Non traditional funding sources

1
Non traditional funding sources

• Deb Houry, MD, MPH
• Vice Chair for Research, Department of Emergency
  Medicine Emory University

2
Objectives

• Cover foundation grant databases
• Review how foundation grants differ from
  traditional grants
• Discuss how to partner with your state health
  department to obtain funding for programs

3
Foundations

• Nonprofit corporation or a charitable trust, with
  objective of making grants for scientific,
  educational, cultural, religious, or other
  purposes
• More than one million foundations in the United
  States

4
How to find them

• All private foundations and public foundations
  (with income over 25,000) must file the Form
  990
• Contains information about their finances, board
  members, and grants.
• Contact IRS for individual foundation information
  or use grant finder databases

5
Finding the right foundation
6
ResearchResearch.com

• Available through your ACEP membership!
• Federal, state, private and international funding
  opportunity search engine and news service
• Accesses thousands of sponsor sites in hundreds
  of funding areas and provides users with the
  ability to search by discipline, sponsor and data
  base search.
• Users can also set up personalized e-mail alerts
  for areas of interest and read funding news
  updates

7
Foundation Center

• Physically located in New York (headquarters),
  Atlanta, Cleveland, San Francisco, Washington DC
• Cooperating centers (found on foundationcenter.org
  )
• Access to both large and small foundations
• Subscription plans-
• Monthly vs. annual
• 5 different levels

8
Other databases

• IRIS
• Over 9,000 active federal and private funding
  opportunities in the sciences, social sciences,
  arts, and humanities
• Community of Science
• Database of announcements for grants,
  fellowships, awards and more from around the
  world, comprising more than 25,000 records worth
  over 33 billion

9
What to search for

• Do they fund in your geographic area?
• Do you or anyone at your university have a
  connection with their board?
• Research vs. infrastructure funding?
• Prior grantees
• Amount funded previously

10
Approaching the foundation
11
Applying

• Check with your university first!!!
• Letter of inquiry
• Grant cycles
• In person meetings

12
Can I recycle my NIH proposal?

• NO!!!
• Read instructions carefully
• Usually you need to submit a letter of interest
  first to qualify- this is 1-2 pages- no
  references focus on specific need
• Layperson language
• Prepare a one page executive summary
• Much shorter- max 5-7 pages

13
Timeline

• Foundation A
• Met with local representative for national
  foundation -gt site visit -gt regional presentation
  -gt update on work -gt fly to national headquarters
  to present proposal -gt letter of inquiry -gt full
  5 page proposal
• 3 years
• Foundation B
• Met with chair of BOD -gt letter of inquiry -gt 5
  page proposal
• 3 months

14
State health departments

15
Is this applicable to me?

• Every time I see an announcement from CDC about
  funding its for health departments. I just
  delete these because Im at a university

16
State health departments

• Can apply for federal grants that you are not
  eligible for
• Less competitive, and often states may be
  favored based on the RFA
• Usually fund programs, not research

17
Why would I be interested?

• They need sites, you need
• You can use this funding to establish new
  programs and do evaluations
• HIV screening
• SBIRT
• They are also funded for general activities such
  as suicide prevention
• You can pitch research, evaluation, and education
  ideas

18
Steps to take

• Review RFAs on cdc.gov and grants.gov in your
  topic area
• Get to know people in the health department
• Let them know about your site and opportunities
  for collaboration
• Contact them about funding opportunities and
  offer to help with grant writing

19
Cons

• Technically a contract, not a grant
• Limitations on what you can do based on the RFA
• Two organizations involved
• Limited indirect costs

20
Summary

• With federal grant funding constraints, consider
  diversifying your portfolio
• Nontraditional funding can be easier to obtain,
  but is different than R01 application
• Search regularly for foundation and health
  department funding opportunities