Getting Started in Grant Writing

If you are new to grant writing, it can often take quite awhile before you feel you’re “up to speed” on what’s happening in the nonprofit world and where you fit in as a potential grant writer.

A new e-Book by For GrantWriters Only member Caroline S. Reeder, Careers in Grant Writing, addresses the basics of getting started as a grant writer:

* What do grant writers do?
* What skills and traits are helpful?
* Where do grant writers work?
* What does the typical day look like for a grant writer?
* How much can I make as a grant writer?

At the same time, she addresses the myths and realities of life as a grant professional:

* Grants are not free money; they are an agreement made between two parties for a specific action to be carried out for a specified sum – a contract. You cannot just use the money any way you want to.

* Grant writers don’t just write; they research potential funders, develop relationships with donors, help develop programs, and more.

* Grant writers do not develop proposals all by themselves; collaboration with many different people within an organization is required to develop a winning proposal.

So, if you’re just getting started in grant writing and you want to get a quick overview of what to expect in the field, I recommend you read: Careers in Grant Writing by Caroline S. Reeder. You can purchase a copy of the eBook at http://www.careersingrantwriting.com.

Using Testimonials to Add Impact to Your Grant Proposals

Testimonials from volunteers, staff, and beneficiaries of an organization can go a long way in demonstrating the impact of a program, if they are collected in the right way.

For example, the specificity of the questions you ask plays a critical role in the quality of the response.

Nancy Schwartz provides some hints on how to get quotes that best capture your programs and their impact in Seven Steps to Compelling Testimonials for Nonprofit Organizations. It’s definitely worth a look, especially if you include testimonials as part of your backup documentation for a grant request (which I recommend in most cases) or your program collects comments from parents or other beneficiaries as part of an end-of-year assessment.

Organizing Your Office to Reflect Your Goals, Priorities, and Personality

“I’d like to propose a new definition of organization: Organizing is the process by which we create environments that enable us to live, work, and relax exactly as we want to. When we are organized, our homes, offices, and schedules reflect and encourage who we are, what we want, and where we are going.” ~ Julie Morgenstern

As grant writers on deadline, developing a reliable system for keeping track of current projects, potential donors, and deadlines can be quite daunting. We need a place for planning, a place for researching and reading, a place for writing, a place for storing and compiling backup documentation and mailing, a place to collaborate with others, and a place to relax and be creative. Do you have a space in or near your office for each of those?

In Organizing from the Inside Out, second edition: The Foolproof System For Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life, Julie Morgenstern helps us establish a system of organization that is designed around our personal strengths, weaknesses, and behaviors so that we can more easily maintain it.

But first, you may need to change your perspective. Organizing is not tedious, boring work. It can be inspiring when you find a note your wrote to yourself two months ago after a seminar. Or it can be empowering when someone asks you a question and you know just where to go to look for the answer.

Getting organized is a process of getting comfortable. And no two people will be comfortable in just the same way.

So start the process with an open mind, and set aside some time to really think it through. When you’re done, if you’ve done it well, it will help you be as passionate about your work space as you are about your work.

Sounds silly, but when you come to work excited about what you’re going to do and you sit down to work in a space that reinforces that energy instead of draining it, imagine the consequences…

“Organizing from the inside out means creating a system based on your specific personality, needs, and goals. It focuses on defining who you are and what is important to you as a person so that your system can be designed to reflect that.” ~JM

In the first part of her book, Julie addresses what typically holds us back from organizing our clutter, like small mechanical errors that can be fixed quickly but usually aren’t (i.e., items have no home, inconvenient storage, more stuff than storage space), environmental realities that are beyond our control (i.e., unrealistic workload, transition, uncooperative partners, limited space), and psychological obstacles (i.e., need for abundance, unclear goals and priorities, fear of success or failure, need to retreat, fear of losing creativity, need for distraction, sentimental attachment, need for perfection). Understanding all three of these is critical to setting realistic expectations for your system and making sure you don’t sabotage the system you establish.

Once you have the right expectations, analyze what’s not working and what is working. Fix what needs to be fixed. Don’t reinvent what’s already working. Learn from it instead and apply the learning to your new system. It works because it fits naturally with who you are and what’s important to you.

If you’re not sure what isn’t working, finish these sentences.

* I can never find …
* I have no place to put …
* There’s no room for …
* I am tired of …
* I can’t … because of the clutter.
* I’m losing a lot of money on …
* The disorganization makes me feel …
* When people visit, I …

If you’re not sure what is working, try reversing the sentences:

* I can always find …
* I have the perfect place for …
* There’s always space for …
* I love …
* I can … because there’s no clutter
* I’m bringing in money because …
* When people visit, I am proud that …
* When I’m organized, I feel …

Identify the items most essential to you. If there was a fire, what would you take with you? What do you have, that without, you couldn’t do your job?

Write down why you want to get organized. You have to be able to see the benefit in it. Post it on the wall to keep you motivated when your energy dips.

Write down what you think is causing the problem. Look back at some of the causes of clutter. Do you see something there that fits your situation?

Ok, now that you understand what works and doesn’t work and you see the value in moving forward, try this …

Follow the kindergarten model of organization.

1. Divide the room into activity zones.
2. Make sure each zone allows you to focus on one thing at a time.
3. Store items at the point of use.
4. Make sure everything has a home.
5. Create a “visual menu” of everything that’s important.

How do you apply this to your office?

1. Make a list of your primary activities.

2. Identify 3-5 functions for each activity zone.

3. Sketch out an arrangement of furniture that supports your defined activity zones and move furniture into place.

4. Working in one section at a time, sort, purge (if needed), assign a home for everything, and use containers to keep similar items together.

5. Commit to maintaining the system regularly, at the end of each day, then every 6-12 months. Make adjustments as needed.

Julie Morgenstern offers specific strategies for organizing briefcases and handbags, suitcases, traditional offices and filing systems, home-based businesses, cubicle workstations, mobile offices, household information centers, attics, basements, and garages, bathrooms, bedrooms, closets, kids’ rooms, kitchens, living rooms, and photographs “from the inside out” in her book. She also offers tips for tackling time and technology.

Organizing from the Inside Out, second edition: The Foolproof System For Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life

Applying to Family Foundations

Sometimes support from family foundations is the hardest the capture, but once captured, it can be a loyal source of funding for organizational sustainability and growth.

An article entitled, “Applying for Funding from Family Foundations: Results of a New Survey,” by Page Snow, chief philanthropic officer at Foundation Source and president of Foundation Source Advisors, appeared in the Guidestar newsletter (August 2009) and touched on how to establish on-going relationships with family foundations.

Her advice:

Think small.

“In this environment, nonprofits would be wise to look beyond the largest foundations to the largely untapped reservoir of philanthropic dollars in family foundations. Many operate almost invisibly, often providing needed funding in their own hometowns.”

Dealing with small family foundations requires a different approach than that involved with requesting support from multi-million dollar foundations.

Think relationships.

“Unlike dealing with large foundations, shipping off a well-crafted proposal to a family foundation is the last step in the cultivation process, not the first … three-quarters of family foundations say they do not consider unsolicited requests.”

In general, familyfoundations “already know who they want to give to.”

That doesn’t mean they never fund new organizations; they do appreciate new ideas. They just need to be approached differently. Developing personal relationships is paramount. So think about how your board and staff can do that. Network. Involve them as volunteers in your organization.

It may take longer to make connections with family foundations, but the effort is well worth it. Most often, family foundation provide “the holy grail of foundation funding – general operating support”.

Read more:
Applying for Funding from Family Foundations: Results of a New Survey

The Grant Writer’s Role in Program Design

“Strategic grant seeking demands that instead of being passive bystanders recording events, grant professionals can and should play an active role in program design and development.” ~ Saadia Faruqi

I couldn’t agree more. There is a lot of insight that we, as grant writers, can add to the process of new program development. The role of grant writers in this process is not often well defined, so be sure you speak up and share your expertise when your organization is in a state of transition or growth.

CharityChannel: The Grant Professional’s Role in Program Design
(Note: you will need to join CharityChannel to view the full article)

Dedicated to helping improve the nonprofit community, Saadia Faruqi conducted a research study on the relationships between funders and grantee organizations, and how this impacts the grants awarded. Her study was published in the Journal of the AAGP, Fall/Winter 2004 Issue, Volume 3 Number 2, pp 37-46, entitled “Grantor-Grantee Relationships – A Research Study”.

Her latest work, entitled Best Practices in Grant Seeking: Beyond the Proposal is slated to be published by Jones & Bartlett Publishers in November 2009. This books highlights Faruqi’s research on factors affecting foundation grants, and explains the concept of holistic grant seeking to include not only the grants department but also marketing, programs and other fundraising areas.

I don’t know about you, but I’ll be keeping an eye open for it.

Grant Writing Connections: Online Fundraising

Although a nonprofit’s web site and their online fundraising strategy is typically handled separately from any grant writing, it is important that the two elements are interlinked, whether you are approaching an individual donor or an institutional one.

Increasingly, we are seeing government, corporate, and foundation grant applications going online, and nonprofit organizations should take notice of this. Not only because it is one way for the entire industry to reduce cost and simplify the fundraising process, but because your web site has become a key information source for those seeking to support a cause.

If your web site adds nothing to your grant proposal, then consider what you can add to make a bigger impact.

This article by Alan Sharpe provides some additional insight into words (and buttons) you should incorporate into your nonprofit’s web site to engender trust, build relationships, capture new supporters, and have those supporters also become donors. It’s a worthwhile read, especially for those who rely on a Donate button to fuel online giving.

Online Fundraising – Are These Four Vital Words on Your Non Profit Fund Raising Website?

Consultant Tools: Calculate Your Hourly Rate

Everyone I know who has ever become a consultant or played with the idea of becoming one has struggled with how to set their rates. Here’s a tool that will help you do just that.

This calculator takes into account your projected business and personal expenses as well as your targeted profit to give you a ballpark estimate on what your rates NEED to be. The rate calculator gives you an estimate of both your break-even rate and your ideal rate (which presumbly takes into account the profit you want to make off your business). So if you’re consultant, and you’re either struggling with what to charge or curious as to whether your current rates are consistent with your needs and goals, check it out.

Freelance Switch: Hourly Rate Calculator

Here’s a rough guideline of common hourly rates from FreelanceSwitch. If you’re rates fall into the range, you’re probably ok. If they are higher than this, you may need to adjust your financial objectives to be more realistic.

Student/Offshore: $10-$30/hour
Freelancer: $35-$100/hour
Expert Consultant: $50-$200/hour
Company: $75-$150/hour

The Littlest Volunteers

I’m sure that, as a grant writer, you often come across groups that wish to benefit from your expertise at no charge. Sometimes it’s tempting to help out because we are, after all, in this business to help others. As parents, we want to teach our children the same giving principles. But how do we get started?

Here’s my review of a wonderful book developed by the Junior League of the Oranges and Short Hills, The Littlest Volunteers. It introduces our young ones to the joys of volunteering.

******

As an individual who has been involved in community service from a young age, someone who married a man equally involved in servant leadership, and the parent of two young children that have developed their own passion for keeping the world “healthy”, I am always on the lookout for resources to help me involve my children in the gift of service. Because of liability reasons, many nonprofit organizations choose to limit volunteering to teens, but those that can cultivate the passion of children even younger will find great loyalty.

This vibrantly illustrated story about Annie the ant and her experiences with volunteering is beautiful. Annie says, “I don’t think I am big enough to volunteer.” Her mother responds, “You have a big heart and that’s a great start. The rest is up to you.” And indeed, it is. As Annie dreams up a way that she can help others in her community, she gets a warm feeling in her heart. At school the next day, she rallies her friends to host a “Help Your Neighbors Day”. Everyone has lots of fun and gets to witness first-hand the reward that comes with service.

If you are interested in engaging your children in community service and are looking for a creative way to help get them started, this is a terrific book. It can jump-start a conversation about volunteering at a soup kitchen, with the homeless, by collecting food and clothes, by visiting sick “bugs” in the hospital, and more.

Highly recommended. A rare treat in children’s literature.

******
The Littlest Volunteers

To learn more about The Littlest Volunteers or the book’s author, go to:
The Junior League of the Oranges and Short Hills

Money Can Buy Happiness – If You Give It Away

Here’s an interesting article on how spending money – on ourselves, on material things, on others, and on experiences – can influence our sense of happiness. Worth reading …

Maybe Money Can Buy Happiness by Drake Bennett.

Conclusion: spending on prosocial experiences and giving to charity has a more lasting impact on happiness. Something else to think about as we connect with donors and guide their gifts.

Why Grants Don’t Get Funded

This article highlights some of the reasons why a grant proposal doesn’t get funded. Take the author’s advice to heart as you develop a new or revised grant proposal for your organization.

Why Aren’t My Grants Getting Funded? Proposal Poisons, and the Key Ingredients in Good Grants by Becky Antworth.

Becky Antworth is a professional grant writer and the founder of Hired Gun Writing. Hired Gun Writing provides grant management services for nonprofits and other agencies, in addition to marketing, fundraising and PR services.