Frequently Asked Questions
General FAQs
- What is Schoolhouse Partners, and what kinds of services and resources does it offer?
- Where can I find answers to other questions about Schoolhouse Partners?
- Where can I find information on how to start my own business?
- How can I go about establishing a nonprofit organization?
- Can Schoolhouse Partners help individuals or "for-profit" organizations to secure grant funding?
What is Schoolhouse Partners, and what kinds of services and resources does it offer?
The mission of Schoolhouse Partners is to secure adequate funding, provide information, align human resources, save time, and create policies that support all varieties of non-profit organizations.
Schoolhouse Partners is dedicated to assisting public and private schools, libraries, municipalities, community agencies and other non-profit groups to discover ways of reaching goals that they once believed to be unreachable. Our hands-on support, consultancy, and research tools are intentionally aimed at ensuring that partnerships among individuals, organizations, and funding sources are created and strengthened. In the process, we hope to build dreams, resurrect hopes, and realize successes for all community constituents. Designing and constructing collaborative alliances is our highest priority.
Specifically, our services include: grant writing assistance, prospect research, and access to our grant database.
Where can I find answers to other questions about Schoolhouse Partners?
If you have a personal question for the staff of Schoolhouse Partners, you can email us at Schoolhouse Partners, or contact us by mail at:
Schoolhouse Partners
P.O. Box 2059
Nashville, IN 47448-2059
Where can I find information on how to start my own business?
We at Schoolhouse Partners believe that the most comprehensible, detailed, and easily digestible source for starting your own business can be found in the Riley Guide online.
How can I go about establishing a nonprofit organization?
Although there are literally hundreds of web sites, attorneys, and accountants that can assist you in starting your own non-profit organization, Schoolhouse Partners believes that the most comprehensive, detailed, and easily digestible source is the Connecticut Nonprofit Information Network. This step-by-step web site offers the all things to consider while approaching and completing this tedious process.
Can Schoolhouse Partners help individuals or "for-profit" organizations to secure grant funding?
Most grantmakers place very specific limitations on their giving to individuals or "for-profit" organizations, since provisions for grants to such entities require advanced approval of the program by the IRS. For this reason, grantmakers usually cannot make exceptions to their program guidelines, even if you present a compelling case for them to do so. This limits the number of grants available for individuals and "for-profit" organizations, although they do, indeed, exist.
Since most foundation funding is awarded to nonprofit organizations, the individual and "for-profit" grantseeker should expect to encounter stiff competition for grant dollars. It is essential, therefore, that you research all potential funding sources within your own discipline or geographic area.
Although there are grants that can be secured by individuals or "for-profit" organizations (college scholarships, support for writers, support for artists, college fellowships, business start-ups, preservation ventures, etc.), there are an extremely limited number of proposal writing resources geared specifically to these grantseekers. Furthermore, prototype proposals for individual or "for-profit" grant projects are usually unavailable for public access (via print or the Internet), since these are typically very project specific to the writer requesting funding as well as the donor's mission, and they work only within that context. Additionally, the highly specific criteria for most funders that fund individuals or "for-profit" organizations has made it difficult to create a comprehensive "how-to" guide for such grantseekers.
Schoolhouse Partners is extremely well-qualified to assist individual and "for-profit" grant seekers in their quest, has done so successfully in the past, and can provide much needed help if requested.
Meanwhile, there is one very good resource that you may want to begin with: Judith B. Margolin's The Individual's Guide to Grants provides suggestions on carrying out a search for grants and writing a proposal (Chapter 7).
