There are hundreds of thousands of grants available to Fairs. Unfortunately many Fairs don’t have the staff available to do the work required to find, apply, and monitor the grants. In those instances, Fairs, of any size, could do three things:
1. Find a local non-profit organization with a similar or complimentary message, purpose, audience. Look for other non-profit organizations in your city/town/region and even in the state. You can do a google search for “non-profits in my area”. Review the list, check and see what their mission/purpose is by visiting their website. If you find they have the same or similar purpose, reach out to their management team.
2. Partner with that organization to apply for grants. As a Fair, and especially if your Fair has it’s own separate non-profit entity, partnering with another organization for that grant will increase the strength of your grant application. The non-profit will have it’s own target audience, and added to your Fair’s attendance, the reach of your program is significantly increased.
3. The non-profit organization may have a grant writer on staff/under contract. Offer to pay a portion of their salary for the grant application. For Fairs, staffing is always a challenge for any project. Partnering with another non-profit that has a staff member responsible for grant applications is a great way for a Fair to tap into a highly qualified resource without incurring the entire salary. The Fair could pay the non-profit a portion of their employees salary, make a donation to the non-profit for the salary portion, or even “share” the employee.
The biggest benefit of all of these is that the Fair will gain a new community partner who will become a cheerleader for the Fair and the Fair’s programs. The non-profit will gain a new and, possibly, larger audience to get their message out to.
