To all new
non-profits, or those planning to start a grants program!
It may be that grants aren’t for you, if you think:
1.
Grants don’t involve any work on your
part
Grants are not just “filling out forms.”
Grant seeking is a competitive pursuit. By “competitive,” I mean that funders
regularly receive thousands of applications, and have only enough money to fund
a very small fraction of them. They have to pick the best investment of their
funds, so they look for a reputable track record, stable finances, strong
leadership, and a program that has the best shot at meeting its
SMART* goals. Does your application do that?
And an application needs to convey
the need for your program or project, the urgency of the need, all backed up by
cited statistics. And it has to express this need and describe this program or
project in a compelling way, in a way that COMPELS the reader to fund it. Does
your application do that?
To get all this done, you (your
organization, your nonprofit) needs to be Grant Ready, which takes a lot of
work and doesn’t happen overnight. It involves forms, yes, but it also involves
stated policies and procedures on everything from DEI, to
marketing, communications, gift solicitation and acceptance, etc., etc. And
partnerships, a good reputation and track record, and visionary leadership with
solid board support. I could go on and on. More on Grant Readiness in another of my
blogs and
on my website.
*SMART = Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic, Timely.
2.
Grants are transactional
By “transactional,” I mean that
you just send in a form and expect a check, without any effort beyond the
application you submit. That is not the case!
Funders are just like individual
donors, in this way: they want you and your program to succeed, because they
share your mission and they consider their grant an investment in fulfilling
that mission. And to get them to the point where they know you, trust you, fund
you, and feel invested in you, they have to be introduced to you by more than
just an application package landing on their desk.
They deserve an introductory phone
call (or email), an intelligent dialogue about your agency and your program,
and also perceptive questions about them and their organization. At which
point, they expect you to listen and take good notes! In other words, you start
the (hopefully lasting) relationship in a meaningful, and memorable way. More
on what to say and how to say it in the Funder Call Script
on my website.
And once you are funded, they become
a partner. They show their belief in you by investing. You can’t just take the
check and turn your back. At a minimum, you have to 1) thank them, 2)
acknowledge them appropriately, and 3) report on your progress regularly. If
you do all that and make progress to your stated goals, then guess what? You
have a real decent shot at getting funded next year! So keep up
the communication, and build the relationship. It takes time, but anything
worth having is worth the work.
3.
Grants can be outsourced and don’t
require any of your attention
Hiring a consultant is a big
commitment, financially and time-wise on leadership. You have to be available
to them, communicate effectively and often about what the organization has
done, is doing, and what it’s planning on doing, if the consultant is going to
have any shot at prospecting for new funding opportunities, writing a strong
application for you, and submitting that application on time.
You cannot “plug-and-play” by
hiring a consultant, thinking all your grant issues will be taken care of. You
have to be involved. You have to build and maintain the relationship with the
funders, provide timely reports to your progress to stated goals. A consultant
cannot be the one to make your friends for you. You have to be
the voice the funder hears, not the consultant’s.
You have to vet the consultant you
have in mind. Can they show you writing samples, provide references, and a list
of awarded grants? Are they members in good standing with an ethical
organization like GrantProfessionals Association? And, not required, but a real indication of
ethics, accountability, and professionalism: Do they have their GPC (Grant
Professional Certification)?
And there are unethical grant
consultants out there, unfortunately. They will make claims, take your money,
and not do the work. BEWARE if a grant consultant is:
o
promising you what sounds too good to be true
o
offering to work for a percentage of the grant
award
o anything
else that sets off alarm bells in your head
4.
Grants take no time
In fact, a new grants initiative
can take up to 18 months (or longer, depending on the strength of your programs
and applications) to reap any ROI. You have to consider that many funders have
once-a-year grant submission windows, and so you have to wait for that window
to open to apply. And funders need time to review and decide on who they will
fund, sometimes several months. And most funders will not have heard of you
before, and will reject an initial application on the grounds that they want to
see what you can do and how you can grow next year.
Getting Grant Ready, as I have
mentioned, takes time — and dedication to stay Grant Ready. Staff
changes, board and other volunteer leadership changes, policy updates, end of
fiscal year financial updates, annual reports, gift reports, etc., etc., all
need to be kept current and the grants team needs to be kept abreast. If a new
program is to be implemented, the grants teams needs a full download on the
elements of that program. Essentially, they need to pull together a meeting of
all the program’s stakeholders, and build a Logic Model. Logic Models make the
strongest programs and ergo the strongest grant proposals. More on Logic Models
here.
Your grants team needs regular
updates on all programs, and also on the happenings within your agency, in
order to stay current and know what to prospect for, and how to write
effectively and truthfully about your organization. As grant deadlines
approach, your grants team needs you to review and provide feedback on their
drafts, and needs you to review and approve final drafts (and possibly upload
and submit them). All time that you need to devote.
So you see, grants are a big investment. No matter if you’re
a small nonprofit just starting out, or a large established agency, grants are
a big investment on your part. Much thought needs to be given to starting and
then maintaining a grant program. Your grants team — whether you have a team of
one (or even a fraction of one person’s responsibilities), or you have multiple
staffers working on it, or you have outsourced it — it’s a big commitment, and
as the agency’s leader or its program director, you can’t turn your back on it.
Your grants team needs to hear from you almost constantly.
Grants: they’re not for everybody.
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