When you are applying for any grant; whether it is a government grant or a foundation grant, you should know your funder. (Especially with foundation grants.) Do your homework and research, either through news releases or websites, and see what the organizations mission statement is. What are their goals? What is their strategic plan? Who sits on their board and what is their background? What type of projects have they funded in the past?

This information is important for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it will help you to gauge how your project compares to winning proposals from the past. Is the size of your project and scope of your project similar to previous grant recipients? Secondly, in some cases it may help if you mentioned in your proposal how your project compares and/or compliments previous projects they have funded. This shows the grant reviewers that you are interested in what the organization does and ways your project can expand their outreach. Lastly, if you do find out that the awarding organization is not a good fit or has a different focus than yours, it can save you the time of filling out the application.