often refuse funding to individuals is that the cost is too high. Since the same amount of time is required for grant administrators to award and process a $5,000 individual grant as a $500,000 grant to a university department, they favor funding the university program. These foundations usually fund larger groups, granting them larger sums to then be allocated and passed on as the academic department sees fit. Also, grant funders usually favor applicants with fiscal sponsors. Just in case anything goes wrong during the research project, the sponsor becomes a buffer to decrease the grant giver’s responsibility for any resulting problems.

How should you, as a researcher, go about finding a fiscal sponsor? You can begin by finding nonprofits with a purpose very close to your own. These nonprofits may be professional and philanthropic societies, educational associations and institutions, religious groups and organizations, social clubs or employers.

Outstanding sources for you to consult are The Foundation Center and the Fiscal Sponsor Directory, both available online. Here you can perform searches by service category, location or keywords. Another helpful resource for grant seekers is Foundation Grants for Individuals. Both Grants.gov and ResearchResearch are available on the Web for those interested in government funding. You may also want to contact the Council on Foundations for information about foundations currently offering grant funding. And for newcomers to the grant seeking process, the Grantsmanship Center website not only helps you locate grants related to your research—it also virtually shows you how to write them.

There are many outstanding foundations which accept and encourage grant applications from individual researchers, including:

 

• The Russell Sage Foundation – providing funding for research related to the social sciences.
• The Sloan Foundation – offering grant funds mainly to science and technology research projects. 
• The Whitaker Foundation – granting funding to biomedical engineering research. 
• The Andy Warhol Foundation – funding outstanding and experimental projects in the visual arts. 
• The Lannan Literary Foundation – funding research which studies the English language or initiates an innovation in contemporary literature. 
• The Funded – offers funding for research to both established businesses and startups. 
• The Markle Fund – provides support to advancements in emerging information and communication technologies. 
• The Turner Foundation – supports environmental research related to preserving the world’s natural resources.
• Carnegie Corporation of New York – funds research related to the promotion of peacekeeping and advanced education.

To be sure, there are many phases and challenges to achieving high levels of success as a grant seeker in today’s tough economy. Yet, if your first steps toward obtaining funding for your research projects are well directed, the road ahead can be paved with the financial resources to accomplish your well-studied goals and dreams.