Elite Research Discusses Grants and Other Sources of

Nov. 23, 2012 - PRLog -- Elite Research Discusses Grants and Other Sources of Funding for Nonprofit Research.  Elite Research is a global provider of research design and statistical consulting.  Elite Research supports academic (http://eliteresearch.com/clients/academia), corporate (http://eliteresearch.com/clients/corporate), medical/health (http://eliteresearch.com/clients/medical), and nonprofit (http://eliteresearch.com/clients/nonprofit) researchers in designing, collecting, analysing, and reporting efficient and accurate results.

Trying to find funding for a research project can be overwhelming, and researchers often don’t even know how to begin.  They Google words and phrases like “grants” or “how do I get a grant?” and are faced with pages of information that are usually irrelevant to them.  Some researchers attend grant-writing seminars or conferences, which can be costly; many researchers buy expensive books about the “ins and outs” of the grant-writing process and still find themselves at a loss, so what is a researcher to do?

It is critical that you truly understand what your research goals are before you even start looking for a grant.  Less and less money is being given out, so competition for those dollars is intense.  When looking at potential funders’ webpages, you need to be sure that your goals are almost identical to theirs.  When you think you have a match, send them a letter of intent; the letter of intent is written even before a formal proposal is sent.  This letter is critical because it could potentially save you hours, weeks, or even months of time when the foundation could have told you up front that, for whatever reason, you were not a candidate for the grant.  An additional hint is to send them any statistics data [link to http://eliteresearch.com/contact-us] that you may have about your project.  Foundations love to see facts, numbers, and stats that can be easily measured to show progress or improvement; in other words, they want to see that they, or their money, were part of improving something!

Where do you find foundations that are offering funding to see if your research matches with their interests?  There are several places to start, but don’t be fooled: This is a very time-consuming process.  The good news is that the better you research and understand the foundations or organizations to which you are applying, the more likely you are to be considered for the grant because you are not wasting your time with funders who aren’t interested in your type of research.  The following are two websites that list many available grants:

·         www.grants.gov

·         www.foundationcenter.org

Another website to check out is the following, which gives you access to foundations’ tax forms so that you can see how much money they gave out in previous years:

·         Guidestar.org

Remember that the more information you have, the easier it will be to see if you are a potential match for funding.  Again, don’t underestimate the amount of time it will take not only to find money for your research but also to apply for money and then to wait to hear if your proposal has been accepted.  The process of going from webpage to webpage can be tedious, but the hope is that all of your time, patience, and energy will ultimately help you get a grant.

Contact Elite Research today to get reliable help with all of your statistical, research, and editorial needs! http://eliteresearch.com/ or (800) 806 – 5661.