Find Foundation Funding

The Office of Foundation Relations focuses on building relationships for the University around academic priorities identified by the president, provost, and deans. Supporting the research, teaching, and outreach activity of individual BU faculty members is a primary part of our mission, not least because foundation relationships often start with relationships between individual faculty investigators and foundation staff; we rely on faculty members to continue to cultivate those relationships, too.

First steps for funding

The best place to start in the search for private funding for your work is what you already know.

You probably have your own ideas of which foundations might support your work—or more ideas than you think—and are probably more familiar with private charitable organizations in your field than we are. Have you consulted:

  • Professional associations: Which organizations fund the professional associations to which you belong? Do they have their own funding programs?
  • Colleagues/competitors: Who funds the work of groups pursuing similar or related work? Which foundations are acknowledged in the most recent and relevant articles in your bibliography?

You should also avail yourself of BU’s institutional subscription to powerful funding opportunity databases, including:

Don’t forget about Boston University internal grant programs that are designed to seed or bridge your work between external grants, including:

Need further assistance from OFR?

Fill in our application form and see if OFR can be of further help.

Do you have more questions? Please contact us.