Funding and grants
The Libraries help researchers connect to funding and grants through curated resources.
The University Libraries offers provides the following resources getting started with searching Pivot, SPIN, and the Foundation Directory Online (FDO).
Online training and support
Search tools
Foundation Directory Online (FDO) has detailed profiles of over 80,000 U.S. foundations and a growing number of international ones.
Pivot is a comprehensive database of funding opportunities and collaborators across many disciplines. It enables searching for global funding opportunities.
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 use VPN.
Local resources
Internal U of M funding sources A list of campus resources maintained by OVPR Departmental or college grants coordinators A downloadable list of grants coordinators maintained by OVPR The Strategic Partnerships and Research Collaborative (SPARC) Supported by OVPR and GPSAlliance, SPARC engages researchers and practitioners across disciplines in the US and globally to establish large-scale programs that spark collaboration, innovation, and new solutions that address these critical challenges. University of Minnesota Foundation's Charitable Grant website This website has helpful information about applying to an open RFP from a private or corporate foundation and also when using UMF's 501c3 to apply for a grant. The website has several resources to help guide you through the entire process.Proposal development
For advice on grant writing, consider
- Purdue OWL,
- the Art of Grantsmanship,
- Writing a Successful Grant Proposal from the MN Council on Foundations,
- the Proposal Writing Short Course online from Candid, or
- Developing Competitive Proposals from the Grant Resource Center.
Open Grants, from the Moore Foundation, includes grant proposals made openly available by researchers. This resource includes proposals for foundation and society funders, as well as federal funders in the United States and internationally.