Where online can I apply for grants or get donations 2 help w/ purchasing stuff that our nonprofit....?

Question

I am a member of a local support group for people that has or has had any type of mental illness or just need someone to talk to. This is the first type of independent mental & physical wellness group in the state of Mississippi. We have tried to get a grant through the state of Mississippi but we were turned down. It is getting very hard to keep this program going, because we have absolutely no type of funding. We would like to get enough funds to open up a small store, where we can have group meeting, free counseling, workshops, & employment for people that might not be able to work in a regular working environment. We would like to start putting an insert into our local newspaper so that we can get more people coming to our meetings. Right now, we are meeting at our local library. If we had a place of our own. Maybe we could have more meetings so that everyone would get a chance to come. The lady who started this group had about a year ago is a fabulous woman. She started this group because of her son. Her son has been through a lot of depression, and she noticed that there was not a place for her son to be around other people that was going through the same things. If you know of a website where you can apply for grants or a website where people might donate to our organization. This organization is based in Batesville, Mississippi. If you would like to know more about our organization. Please leave your e-mail address below, and I will e-mail you.

Answer 1

Why were you turned down for the grant from the state, and have you addressed those reasons?

Where is your web site that shows:

-- your organization's name (so people can confirm your organization's existence on www.guidestar.org)

-- the name of everyone on the board of directors

-- a summary of your staff's experience that shows they are qualified to help people with mental illness

-- information on how you involve volunteers, and how you train these people

-- a list of the services you currently provide (as opposed to the services you want to provide)

-- statistics that show how many people you served in your last fiscal year, and what impact you had on their lives (testimonials from people served, testimonials from their families, testimonials from their doctors, pre-service data compared to post-service data, etc.)

-- letters of endorsement from doctors and other groups saying your organization is needed

-- your expenditures and income for your most recent fiscal year

-- your current operating budget

There is no web site where you can apply for grants. Instead, you need to focus on making all of the above information freely available on a web site. You then need to think about how a newspaper or television station could do a story on your organization (what client could they focus on?), and then contact media representatives to make that happen. Staff members need to call the Kiwanis, Lion's, Optimist and other groups and offer to make presentations about your organization's work. You need to invite city officials to come on site and see what you do. You need to raise your organization's profile and emphasize your progress, not your desperation for funds. People want to fund success. They want to *invest*. If you do all of the above, and at the end of every message say how people can support you, the funding will come.