Customized Google-powered foundation searching

This custom Google search was created by folks at eDemocracy. This comes via the NTEN
listserve. Here's what its creator says about it:

"To assist E-Democracy.Org's grant prospecting efforts I put together a
little (big actually) Google Custom Search covering foundations, some
government funding sites, and sites with fund raising advice for
non-profits.

Why not share it with the world?

Try it out from:

  http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=008992915104785064737%3Aq7jehshqp3g

Google Custom Search has a nifty option where you can say search all of
the sites or partial sites to which a certain pages links. The main area
where the search can be improved is by adding pages with links to
smaller community foundations. I've opened up the search engine to
volunteer contributions."
Here's that link again:

http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=008992915104785064737%3Aq7jehshqp3g


I remember several years ago being asked by a 20-something nonprofit executive why anyone would need the Foundation Center. "Can't I just Google everything I need to know?" he asked. The question, and the search engine above, reveal a lot about how things have changed. There is such experienced-based assurance among Internet users that they can find what they need to know, by themselves. There is good reason to believe that many relevant funders can be found on the Web - though I don't know if anyone has counted foundation websites (which would be found by Google) and compared it to the 10,000 foundation database maintained by the Foundation Center or the larger universe of grants and funders catalogued by FoundationSearch.  Savvy users of any search engine must always wonder what they are not finding, but so should users of industry sources such as the Foundation Center. 

This wasn't the post I was planning (am working on more posts on networks and philanthropy) but this caught my eye - it speaks to the power of networks and a spirit of cooperation in the sector, even with the very competitive domain of funding. 

Tags: philanthropy, technology, innovation