Tag: grant writing how to

Where to Research Grant Opportunities

Moving through the maze of grant opportunities can be a daunting challenge. There are so many organizations, with varying criteria, and new opportunities pop up all the time. Anyone who has worked on grants knows it can take as much time to research eligible grant applications as it can take to apply for them. It’s important to keep an eye on new opportunities as the reward can be well worth the search. Here are some tips to help you find the right grants for your organization.

Think Local… Like, really local.
Start with your board. Many organizations neglect to tap into the networks of their boards. Your board members are probably some of the people most connected and loyal to your organization, who volunteer their time, talent, and treasure. They want to be helpful. Many board volunteers sit on other boards and committees. When is the last time you asked if they knew of any opportunities?

United Way and other community funders. Most people think of the United Way and similar organizations as only conduits for workplace giving. However, many of these community fundraising organizations have open grant cycles bi- or semi-annually. These nonprofits can also spearhead efforts to organize volunteer time or in-kind support that can benefit your organization.

Kiwanis Clubs, Rotary Clubs, and other community membership groups. These local affiliation groups, and ones like them, are made of community members dedicated to making the world a better place. Many of the older, more established clubs have foundations, restricted to funding initiatives in the communities in which they were established.

Look to your Peers. Yes, we all do it! Look at websites, annual reports, and social media to see which foundations have given to your peers. And even though it might seem counter-intuitive, meet with other fundraisers and grant writers to see if they have any ideas. Most funders do not give multiple years in a row to the same applicant. Many times your peers are more than willing to share their success with you.

Local Nonprofit Affinity Groups. Local membership and professional development groups such as the Association of Fundraising Professionals, nonprofit education centers, and others, will boost grant opportunities from time to time. Membership sometimes required.

Regional, county, and statewide.
Community Foundations. Whether city, county, state or regional, community foundations are comprised of charitable giving funds established by generous donors. The community foundations collect fees and draw from their endowment to create pools of available-to-spend grant dollars. Most have open grant cycles 2 or 4 times a year.

Corporative Giving. Who are the largest corporate employers in your region? Many businesses who have made their money in your community have foundations or giving programs to give back to the community. Check their websites for foundation information, and if so, check their 990s for previous grant history. Don’t see any mention? Try to find their marketing/public relations contact and inquire.

Think digitally… the future is here to stay.
The internet has given us so many tools to make our lives easier. There are many industry tools to research opportunities, though all have an associated membership cost. Two of WGW’s favorites are Foundation Directory Online and GrantScape.

Foundation Directory Online. Who remembers when the Foundation Directory was a book? Now the resource is online, with information on thousands of funders, including corporate foundations and U.S. federal agencies, updated weekly. Filters and search tools give you access to grant histories which means you can spend a lifetime seeing the types and amounts of grants awarded, all with a few clicks!

GrantScape. According to its website, GrantScape is the largest and broadest grants opportunities database available. In addition to its search functions, GrantScape also has workspace functions that can help you manage, track, and analyze your opportunities, as well as set up alerts for new grants opportunities.

Don’t get overwhelmed by the possibilities! 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!

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!

 

Cultivating a Grantee-Funder Relationship

Establishing a direct connection and even an ongoing relationship with a funding organization is crucial for grant success. Relationship-building can take time, persistence, patience, and authenticity on your part. Like any relationship, balance your communication to not only gauge the funder’s interest in your impactful services, but also show how your interest in their funding priorities could lead to great partnerships together.

Establishing a direct connection with a funding organization is crucial for grant success. Here are 5 steps you can take to build a stronger relationship:

• Follow them on social media. This is possibly the simplest action you can take towards staying informed regarding a funder’s activities and letting a funder know you are interested.

• Add them to your mailing list. Consider adding the CEO and chief programs officer to your annual report mailing list. If the funders you are looking to deepen relationships with are local, send them invitations to events. The more times and different ways the funder becomes aware of who you are—the better.

• Play Six Degrees of Separation. Establish if anyone in your organization has connections with a funder. If someone from your board, staff, or constituents knows anyone who works at or is connected to the funder, find out if they get you an introduction or put in a good word?

• Letter of Introduction. If the funder is local, even regional, call and ask for an introduction meeting. Even if they do not accept unsolicited applications, send a letter with materials to introduce your organization. Explain how you connect with the foundation’s giving interests. Respect their boundaries, and do NOT ask for money. Instead, consider asking how the foundation selects who receives its grants.

• Do your research. Always research a foundation. Respect their process. Be confident that you are a good fit for them and vice versa. Be ready with talking points, and show you’ve spent time learning about them. Just like donor cultivation, make sure you are not always asking for something when communicating with a funder.

Funders prefer to speak to organizations directly. It provides an opportunity to establish an ongoing relationship, and – if the funder is open to it – it is a step towards developing trust, which will result in an increased likelihood of funding. Follow a funder’s contact instructions – always. If the grantmaker has not stated any preferences, it generally is safe to pursue a relationship with them.

Remember, relationship-building requires more than just persistent asking. Make sure to share your organization’s successes and show interest in their programs, too.

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.

Staying Ready to Apply for that Dream Grant

If You Build It, They Will Come:
Staying Ready to Apply for that Dream Grant

Most of the time, working for a nonprofit means juggling competing deadlines, lack of resources and time constraints … all while fulfilling your important mission to do good work in your community. It can feel overwhelming to have inadequate planning time to get ahead and stay ahead of critical projects.

However difficult it may seem, planning is essential to success. So, schedule planning time on your calendar, turn off distractions and notifications for an hour or two, and compile your grant writing toolkit.

With a little prep work, you can get and stay ready for funding opportunities by organizing just a few commonly-asked-for grant application items. Because many funders are turning to online portals where you need to enter text into text boxes, it makes sense to organize your materials for easy copying and pasting of information. In Williams Grant Writing’s experience, there are six items most funders want to see to consider funding a program:

1. IRS 501(c)(3) Determination Letter
2. List of Board of Directors and Senior Management
3. List of 3-5 Highest Paid Employees and Salaries
4. Current Organizational Budget
5. Itemized Budget for Project
6. List of Other Funding Sources Associated with Project

Having these items ready-to-go will make those last-minute application deadlines easier to make.

Of course, compiling these 6 items is just the first step. WGW can help you research funding opportunities based on your programs and location, review draft applications, apply for the grant funding, and help you stay on top of reporting and deadlines. We have a proven track record of connecting nonprofits to funding. Contact us today to see how we can help!

Grant Writing: Are You Taking an “Over the Transom” Approach?

It’s not an application. It’s a proposal to start a partnership.

There are plenty of encouraging stories about unknown writers who beat the odds and found an editor who published their best-selling book. In the book publishing business, unsolicited manuscripts are referred to as “over the transom.” Regardless of those encouraging stories, the odds of succeeding this way border on the astronomical. Even J.K. Rowling got nowhere until she found an agent. He, in turn, secured the Harry Potter author a 6-figure book deal that launched her career.

Read on before you conclude this is a message of gloom and doom about the perils of grant writing without the assistance of professionals. There’s a deeper reason for our reference to Ms. Rowling. Even the best literary agents in the business can’t broker a sale to a publishing house unless the manuscript is a compelling and complete story. There’s only one way to get to happily ever after if you want you want to capture the attention—and the funding—from grantors. The story you tell with your application has to be just as compelling as a best-selling book.

The competition is fierce

The IRS tracks organizations seeking nonprofit status. Last year, they added over 79,500 more to the ranks. Foundations are overwhelmed with requests for grants. It’s one of the main reasons why they have such specific application requirements. Can you imagine the work they’d have if it were a free form process? It would be a lot like those over the transom manuscripts that publishing houses receive.

Yes, you have to follow the application requirements—to the letter. But keep this in mind as you grumble. They’re not meant to be obstacles. They’re meant guide you to craft a compelling reason why your request deserves to be funded.

One size does not fit all

The story of your organization and your mission is one you’ve told many times. It’s comfortable and familiar to you—but it may be brand new to a funder. Your application is one way they get to know you.

It’s a 2-way street. You have to get to know them, too. That process should start before you even begin the grant application. The more you know about a foundation, the more you know how to position your organization as a worthy grant recipient.

Assume the grantor knows nothing about your organization—and that’s often the case. Their grant guidelines will outline what they want to know about you, but what are the important things you also believe they should know? Your application offers the opportunity to set your organization apart from others who are after the same funding. This is not a job application form. How will you capture their attention?

You can’t be strangers. You’ll enter into a partnership if you receive the grant. Reach out to these foundations and find out how you can start a relationship that helps you understand what makes them tick.

Know thyself

At the heart of your grant application is the story of how you will improve people’s lives. But like a good novel, it’s the details that bring a story to life. For your organization, that’s going to be your budget breakdown. You need solid, detailed numbers.

Does what you propose reflect realistic planning and delivery? Poor estimations are often the element of an application that causes a foundation to pass.

Cause and effect

How will you know that you’ve been effective? How will you measure your impact? These are a few of the most important questions you must answer with your grant application. Not only is it possible to measure social change, it’s required if you want funding from a grantmaker.

Your organization may be doing it for the first time. You might not have any history. Don’t hesitate to seek out and make references to similar successful projects. Funders are charged with ensuring that they’re making responsible investments in social change, and there’s no better reassurance than pointing to a similar success.

Start with the end in mind

Even your letters of interest should express the idea that you’re capable of executing the social change this funding provides. Is your vision clear? Are you ready to get started?

It still might end up being a “hurry up and wait” scenario, but foundation decision-makers are looking for signs of confidence. They’re also looking for transparency. Be truthful if there are areas where your organization may need assistance. Remember the partnership aspect. The grantmaker may have more than funds that can help you.

Each of the above aspects is crucial and interwoven into the purpose of the project you plan to fund with the grant. They all have to be fully developed. J.K. Rowling probably wouldn’t have been able to find representation by a literary agent if she had only a half-baked idea of who Harry Potter was and the adventures he would undertake.

We’re a lot like literary agents. We know what foundations want, and more importantly, we know from experience what it takes to capture the attention of grantmakers.

But unlike a literary agent, we don’t expect you to come to us with a fully finished story. Most of our clients begin their relationships with us while they’re still in the investigatory stages.

Where are you at in the development of your story? Grant writing is all we do. Maybe it’s time our paths crossed. Put us to work for you today..