How Can I Search for Funding?
This is often the first question faculty pose as they begin the grant writing process. Check out the following online tools:
- Request a Custom Search. Emerson College is happy to conduct customized funding searches for you. Please fill out this form to request assistance.
- ProQuest Pivot. Pivot is a subscription-based funding opportunity database with highly-customizable search capabilities. Includes opportunities from federal agencies, private sponsors, foreign governments, industries, and non-profits. Emerson College faculty and staff may create an individual user account by registering from an on-campus computer.
- Funding Opportunities & Resources. The Office of Research and Creative Scholarship has generated a list of search engines, databases, recurring and rolling deadline opportunities, and more. These tools and opportunities are tagged by department/Institute.
- Foundation Center Directory. Developed by the Foundation Center, provides the most current, accurate, and comprehensive information available on U.S. grantmakers and their grants, drawn from reliable sources, including IRS Form 990s, grantmaker web sites and annual reports, and the grantmakers themselves. Emerson College maintains a subscription to the Foundation Center Directory. Please contact ORCS [at] emerson.edutitle="Contact ORCS" for more information. This directory is also available for public use in the Boston Public Library.
- Foundation Center Newsletters. The Foundation Center provides free e-mail newsletters. Topics include philanthropic news digest, funding watches, regional library/learning center newsletters, GrantSpace, and more.
- New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA). NEFA’s grant programs provide funding to artists and nonprofit organizations in the areas of dance, performing arts, and public art. Each grant program has its own deadlines, funding criteria, and guidelines.
- Philanthropy News Digest (PND). A daily news service of the Candid, PND is a compendium, in digest form, of philanthropy-related articles and features culled from print and electronic media outlets nationwide, via Philanthropy news or their RFP page.
Although each of these tools provides basic summary information, you are encouraged to follow up on any leads by visiting the sponsor’s website. Databases, while helpful, may not always have the latest updates from every sponsor.
Major Federal Agency Searches
- Grants.gov: Search and find competitive grant opportunities from most Federal grant-making agencies. Subscribe to email alerts.
- National Endowment for the Arts (NEA): NEA supports nine disciplines in the arts and arts education, including literature, poetry, preservation, access, and translation.
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): NEH supports research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities.
- National Institutes of Health (NIH): U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services’ funding opportunities for medical and behavioral research. Sign up for the Weekly NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices listserv.
- National Science Foundation (NSF): NSF is the only federal agency whose mission includes support for all fields of fundamental science and engineering, except for medical sciences.
- Office of Minority Health (OMH): OMH is committed to culturally and linguistically competent systems that will ensure the needs of minority communities are integrated and addressed within health-related programs across the nation.
- U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID): USAID is developing partnerships with countries committed to enabling the private sector investment that is the basis of sustained economic growth to open new markets for American goods, promote trade overseas, and create jobs here at home.
- US Department of Education (ED): Search the Forecast of Funding Opportunities for upcoming RFPs.
