Prospect to Proposal

Foundation grants represent a significant - and often undertapped - revenue opportunity for local public media. In FY2024, stations collectively reported over $135 million in foundation grant revenue. But that support was not evenly distributed: nearly 200 stations, more than one third of the system, received nothing from a foundation.

If your station isn't actively pursuing foundation funding, now is the time to start. The tools and guidance below help support you through the process.

The Grant Seeking Process

Getting a foundation grant can take time and involves several steps. Greater Public's Grant Seekers Toolkit is an excellent starting point, written specifically for public media organizations. Candid and other organizations also provide insights into the grant seeking process.

Here's an outline of the key steps - with customized AI-based tools that you can use right now to do much of the heavy lifting for you.

Step 1: Define what you want to fund

Before identifying funders or drafting materials, get clear on what you're asking for. Stations that approach funders with specific priorities — whether operating support or a discrete initiative — get sharper responses than stations that come with a vague need. Knowing your priorities first also shapes who you should approach and what you say once you do.

If your priorities are already clear, move on to the next step. If you'd like help generating ideas to narrow down, the prompt below can give you a starting set of fundable opportunities — both operating support framings and discrete initiatives — drawn from publicly available information about your station.

Use AI to clarify your funding priorities

Copy the prompt below and paste it into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or any other AI tool. It will ask for your station name and any existing ideas you may like to include, then produce a Word document with a working set of operating support framings and discrete initiatives to consider.

Foundation Funding Strategy Generator for Public Media Stations
You will help a public media station identify and articulate foundation funding opportunities — both general operating support and discrete fundable initiatives — that station leadership can use internally to guide grant-seeking strategy and shape funder conversations.
Inputs: The user will provide a station name. Before drafting, ask whether the station has existing priorities or initiative concepts to include — incorporate those alongside what you surface through research. If none, proceed using research alone.
Research the station via web search: call signs, mission, service area, distinctive programming, partnerships, awards, recent reporting, demographic and civic context, stated strategic priorities, and the funder landscape relevant to the station's mission and region.
Open with this disclaimer (prominent): "This document was created with the assistance of Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic, using publicly available information about the station. It is a starting draft intended to help station leadership identify and refine foundation funding priorities — not a finalized strategy or funder application. No station data submitted through this workflow is retained by Anthropic or used to train Claude's underlying models."
Structure:
1.	Station snapshot — mission, service area, distinguishing features (3–5 sentences)
2.	General operating support — 1–2 framings, each as Forward-looking + Stakes framing paragraph pair
3.	Discrete initiatives — at least 3, more if research surfaces them, each as: 
o	The opportunity — what the initiative is
o	Why it matters — strategic and community case
o	Likely funder types — categories of foundations whose priorities align
o	Estimated range — rough dollar range with caveat "rough estimate; subject to refinement"; omit if no basis to estimate
Guidance:
•	Write in the station's own voice (we/our/us)
•	Initiatives must be station-specific from research, not generic categories
•	Each initiative should be distinct enough to align with a different funder type
•	Frame as opportunity, not recovery; acknowledge CPB context only if directly relevant
Output as a Microsoft Word (.docx) document using Aptos font. Header: "[Station] — Foundation Funding Strategy Worksheet." Footer: "Strategy resource prepared with AI assistance • [Month Year] • For internal use and adaptation."

Whatever priorities you land on, carry them through the rest of the process — the funders you target and the materials you draft should both lead with the same clear ask.

Step 2: Identify aligned funders and open opportunities

Not every foundation is a fit for your station. Good prospect research looks at a foundation's giving history, geographic focus, and program priorities - and identifies where your mission, community, and priorities genuinely align. Generating a relevant list of potentially aligned funders saves time and focuses your energy where it's most likely to pay off.

Take one or more of these approaches to find funders and open opportunities that may be a good fit for your organization.