How to Find a Grant for Free in Under 7 Minutes
Summary
TLDRGriffin, an onboarding advisor at Instrumental and director of a sustainability nonprofit in Kentucky, demonstrates how to use Instrumental for grant searching. Focusing on his farmers' market program, he walks through the process of creating a project, selecting geographic regions, and choosing relevant fields of work. Griffin emphasizes the importance of setting specific parameters, such as funding types and uses, to maximize grant opportunities. He also highlights the platform's filters for refining results. The video serves as a practical guide for nonprofits seeking grant funding efficiently.
Takeaways
- 🌱 Griffin works as an onboarding advisor at Instrumental and also runs a sustainability nonprofit in Southern Kentucky.
- 🛠 Griffin uses Instrumental to search for grants for his nonprofit’s biggest program, a Farmers Market.
- 🔍 To create a project on Instrumental, users click the 'Plus Project' button to start a saved search for relevant grants.
- 🏢 Users can input project details, including the type of organization (e.g., nonprofit), and specify geographic locations down to the county level to refine search results.
- 🌎 Instrumental allows more localized searches, showing grants specific to counties, states, and countries.
- 💡 Keywords and fields of work help narrow down grant opportunities based on the organization's specific focus (e.g., community services, agriculture).
- 💸 Users can set the minimum and maximum funding amounts they’re seeking and specify the intended use of the funds, such as education outreach or capital projects.
- 🏛 Instrumental provides options to look for corporate, private, state, and federal government grants, depending on the user's preferences.
- 📊 After saving the project, Instrumental displays a list of matching funding opportunities, categorized by foundation, corporate, and government grants.
- 🧑💻 Users can further filter the results by funding use, geographic area, and funder type to prioritize and focus on the most relevant opportunities.
Q & A
What is Griffin's role at Instrumental and his side profession?
-Griffin works as an onboarding advisor at Instrumental, and he also runs a sustainability nonprofit in Southern Kentucky.
What is the main program of Griffin's nonprofit organization?
-The main program of Griffin's nonprofit is the Farmers Market, which is the biggest initiative of their organization.
How does Griffin use Instrumental for his nonprofit organization?
-Griffin uses Instrumental to find grants for his nonprofit. He sets up projects to save searches based on his program's needs and relevant details, and then Instrumental provides him with a list of grant opportunities.
What steps does Griffin take to create a project in Instrumental?
-To create a project, Griffin clicks the 'plus project' button, names his project (e.g., 'Bounty of the Barons'), and saves it. He then enters details like applicant type, geographic area, and fields of work to refine the search.
Why does Griffin recommend getting specific with geographic locations in Instrumental?
-Griffin recommends being specific with geographic locations because Instrumental shows more targeted results if you enter county-level information, helping users maximize their grant opportunities.
How does Griffin select the 'fields of work' for his project?
-Griffin selects the 'fields of work' by browsing categories in Instrumental or using the search bar to find relevant keywords. He can also hover over the information icon for more details about specific fields.
What is the significance of selecting fund types in Instrumental?
-Selecting fund types (e.g., corporate, private, state, local government) helps refine the grant search based on the types of funders a nonprofit is interested in. Griffin clicks all options to explore as many opportunities as possible.
What are the different funding uses Griffin looks for in Instrumental?
-Griffin looks for funding uses related to education outreach, capital projects, and general operating expenses. He selects these options to find grants aligned with his nonprofit's current needs.
How does Griffin filter through funding opportunities after setting up his project?
-Griffin filters funding opportunities by looking at specific parameters, such as funding uses, fields of work, counties, and funder types, to narrow down results that best align with his nonprofit's needs.
What advice does Griffin offer for using Instrumental effectively?
-Griffin advises starting with a handful of keywords for fields of work and being specific with geographic locations to maximize results. He also emphasizes filtering opportunities based on funder types and other parameters to prioritize the best matches.
Outlines
🌱 Creating a Project for Grant Search
Griffin, an onboarding advisor at Instrumental and a director of a sustainability nonprofit, demonstrates how to use Instrumental to find grants for a Farmers Market program. He starts by creating a project named 'Bounty of the Barons' and explains that creating a project is akin to saving a search. He details the process of inputting specific programmatic areas, such as applicant type (nonprofit), geographic scope (Baron County, Kentucky), and fields of work (community services, agriculture). Griffin also mentions the importance of specificity to maximize search results. He discusses setting parameters for funding amounts and purposes, selecting the types of funders (corporate, private, state, and federal government), and saving the project to view the grant matches.
🔍 Refining Grant Search with Filters
In the second paragraph, Griffin continues his tutorial by showing how to refine the grant search using filters. He clicks on the 'funding uses' to focus on general operations, education outreach, and project programs. Griffin discusses the importance of aligning fields of work with the project's goals and using the county information to find grants specific to certain geographical areas. He also talks about prioritizing funder types, such as corporate and private, based on past experiences and current needs. Griffin invites questions and offers assistance, concluding the tutorial.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Onboarding Advisor
💡Sustainability Nonprofit
💡Grants
💡Instrumental
💡Project
💡Applicant Type
💡Geographic Parameters
💡Fields of Work
💡Funding Uses
💡Funder Types
💡Matches Tab
Highlights
Introduction to using Instrumental for grant finding in a nonprofit context.
Explanation of creating a project in Instrumental as a 'save search'.
Importance of specifying details for programmatic areas in project creation.
How to select applicant type and geographic parameters for grant search.
Advantage of getting specific to the county level for more localized grant results.
Using 'fields of work' keywords to refine grant search.
Browsing categories for fields of work to find suitable grant opportunities.
Adding specific project details like community garden for targeted grant search.
Recommendation on selecting a small number of fields of work for focused results.
Inclusion of agriculture producer as a field of work for farmers' benefit.
Setting a maximum grant amount to filter search results.
Specifying fund usage such as education outreach and capital projects.
Selecting funder types including corporate, private, state, and federal government.
Saving the project setup to initiate the grant search process.
Reviewing the matches tab to see the results of the grant search.
Utilizing filters to refine the search within the matches tab.
Prioritizing fields of work to align with the nonprofit's goals.
Filtering by county to find grants specific to certain geographic areas.
Focusing on corporate and private funders for potentially easier grant acquisition.
Final thoughts and invitation for questions to assist with the grant search process.
Transcripts
Howdy Folks my name's Griffin and while
I work here at instrumental as an
onboarding advisor I actually Moonlight
as a director of a sustainability
nonprofit in my community here in
Southern Kentucky and so I was actually
hopping on my computer today to look for
some more grants for our Farmers Market
kind of our biggest program down here
and I thought why don't I pop on the old
webcam and kind of walk people through
how do I as a you know nonprofit Ed
actually use instrumental my own you
know organization to find some grants um
so if I'm looking at my instrumental
account I'm going to go over here to
this plus project button so if I click
on that it is going to bring me to our
little creation page and so I'm just
going to go ahead and type in Bounty of
the
baronss and then I can go ahead and
click save and
continue so when you're creating a
project on instrumental it is kind of
like a save search so you're going to
put in details you know about your
specific programmatic areas you know one
example I like to give you know my local
YMCA for instance could have one project
that is for feeding the elderly on
weekdays and one project for after
school athletics for kids so just a
really easy way to have a safe search
where we can funnel you those new Grant
and funer opportunities um and also give
you a place to manage all that stuff um
so as I'm going through here I can see
okay applicant type we are a nonprofit
if you are any of these other
organizations you know certainly click
on those if I go down we are not
faith-based uh now we do serve inside
the United States and with instrumental
if you are National in scope that's
great you can certainly click that but
the way that instrumental works on the
research side if you can get more
specific we can actually show you more
things um So within instrumental if you
can get down to that county level we can
show you any grants for the county as
well as the state as well as the country
so you will maximize those results and
even get more localized with it if you
can put in that information so for me
I'm going to go ahead and put in Baron
County because we are Bounty of the
baren farmers market I'm actually going
to grab some other ones that we work
with very closely as
well let me do that really quickly right
here um and then let me go ahead and
grab Maybe medf and I think maybe
Hart let's see Kentucky has a whole
bunch of counties if you're not familiar
with the geography there all right um so
I've selected my Geographic parameters
if I do go down then I'm going to pick
my fields of work um and so fields of
work really just keywords to tell us you
know what's going on um uh with what uh
you know you're up to um so if I click
on this little browse categories button
I can actually see okay what are those
different elements that I might be
looking for in there uh can go into
community Services can click and scroll
down through here like that um or I can
actually just be able to go through and
click into or type with the search bar
to find things if I already kind of know
some phrases that I'm looking for there
uh also a handy little feature if I'm
you know looking at one of these I can
actually pull my cursor over to this
little eye button for some additional
information to see okay what is is
instrumental up to there uh and we are
thinking about maybe trying to get like
a community garden going so that's kind
of what I'm focused on right now so I'm
going to go ahead and start with that uh
we usually recommend a small handful
maybe two or three uh I do use
instrumental a lot so I'm going to go
ahead and start with five but as you can
see down here I am looking for some
agricultureal producer uh stuff as well
maybe can pass those along to some of
our Farmers so that's definitely going
to be good for us if you do have
specific plants animals or ecosystems
you're working on you can certainly put
that in there I'm going to leave it
blank for now and then at the very
bottom I can put you know if I have sort
of a maximum amount that I'm looking for
or a minimum amount uh for us we are a a
pretty small organization I'm going to
say I'm probably not going to be looking
for anything over 100,000 there and I'm
going to go ahead and leave no
minimum and then down here at the bottom
I can actually click on okay what are
these funds going to be used for so
project program General operating uh you
can see right there the explanations
that's going to be good for me we are
looking to do some education Outreach
like with the local schools maybe with
that community garden so I'm going to go
ahead and click that there uh we do
actually have a capital project that
we're working on trying to build a
permanent structure for the farmer so
I'm going to click that as well and I'm
going to leave that one blank we're not
really looking for that right now at the
bottom if you are an academic researcher
can certainly use those and then the
very very bottom can see you know what
types of funders are we looking for um
so I'm definitely looking for corporate
definitely looking for private state and
local government would be great federal
government I'm actually going to click
all of them for now uh but if you are
focused maybe on corporate and private
foundations maybe don't want to fool
with maybe the more uh you know in-depth
and and and sort of drawn out process
with the government grant sometimes you
know you can certainly leave that blank
so I'm going to go ahead and click save
and exit there okay nice job Thank You
instrumental for that compliment there
and then it's going to go ahead and pull
those results for me um so you can see
it found 105 Foundation grants 33
corporate 59 government grants so if I
click let's go I can see right here I'm
now in my matches tab in this bounty of
the baren project that we created
together um and so I'm actually going to
start with my funding opportunity
matches um and I'm going to look at
these filters that's usually where I
like to start my search so if I go into
this area I can actually dive into any
those parameters that I put into my
project setup within that filter area so
if I click on it I can go through and
look at specific funding uses so if I
did just want to look at gen Ops
education Outreach project program Etc
if I just wanted to look at a specific
field of work so as I'm creating this
project maybe I'm really trying to
figure out okay what are those keywords
what are those fields of work that are
really doing uh doing the lifting that I
need that really align with what I'm
after maybe I have some questions about
some of those maybe I'm not totally sure
if that's the right field of work I can
actually go through and prioritize those
and then see okay agricultural crops do
those seem to align with what I'm after
so that's usually a good way to litmus
test for that I love to go through and
do the county information so if I do
want to click through and see okay are
any of these specific to one of my
specific counties that's definitely an
easy way to do that and then at the very
bottom can go through and look at those
different funer types so if I did want
to focus on corporate and private stuff
we have had a lot of more luck with
corporations lately so I might go ahead
and lean into that and maybe start there
um so that's it for now that's kind of
how I would get my process up and
running if you do have any questions
certainly let us know and we'll be
excited to help you out all right take
care byebye
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