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

Posted by Unknown on from the unicorns-probably dept.

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?"

11 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. More important: Why are they drying up? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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???

    1. Re:More important: Why are they drying up? by BenJCarter · · Score: 4, Funny

      We aren't at war anymore. You must have missed the president guy's mouth noises on the subject.

      --
      For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. - Publius
    2. Re:More important: Why are they drying up? by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 4, Informative

      lol leftist faggot, why not hand over the world to china

      And thus we see the right wing eating its own. Jane Q. Public is one of Slashdot's most reliably conservative posters--but one post that deviates from orthodoxy, and out come the McCarthyite claws. Kind of like how Grover Norquist was accused of being a secret Muslim the other day.

      I'll be over here cheering from the sidelines.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    3. Re:More important: Why are they drying up? by countach74 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    4. Re:More important: Why are they drying up? by grcumb · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Why are the grants drying up?

      In many cases, it's not that the money is drying up; it's that the money is increasingly 'focused' on projects rather than administration.

      There's a popular conception among donors that the best way to keep NGOs from existing for their own sake (and growing fat and complacent) is to cease providing core funding, instead providing money for individual initiatives. As a happy coincidence, this also keeps NGOs on the string, having to justify every single little thing they do, which makes it easier to ensure that NGOs don't do anything that might make the donors uncomfortable, like speak their mind, or have a conscience or tell the truth.

      The 'no core funding' argument has some merits, I'll grant (heh) you, as there have been NGOs who got caught up in navel-gazing, who got lazy and spent more time feathering their respective nests than actually, you know, doing good. That is absolutely something to be guarded against. But this move toward project funding has the unfortunate effect of keeping some NGOs on the fringe, struggling to stay alive. This applies particularly to those who challenge the status quo.

      And as noted here, it has a knock-on effect on all NGOs, who find they can obtain salaries and meet project expenses, but can't own any fixed assets or even keep a vehicle running. Perversely, this increases their operating costs, which have to be met somehow. And that results in bigger grant applications for project funding.

      Obligatory software analogy: This is similar to tech companies who see design, tech support, permanent staffing and even updates as cost centres and therefore areas to starve as much as possible. This can all too easily lead to more friction in the gears, longer ramp-up times, slower release schedules, reduced quality and sales, and yes, higher development costs, once everything's factored in.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  2. Re:Kickstarter. by Splat · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Kickstarter cannot be used to raise money for causes, whether it's the Red Cross or a scholarship, or for "fund my life" projects, like tuition or bills."

    Welp, so much for that idea.

  3. Re:Try the private sector. by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  4. Wellcome to the world of non-profits! by hedgemage · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have worked for a variety of non-profits and written grants for them. I'm surprised that there ever was money for operating expenses available for tech-based non-profits since every foundation I've petitioned for grant money has specifically said that they do not provide operating costs. Instead, I write grants with a specific project in mind. This could be "build a new wing to the university library", "Fund staff to inventory the museum collection in storage," or "run a week-long day camp for inner-city youth that teaches non-violent conflict resolution methods."
    Unless you have some kind of revenue stream, you are going to be relying on donations and volunteers just like a community clothes closet for the homeless. Sounds like now that the gravy train of easy money is drying up these tech non-profits are being forced to demonstrate how they benefit the public good. I'm sure that there are many worthy causes, but now their in the wild competing for the same dollars and mind-share as food pantries, elder advocacy groups, and animal shelters.

    1. Re:Wellcome to the world of non-profits! by hedgemage · · Score: 4, Informative

      Replying to my own comment because I thought of another good point.

      Non-profit does not mean you can't make money. In fact, as long as you follow the rules for organization, reporting, etc. you can make money hand over fist. Think about how every private school in the US is able to function and some grow quite fat off of those tuition dollars. If you have a tech-based non-profit that (for example) provides computer programming education to disadvantaged youth, or provides systems and education for the elderly, there's nothing to stop you from doing consulting, selling spare parts, or charging for other services as long as those proceeds are plowed right back into the organization to feed your key mission.

      Too many people think that non-profit means you aren't a normal business. You are! You simply have convinced the government that it is in the public's best interest to let you exist free of the burden of taxes.

  5. so just claim your org is pro-war by decora · · Score: 5, Funny

    example:

    old slogan: we give used computers to poor people

    new slogan: by recruiting young people into the Infosec milieu, we help america defend against the goddam commie chinese hackers and the motherfucking russians who are trying to make our power system go offline so they can invade our country, kill our leaders, and convert us to non-americanism.

  6. Re:Kickstarter. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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".