Tool Kit: Identifying a Likely Funding Source

 1)  To determine what broad category of sponsors might suit your grant, ask:

• How much money will I be requesting?
• How much red tape am I willing and able to deal with?
• How much time and what resources do I have to invest in completing the grant application?
• How much technical assistance from the sponsor will I need?
• Where does my project fit best in terms of interests and priorities?

Federal	State	Private
Much money Many grants	Limited money Volatile funding Very competitive	Smaller grant size Less money available
More red tape	More red tape	Less red tape
Indirect costs generally recoverable	Indirect costs not always recoverable
Complex proposal forms		Simpler proposal process
Greater technical support	Less technical support
Peer review process		Staff or board review process
Congressional priorities and trends	Texas focused priorities	Corporate. Emerging and special-interest issues funded Excellent for technology-related research Collaborative partnerships in emerging science and business Academic freedom may be challenged Publication rights must be safeguarded.

2) Target a potential sponsor

Links to common and/or large sources of funding.   Other possibilities for finding potential funding sources include contacts with your colleagues, memberships within your academic discipline and journals related to your area of interest.

3) Review information about sponsors and grant opportunities, asking:

• What kinds of funding (grant, contract, stipend, fellowship, cooperative agreement, etc.) are available?
• Does my project concept match the sponsor’s stated funding priorities?
• Does the sponsor typically provide funding at the level I will be requesting?
• As a condition of awarding funding, does the sponsor have any requirements and/or conditions I will not be able to meet?
• Can I meet the sponsor’s deadlines?

           
4)  Check with the Office of Sponsored Projects to identify other project(s) being considered by your potential sponsor(s).

5)  Contact potential sponsor staff to discuss your concept.

For federal and state programs, and increasing for many private foundations, contact with sponsor staff is encouraged prior to preparing a grants proposal.  The advantage of contacting a sponsor’s program officer about your concept is that you receive direct input on your concept before you have invested a significant amount of time and effort writing the actual grant proposal.  Program staff also are very much aware of other related projects and can provide guidance for locating potential consultants and collaborators, avoiding duplication of effort, and determining the need to revise your concept.

Before contacting program/sponsor staff:

• Carefully review all printed materials from the sponsor.
• Prepare a list of questions to ask the program person.
• Prepare a written summary of your concept that demonstrates it is well conceived, carefully developed, and presentable.
  

6) Select a target funding source for your project. Before you select a potential funding source for your project, you should be able to answer YES to these questions:

• Is this the best choice based on an exhaustive search of all potential sources of funding?
• Is the information you obtained about the source current?
• Have you spoken to someone familiar with the funding source to validate your project’s chance of success?
• Have you spoken to at least one representative of the sponsor to validate your project’s chance of success?

7)  Notify the Office of Sponsored Projects of your intent to develop a proposal to submit your concept for possible funding by the sponsor you’ve targeted.