Getting Started  |  Resource Identification  |  Proposal Preparation  |  Grants Management

Resource Identification

Internal Funding Sources

Mercyhurst College provides funds for faculty and student development in areas related to research and teaching. These funds are available to all full-time faculty and students and are used to support a specific project, continuing education and academic development, or for small supply/equipment funding. In addition, the Office of Academic Affairs (OAA), together with the Faculty Research Committee, administers funds for faculty research and travel. The following is a sample of our internal funding opportunities. For more information about these internal funds, please contact the OAA or the current chair of the Faculty Research Committee.

Public Funding Sources

The federal and state governments support a number of agencies that award grants for different purposes. Public agencies generate large numbers of proposals and have a wide variety of guidelines, formats, and required institutional information. Policies and proposals can vary widely between agencies. Information about the grants available, application guidelines and deadlines can be found at each agency’s website (see links below) or visit our office for more information.

If you are submitting a proposal to a public agency, please allow extra time before the deadline for our help with checking your proposal against the guidelines, structuring a budget, proofreading, typing the forms, making necessary copies and gathering signatures, and in some cases submitting the forms electronically. Many agencies will not consider proposals that do not exactly conform to their requirements so you need to submit your proposal to us well ahead of the deadline so that we can format it accordingly prior to filing. Time is always a factor when preparing grant applications. We have had grant requests not accepted because they were filed 20 minutes too late. In some cases many hours of work and research was wasted because we simply ran out of time.

The following Federal, State, and Local Government Agencies have and currently serve as sources of public funding for Mercyhurst College:

There are also several websites that provide reference information and links to funding opportunities through the federal government:

Private Funding Sources

Private foundations and corporations represent another source of funding. Although private sources tend to be less stringent about the proposal process, unsolicited proposals to private sources are rarely funded. Generally, a successful proposal requires an ongoing relationship between the College and the foundation or corporation.

There are over 250,000 private foundations in the United States. There are several ways to identify sources of foundation funding. If you have identified a foundation or corporation as a potential source of funding, please call OSR. We will research the organization, its history, and its relationship (if any) with Mercyhurst College for you, and together we can develop a strategy for approaching the organization. Again, there are many private foundations and corporations that provide funding opportunities. We have included selected links to some of these organizations below:

Foundation Grants and Awards

All grants and awards sought from Private or Corporate Foundations and Private Individuals must be through the Mercyhurst College Office of Institutional Advancement. Inquires and individual requests should be made with the Director of Constituent and donor relations. sshumate@mercyhurst.edu

Under no circumstances should contact with any Private or Corporate Foundations and Private Individuals be made by anyone representing Mercyhurst College. Contact, filing and applications for funding must always be made through The Office of Institutional Advancement.

Private Foundations

Corporate Foundations

Additional Resources

In addition to the links above, the following site may be helpful as you research funding sources:

Books and Periodicals

The OSR has a number of reference books, periodicals and other materials that provide information about the grant seeking process. Please feel free to stop by and utilize these resources at any time.