What Is Foundation Maps?
Foundation Maps is a data visualization tool designed to help funders and grantseekers see who is funding what projects and where around the world those projects are located. Foundation Maps was developed by the Foundation Center. Since we know that many people in our audience receive grant funding, and may find the visualization of the distribution of funding interesting to explore, we thought we would share this tool.
Using Foundation Maps
Through its functionalities for searching and browsing within visualizations, Foundation Maps can help researchers make more fully informed decisions about funding agencies from which to apply for grants in order to strengthen their impact. Users are able to search and peruse the distribution of grant funding for research around the world based on specific characteristics of a grant or a subject area. With visualizations that include a map, a list of funded projects, charts, pathways (organizational charts), and constellations (network graphs), users can explore the relationship of funders to recipients and projects, where the projects are happening, the funding amount, the numbers of funders and recipients, and the number of grants.
Foundation Maps recently came out with new features that include more information about federal funders, funding trends in specific geographic areas, and the capability to define a spatial area of interest. Over 170 federal funding agencies in the U.S. now have profiles within Foundation Maps that show where each funder is based, the dollar value of their grants, and the number of active grants that they are funding; these profiles can be further explored within each visualization option. Another new feature is that users can draw a shape on the map to find non-profits and funding trends within or across certain areas. The new Distribution Chart allows users to explore how funding is distributed by subject area, population group, and support strategy in a certain geographic area; this feature allows searching at the levels of the city, state/territory/province, and country.
Access to Foundation Maps
Foundation Maps is available to patrons of Memorial Library using computers at the library. It is not accessible on personal computers connected to UWNet wifi.
If you’re interested in using Foundation Maps as a resource for exploring grant funding, you should look into attending the library workshop Introduction to Foundation Maps, on April 25 from 1-2 p.m. in Room 231 of Memorial Library.