Grantseeking 101
Getting Started:
- An excellent resource for your first stop, should be The Foundation Center.
- Read this article, this one and this one on strategies for nonprofits in economic downturn.
- You've never written a grant before: Getting Started
- You've written too many grants with too few awards: We said "No", Now What?
- Pointers on cultivating relationships with bloggers, but similar to donors
Helpful pointers for grantseekers:
1) What do you want?
Be crystal-clear! You should be able to describe your project simply, so that any reasonable person could understand.
Tell what you want to do, how you want to do it, what you think it will cost, how you plan to pay for it– and give brief, clear reasons for your wants and needs. Before you ask anyone for help, you should think about why that person might be interested in helping. Your need is not a good enough reason – there are endless needs in the world. You need to find out what your potential donor-partner’s goals and objectives are. See where your request/need might comfortably fit into the donor’s big vision. If you try to make this a good deal for your donor, something the donor can wholeheartedly support with more than mere dollars, you stand a much better chance of hearing “Yes!” to your request.
Here are some questions you should be able to answer:
- What are your measurable goals and objectives?
- What makes this project an especially worthy investment of philanthropic dollars (for which the competition is keen)?
- How much money do you need for the total project over what period of time?
- What other funding sources do you have?
- Who is the ideal contributor to this cause - the one with the most at stake if you succeed (or fail)?
2) Is there another agency, person, or organization doing what you want to do?
First, ask yourself if there is room or need for what you offer. Next, see if a partnership makes sense. If not, research similar programs’ sources of funding. Look at their annual reports, places where they credit their donors, and see if you can figure out why their biggest givers are investing philanthropically with those organizations. Are there any similar natural partnerships for you?
3) Don’t just send mass emails to foundations asking for cash.
Research individual foundations and other grantmaking agencies – take a look at their historical giving patterns. How much are their average grants? What do they support? Ask for what’s appropriate to the foundation’s history of giving.
4) Is there a local or regional Community Foundation in your area?
In addition to their own grantmaking, Community Foundations house Donor Advised Funds which might also be excellent prospects. Ask your local Community Foundation for help in approaching their members.
5) Friendraising:
Who are, or could become, the donors with the greatest capacity to make contributions to your organization? You need people to give money, people who bring their big social networks, people with professional expertise in law, accounting and other specialties relevant to your organization.
Ask yourself:
Do you want donor partners who are relentlessly focused on your mission? Take the time to think about the people who could be your organization's best friends. Sometimes just considering these things, or discussing them with colleagues, can generate lots of concrete plans for creating new revenue streams.
6) Consider developing a "self-sufficiency" objective to every project.
If you can’t figure out how it can eventually pay for itself, maybe you shouldn’t do it. Start by creating a community of powerful donor partners who make passionate commitments of money, time and great ideas to the organization.
You received another “No”, Now What?
Are you asking foundations, organizations, and individuals with whom you don’t have a relationship yet? Before asking more “strangers,” consider the donors and funding sources who have already given grants and gifts.
- How does your organization communicate with its most generous donors? Do you regularly give them personalized updates to tell them how their gifts are working in the areas they care about most?
- Who on your staff, your board, or in your circle of friends might have a relationship with people who could make a significant contribution? If at every meeting you take a minute to think about "Who do we know today we didn't know last time we got together? Who's new in our area?" and figure the "six degrees of separation," you will probably come up with somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who would be passionate about your cause and who could show that passion with a transformational gift.