FAQ

Schoolhouse Partners is the parent company of GrantSelect. Its mission is to secure adequate funding, provide information, align human resources, save time, and create policies that support all varieties of non-profit organizations and education institutions.

Schoolhouse Partners is dedicated to assisting public and private schools, libraries, municipalities, community agencies and other non-profit groups to discover ways of reaching goals that they once believed to be unreachable. Our hands-on support, consultancy, and research tools are intentionally aimed at ensuring that partnerships among individuals, organizations, and funding sources are created and strengthened. In the process, we hope to build dreams, resurrect hopes, and realize successes for all community constituents. Designing and constructing collaborative alliances is our highest priority.

Specifically, our services include: project planning and design, grantmaker research, planning and facilitation, proposal writing and editing, project evaluation, and even training and mentoring. For more information, visit our website at Littleberry Press.

As an organization, GrantSelect does not have a giving program but rather offers comprehensive directories of grants. One can find grants for a multitude of projects and programs. If you are located in Indiana and have a project or program related to education, you can take a look at the PEGI Foundation, the nonprofit associated with our parent company, Littleberry Press. For more information, see the website.

There are three basic types of grantmaking foundations:

Independent Foundations: Independent foundations are the most common type of private foundation. They are generally founded by an individual, a family or a group of individuals. They may be operated by the donor or members of the donor’s family—a type often referred to as a family foundation—or by an independent board.

Corporate Foundations: Corporate foundations are created and funded by companies as separate legal entities, operated by a board of directors that is usually comprised of company officials. Corporations may establish private foundations with endowments, make periodic contributions from profits, or combine both methods to provide a foundation’s resources. Some companies operate in-house corporate giving programs, which unlike corporate foundations are under the full control of the company and are not required by law to follow the same IRS regulations. Many corporations maintain both a foundation and a corporate giving program.

Community/Public Foundations: Community and other public foundations are publicly supported foundations operated by, and for the benefit of, a specific community or geographic region. They receive their funds from a variety of individual donors, and provide a vehicle for donors to establish endowed funds without incurring the costs of starting a foundation. Community/public foundations are administered by a governing body or distribution committee representative of community interests.

There is also a type of foundation that does not generally make grants, called an operating foundation. The majority of an operating foundation’s funds are expended to operate its own charitable programs.

A foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports charitable activities in order to serve the common good. Foundations are often created with endowments—money given by individuals, families or corporations. They generally make grants or operate programs with the income earned from investing the endowments.

At GrantSelect we do not write any proposals, but our parent company, Littleberry Press, does have such services.

Access to the GrantSelect database is available to paid subscribers and their users. There is a growing list of libraries, universities, community colleges and nonprofit organizations that subscribe to GrantSelect. If you are not a subscriber or affiliated with one and would like to access the database, check your local library to see if they have a subscription. You can also check our list of current subscribers to find one in your area.

Some of the most common types of program or project grants include:

Planning grants: If your organization is planning a major new program, you may need to spend a good deal of time and money just figuring out what it will look like. Before you can even write a proposal to fund the new effort, you may want to research the needs of your constituents, consult with experts in the field, or conduct other planning activities. A planning grant supports such initial project development work.

Seed money or start-up grants: A start-up grant helps a new organization or program in its first few years. The idea is to give the new effort a strong push forward, so it can devote its energy early on to setting up programs without worrying constantly about raising money. Such grants are often for more than one year, and frequently decrease in amount each year. For instance, a grant might be for $25,000 the first year, $15,000 the second year, and $7,000 the last year. The funder assumes that the new organization will begin to raise other funds to replace the decreasing start-up grant.

Management or technical assistance grants: Unlike most project grants, a technical assistance grant does not directly support the mission-related activities of the charity. Instead, it supports the charity’s management or administration — its fund raising, marketing, financial management and so on. Such a grant might help hire a marketing consultant or pay the salary of a new fund-raiser position.

Facilities and equipment grants: Sometimes called “bricks-and-mortar” or capital grants, these grants help an organization buy some long-lasting physical asset — a building, computer or van, for instance. The applicant organization must make the case that the new acquisition will help it serve its clients better. Funders considering a request like this will not only be interested in the applicant’s current activities and financial health, but will also ask about financial and program plans for the next several years. They want to be sure that, if they help an organization move into a permanent space, for example, the organization will have the resources to manage and maintain it. No funder wants to help pay for a new building, only to have it close in four years because it is too expensive for the charity to maintain.

Endowment grants: Some nonprofit charities have set aside money that is invested and earns interest. The charity spends only the interest and keeps the original sum (the principal) untouched. Such a fund is called an endowment and is commonly found within charities with large physical plants, such as hospitals and colleges. Periodically, charities launch fund-raising efforts to start, or add to, an endowment. Like facilities and equipment grant proposals, endowment requests will prompt funders to ask hard questions about the long-term financial outlook of the applicant. The funder wants to be sure that its gift to an endowment will stay in the endowment earning interest, and not be drawn out of the endowment to meet annual operating costs.

Program-related investments (PRIs): In addition to grants, the IRS allows foundations to make loans — called program-related investments (PRIs) — to nonprofits. PRIs must be for projects that would be eligible for grant support. They are usually made at low interest, or even no interest. Unlike grants, PRIs must be paid back to the grantmaker. PRIs are often made to charities involved in building projects.

Most grants awarded by foundations and corporate giving programs can be categorized as one of two types: (1) General purpose or operating support grants and (2) Program development or project support grants.

General purpose or operating support grants: When a grantmaker gives your organization an operating grant, you can use it to support the general expenses of operating your organization, from a specific program to the heating bill. An operating grant means the funder supports your organization’s overall mission and trusts you to make good use of the money.

Program or project support grants: Aside from general purpose or operating support grants, most other grants are some form of program or project support. In general, a project grant is given to support a specific, connected set of activities, with a beginning and an end, explicit objectives and a predetermined cost. When a funder gives a grant for a specific project, it is generally a restricted grant and must be used for that project. In general, project grants are given to support projects related to the mission of the charity receiving the money. There are dozens of kinds of project grants.