Your New Program Or Project Design Must Be Clear Before Applying for Grants

You are approaching potential donors asking them for grants and this, in effect, is really raising new donors who are investors in your organization, the need it's meeting, and your organization's effort. Investors deserve to get the 'who, what, where, when, how, why, and how much' of all aspects of whatever it is you're applying for a grant for.

Whether you are the project manager or a fundraiser writing the grant proposal; writing a grant proposal often does a helpful thing. It forces the program or project design to be fully thought through, fleshed out, and finalized; because if you can't describe for a potential donor the full extent of the program or project, you have work to do. In order to raise grants, and more than one or two, project or program details must be honestly, thoroughly, and succinctly conveyed. If you need to, read my post, How Do We Tighten Up Our Grant Proposal?

Grant donors accept applications for grants because they are involved with the cause that you work for, too. They do their work by contributing money, just like your nonprofit does its work by providing programs, resources, research, etc. Know, too, that today's donors are much more savvy than just handing checks out without regard. Read my posts, What Motivates Giving? and Yet Another Example of Donors Expecting Results

Today's donor wants to know:

__ Is your project or program likely to succeed based on the peoples' experience who are running it, the resources allocated to the project, is it designed within a realistic scope of work and designed to be effective, how much need exists for the project, etc.?

__ Will your program be sustainable? Have you figured out how to keep it going, financially, after you've raised a few grants? It won't die on the vine, right?

__ Will their be evaluations or requests from clientele for feedback, during the program and after? Are their expected outcomes in place, now, before the project's begun? How will you know if your project or program is successful? What evaluation methods are you going to use?

__ Does your nonprofit retain good agency transparency, operations management, board oversight, honesty, and mission success histories? If not, you have some public relations work to do; coming clean honestly, copping to the issue, explaining how the issue is being corrected, and expressing that your organization has learned from its mistake(s) and is moving on.

These four requirements must be met to raise grants. Next, your organization must address basic programmatic requirements. They include, but are not limited to:

__ Designing a program that does not try to do a million things, but rather is focused. Define the project or program, explain it, flesh it out to its full extent. State clearly the intended outcome.

__ Designing a program based on actual current needs in your community that were discovered by recently researching or talking with the people or 'thing' needing assistance.

__ Designing a program that can succeed. It will truly meet the community or issue's need, it will be allocated all of the resources necessary to be successful, it will run over the proper amount of time (if not indefinitely), it will be easily accessible to those or that which needs it, etc.

__ Planning. Enough time, before the program or project is going to begin, must be given to planning. The project must be designed, a team put together in which everyone knows who is responsible for what, by when, how, where, and to what goal. Fundraising must be decided, BEFORE the program begins, and the plan to implement it must be put into place. Locations, transportation, meals, literature, access to doctors, etc. or whatever is necessary for the program must be arranged for, given time to respond, and contingency must be made, just in case.

__ Staffing must be appropriate given modern paradigms in your field. It must be planned out, and the proper amount of people must be allocated to the project for it to realistically succeed. Whether volunteers or hired contractors or staff, there must be enough time to design job descriptions, advertise for assistance, interview and check references on, hire, and train any new staff. All hiring requirements (e.g. experience, degrees, licensing, etc.) must meet the current legal and professional expectations for the work to be done.

__ Time. I know that the need that your organization is meeting is urgent. It usually is, but giving planning, hiring, design, fundraising, etc. enough time leads to a successful project, and that's what your constituency or cause really needs, even in the midst of its urgency.

__ Budget. Planning and effective fundraising is best done after creating a realistic and complete budget. List what all will be needed (everything), list each item's expense for the time allocated for the program, then list all avenues of income that will be allocated to this project. It's OK if they don't balance, today, as long as you're planning how to make them balance before the project begins. By the time the project begins, you don't need to have all of the money in the bank, yet, for the entire project; but you do need to know that you will realistically have all of the money in the bank that your program will need, month to month, for its full duration.

If you want to raise grants, having these basics answered will up your organization's chances many times over.

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Be Strategic, Yes, 'Strategic' When You Write the Grant Proposal

I want you to get the money that the nonprofit that you work for, needs. You are writing that grant proposal for one reason - your nonprofit has a need because, really, your community has a need that your organization is setting out to address. For the sake of your cause, for your nonprofit's constituency, get strategic when you go after grant money.

What do I mean by "get strategic when you go after grant money."? You are putting your organization, its mission statement, your track record, and your organization's ability to succeed before the grant donor. Take each and every opportunity, to make your case why your organization should receive the grant. You may reply, 'Arlene, that is my intention,'. 'Great!', I say back. I'm just saying, let's be sure that you're aware of every opportunity that you (or anyone who applies for a grant) truly has.

How do you "get strategic when you go after grant money."?

__ Do your research. Read my post, How Do I Prepare To Find Foundations Who Will Fund Us? and also read my post, Top Ten Ways to Find A Grant Donor Who Will Give to Your Foundation To my point, get strategic and be sure to only apply to grant donors: who give to organizations who serve the geographic region that your organization serves, who states (in its giving guidelines) that they give towards the cause that your organization works towards, and finally, only apply to organizations who have given recently (within the last two years, at the most), given to projects, programs, or items that are similar or the same as the one you're proposing to receive a grant for. If a grant donor does not maintain one of these attributes, apply to them, but after you've applied to grant donors who retain all three of these attributes.

__ Approach each and every foundation as the separate, unique, and different from one another entities that they are. Do not, for example send them all the same proposal. Differentiate proposals, to each grant donor, accordingly, by formatting, including in the content, attaching, etc. only what they request in their giving guidelines. Don't do what they request that applicants avoid doing (e.g. "no phone calls, please"; "please do not send us DVDs with your proposals", etc. - don't do it). Read my posts, Insert Photos? Fancy Paper? Professional Binding? and How Do We Tighten Up Our Grant Proposal?

__ When writing your grant proposal, do not repeat information, do not use large font sized headers, get good at self-editing, and ask someone who you know writes well to edit your proposal. The space that is taken to write your proposal on is an opportunity for your organization, so take advantage of all of it. Think of the piece of paper or (for grant donors who request that grant applications be submitted on their website) the web page response prompt space as an opportunity to make the case why your organization should get their grant, and then some. Get good at stating a lot of information in one sentence, let alone one paragraph. List, for the potential donor, with what attributes, experience, or abilities makes your organization uniquely situated to successfully alleviate or end the root cause of the cause your nonprofit works for. Do not state the obvious, information that is extraneous to the project or item that you need the grant for, etc. Stay on topic (your organization, the information the grant donor requests, and info about the item or project you're asking for the grant for). Read my post, Top Ten Grant Writing Tips From Foundations

__ Follow through in a timely manner providing everything that was requested of your organization and nothing more. For instance, if a potential donor, in response to your grant application, requests your nonprofit's financial audit from 2005, get it to them, in full, quickly. Every interaction with any potential donor (or past donor) reflects on your nonprofit. Never hand anyone in your organization's community cause to be disappointed, unclear, or even upset with it. Read my posts, What Motivates Giving? , and Yet Another Example of Donors Expecting Results .

__ Be professional and polite in all interaction with the potential grant donor. Get organized before speaking with anyone at the foundation, so that you give them what they want, or get what you need, without waisting their time or burdening them. Make interacting with your nonprofit easy and perhaps even pleasant for them. Read my post Healthy Nonprofits Know That Customer Service Is Required...Relationships Are Everything

When applying for grants, always keep in mind that other nonprofits applying for the grant that you're after, when you apply, are probably doing everything that they can to get it; so you should do everything, and then a couple steps more. Being strategic reduces costs to your organization by saving it time, it forces you to get organized, (read my post, Tracking Grant Writing Work & Organization ) and it ultimately helps your organization get a leg up, over other applicants.

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The Mission Statement and Why It's So Important

I've heard nonprofit colleagues refer to mission statements, in general, as b.s.

I'm of another mind.

I'm not a 'pie in the sky' or 'starry eyed' idealist about mission statements. I happen to believe that a well thought out, investigated, and hashed out mission statement can both inform clients, volunteers, the board, and staff; and it can direct the organization's work, growth, planning, PR/marketing, and fundraising, etc. Why do I think that mission statements can be this critical and valuable? Because I've seen the mission be just that; critical and invaluable to its organization.

As a few of my former colleagues do, some may think that mission statements are nothing more than something to post on the office wall, wishful thinking, or antiquated notions of a long-gone founder; you already have a need for a really good mission statement. You don't think so? Check this out...

__ To raise money well you need to set your organization apart from others in your field, or cause, who do the same kind of nonprofit work. There's plenty of room for various nonprofits to work on the same cause; it's imperative, though, that each nonprofit be meeting a unique need and not all doing the exact same work. Collaboration, by the way, is not doing the same work - it's uniting resources, experience, and effort to work towards a mutual goal. Collaboration is effective. Doing what others are already doing well is futile. Specialize by becoming really effective at your organization's niche!

__ You need your clients, volunteers, board, donors, and the potential donors or potential board members to understand quickly in clear language what your organization does for whom or what.

__ Your volunteers, board, and staff need to understand the clearly defined reason that your organization does what it does, who or what it does that for, and what it is here to do. Everyone has to be on or get onto the same page.

__ You have an organizational chart (e.g. the board oversees the executive director, the executive director oversees the staff and volunteers, and the staff oversees volunteers on specific tasks), BUT from the volunteers on up to the board - everyone in your organization, each and all, works for the mission. Your organization's real boss is the mission statement and its goal. You work for its intent, cause, and all of every one's effort should be focused and commanded by the mission. Everyone must work together but the reason that the mission should be the boss is everyone must be focusing their individual effort to the same (clear) goal. It makes your organization much more financially efficient, effective, successful, and cohesive. Having a chain of command helps to organize the people and the work - and it needs to, but THE CAUSE and THE MISSION STATEMENT GOAL are the only reason the organization exists. The organization is not about you, your career, your neuroses, your insecurities, or your resume'. It is its own legal entity per the United States government. If you don't understand this point, ask yourself what are you really doing working with this nonprofit, if you aren't there to work for the cause as directed by (its) your mission? Once you become a part of a nonprofit - you should be there to achieve its mission goal.

The key to the effective mission statement (e.g. in order for your staff and volunteers to buy into the work, for your community to 'get' your organization, etc.) is a mission statement that is modern, given where your cause is, today and the latest thinking in your field; very thought out; it should be clear and concise; and it should state why, what is being done, and for whom as clearly as possible.

This is a very important point; no mission statement should be thought up off the cuff and used after just one discussion considering it, nor after only a single person has accepted it. The mission statement should be discussed, revamped, left to sit for a day or a week, reviewed again shortly thereafter, discussed some more, a second and third draft should come to be; and all of this should be tested. Ask colleagues in your field if they understand it's meaning, ask potential clients if it's clear; ask staff and volunteers if they agree with its meaning and intent. Listen to people's responses. Consider the feedback and go rework the mission again with your organization's leadership.

Your organization could be brand new or twenty years old; you are allowed to review your mission at any time. You don't want to either reinvent the wheel, nor ignore the need to modernize or update. Having said this, it is imperative that the organization's leadership direct this review and eventually include key staff and volunteers. It is a process and many organization have gone through it (in effective variations) to great success (e.g. better fundraising). I strongly recommend either hiring a very reputable nonprofit consultant who has successful experience in mission update or strategic planning. Ask nonprofit colleagues who they've used, contact your local United Way or professional nonprofit affiliation if they know of a good consultant that they could recommend. Do research and investigate before hiring anyone.

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Planning Your Organization's Grant Writing Expenses

Let's say that you and I work at The United States Star Fish Society (TUSSFS). Let's say that our nonprofit has it's 501(c)(3) nonprofit designation, the board is proactive and seeking out the 'how to's' and basics, learning nonprofit oversight, management, operations, and fundraising. Let's say, too, that since its inception TUSSFS has solicited board contacts, previous individual donors, local businesses, and volunteers four times a year. We have a donor base that is growing.

Let's say that our board, during its training, learned how critical planning is for mission success. In TUSSFS' second year the board conducted four strategic planning sessions that resulted in a strategic plan. The strategic plan clearly defines what the organization's mission is, it's current work, the work it envisions itself doing in the future, and details action items, a list of who is responsible for what, deadlines, goals, and how and when outcomes review will occur.

Let's say, too, that during the second year TUSSFS' fundraising committee created a Development (or fundraising) Plan. The Development Plan lists the current fundraising work, the work it will do in the future BASED ON THE STRATEGIC PLAN'S GOALS FOR THE ORGANIZATION (e.g. new programs, hiring more staff, growing the organization's public relations and marketing, etc.), and details action items, a list of who is responsible for what, deadlines, goals, and how and when outcomes review will occur. Based on the Development Plan, TUSSFS began, during its second year, a new fundraising event, the annual Star Fish Gala Ball. We knew when we started the event that it would take a minimum of three consecutive years before this event would begin to gross revenue. The event was conceived, organized, and conducted each year (and will be in the future) to set money aside to pay for grant writing services.

We're in our fifth year, at TUSSFS. We've saved $10,000 from our Star Fish Gala Ball revenue, over the past three years, to be used for grant writing expenses. Now that we've implemented a method to raise money for our grant writing expense, and we have money in the bank - we need to know what we will expect to pay for, how much, and when.

A professional grant writer provides your organization with expertise, a developed skill, success, and leadership. Like when your organization consults with a CPA or a lawyer, you are receiving skilled services (raising grant donations), and your organization is paying a fee for those services. There are many reasons to hire a grant writer. Some nonprofits only need an expert grant writer to review a grant proposal that they've written for corrections, suggestions, and direction. Others need a grant writer to search for potential grant donors (prospecting). Most nonprofits hire grant writers to do all of the grant seeking work; research, prospecting, writing a proposal case, putting the applications together for each potential donor, managing potential grant donor interviews/visits, writing thank you letters, writing grant progress reports, and writing end of grant reports.

Here is a typical (and there are variations) consulting fee schedule for the entire grant writing process:

1. Initial free consultation to meet the grant writer, discuss the organization, determine if it's in a good position to raise grant money, discuss the organization's needs and goals, and discuss how the grant writer works and what the grant writing process is.

2. The grant writer provides the potential client with their resume', a copy of an actual proposal that they wrote and its budget (or a writing sample), letters of recommendation (or a list of professional references), and a clear and thorough proposal.

3. To begin work, many consulting grant writers will request a retainer be paid in order for them to begin work. The retainer can be 1/3 to 1/2 of the proposed total cost of the grant writing contract (in the proposal).

4. When the grant writer begins work, as billing begins, they post the retainer against their billing to your organization. You should receive regular detailed billing and you should also receive regular detailed project and schedule updates.

5. If you are hiring a grant writer to write a grant proposal (case) and you plan on them using the case for many different projects that your organization knows will require grant money - most of the total grant writing cost to your organization will be up front. For each program that your organization is going to raise grants for - the grant writer will have to prospect for potential donors, and the reporting, thank yous, and the grant program maintenance will be ongoing. The greatest amount of time will be spent writing the grant proposal. After it is written, it can be edited for each different need that your organization has for grants (and for each potential grant donor that your organization will apply to). In other words, after your grant proposal is done, most of your agency's grant program will be ongoing prospecting, filing potential donors' info, editing the grant proposal case and mailing out applications, reporting to donors, and managing what grant work is completed and what is on the horizon.

The grant writing expense is larger, upfront, usually. Maintenance is just as important, but usually does not require as much time as the initial work required to form a strong grant program.

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