Funding

In 1995, according to the Foundation Center, approximately 40,000 active private and community foundations in the USA awarded over $12 billion in grants to nonprofit organizations -- in the USA and many other countries. Corporate contributions for both company-sponsored foundations (whose giving is included in the $12 billion figure) and direct corporate giving programs amounted to about $6 billion. Just the sheer volume of grantmaking gives pause to grantseekers looking for foundation, corporate and other charitable support for children, youth or families. As its name implies, the National Guide to Children, Youth & Families is an indispensable guide in getting started. The volume contains 3,635 entries, including 3,224 grantmaking foundations, 182 direct corporate giving programs and 229 public charities (including 188 community foundations) that have shown a substantial interest in children, youth or families, either as part of their stated fields of interest, or through the actual grants of $10,000 or more reported to the Foundation Center. One of the more useful features is the book's listing of actual grants made. Nearly $1 billion was handed out for causes benefiting children, youth and families, representing 13,891 grants made.

"Price of Admission" is a book to read along with McPherson and Schapiro's "The Student Aid Game." Together they make up a two volume library on federal higher education policy the likes of which could not be collected in a hundred lesser titles.

Thomas Kane writes four easy-reading chapters on "How We Pay for College," "Rising Costs in Higher Education," "Has Financial Aid Policy Succeeded in Ensuring Access to College?", and "Rethinking How Americans Pay for College." To each chapter he brings empirical research and impressive analysis.

Kane's last two chapters are the most provocative. Repeating the findings of his earlier works, Kane is not convinced that federal student financial aid has done much to ensure college access. He offers both modest and ambitious policy suggestions: dropping asset tests to simplify financial aid applications, front-loading Pell Grants during the first two years of college, raising federal student loan program limits, experimenting with various forms of financial aid, and basing means-tests on future earnings through income contingent tax credits.

Some experts in higher education policy may react to the book with a yawn because none of these policy prescriptions is new, and none original with Kane. But if so, they are missing the essence of the book. Like few others, Kane prods the U.S. Department of Education to begin more ambititous evaluations of its student financial aid programs, and challenges the Congress to think beyond dividing up the billions of dollars of bounty among narrow interests of banks and higher education institutions.

Careful readers of Kane, as well as of McPherson and Schapiro, will notice a growing recognition that the behavior of higher education institutions, more than federal policy, determines how access is distributed. Kane is troubled, as we all should be, by the fact that "the gaps in college entry by family income have widened" despite the efforts of federal need-based student financial aid. He notes that "aid packaging and the marketing of federal financial aid programs remain largely in the hands of college student financial aid administrators [and] as a result, the process remains shrouded in mystery."

Kane suggests that lowering the barriers involved in the process may have a larger payoff for some students than increasing federal aid.

Overall, this is a fine book. Not great, but fine. I've used it in online grant writing course for teachers in part because it is the best teacher-specific book available (in my opinion, of course) and most of my students seem to want something teacher-specific. Given my choice, Mim Carlson's book "Winning Grants Step by Step" is a better book for someone interested in learning how to write a proposal. I do, though, really like Chapters Two and Three "Getting Ready to Seek Grants Support" and "Forming a Grants Advisory Group" and his chapter on federal applications is exemplary.

I am an independent thinker...always have been! So I decided toread the book and form my own opinion. I recommend this book to anyserious entrepreneurs. Don't be put off by the feeling that you are sitting at the kitchen table having a conversation over a cup of coffee. At times I learned more in graduate school at a cafeteria table having a conversation over coffee with professors than I did in their classrooms.

After nearly a year and a half researching and preparing the very complex business plan for a major new corporation, what I needed was a fresh, well focused summary or measuring stick through which to step back and look at the completed business plan. I've read and used many business books in the process, but this book provided just what was needed. It would have been a good overview for starting the process, but I did not know about it at the time. As a result of reading this book, I was excited to recognize that we have "nailed it" so to speak in our business plan, and I declared the plan "cooked".

The book was also helpful in understanding more of the dynamics of the funding process, and challenged my assumptions on, among other things, who decides who owns what portion of a new business. This book altered my attitude about the funding process (and ultimately my future net worth) as we seek $40 million in capitalization.

This book is a keeper. Ms. Chandler has written an excellent book on how business owners can raise capital for a new startup or to expand their current business. I read this book from cover-to-cover and found it refreshing, original and to-the-point. I plan to re-read sections so that I can really grasp the concepts the author is conveying. From reading this book, I can really see how Ms. Chandler spent 20 plus years in investment banking.

I recently ordered this book and read it from cover to cover. The tips I found inside Chandler's book were practical and most helpful to an entrepreneur like me who is seeking capital for my new venture. I hope Linda writes a sequel to this book.

This book gives the information it claims to - the only problem is, a good portion of it is out of date. For example, the link for the government assistance catalogue leads you to an area of the Library of Congress website that indicates it's no longer maintained. When you finally find the link for the catalogue, it doesn't work.

This book was really helpful for me. It pointed me to many grant resources that I did not know existed before I read this book. One of the best parts of this book is that it shows you a variety of different places to find the same information, this is very important with the Internet changing all of the time. If you are looking for a general reference on where to find grants or information on grant makers, this book is a good place to start.

This book only has common sense ideas in it. I generally like the motley fools products. However, this book should be purchased only by those who do not have a basic understanding of how to save or prepare for college. We all know it is best to start saving early and talk to people at the schools about how to get a scholarship.

This book tackles a daunting financial topic and makes it easy to digest. Best of all, it's only 125 pages, so I didn't have to commit hours and hours of my time to learn what I needed to know. The book offered charts, tables and plain English, distilling topics such as the Education IRA (now called the Coverdell ESA), 529 Plans (there are two main kinds of these and you can sock away up to $100,000 or more in them -- who knew??) and even paying for elementary school and grad school. Oh -- and did I mention that it's funny, too?

Not only does this book have tons of typos but many of the resources listed seem to no longer exist or will lead you on a wild goose chase if they do exist. The supposed help on how to write essays and resumes states the obvious. For example, they explain that your applications should be free of dirt and stains and should be typed. If you don't already know that, good luck in college.

This book claims to help non-traditional students. Of all the resources that might apply to me as a non-traditional student, I have found none worth pursuing. Either you have to pay a fee to apply for the scholarships and contests or you have to spend a fortune mailing requests for further information. I tried saving money by looking for information on the internet but ended up wasting more time than it was worth. It would be much easier to get a job and pay for your own school than spend the time and effort it takes to have a slim chance at winning a scholarship or contest that pays only $100.

If I could give this book zero stars, I would have. There is nothing in this book for non traditional students.

This book has a lot of information for someone headed to college. Don't bother with it if you are planning on a course of graduate study.

I would definitely NOT recommend this book. The material is very outdated ( copyright 1994, 1999). Some of the websites are not even in use anymore. It is obvious that when this book was written internet use was limited. I was hoping to find scholarship opportunites for my son, instead I found myself out $12.95 (purchase price).

I thought this book was average. Like many other students I plan to go to college, and some extra cash would be rather helpful! I have a pile of scholarship books, and I thought this book did provide some helpful tips to WINNING scholarships - rather than applying for them. Overall I would recommend this book to anybody looking for scholoarships - but I advise to look at all your choices first!

Winning Scholarships for college was the most helpful book that I read this year in my conquer for seeking scholarships. It gave me an inside guide on how to achieve my goals as to where I want to be. This book helped me get 3 schools on my list. And now I will be attending NYU this fall. Thanks Marrianne Ragins.

This is book is not worth a buck... I bought it, but just now I am going to send it back. It contains 600 scholarships, but you won't find one which would be good for you. I found only 10 scholarships for undergraduate business program and none of them was suitable for me. It also contains scholarships for US residents - I thought it is a book for int'l students! You must very lucky to find at least 1 scholarship which you'd be eligible for... I had higher expectations of Peterson's. Dissapointed...

This book proves to be very useful, in particular to undergraduate students. However, I found that a lot of the scholarships for graduate study were very specialized and required the student to be a member of various organizations that offered the scholarship

This book is specially meant for the international students who want to study in the United States/ Canada and it really works too - It is worth the money paid for.

Don't waste your money. This book is mostly a hard copy of the information College Board has on their web site. No usefull information here.

The software CD is nothing more than a link and search engine to their web site to locate scholarships that I think you can find anywhere else easily. Save the money and go right to the web site directly.

I recommend this book as a good place to start. "The College Board Scholarship Handbook 2004" by Joseph Russo is the all new seventh edition. As a college advisor, I also always recommend going on to specifically read Norman Thomas Remick's, "West Point: Thomas Jefferson: Character Leadership Education", the only book that explains the meaning of college education and why Thomas Jefferson founded West Point which is the greatest education, greatest scholarship, and fairest selection process in the world.