Grants available for nonprofits Archives

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!

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?

Finding a Grant for Your Nonprofit

How to fund your 501 C3

Grants – the name itself conjures up feelings of red tape and bliss. However, for NPOs they can be an essential tool for success.

On the bright side, grants can be obscenely generous, they tend to attract additional grants, and they’re validating – the problem is applying for them requires some grant savvy. The best way to break the ice is to identify the…

Types of grants available for NPOs

The list of grants offered to nonprofits is much too long to list, and even the types of grants are quite extensive. So, here’s a collection of some of the more common genres of grants available for NPOs, to help determine what’s best for yours.

Start-up grants. Also referred to as “seed money,” the idea is to give an initial boost to promising NPOs so they can focus on getting the ball rolling rather than raising money. The downside is they typically decrease each year – they’re not intended to be permanent.

In-kind grants. Sometimes goods and services are just as useful as funding, and they can come in unexpected ways. For example, it’s not uncommon for foundations to provide human resources, such as legal and accounting services. This genre also includes marketing grants to help get your NPO noticed.

Endowment grants. This breed of grant contributes the interest of an investment, on the contingency that the principal funds remain untouched. The principal can also be added to via other contributors, or fundraising campaigns.

Planning grants. Evolving your NPO consumes valuable resources that can be prohibitive. Planning grants are kind of like seed money for new development; they fund the pre-execution effort required to advance your mission.

Donor-directed grants. Having donors on your side can be advantageous beyond their direct contributions. In some circumstances, individuals involved in foundations are in positions to influence how that organization’s funds are directed – this is called a “donor direct grant,” and it’s usually listed as individual giving by nonprofits.

Where to look for grants

Once you have an idea of what you’re looking for, the next step is where to find it.

Board members. They’re already your allies, so make sure they know you’re seeking out grants – they might be connected with foundations that fund work in your field. However, don’t rely too heavily on what you come up with via this route; instead, think of it as more of a gathering of your options, rather than blindly putting energy into a lead simply because it came from a board member.

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance and Grants (.gov). Remove the spaces and add “.gov” to the end and this URL will take you to a site that allows NPOs to research grants and guidelines – in some cases there’s even the option to apply.

Local grantmakers’ organizations. Chances are, your home city or town has a regional association of grantmakers. Again, consider this a method of looking at the entire menu before making a decision – request a list of their members and grant criteria for each member (if available), then find out if the grantmakers host “meet the funder” events or enable NPOs to make presentations to their organization.

The Foundation Center Online. For a nominal fee, the Center gives you access to their online database of funders. However, if the membership isn’t in your budget, they also work with Regional Foundation Centers, such as the Free Library of Philadelphia, who provide free access to the Online Directory during business hours.

What’s the right grant for your NPO?

Focusing on the types of grants that are best for your specific needs is a crucial step towards funding success. Williams Grant Writing can help you ensure that focal point encompasses all your options, so you can leave the red tape to those with the sharpest scissors. For more advice on finding the best grant for your NPO, reach out today.

Tag: Grants available for nonprofits