How to Find a Grant for Free in Under 7 Minutes

Summary

Griffin, 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

00:00

🌱 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.

05:01

🔍 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.

Keywords

💡Onboarding Advisor

An Onboarding Advisor is a professional who assists new employees or members in becoming familiar with an organization's systems, policies, and culture. In the video, Griffin mentions working as an Onboarding Advisor at Instrumental, which implies he helps new users get acquainted with the platform's functionalities.

💡Sustainability Nonprofit

A Sustainability Nonprofit is an organization dedicated to promoting environmental sustainability through various initiatives. Griffin mentions moonlighting as a director of such a nonprofit, indicating his involvement in community efforts to support sustainable practices, like a Farmers Market program.

💡Grants

Grants are funds provided by governments, foundations, or other organizations to support specific projects or initiatives. The video's narrative revolves around Griffin seeking grants for his nonprofit's Farmers Market program, showcasing the importance of grant funding in sustaining community projects.

💡Instrumental

Instrumental is a platform mentioned in the script, which is used for finding and managing grant opportunities. Griffin uses Instrumental to search for grants, indicating that it is a tool designed to assist nonprofits and other organizations in securing funding.

💡Project

In the context of the video, a 'Project' refers to a specific initiative or program that an organization is working on. Griffin creates a project called 'Bounty of the Barons' in Instrumental to save his search criteria for grants related to his Farmers Market.

💡Applicant Type

Applicant Type refers to the category or classification of the organization applying for a grant. Griffin specifies that his organization is a nonprofit when setting up the project in Instrumental, which is a crucial filter for grant eligibility.

💡Geographic Parameters

Geographic Parameters define the geographical area or location relevant to the project or grant. Griffin inputs Baron County and other counties they work with to ensure the search results are localized to their area of operation.

💡Fields of Work

Fields of Work are categories or sectors that the project or organization operates within. Griffin uses keywords related to community services and agriculture to define the focus areas of his project in Instrumental.

💡Funding Uses

Funding Uses specify the intended purpose of the grant funds. Griffin selects 'Education Outreach' and 'Capital Project' as the uses for the funds he is seeking, which helps refine the search results in Instrumental.

💡Funder Types

Funder Types refer to the source of the grant funding, such as corporations, government agencies, or private foundations. Griffin indicates interest in various funder types, including corporate, private, state, local, and federal government.

💡Matches Tab

The Matches Tab is a section in Instrumental where potential grant matches are displayed based on the project criteria. Griffin navigates to this tab to review and filter the grant opportunities that Instrumental has found for his project.

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