Tag: grant research

What Do Reviewers Look for in a Grant Application?

Despite increased efforts from foundations and funders to simplify the grant application process through FAQs, information sessions, and webinars, there still remains an air of mystery around reviewing grants.  So, what can you do to help your submission stand out?  Here are some items to consider before you submit your application.

Consider: Is your proposal realistic?  Have you thought the program through?  Is it a new program your organization is taking on, or are you doing the work already?  Will your program actually address the challenge?  Does your budget align with your project narrative? Lastly, are your outcomes possible, and can they realistically be evaluated?  Grant reviewers will be able to notice if you have padded the budget, or conversely, not allotted enough room in the budget to accomplish something.  Be honest, accurate, and direct about what you intend to do with the money if you receive it.

Read and follow the application guidelines.  Don’t start off on the wrong foot by incorrectly following submission guidelines or failing to answer the prompts accurately.  Make sure you are responding to exactly what is being asked of your application.  Re-read the questions and re-read your responses.  Then, do it again. Ask a colleague to read over your proposal to make sure you are following all direction.

Attend the informational webinar, phone call, or in-person session.  If your schedule allows, attend the information session related to the grant. This shows the funder that you are interested in the opportunity and dedicated to being as prepared as possible with your application.  While generally not a component in the scoring process, grantmakers will notice who participated in a listening session.

Before writing, take time to understand your audience.  As with all writing, it’s important to consider who you are writing for.  Do you know the history of the funder or this grant opportunity?  Have you researched previous awardees to see the types of programs funded?  Do you know how the funder reviews grants – a panel of staff reviewers grading your application or community volunteers?  Is your funder concerned with local or national initiatives?  Check the guidelines again for context clues to help you determine your audience and voice.

Provide Clear and Concise Responses.  Grant writing is a delicate balance of writing descriptively but also keeping it specific. Stay focused—you are writing to solve a problem, not convince the funder about your organization’s value. Reviewers want to know you are knowledgeable and prepared to do what you are proposing to do.  Telling a story can help illustrate you know the landscape and are ready to respond to it with your program.  Make sure to provide relevant details whenever possible and support your proposal with data or direct quotes.  In the end, is your response convincing?

It’s the job of a program officer or grant reviewer to steward their employer’s resources wisely.  It’s also their job to give funding to the organization that can convince them their program is the best way to address a challenge.  Help grant reviewers see you as knowledgeable, capable, and responsible, and success will follow.

Williams Grant Writing (WGW) has the team, time, skills, and systems in place to act as your grant writing partner. WGW can help you research funding opportunities, review draft applications, apply for the grant funding, and help you stay on top of reporting and deadlines. WGW has a proven track record of connecting nonprofits to funding. Contact us today to see how we can help!

 

The Elephant in the Room: Grant Writing as Fundraising

There are many blogs, books, and conferences devoted to nonprofit fundraising. Topics, such as direct mail best practices, making “the ask,” and getting your board on-board, have been dissected again and again.  Yet, how honest are the conversations around fundraising coupled with grant writing?  Compared with the personal, relationship-based nature of appealing to individual donors and meeting face-to-face with local businesses for financial support, fundraisers can feel overwhelmed when also expected to research and write grants on top of their other responsibilities. When everything’s a trade-off, should your fundraiser spend their time grant writing? Or is their energy better spent cultivating relationships and stewarding donors? Here are a few considerations when debating the best use of your fundraising team’s time.

Grant writing is unique and requires a special skill set. Grant writing is vastly different from other types of fundraising and other types of writing.  The process is often solitary, reflective, and inward-focused. A strong grant application should be clear and concise, making sure to answer questions directly, with little-to-no niceties.  Simple, detail-driven, transactional grant writing is oftentimes in stark contrast to the friendly nature of a fundraiser who interacts with donors.

Grant writing is a process, with a system and deadlines. Maybe not the first or second time you apply for a grant, but once you’ve applied for enough grants, a good grant writer develops a system.  How is your system working for you?  Do you have a system? Large foundations have entire teams to monitor grant deadlines and reporting.  Smaller organizations with limited resources may find it difficult to systematize grant writing while balancing other fundraising activities.

When successful, the real work starts. When the grant is awarded, you and your organization must administer, track, and report on the grant funding.  There is typically more demanded on an organization when funding comes as a grant, so fundraisers must have the system in place to concentrate on the reporting.

Making the case for outsourcing your grant writing. Contracting your grant writing to an outside team frees staff to focus on what matters most: your mission and your donors.  Professional grant writers will write more objectively about your program and have the tracking systems in place to handle researching new grant opportunities and reporting once grants are obtained. What are you waiting for?

Williams Grant Writing (WGW) has the team, time, skills, and systems in place to act as your grant writing partner. WGW can help you research funding opportunities, review draft applications, apply for the grant funding, and help you stay on top of reporting and deadlines. WGW has a proven track record of connecting nonprofits to funding. Contact us today to see how we can help.

5 Ways to Research Grants Without Going Crazy

Finding the right grant for your organization can be an overwhelming task, but following these tips can make it easier.

If you’re ready to start researching grants or are in the middle of the process, you know that it’s arduous, tedious, never-ending work. However, the following tips can help focus your process and make it less burdensome.

1. Determining the purpose of your grant

Sound basic? It’s not. Many organizations just plunge into the world of grants without having a strong reason (or reasons) for the grant.

Ask yourself, “What is the purpose for this grant?” You need to be able to clearly articulate what you want funded ─ and why. Knowing those answers will help you in your search as well as your communications with grant funders.

Also, keep in mind how a grant for your project unites with your organization’s overall mission. What’s the narrative of your organization? What’s its focus? What are its concerns? Then think about how this grant will tie into that vision.

Moreover, know the timeline for this grant. How soon will you need it? You may need to revisit this search, restructure it, or postpone it until your organization can best implement the grant.

2. Explore online research centers

“Almost all research for funders is done online now,” writes Joanne Fritz. “There are free information centers in libraries, community foundations, or other nonprofit resource centers. They will have access to the Foundation Center’s Funding Information Network database, plus a basic collection of publications.”

The most popular grant search engines are:

  • Foundation Center. This online foundation “gathers and analyzes data, shares it worldwide, and empowers people to understand and increase philanthropy’s ability to improve the world.”
  • Grants.gov. This tool lets you look for grants based on basic search criteria (e.g., keywords), opportunity status, eligibility, funding instrument type, category, and agency.
  • Grant Watch. This search engine “identifies grants for universities, hospitals, government agencies, schools, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, research institutions, and some small businesses and individuals.”

3. Focus on keywords

When looking through research centers, conduct keyword searches to find grants that pertain to your organization’s focus.

Search by:

  • Keywords
  • Subject matter
  • Geographic area
  • Ethnicity
  • Target audience
  • Race
  • Gender

Don’t forget to do combinations of keywords as well.

“The process of finding grants typically begins with prospect research,” states GrantSpace, a service of Foundation Center. “Foundations generally give based on subject and geographic region, so look for funders whose interests match your organization’s mission, programs, populations served, and locations served.”

4. Compile a list of potential funders and comb through it

“Sit down with your work associates and ask these questions,” suggests writer Beverly A. Browning. “Who are our corporate vendors? What bank or credit union processes our payroll? What local funders have given us money or in-kind contributions in the past five years? Do we still have a good relationship with these funders? Can we approach them again for funding support?”

Put together a list of prospects, and get to know your prospective funders. Read everything you can about what drives them:

  • Annual reports
  • About Us pages
  • Staff biographies
  • Case studies
  • Social media posts
  • History of grants

Dig into their websites and find out where their passions lie. Then winnow down the list so you don’t end up wasting time with leads that go nowhere.

Doing the heavy work now means less time spent in reaching out to funders that aren’t the right fit for your organization.

5. Help for discovering grants

You may find that the process for researching grants requires far more time and effort than you can devote to it. Your focus is fixed on other important tasks.

Williams Grant Writing can do the heavy lifting for you. Find out how we can help you with grants research and every other aspect of grant proposal development, so you can get back to changing the world.