Private Foundation Grants

5-2-02

Patricia Gregory, Ph.D., Senior Director Jeffrey J. Sich, Ph.D., Sr. Associate Director

Catherine Reitz, Program Coordinator

funding@medicine.wustl.edu

Corporate and Foundation RelationsMedical Alumni and Development Programs

How foundations work

How to find funding sources

– and make sure they are the right ones for you

How we can help you

A few words about gifts from individual donors

Major Topics

What is a Private Foundation?

Usually set up by wealthy business people

Decision makers often are not scientists

Different types of foundations– Independent– Family– Community

Public Charities– American Cancer Society, Amer. Heart Assn.

Examples of Private Funders

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Arnold and Mabel Beckman Fdn Elsa U. Pardee Foundation Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Steven and Michele Kirsch Fdn Retirement Research Foundation Greater St. Louis Health Fdn Missouri Foundation for Health Charles A. Dana Foundation Burroughs Wellcome Fund McKnight Endowment Fund

for Neuroscience Merck Genome Research Institute

Ellison Medical Foundation Robert Wood Johnson Fdn Brookdale Foundation Concern Foundation CaP Cure Sidney Kimmel Foundation Susan G. Komen Foundation Rockefeller Brothers Fund Deaconess Foundation John Merck Fund William T. Grant Foundation John A. Hartford Foundation Whitehall Foundation

How a Foundation Makes Grants

Driven by the interests of the founder

Looks for investment opportunity

Priorities often in lay language• Cancer, public policy, scholarships, social services

• Can’t search by specific research areas like cell signaling, growth factors, ion channels, apoptosis

Some use peer review, like NIH– Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Howard Hughes Medical

Institute, Pew and Searle Scholars, etc.

Kinds of ProjectsFoundations Prefer to Fund

Start-up funding for new investigators

Projects that Washington University

is uniquely qualified to undertake

Projects that push current technological limits

Too risky for federal funding• but don’t submit rejected NIH renewal proposals

How Development Can Help YouRefine a list of Foundation Funding Sources

Refine a database search– Retrievals from SPIN, Community of Science, Foundation

Center, often too large to pore through

Most foundations are too small

Most have no staff

Geographic restrictions

Family foundation, not a “funding agency”

May only accept one proposal from WU

http://intramed.wustl.edu/ocfr/ocfr.nsf/home

http://intramed.wustl.edu/OCFR/grants.nsf

Deadline for Internal Competition Status Program Amount01/23/2002 CLOSED Mary Kay Ash Foundation Grants for Translational Research in Cancer $100,000 over two years01/24/2002 OPEN Pfizer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

in Infectious Diseases $65,000 per year for three years

01/31/2002 OPEN Louis and Artur Lucian Award $50,000(CAN)

02/01/2002 OPEN Clinical Investigator Award $200,000 per year for five years

02/12/2002 SELECTION Kirsch Investigator Program $100,000 per year for two yearsPENDING

02/15/2002 OPEN Ellison New Scholar Award in Aging $50,000 per year for up to four years

02/15/2002 CLOSED Ellison New Scholar/Global Infectious Dis $50,000 per year for four years

02/21/2002 OPEN Shared Instrumentation Grant $100,000 to $500,000

03/13/2002 OPEN CBWF Career Awards at Scientific Interface$500,000 over five years

03/15/2002 OPEN The ARA Program: A Focus on the Science $50,000 per year for up to two years

03/18/2002 OPEN Packard Fellowship/Science 7 Engineering$125,000 per year for five years

If no internal nominations are received by the internal deadline, the competition remains open until all positions are filled with eligible candidates.

“I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it short.”

Blaise Pascal 1623-1662

Strong Letters of Inquiry

Short, concise, clear

Say it up front: “We’re looking for funding”

Briefly describe the project

Describe why it fits this foundation

No references, minimal attachments

The Importance of

Working with Development

Save time, focus on the right funders

Long-term relationships with foundations

Institutional spokesperson

“Clearance” protects the foundation from

unwanted multiple funding requests

– Also keeps WU informed of faculty approaches

Good stewardship: Very important!

Mismatched:University Needs and Foundation Interests

Foundations have become proactive

– Interests are precisely defined

Most foundations look for small, short-term

projects with immediate impact

Only 4% of money to science and technology

Competition with community organizations– Urgent needs—food banks, health care for the needy

– This is especially true of local foundations

Local Foundations

Proximity allows closer relationship

Multiple institutional contacts

– WU Alumni serve on boards

– Interests in multiple WU schools

Site visits more common

But there are only five in St. Louis that

support scientific research

– And only two accept proposals from faculty

Summary

Institutional history is important

Save time by calling us early in the process

Foundations are a good source for new

faculty awards

Local foundations: Call us first

Good stewardship is essential

http://research.medicine.wustl.edu

Help with Private Foundation Grantsfor Washington University faculty

funding@medicine.wustl.edu

Patricia Gregory, Ph.D., Senior Director Jeffrey J. Sich, Ph.D., Sr. Associate Director

Catherine Reitz, Program Coordinator

http://intramed.wustl.edu/ocfr/ocfr.nsf/home

286-0008