I appreciate your input, but the Grant Making Process isn't working in my area. It too, has been riddled with fraud. The major grant making foundation funnels money to the "fronted NPO," who then takes their cuts, or worst as in one group accomplished nothing, none of the money made it to any organization in the community, and as reported on 1/26/05 is running in the red...and they had a major multi-million dollar grant. Where'd the money go? They're having to move out of highrent offices etc. Poor darlings, maybe if they'd been a bit more wise in handling the funds in the first place.
In addition, as I stated earlier they do this thing with Donor Directed Grants too. Undisclosed money goes in and undisclosed money goes out. They even state in the 2005 grant award page that grants listed do not include donor directed awards.
Sorry if I am sounding harsh, I am just extremely frustrated that our city has almost a billion dollars available for grant making and very little of it getting to where it needs to go. In fact, this particular foundation won't even award grants to small NPO's. They must be 'moderate sized' or somebodys pet project.