My name is Richard Hie, aka Durango, and I am on the crew of the Southern Pacific Daylight Locomotive, #4449. I have decided, on my own, to check into the possibility of acquiring grant money to fund future repairs or upgrades to the engine. I, of course, know nothing about this, yet.

Can anyone help me, supply information, or tell me where to look for information on this subject? Anyone have any ideas what groups to contact?

I noticed that there was a conference on this very subject at the convention in Sacramento, and there was a handout given. Would somebody be kind enough to send me a copy?

My email address is landshark454@yahoo.com , or I could pm my address and phone # to any helpful party.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Rich

Richard:

Several years ago I looked into a similar effort. You can certainly google 'grant writing' and find numerous online helps.

One of the best moves I made was taking a local community college's "Adult Evening School" course on Grant Writing--minimal fee (as I remember $12-$15) for the course which included a supply of handouts (enough for a small handbook on the subject) together with a CD-ROM prepared by the instructor, a retired professional proposal (grant) writer with millions "under his belt". I would suggest checking with your local community colleges/adult evening schools for similar courses.

sc 'doc' lewis

Grant writing is nowhere as difficult as people make it out to be. It takes time and research. A good starting point is Grant Writing for Dummies. I just purchased the revised copy at Barnes and Noble on the way back from TRAIN/ARM.

And if you had gone to TRAIN / ARM you could have attended a session about it, with a lot of interesting handouts listing good places to begin to research grant sources.

dave

Rich,

Of primary importance in grantwriting is to select/target grantors that would have an interest in your project. It does no good to write a grant proposal to a person or foundation that gives to medical research or social justice when you want cash to spruce up a locomotive.

Once you have a list of potential donors—presumably with interests in railroads, industrial preservation, transportation, civic heritage etc—find out grant application guidelines and deadlines. Follow guidelines explicitly. Do not overload the grantor with extraneous material—books, flyers calendars etc—unless guidelines request them. If there are no application guidelines, I have found that a two page letter works well. Text should describe why the project would appeal to the grantor. Saving a locomotive is not a reason. Saving a locomotive so it shows off a town's railroad heritage to future generation is one good reason.

Be sure to follow up by telephone or letter. Don't make a pest of yourself, but show some enthusiasm. Some grantors don't want you to bother them, and they will specify that preference in the guidelines. You should respect that.

By the way, an often overlooked source of grants is the estate planning profession. To that end you should cultivate relationships with lawyers, particularly those who do tax and estate work, to acquaint them with your project so that they can pass the word to their wealthy clients. Bank trust officers offer similar potential. Be prepared to use your best telephone etiquette when contacting these professionals, some of whom you may have to visit personally.

Hope this helps.

Sloan

Sloan gives good advice.

Also, remember a few things:

(a) the philanthropy world is as chummy as our crowd is. Make a nuisance of yourself with one potential donor, and expect to be rebuffed by many. Never forget that it's their money, and you're asking for it.

(b) most private foundations don't give money for operating expenses or maintenance - they want their money to go to capital projects. There are exceptions - the SP&S 700 group got money for new tubes once - but they ARE exceptions.

(c) you stand a better chance of getting your grant request funded if they are enthusiastic about the project before you submit. Don't make the mistake of having every communication be about money. Invest the time and effort to develop a relationship with your target donor, and get them interested in your group - invite their representative out for a site visit, treat them VERY well, and if they show interest in car X instead of the car you chose to refurbish, consider changing your plan.

(d) if you get money for project X, spend it on project X, and nowhere else. If there is money left over when you're done, offer to return it, or ask for permission to use it somewhere else. There is no quicker way to get blacklisted than this.

(e) fund raising professionals are expensive, but they already have the contacts you don't have, and many of them can influence a foundation's interest in a way that you never will (because they will act as an honest broker). You're not paying for their grant-writing skills - you're paying for the contacts and influence. Successful organizations use them regularly - if you have the attitude that "we don't need them," but you aren't successful in your efforts, maybe they know something you don't.

JAC

I would like to thank everyone who responded to my request for information. I also received several helpful private messages. I could use a copy of the handout from the grant talk.

Attending the convention would have been nice, but I spent the better part of last week, along with other crewmembers, preparing the Daylight for its FRA annual inspection, which took place on the 11th. Doing little things, like removing, inspecting, and reinstalling the drawbars, and belly plugs, and drilling out the flexible staybolts. Then, I spent 2 1/2 days keeping an eye on the vintage steam generator, while both the SP&S 700, and the 4449 were filled with hot water for their pressure tests.

Thanks again for the help.

Rich

I went to the grant writing class at ARM/TRAIN and received the handouts. One of the presenters was from the "Nonprofit Resource Center" in Sacramento. They have a website at www.nonprofitresourcectr.org. They also had a list of a number of other Internet resources that can be used (some are fee-based.) These include searchable databases containing lists of people and organizations just itching to give away their money to charity.

I personally haven't looked at any of it yet, but I'm sure its a good place to start.

- Mike Lewis
WRC

All good advice given above. From my experience chasing down grants, here are my thoughts:

1. Be careful to verify up front if the grant will require matching or not. For example, when I was the Treasurer for an NRHS Chapter and going after grants, I would be faced with this issue: say I got an ISTEA grant for $100,000 and had to raise 20% of that. Well, if I could raise $20,000 with no problem, I wouldn't have to seek grants in the first place. Getting a grant with a matching requirement may be the easiest part of getting the money - raising the match may be a lot more difficult.

2. Your home state may have a directory of foundations that you can purchase for a small fee. It will probably include a searchable CD. If you plan on searching out foundations on your own I would suggest starting there.

3. As stated earlier, grant-giving is a who-you-know business. Hiring a professional grant-writer may be a very good investment, and getting friendly with your local influential politicans is an even better one.

4. Another suggestion is to ask your membership if any of them are friendly with, work for, or are a part of a foundation. That provides some automatic interest in your proposal.

If you just send out grant applications on your own without any help my experience is that you may get some small grants for $10K or so after a lot of work. If you want to bag bigger grants than that refer to item 3. above. Keep in mind that most of the large foundations (such as the Ford Foundation) are mostly interested in funding trendy causes, such as social responsibility, etc. and aren't interested in funding the upkeep of a steam engine. So, make sure your grant applications emphasize your groups' contribution to local culture, education, social growth, etc.

Good luck, and I would love to hear if people agree or disagree with me on the above.

Chris Jacks.