Written by: Elizabeth Roma, The Helen Brown Group, APRA-Carolinas President-Elect

Whether you are new to the field of prospect development or are a seasoned veteran, chances are you’ve been asked to research a foundation. Maybe you discovered a family foundation in the course of researching a new donor, or took a deep dive into the activities of a trustee’s company foundation in order to better understand how her business approaches philanthropy, or were asked to create a list of foundations that seem likely to support your organization. If you haven’t done this type of work already, you can just about bet that you will be asked to do it at some point, probably in the not too distant future. According to Linsey McGoey’s book No Such Thing as a Free Gift, almost half of the roughly 85,000 private foundations in the US were started in the past fifteen years, and new foundations are being created at a rate of about 5,000 each year.

In many ways foundation research can be a dream assignment for prospect researchers. Foundations are created exclusively for the purpose of philanthropy, and in the US they are required by law to provide a high degree of transparency about their operations through detailed reporting on their assets, grantmaking, and personnel. In addition to what they reveal explicitly about the philanthropic activities of their founders, foundation filings can often give us clues into the lives of our prospects that we might not get from other sources.

I recently recorded a video podcast with Helen Brown, founder and president of the Helen Brown Group, in which we discuss the basics of foundation research, including what to look for when researching foundations, how to navigate the Form 990, ways to approach identifying new foundation prospects, and how to make connections with foundations through your own constituents. If you could use a primer on foundation research, settle in with a fresh cup of tea and have a look. I hope you’ll learn something new and pick up some new tips!