Foundations essentially came into being for two reasons. The first was a mounting concern about the power in the hands of wealthy business owners through their philanthropic giving. The other was a need for a means for them to put some kind of order to their giving as they were targets for funding requests from all facets of the community (Thelin and Trollinger, 2014, p. 69). The creation of the foundation solved both problems because it allowed the philanthropist to determine and set strict parameters for giving and (through the creation of the required foundation boards) yielded protection from scrutiny from government or society about the power wealth gave them over initiatives and matters with a widespread impact on society (p. 69).

The significant aspect of foundations from the perspective of fundraising is that they were created to do “public good” (p. 147). Initially the two main areas of focus during the early 1900s were education and social services. In so many ways, it was the direction of dollars into those two focus areas that changed higher education dramatically and continues to have a tremendous impact (p. 70).

In 2012, the United States was home to 86,192 foundations with $715 billion in assets and $52 billion in giving. Strong stock market performances boosted the assets of many foundations and encouraged more individuals to create foundations. Overall giving by the nation’s private and community foundations reached $54.7 billion in 2013, surpassing previous record levels. According to Foundation Center’s annual “Foundation Giving Forecast Survey,” overall foundation giving will continue to grow, and independent and family foundations will likely show an even higher rate of growth (Foundation Center, 2014). Additionally, foundations were the largest donors to higher education in 2013 to the tune of $10 billion in that year alone (p. 188).

Foundations exist to give money to nonprofit organizations. That is truly their sole purpose, so there is no reason to hesitate approaching them for funding. In order to fulfill their mission and their legal obligations, they need projects to fund. However, it is rare for them to come looking for a project (they announce initiatives inviting proposals), so participating in their process is necessary. The key to a successful proposal for a foundation is becoming very familiar with its mission and guidelines before even brainstorming on proposal ideas. Taking the shotgun approach to foundation fundraising will not get you any closer to your fundraising goal, and it won’t get the foundations any closer to their goal of giving away money in fulfilling their mission.

Two types of foundations are relevant in this chapter: independent/private, and corporate foundations. Private foundations are generally established by individual donors or donor families and make up the majority of the foundations in existence today. Private foundations include most of the nation’s largest foundations such as Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant process is outlined by each foundation and varies based on its guidelines. Securing a grant from a private foundation will depend on how closely your project and proposal match its mission, how well you followed the guidelines and how competitive your proposal is. Remember, it’s important to articulate your message in a way that speaks the foundation’s language. Competition is high to secure foundation funding.

Corporate foundations are established by businesses ranging from major corporations such as Google, Inc. and Walmart Corporation to smaller companies. Corporate foundations are separate from their parent company but typically maintain close ties. How you apply for funding with a corporate foundation varies from one to the next. Some corporate foundations work through their foundation governing board and have relatively little to do with the corporate side of giving. It is often a matter of different pots of money governed by different contacts and employees—some on the corporate side and others on the corporate foundation side.

Working with corporate foundations can be very similar to working with private foundations. The thing about foundation fundraising is that the process can be slow, and there is no universal language that can be crafted and shared with every foundation. To be successful, you must craft your approach to appeal to each funding opportunity and individual foundation. The foundation makes the rules. It has the money. It decides what to fund, and you are competing with thousands of others who want those same funds.

Libraries have an opportunity to do really well with foundations because they can partner with any other college or unit on campus. It’s imperative that libraries think beyond library services when they research foundation opportunities. For example, because so many foundations still have as their mission the proliferation of educational opportunities and initiatives in society, the information literacy efforts in libraries are a great fit. They can be translated loosely or scoped to a very specific demographic or funding priority. Taken in its broader sense, information literacy can be positioned to a private or corporate foundation just as “leadership” is often used as an umbrella theme.

Regardless of the focus area, there is little argument that most challenges require the appropriate application of the relevant knowledge. This is how the academic library can position itself in relation to almost anything. On a university campus, there is an opportunity to include the library on many proposals developed for private foundations. For example, every research project on campus uses research materials. What the grantee and grantor need to understand, however, is that libraries not only supply and deliver those resources, they evaluate them and help the researcher evaluate them—regardless what academic unit they are from. No one can argue with the need for good scholarship when doing research. The library organizes information to make it easier to get to and easier to manipulate. In the case of data, that is of particular importance. Librarians are information specialists working with big data, a tool universally recognized as having huge impact on business and social decision making.

E. O. Wilson famously said, “We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom.” This statement should be on the wall of every academic library because it succinctly sets up the mission of information literacy—equal access to quality, relevant information. That notion used to mean that everyone was allowed in the library. Now it has evolved to mean that everyone is trained to evaluate the information so easily come by. This is a powerful component to add to any proposal to fund research, student success, and programming. But it is even more powerful when attached to proposals seeking funding to answer big questions like workforce development and many of the world’s great challenges.

For a fundraiser and academic lead, the challenge is to help the faculty in the academic departments to think in this broader sense. Faculty are accustomed to soliciting government grants through sponsored research. Their proposals are very focused on a specific kind of program or research, and they require that faculty drill down into costs and outcomes in a way that trains them to think about their work in very tight parameters. When looking at private funding for faculty, it’s important to begin the process by getting them back to the big picture. We start our relationships with faculty by asking, “What’s your pipe dream?” or “If money were no object, what would you do with your research/program?” That helps us start to see the direction they are hoping to go. It’s important to keep them at this level and not let them answer the question based on their expectation of funding opportunities. They are used to coming at it from the other direction—this is the funding available, what do you do that fits? It isn’t that foundations don’t have parameters, but foundations deliver funding to all sectors of the nonprofit world. They open the door for academic funding that most faculty are not aware of. As a development professional, you need to hone in on the major impact faculty are hoping to achieve through their research—what is the problem they are solving, and why are they or their university the ones to solve it? Through this exercise, the fundraiser can align the academic library with organizations never before considered.

Five steps at a minimum are involved in the grantwriting process. Although the process may vary slightly from project to project, the flow of the work remains the same. For example, you may learn of a project from a faculty member, research potential foundations to find the appropriate foundation target, meet with the faculty member to align the project with the foundation’s mission, call the foundation to discuss, and then submit (whether it be a full application or a letter of intent). Another scenario is to contact the foundation to discuss its mission and current goals and then to shop it out to your colleagues and faculty as a sort of “call for projects.” Not all foundations will take these upfront general calls. Some require you to have your project ready to discuss, some may not take a call altogether. Yet another scenario is to share an RFP (request for proposal) from the foundation with your faculty, colleagues, and program directors to begin collecting ideas and potential submissions. The recurring theme is to be strategic, be compelling, and be patient! The grantwriting process is not a quick one, and neither is the foundation funding process. Foundations typically take anywhere from three to six months to even a year or more before they make decisions and distribute funding.