You can’t be a successful grant writer without a healthy, even overactive curiosity about funding institutions and the people who run them. Being nosy is definitely a virtue in this business.

Thanks to the Internet, the amount of information about grants available to you is staggering. Of course, it’s knowing where to look and which sources to trust that brings success in grant writing, so I offer you my favorite websites and how to use them.

But offline research is still valuable. I show you where these valuable resources lie, sometimes as close as your mailbox and as convenient as your local library.

Because too much information is as useless as too little, this part also looks at how to whittle down your list to the best prospects and how to avoid false leads. I point out common mistakes to avoid and how to focus on the funder’s interests.