Learn How to Improve Your Nonprofit’s Grant Recipe

Highly Sought-after Grant Writer Shares Secret Ingredients

Ever wonder what’s in a nonprofit financial pie? If you guessed apples, sugar, and cinnamon, you are surprisingly not that far off. Well, sort of. Nonprofit organizations should always have more than one ingredient to their mix of funding sources. Grants are one source but often are smaller pieces of the pie for small to medium-sized organizations than larger nonprofits.

Let’s first explore some statistics.

“Individuals gave more than $309.66 billion in 2019, according to NP Trust, making individual charitable contributions one of the best nonprofit funding sources. Individual giving is predicted to increase by 4.7% in 2021, according to Philanthropy Outlook. Foundation giving increased to $75.7 billion in 2019 and about 20% of nonprofit income is derived from Grants as of 2020 (National Philanthropic Trust)”.

While all funding sources are equally important for nonprofits and deserve their attention, we will be focusing on grants and ways to improve a nonprofit's chances of getting funded.

Slice 1: Be Ready

So how do you know if your nonprofit is ready to apply for grants? First and foremost, make sure your program or service has a minimum of six months of data to demonstrate its impact. Collecting demographic data about your population is not sufficient. It is important, but when referring to data in the research world, there needs to be a more profound understanding of the impact of the program or service. For example, suppose you are running an education program that targets inner-city youth to improve their likelihood of applying to college. In that case, you will want to collect the following data points: grades before entering the program, an interview about their thoughts surrounding continued education, defined milestones throughout the program, exit interview and grades at the end of the program, and how many applied and were accepted to college. If a nonprofit does not have this data, that will be their first step to getting grant ready. Second, work with your Board of Directors to set policies around cost-sharing, indirect costs, program management, and reasonable allocation of staff time to research, write, and prepare grant applications. When I first began writing grants, I did not realize how time-consuming the process was. Searching for grants should be a continuous process. A nonprofit should always have something in the pipeline. A federal grant will be more time-consuming than a majority of foundation grants. It takes approximately 100 hours to research, write and edit a federal application. Lastly, make sure your nonprofit has the staff and resources to handle the post-award management.

Slice 2: Become the Ultimate Pie-Maker

Knowing what pie eaters prefer is as important as matching your need to what funders want. Like a nonprofit, foundations and other funding sources have specific funding criteria that explicitly state their funding priorities. If you’re not a match, move on to another foundation. Based on my experience, organizations that try to align themselves for the sake of getting a slice of the pie do so at their peril. Foundations recognize when an organization simply is trying to appease them for the sake of getting funded. When writing your letter of intent or pre-application, make sure you take the time to articulate this alignment clearly. One does not want to leave room for any assumptions to be made.

Slice 3: You’ve Found a Match

Follow the instructions. That seems easy enough. However, it does become more challenging than one would think. Every funder has different rules and policies. When writing a grant, we need to take the time to plan and lay out all of the instructions, which can be daunting and time-consuming. When faced with page limitations, word count limits, and so forth, it is easy to try and push the boundaries to get more information conveyed. The problem is that a computer usually does the first round of screening, and they do not see grey. So if your proposal does not meet the requirements of the instructions, it will be rejected without a review. Small funders who do not have the technology in place will do a preliminary review before passing applications along to the review committee. If the application does not follow the instructions, it will not be submitted to the reviewers.

Slice 4: Know your Budget

It is critical to bring someone in from your financial team early on. A nonprofit should prepare a draft of its grant budget right from the beginning. This will provide a better idea of what the program or service will cost the potential funder. Many times when one is searching for a grant, a range is presented. It is always good practice to see what the funder has funded in the past to see the average amount. Without a draft budget in hand, it is hard to know if this will be a good fit. When funders review your grant, they will know if the numbers align well with the narrative presented.

Slice 5: Speak the Same Language

Nonprofits tend to develop jargon or specific ways they like to describe the population they serve. While this is fine for internal documents and speaking with potential donors, it can confuse a funder if they refer differently to a population or group. This can be determined when reading the request for proposal (RFP). A best practice is to mark down words or phrases that can be used when writing the entire proposal. This will lessen any confusion or misunderstanding.

Slice 6: People Eating Pie Together

There is the age-old saying it is not what you know but who you know. In the case of grants, it is a little of both. Developing a solid relationship with a funder will go a long way in getting grant funding. The more the funder knows about nonprofit's programs, services, and impact, the better positions one will be. There are many ways this can be done, but at minimum, a nonprofit should reach out to the contact person listed in the RFP as early on as possible. This will enable them to start a dialogue and get any clarification that may be needed. Many times there will also be planning meetings offered by the funder. It is critical to attend these. Even if you feel you have a good grasp of writing the grant and what is needed, attending will help develop a connection and relationship.

While this is not everything you need to know to write a successful grant, these tips will help get your nonprofit started. For additional help and to learn more about this topic, contact Dr. Heidi or follow her on Facebook or Instagram. Don’t wait to build or expand your nonprofits grant portfolio…Get Started Today!