Quick Overview of Foundation Center's New Mapping Capacity

For a long time now, I've been sold on the advantages of subscribing to the services of the Foundation Center in New York. This year, their Professional-level services gives you access to the Foundation Center's latest tool, the Map of Cross-Border Giving. I checked out their webinar and I can see that the Map of Cross-Border Giving will be a powerful tool for me as I teach workshops on grant writing because it illustrates U.S. grantmaking to non-U.S. recipients.

The Map of Cross-Border Giving is limited to the top 30,000 grants totaling more than $8.5 billion.

This new feature should be particularly helpful to those of us presenting seminars on grant writing. For example, you will be able to show your clients and your students:

•See grants from U.S. grantmakers to non-U.S. recipient organizations.

•View grantmaker data from independent, community, company-sponsored, and operating foundations as well as corporate giving programs and grantmaking public charities.

•Filter your map view by fiscal year, grantmaker type, or giving based on recipient type, primary subject, or type of support.

•Mouse over a country to see the total dollar amount and number of grants awarded, along with the number of grantmakers and recipients giving and receiving funds. (In my experience, this is particularly useful in illustrating the uneven distribution of grants - particularly for countries in the Middle East.)

•Change your display options to see grantmaker or recipients lists, and then click to see descriptions of the grants awarded to recipients in each country.

This tool is also useful for illustrating the concentration of grants from places like the Ford Foundation. To get started, log in to FDO and look for the Map of Cross-Border Giving box on the left, then click the "Visit Map of Cross-Border Giving" link.