Photo credit: UNCW/Jamie Moncrief

Question: What is the role of Corporate and Foundation Relations?
A. CFR:
• serves as the main contact point for corporations and foundations that wish to have a single institutional contact for their philanthropic giving;

• acts as liaison between the university and corporations and foundations;

• builds and strengthens relationships with corporations and foundations;

• assists in identifying potential corporate and foundation supporters for UNCW priorities;

• assists in writing proposals, letters of inquiry, and other funding documents;

• helps university staff navigate the corporate and foundation funding process; and

• arranges and accompanies UNCW administrators and faculty on fundraising calls with corporate and foundation officials.

Q. How does CFR interact with corporate and foundation officials?
A. CFR:

• assists in identifying areas of mutual interest;

• identifies potential funders for the university's funding needs or campus projects;

• assists in structuring beneficial partnerships with UNCW; and

• alerts university staff about potential funding opportunities.

Q. What are the policies about contacting corporate and/or
foundation officials?
A. CFR recognizes that many university administrators and faculty have established excellent working relationships with corporate and foundation officials. CFR encourages these relationships. In order to facilitate our relationships with our donors, we need to be notified about contacts that have been developed with corporations and foundations. University Advancement also understands that several foundations and corporations may provide financial support to numerous UNCW schools or departments during the same fiscal year. In order to avoid multiple solicitations to the same company or foundation, please contact Hilda Maness, Director of Development for Corporate and Foundation Relations at extension 4278 to coordinate proposals.

Q. What resources are available to find potential foundations to fund my project?
A. There are several online sources to help find potential funders, such as:

The Foundation Center's "Search Zone"  — This free Web site offers some of the best general information retrieval tools on the Internet. Search nonprofit organizations and foundations by selecting organization types and specifying key words to narrow your
search (e.g., "higher education" or "biological sciences").

Foundation Finder — This search engine, updated monthly, allows you to search by name for basic information on more than 70,000 private and community foundations in the United States. Under a link to Grantmaker Web sites, you can search for private foundations, corporate foundations, grantmaking public charities, and community foundations. You can search by annotated links to private foundations, corporate foundations, etc., by subject or geographic keyword. Links are provided that take you directly to the Web sites of the funding sources; there also is a Grantmaker Search on the left-hand side of each page that provides detailed annotations of every site listed.

GuideStar — GuideStar generates and distributes extensive programmatic and financial information about more than 1 million American charitable nonprofit organizations. It operates www.guidestar.org, a free, public Internet service and the nation's leading source
of information about nonprofit organizations.

Q. Are there sources available to assist in writing proposals?
A. Yes, the following links may prove helpful:

• The Foundation Center's short course on proposal writing: http://fdncenter.org/learn/shortcourse/prop1.html

• Guide to Grant Proposal Writing (With Samples):  http://www.njstatelib.org/LDB/Grants/grcorpfd.php

• How To Write A Letter of Inquiry (excellent source for proposal writing, researching funders, and useful tips for preparing a proposal): http://www.grantproposal.com/inquiry.html

• Grant Writing Tips from the National Science Foundation: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/1998/nsf9891/nsf9891.htm#table

• Grant Writing Tip Sheets from the National Institutes of Health: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/grant_tips.htm

• Grant Writing Tutorial from the Environmental Protection Agency:   http://www.epa.gov/Region4/financial/grants.html

• The Art of Writing Proposals by the Social Science Research Council: http://www.ssrc.org/fellowships/art_of_writing_proposals.page

• Grants.gov allows organizations to find and apply electronically for competitive grant opportunities from all federal grant-making agencies. Grants.gov is the single access point for over 900 grant programs offered by the 26 federal grant-making agencies. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the managing partner for Grants.gov, an initiative that will have an unparalleled impact on the grant community.

Q. What is CFR's role in writing proposals?
A. CFR does not have the resources available to write proposals, but the director will be able to review proposals and make recommendations before submission to the corporation or foundation if given sufficient time.

Q. Can the CFR development director accompany university administrators or faculty on visits to potential funders?
A. Yes, CFR will be happy to accompany faculty and administrators on these visits. In the event the CFR development officer is unavailable to attend the meeting, s/he will make a good faith effort to have another development officer participate in the meeting. Likewise, CFR may ask appropriate university administrators or faculty members to participate in meetings
with corporate and foundation officials when their attendance would be required to discuss specific projects or initiatives of the university.

Q. What is the difference between University Advancement's Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) and the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP)? What factors determine whether my funding request is handled by CFR or OSP?
A. If you are applying for a federal or state grant, you would work with OSP. Similarly, if you are applying for a grant from a foundation that requires funding reports (i.e., quarterly, semi-annual, and/or annual reports), in most situations, you would work with OSP. However, if you are asking for a contribution or outright gift, you would work with CFR. Examples of these types of gifts include general support, endowment, seed money and project development. OSP and OCR collaborate together and look forward to working with university faculty and researchers to identify funding opportunities. It is the desire of both offices to bring additional financial support to UNCW by working together.

Contact Information

Associate Vice Chancellor
Marla Rice-Evans
(910) 962-7055