Grant and Nonprofit Research

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been getting a lot of questions from students about how to find information about nonprofits, specifically how to find out about charitable contributions and grants.

Actually, a great resource is the new Nonprofits Subject Gateway, created by Business Librarian Shana Gass. This resource lists resources for finding charitable giving statistics, charity tax filings, and grant applications.

Two other things of note:

• The Mediamark (MRI+) database does have some information on charitable contributions so you can find out what media contributors are more likely to use. Oddly enough, that info is listed under the category of "Contributions to Public TV/Radio" so it is easy to miss.
• The Foundation Center has released a new GrantSpace site. This site offers lots tools to help novice grantseekers navigate the application process.

Since nonprofits and grants are becoming more of a part of the vernacular of communications, I think these requests are only the tip of the iceberg. I wouldn't be surprised if nonprofit research/grant writing become a larger part of the communications curriculum in the future.

Health Care Reform Research

The hot topic these days is health care reform. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is a unique funding agency that aims to help create leverage for change in health care and in the broader health policy arena.

Given this mission, they are an important resource for research reports about health related topics. Their latest report examines how health care reforms in Massachusetts are going and what the public thinks of those efforts.

PEJ's News Coverage Index

The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) is non-partisan, non-profit organization that conducts public opinion polling and social science research about news coverage.

As part of their research, PEJ conducts a content analysis of news coverage each week. The report about last week's coverage is now up on their website.

These reports are a great resource for keeping track of how news coverage has changed over time.