Getting a better grasp on grants
Bank of America website aims to smooth process of matching charities, money
For many nonprofits, trying to win grants from charitable foundations is a complicated, time-consuming, and sometimes mysterious task.
The most basic information about a foundation's grant-giving - including what types of organizations it funds and whether it even accepts grant applications - can be frustratingly difficult to find. Bank of America Corp. is trying to demystify that process.
The bank's Boston-based Philanthropic Management group, which administers more than 2,000 foundations nationwide that give $350 million to charities annually, has launched a searchable website that allows nonprofits to identify foundations most likely to fund their programs. By enabling nonprofits to troll a list of foundations by criteria such as geographic coverage area and area of focus, including health, education, and environment, the bank hopes to help nonprofits search for grants more efficiently.
"There is so much competition for funding and such a desperate need in the human services arena for private funds that nothing is more frustrating than putting time and effort into a grant-writing proposal that you weren't eligible for in the first place," said Mary Nee, executive director of hopeFound, formerly Friends of the Shattuck Shelter, a Jamaica Plain agency for the homeless.
"So to be able to home in and put our effort into grant proposals that are really targeted and aligned with the intent of the funder saves us time, saves us money, and is just so much more effective," Nee said.
The website, which currently lists 70 foundations and aims to expand to 100 by year-end, provides details about the foundations' missions, application procedures, proposal deadlines, giving histories, and contact information. It also includes a standard application form accepted by most of the foundations listed, giving uniformity to the application process.
In addition to assisting nonprofits, the website is intended to promote transparency and greater access within the foundation world, according to bank officials.
Many newly established, young, and small nonprofits are "confused about how foundations function, where they should go to look for grants, and how much work they should put into an application," said David P. Magnani, executive director of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, an industry association. "So any organization that helps folks sort through the weeds is helpful."
Groups like the Foundation Center in New York and Associated Grant Makers in Boston are dedicated to connecting nonprofits and grant makers, but many of their services require paid subscriptions. Bank of America's website is free, although the foundations it lists represent only a tiny portion of the more than 2,000 foundations for which the bank serves as a trustee, cotrustee, or agent.
"It's a starting point," said Don Greene of the bank's Philanthropic Management group. Bank of America does not have a target number of foundations it hopes to include in its searchable database, Greene added.
The 70 foundations were selected for several reasons: They account for a significant portion of the discretionary grants made by the foundations affiliated with the bank; they have wide reach and broad constituencies; and they are "very broadly attractive to the nonprofit sector," Greene said. A foundation that makes grants across Massachusetts, for example, was more likely to be included in the website than one whose grant-making is focused on a specific county.
Bank of America is also the sole trustee of the 70 foundations listed so they are among the ones over which the bank has broadest discretion.
"We hope this will add for nonprofits an incredible amount of efficiency to their ability to identify appropriate funding activities," Greene said.
Bank of America's searchable website can be found at bankofamerica.com/grantmaking.
Sacha Pfeiffer can be reached at pfeiffer@globe.com.
