Money is out there for non-profit organizations and even individuals to complete projects.
Finding and successfully applying for it, however, is another matter.
Thousands of foundations large and small, with philanthropic missions defined broadly or narrowly, exist and grant funds to causes that meet their guidelines.
The process of sifting through and identifying potential funding sources is made easier thanks to the Foundation Center.
A national clearinghouse of details about grantees around the nation, Foundation Center information may be linked online or via a series of reference books at the Traverse Area District Library.
The non-profit Foundation also provides the tools to help both foundations and organizations succeed as well as offers research, education and training programs that promote philanthropy. Foundation Center information can also guide individuals or families interested in establishing a foundation.
For the past five years, the main library on Woodmere has been a Cooperating Collection site for the region. They took over the collection of directories, indices and grant-writing guides after Northwestern Michigan College's Osterlin Library decided participating no longer fit with their mission.
With patron usage of both the books and online access coming in waves, Katheryn Carrier, a reference librarian, noted that a key to successfully using Foundation Center information is honing the search. Since there are thousands of foundations, it is crucial to discern information including the type of foundation, limitations on grants and fields of interest.
"You want to spend your time wisely so you get the list down to 15-20,” she said. "You've got to be doing your homework, a lot of these grants are niches.”
"It's like people who claim that there's a lot of unclaimed scholarship money out there,” Carrier continued. "But a lot of them are very specific.”
Quick solutions are rare, too, Carrier cautions.
"It's not something that's going to be done in a couple of days but a couple of months,” she said. "If you start here, you're familiar with the terms and the format and you're going to get a better idea of what to do.”
Many inquiries Carrier fields are from people looking for funds to start a business, a situation which rarely receives funding in the philanthropic world. But if the aspiring entrepreneur does the research and has the right kind of business, they might find a source.
"There may be some out there but it's going to be really competitive,” she noted.
Other inquiries come from a historical society or museum, for example, looking for help funding a digitization project. A teacher attending a conference, exchange programs, graduate support, scholarships and stipends are some examples of educational grants that might succeed if an applicant connects with the right foundation.
"There's a lot of things that people don't even think about if they don't do the research,” Carrier said.
For more information on the Foundation Center or to access online databases, see their Web site at www.foundationcenter.org. Access to the online databases is also an icon on the TADL Computing Center's desktop and a database choice on the library's WiFi.