Ask Slashdot: With Grants Drying Up, How Is a Tech Non-Profit To Survive?

helios17 writes "Non-Profits like this have traditionally gotten started from the money grants provide. Most grants award vehicles, computers, and even pay for organization rental and utility costs. The problem fledgling and even established non-profits are encountering is the dwindling number of grants allowing for Operating or General Support costs. What good is a vehicle received via grant if you can't afford to put fuel in it? With the number of Operating or General Support grants shrinking and those available funds competed for heavily, should we be looking on line for help? Can efforts like this be a better way to approach it?"

Comments

More important: Why are they drying up?

[Jane Q. Public]

Why are the grants drying up? Despite the much-hyped "austerity", in reality the government has spent more money in each of the recent years than ever before.

So where is all the damned money going???

Re:More important: Why are they drying up?

[countach74]

What's sad is that "conservative" these days means pro military-industrial complex. There is nothing actually conservative about big government spending on military; the Republicans just want us to think otherwise.

Re:Try the private sector.

[RogueWarrior65]

Assuming that this isn't sarcasm, there's a lesson to be learned here. If you are willing to operate on a shoestring budget, you can accomplish a lot. But you also have to be willing to look at your idea and honestly assess it's value and whether or not it's time to close up shop and move on to something else.

Re:Kickstarter.

[Anonymous Coward]

Then replace Kickstarter with Indiegogo. They allow pitching for this and for nonprofits in particular.

I just understood "kickstarter" in title as "crowdfunding", like "google it" for "search the internet" or "xerox" for "photocopier".