Articles by CharityChannel Members
CharityChannel members who have years of experience in their field may apply to join a Contributor's Panel. Once accepted to a panel by the panel's editor, the member will work with the editor to determine article topics and to prepare an article that is ready for publication. With tens of thousands of colleagues in the CharityChannel professional community, this is a key opportunity to give back to your profession by sharing your hard-won expertise and wisdom.
[ View All Articles ]
______
About Funding Environmental Sustainability for Your Agency Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyWednesday, January 05, 2011 (2 years 130 days ago)
Green Projects are Often the Smartest Projects
A wise woman once told me that “money must do more than one thing.” She was speaking from experience as a reviewer for state funding and was advising my agency on positioning for new funding. That maxim has served me well for twenty years, and it continues to apply to funding environmentally-sustainable buildings and practices.
______
Making the Case for Green Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyWednesday, June 11, 2008 (4 years 338 days ago)
Green is everywhere. Being able to talk about green in your proposals demonstrates you hear public discourse and have recognized how it and your work intersect. It demonstrates to funders how resourceful you are with money, energy, materials, practice and information. It also shows respect for the environment, your staff and visitors or clients, and for the funder.
The trouble is, green is often complicated....
______
Development Office – As in Environmentally Thoughtful Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyWednesday, January 09, 2008 (5 years 127 days ago)
It’s obvious how the new building or the renovations should be green, and that everyone should be recycling and saving energy, but exactly how does that affect the development office? The most obvious effect is donor impressions of wastefulness. Don’t we want to demonstrate to our investors, partners, and donors that we are thoughtful with our resources, that we maximize them? Don’t you want to show environmentally-conscious donors that you share their beliefs (whether or not you are an environmental organization)? Don’t you want to show your entire audience that you recognize the cultural changes and are in sync? I’ll assume that’s a ‘yes.’
______
Summit Meetings: Their Value in Planning and, therefore, Grants Development Contributed by:
Sarah BrophySaturday, February 03, 2007 (6 years 102 days ago)
Planning is a proposal-writer’s best friend. Planning, summit-style, is a great example. If you’ve ever dreamed of the opportunity to bring multiple minds to bear on a big project, perhaps this article will encourage you and others to just do it.
______
Guidelines for Writing Grant Proposals for Museums: For Non-Museum Writers Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyWednesday, June 28, 2006 (6 years 322 days ago)
Proposal writers are often asked to help out by writing a proposal for a project outside their area of expertise. For those of you who are asked to creep into museum territory, or are brand-new proposal-writers for museums, here is a primer. This article will start with theory as a way to provide context for the needs and methods statements you will be making in your proposals.
______
Grants, General Operating Support, and a Shift in the Universe Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyThursday, November 17, 2005 (7 years 180 days ago)
The Guidelines for the Funding of Nonprofit Organizations represent an extremely important potential shift in policy for grantmakers and grantees. To me this feels like a shift in the Universe....
______
Meet-the-Donor Meetings Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyWednesday, March 30, 2005 (8 years 47 days ago)
Every meet-the-donor panel I've been to has a breakfast bar, the one with the pastries, gorgeous fresh fruit, bagels and cream cheese…and I can’t eat any of it. Chances are, if I want to shake hands with one of the foundation presenters, my fingers will be sticky; or Paul Grogan of the Boston Foundation will walk by as I'm chasing the pineapple around my plate.
______
The Power of the Draft Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyWednesday, March 16, 2005 (8 years 61 days ago)
I've grown bolder of late. Now when I call to talk to the foundation officer about a potential proposal, I often ask if he or she would be willing to read a draft proposal or a summary.
______
Understanding the Federal Review Process Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyWednesday, February 16, 2005 (8 years 89 days ago)
The length of the federal review process has always frustrated my clients and me. That silence following the deadline is so profound. This is how I explain it to them....
______
Dealing with Gremlins in the System Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyWednesday, October 06, 2004 (8 years 222 days ago)
In keeping with recent efforts in this space to eradicate trolls (under bridges), it seems reasonable to deal with some in-house trouble-makers, though hopefully your gremlins aren't in league the great trolls.
______
The Rise of RFP's? Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyTuesday, September 02, 2003 (9 years 257 days ago)
In the space of an afternoon AETNA, MetLife, The Boston Foundation, Crossroads Community Foundation, Rhode Island Humanities Council and a private foundation came across my screen and desk, all invoking pre-application processes and RFP's. In wondering if the barrage were due to the economy or instead an evolutionary state common among foundations "of a certain age", I decided to ask. The answer is both, and a bit more: pre-applications processes improve the quality of the proposals receiving full-evaluation; RFP's help foundations maximize financial and mission impact. They can work together or separately and many foundations use both.
______
A Charitable Edge -- Making a Difference in the World Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyWednesday, April 30, 2003 (10 years 17 days ago)
I had just recommended to a think-tank like discussion group that to successfully compete for grants, there are times when a non-profit should extend the impact of a foundation's gift by sharing that gift with others -- providing a charitable edge. My audience was not entirely impressed.
______
I'm Waiting... Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyTuesday, January 21, 2003 (10 years 116 days ago)
The proposal deadlines stack up ahead of you, but no one is ready to give or get you what you need. You have had the team meetings, designed the projects and made the connections, now you're just waiting for the physical material you need to write the proposal. Something as simple as "John, this is worth $75,000!" will move things along. Too often, though, our colleagues fall prey to smaller, more immediate issues.
______
Are You There Yet? Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyWednesday, November 13, 2002 (10 years 185 days ago)
It's a threshold moment: when you cross that line from being a good organization to a fundable one. It may happen when you aren't looking, or you may feel it one day as a number of successes coincide: you move from only asking friends and family for gifts to approaching other institutions -- foundations.
______
How Staff Can Help You Raise Money Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyTuesday, October 22, 2002 (10 years 207 days ago)
Eschew that Lone Ranger mentality. Better yet, help everyone else eschew, too! You're not the only one responsible for helping the institution raise money. Though the rest of the staff may dodge the fundraising bullet in their job descriptions, they can't escape it in their job responsibilities. You have to show them, though, how they can help the proposal developer earn grants.
______
Getting Past 'No' Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyTuesday, August 13, 2002 (10 years 277 days ago)
We evaluate our programs, so why not our proposals? Probably because that's the hardest phone call of all: the one you make when you DIDN'T get the grant.
______
Making the Call Contributed by:
Sarah BrophyTuesday, April 02, 2002 (11 years 45 days ago)
A critical piece of proposal writing isn't writing at all, it's talking. If you haven't called to speak to a foundation officer or program director before preparing a proposal, you risk wasting your time writing it and someone's time reading it.
CharityChannel Press Blog for Authors and Editors
CharityChannel Press is the publishing project of the CharityChannel professional community. In this blogging feature, the authors and editors of our books and manuals share their thoughts, ideas, insights, and advice on topics of interest to busy practitioners. Reading their blogs is a great way to get to know them and to learn about their latest books and manuals. Be sure to jump in and add your comment to blog postings.
[ View all the blog postings ]