Identifying and Approaching U.S. Institutional Funders

Identifying and Approaching U.S. Institutional Funders: A resource for foreign charitable organizations was prepared by Paragon Philanthropy for the organizations it works with, which ask regularly how to raise money from U.S. institutional funders. It explains how U.S. institutional funding works in practice, and how to find the funders already giving in a given country and sector. The resource covers starting with the funders an organization already has, why an introduction opens doors a proposal cannot, how to read the Form 990-PF and build a shortlist from it, what to have ready before a funder asks, how to use AI without undermining a case, and the compliance question a U.S. funder will raise. It is written for executive directors, development leads, and finance staff at foreign charitable organizations. The research method is specific to the United States, though the approach to identifying and reaching funders applies in other funding markets.