Friday, November 29, 2013

How to Become a Professional Fund Finder

Government programs, for-profit companies, non-profit organizations and individuals all over the world are willing to give money to charitable groups and people in need of help. Groups that help disadvantaged people gain access to education, food or health care or who provide vital services such as addiction counseling often need charitable contributions from donors. Professional fund finders can help charities and people seeking grants locate and apply for funds.

Suggestions

  1. Study in a field that relates to fund finding. Such fields may include finance, marketing, business administration and nonprofit management. An associate's degree may be enough to get started, but many clients may expect you to have at least a bachelor's degree.
  2. Work for a nonprofit organization. Use this experience to gain an understanding of the needs of such organizations and network with various individuals who could become clients later on.
  3. Learn to use grant and funding databases. In the United States, the federal government and various state governments offer online tools that provide users with access to a wide range of government-sponsored grant programs. Private institutions offer similar databases. Some of these institutions tailor their databases to certain aspects of funding, such as university scholarships. Build a master database of such databases and become proficient at doing quick and effective searches in them.
  4. Build relationships with private grant-making institutions. A number of such organizations regularly issue grants to deserving parties to promote a particular cause. When such organizations come to trust your honesty and competence, they may look to you when they seek to offer grants in the future.
  5. Enroll in a grant writing certification course. While a fund finder is not the same thing as a grant writer, many of their responsibilities overlap, and you can maximize revenue by up-selling clients of your grant writing services. Such certification conveys a certain level of legitimacy and helps you to elicit trust from clients. As a grant writer, you can help your clients to apply for funding by preparing an entire grant proposal.
  6. Design a plan of approach in which you can help your clients to gain funding from less structured funding sources. For instance, you may offer services to help clients with fundraisers or to prepare pitches on Internet-based crowd-funding services. Crowd-funding sites allow people to post projects and invite others to pledge money to them, providing fundraisers with a convenient way of drawing attention to their causes and safely collecting money for them.
  7. Set up a business and market your services. Depending on your area, you may need to pay for a business license. Create a business website and make a list of the services you provide to those who seek funding.


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