The University Libraries offers a hands-on and online workshops on searching Pivot and the Foundation Directory Online (FDO). Setting up e-mail updates in Pivot is also covered. The workshops are co-sponsored by Office for the Vice President for Research (OVPR).

Search tools

Pivot (formerly Community of Science) Grant opportunities in many disciplines. Includes federal, non-federal, and international agencies.

SPIN contains over 40,000 funding opportunities from 10,000 federal, public, non-profit and private funders. Please note that to access SPIN off-campus, you will need to set up an account.

Foundation Directory Online (FDO) Profiles and recently awarded grants from over 80,000 foundations.

Local resources

Internal U of M funding sources The OVPR maintains this list of campus resources.

Departmental or college grants coordinators Download a list from the OVPR's Web site

Proposal development

Proposal development at the U of M

For advice on grant writing, consider consulting this page from Purdue OWL, the Art of Grantmanship, Writing a Successful Grant Proposal from the MN Council on Foundations, the Proposal Writing Short Course online from the Foundation Center, or Developing Competitive Proposals from the Grant Resource Center.

Open Grants, from the Moore Foundation, includes grant proposals made openly available by researchers. This resources includes proposals for foundation and society funders, as well as federal funders in the United States and internationally. 

Additional funding resources

  • Web of Science To see a list of funders of previously awarded grants for specific topic, do a subject search for articles on that topic and then analyze the results, ranking by funding agency.
  • Grants.gov Background on all Federal grants. Also check specific agencies' Web sites for the most current information and more detail.
  • Graduate student funding - selected sources Selected organizations that regularly fund graduate student education and research.

Sources for international activities

Introduction to Grant Resources at the University of Minnesota Libraries (video)

Workshop registration

Register for the next available grant funding workshop.

Online training and support

Foundation Directory Walk-Through

Internal Funding Walk-Through

International Opportunities Walk-Through

Pivot Walk-Through

SPIN Walk-Through

Web of Science Walk-Through

Workshop handout

Grant Funding Databases (pdf): Tips for searching and setting up alerts which covers Pivot and the Foundation Directory.