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Grant Proposal Basics
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
A proposal requesting a specific grant can be the most complicated or the easiest document to complete. The key is to understand the funder’s requirements thoroughly before sitting down to write the proposal. These are some basic rules that will guide any organization that contemplates preparing a proposal.
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Contributed by:
Joyce Luhrs
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Generating Good Vibes in Governance
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The sounds you create in conversations, one after another, are the vehicle for whatever vision you have co-created with your colleagues. The music of your voice gives life and energy to the dance of your vision. The vibrations set in motion by your voice invite others to join in a song of success that sets in motion the vibe of your organization. Jennifer Rubell co-owns a number of small upscale hotels in the Miami area. Her title in the organization is Director of Vibe and she’s responsible for intensifying the spirit of warmth and playfulness among the staff. I think board chairs should be directors of vibe for their governing bodies. Other board members can take such an initiative as well. Great sounding conversations are infectious. Organizations would attract and retain a lot more talent and wisdom on their boards if this quality of conversation was a priority for them. And it all starts with the sound of your voice.
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Contributed by:
Brian Fraser
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Are You Looking for 7-Foot Bars to Jump Over or 1-Foot Bars You Can Step Over?
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for1-foot bars that I can step over.
—Warren Buffett
While Warren Buffett was certainly referring to the business world in the quote above, his philosophy applies equally well to setting up a grants system for the small nonprofit organization with not enough time or resources.
Just as in the business world, the world of foundation grantmaking has always followed trends. And because foundations’ founders and their leadership tended to be from the corporate world, there was a major push in the 1980’s through the 90’s for nonprofits to be “accountable and goal driven.” That usually meant that funding was directed to short term projects – ones that could deliver measurable outcomes.
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Contributed by:
Pamela Grow
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What I Wish Grant Developers Knew About Foundation Program Officers
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
It was with excitement and a little bit of fear that I opened my CharityChannel email in February and clicked through to Toby Fox’s article entitled “What I Wish Foundation Program Officers Knew About Grant Developers.” As someone who is responsible for making grants at my foundation, I knew all about the horror stories — program officers who don’t read the material, don’t return calls, etc. I feared that I might find a description of some of my own worse habits inside.
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Contributed by:
Suzy Meneguzzo
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Your Vision is the Key to Untapped Resources
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Do you struggle once a year at planning time to refine your vision statement and then consciously or unconsciously put it aside until next year? You may be missing out on a powerful tool to draw resources to your organization. Besides serving as a roadmap to the future you foresee, your vision can motivate others to join you on your journey, as clients, activists, service providers, donors and more. The key is tapping into and exploiting the strategic intents inherent in your vision statement.
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Contributed by:
Terrie Temkin
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Grant Agreements Come in All Sizes
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Congratulations! Your agency just received a grant. But before the check is cashed and the project begins, you need to look carefully at the grant agreement.
Grant agreements come in all sizes. Sometimes it is a one-page letter from the funder indicating the grant amount, time period, and reporting requirements. Other times, it is a multi-page document with much detail. No matter the length, it is a legal contract between the funder and your agency, and it must be reviewed carefully.
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Contributed by:
Teri Blandon
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Seeking Grants for Disaster Recovery
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Cecilia Blanford and I am the Grant Director for Lutheran Social Services of the South, Inc., a 129-year old nonprofit human services organization based in Austin, Texas. In the past 10 years, I have been instrumental in raising nearly $54 million across 280 private, state and federal grants. Lutheran Social Services and its affiliated ministries serve more than 42,000 people in Texas and Louisiana regardless of religious beliefs, ethnicity, gender or age. Its ministries include children's centers, therapeutic foster care, adoption, senior health care, retirement communities, adult day care, emergency services and disaster response.
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Contributed by:
Cecilia Blanford
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Governing Well in the “New Normal” Requires a Focus on Behaviours in the Boardroom
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Due to the events of the global recession we are experiencing world-changing impacts. Life as we know it has turned upside down. The rules have changed. In the “new normal” we figure out what we have to do, get on with it and co-create our futures. At an organisational level we have to bury our old reality and raise ourselves to a different plane. For effectiveness we learn to walk in the newness of this reality. The saying ‘the old is behind us, the new is ahead’ comes to mind. One of the big ticket issues in this new reality is behavioural leadership which engenders best behaviour in the boardroom. A trendy term used is behavioural governance. Behavioural governance requires that we take insights from relationships and the human side of leadership and apply them to the rational, the logical, the analytical and the oversight aspects of governing. It requires increased insight in understanding behaviour and dealing with difficult issues.
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Contributed by:
Tesse Akpeki
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What Now? Potential Career Paths for the Grants Professional
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
I have been the Director of Grants at a small college for almost 5 years. Prior to that, I was a grants consultant for 5 years and a grants coordinator for the 3 years before that. That’s 13 years spent exclusively writing grants. Unlike many grant writers, I do not write grants while also serving as an executive director, teacher, principal, project director, clinical researcher, or VP of something important. I have done nothing but research, identify potential grant sources, meet with project staff, write, submit, and report since 1997. While for the most part I still love it, lately I’ve been wondering, what comes next? What exactly is the logical career path for a full-time grant professional?
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Contributed by:
Stacey Abate
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I Think It’s Time to Take an OJP Program Officer to Lunch
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Those of us that work as grant consultants are well aware that at times foundations and government agencies don’t always view us in the most positive light. But just in case we weren’t fully aware of their commonly held misperceptions, the U.S. Department of Justice has printed their viewpoint for all to see in their “Guide to Grants – FY10 Edition.” In it the Department states....
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Contributed by:
Rebecca Shawver
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Community Analysis is Key to Getting Funded
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
A dirty word in the nonprofit sector for several decades, “business planning” is now becoming more acceptable and even desired by nonprofit leaders and funders alike. The good news is that grant professionals are in a unique position to encourage business planning before developing new programs or expanding old ones, and especially before pursuing grant opportunities.
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Contributed by:
Saadia Faruqi
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What Your Executive Director Would Like You to Know–But May Be Afraid to Tell You
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Can your imagine what would be different at your meetings, if you could hear the thoughts that run through your Executive Director’s head? This article shares a dozen of the most common ones. During the last sixteen years of consulting with nonprofits, nonprofit executives have shared these thoughts with me when they talked about their boards. Knowing their thoughts will help you to better lead the organization. To help you create highly productive meetings, we include suggested actions in response to each thought....
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Contributed by:
Karen Eber Davis
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The Good, the Bad and the Job Interview
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Some people think interviewing for a job is similar to dating. Since I’ve been married for 35 years, I can’t remember what dating is like. But if my recent job interview experience actually resembles dating in any way, I worry for the future of our species.
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Contributed by:
Shelley Uva
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Assessing Organizational Readiness Among Stymied Grantseekers
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
“Hi…I heard you write grants, and I need the grant.”
Well, yes, I do write, but I write proposals (or applications) to apply for grants. I don’t actually write the grants themselves. And no, I probably won’t write for “the grant” since there are numerous grant opportunities you should consider.
I don’t mean to sound pompous. As a new consultant, I used to welcome these eager grant seekers with open arms, offering to shepherd them into a wealth of grant-funded bliss. Inevitably, we were less than successful. Over the years, I have developed a list of screening criteria to quickly assess the organizational readiness of new grant seekers before I spend my limited work hours (and their limited resources) pursuing something they are not ready for....
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Contributed by:
Stacie Marsh
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Theory of Change
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The intensity and passion that’s intrinsic to serving in the nonprofit sector can lead to burnout: that overwhelming feeling that a problem is too big or the obstacles to solving a problem are not resolvable. That same intensity can lead to conflict within the board if people aren’t operating under similar assumptions. The solution is to take some time to think about what you’re doing and why, through a Theory of Change process. This article presents the Theory of Change as one tool for developing and expressing a collective “terms-of-agreement.”
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Contributed by:
Mike Burns
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Jettison the Jargon for Grant Success
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
There is a classic scene in the movie Good Morning, Vietnam in which Robin Williams’ character, Adrian Cronauer, remarks to another character “Seeing as how the VP is such a VIP, shouldn’t we keep the PC on the QT, because if it leaks to the VC, he could end up MIA, and then we’d all be put on KP.” The scene is incredibly funny not only for the amazing use of so many acronyms in a single sentence, but also for the seemingly bewildered looks displayed by the other characters. As the audience, we aren’t completely certain that these military characters fully understand the military jargon with which they have just been peppered. While these confounded gazes are very amusing in a movie scene, the same gazes from those reviewing your jargon-laden grant would be significantly less humorous, especially when it meant your worthy program received absolutely no funding.
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Contributed by:
Kristie Traver
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What I Wish Foundation Program Officers Knew About Grant Developers
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
In comparison to other fundraising vehicles, grant development is an area of fundraising that suits my personality because of its predictability. Although there is no such thing as a “perfect” grant, I appreciate knowing in advance exactly what I need to do in order to make the best possible case for support. The questions might change, and the specific requirements might vary, but at the end of the day there is a clear rhyme and reason to the work.
With all of that said, there are moments when interactions between myself and program officers leaves me scratching my head. One of the keys to building a positive working relationship is open communication, so I present the following: What I Wish Foundation Program Officers Knew About Grant Developers (like me!).
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Contributed by:
Toby Amir Fox
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What Happens if We Just Talk?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
When I reflect on my experience in and around governing boards, both as a member of and a consultant to them, I’d have to say that transactional conversations are the order of the day. In other words, the domain of action is pretty much confined to the domain of the known. But boards must provide direction for the future because how else are they to judge the appropriateness of management’s decisions in the present? In doing so, however, they cross the border between the known and the unknown and move from the domain of relative certainty into that of uncertainty. And it is here that the mode of conversation has to change from the relative tidiness of the transactional to the messiness of the transformational; from the exchange of information to, in Berthoff’s terms, the creation of meaning.
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Contributed by:
Brian Hayman
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Beyond the Weeds: Making the Best Out of Your Time in Researching Grant Opportunities
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Researching grant opportunities can be a difficult and time-consuming process, especially when you are searching for program funds in a specific field or industry. In many cases, during this process you find extraneous opportunities that can distract you. Don’t get sidetracked because they may have specific eligibility requirements or lead to dead-ends in your search for viable grant funding. Other times, we can get caught up in “cherry-picking” or “dialing for dollars,” both of which can negatively impact our organizations and our grant-seeking efforts.
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Contributed by:
Arvetta Jideonwo
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Major Gift Prospecting and Prioritization
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
One of the most important activities a nonprofit needs to undertake prior to initiating a major gifts campaign is the identification and prioritization of prospects. Some organizations spend a lot of money, time and human resources on prospect mining and research. Others try to identify pockets of wealth in their community and then determine what is the best way to contact and solicit those individuals.
For many organizations, I recommend the following simple and inexpensive technique to identify and prioritize major gift prospects....
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Contributed by:
Norman Olshansky
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