Effective Grant Writing Strategies for Rising Nonprofits Presented by Kim Tso of Velocity Ink, LLC January 25, 2022
Who I am: •
Independent grant writer since 2004
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Grant Professional Certified and member of Grant Professionals Association
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Adjunct instructor at University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy for 8 years
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Specialty is grant writing and consulting for progressive organizing groups, coalitions, and campaigns
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Current and former clients and employers include: SAJE (Strategic Actions for a Just Economy), Los Angeles Black Worker Center, Liberty Hill Foundation, Ms. Foundation for Women, Pacoima Beautiful, Green LA, Nature for All, and Advancement Project.
What We Will Cover Today: •
How best to spend your grant seeking time
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How to quickly find your “fit” with a funder
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How to meet grant makers and develop relationships
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How to streamline your process and spend as little time writing grants as possible
Tip #1: Focus 75-80% of your grant writing time on prospecting (identifying and cultivating potential grant makers)
The Fundraising Cycle •
Basic cycle that fundraisers move through with each prospect
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Repeats on set cycles (annually, quarterly, monthly, etc.)
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Every prospect calls for a different timetable and speed
Identify/ Research
Cultivate/ Introduce
Steward/ Report
Solicit/ Proposal
Where to find potential grant funders (from your desk) •
Online databases such as Foundation Directory Online
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Membership lists of your local Regional Association of Grantmakers (NYRAG or Southern California Association of Grantmakers, for example)
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Membership lists of Council on Foundation’s affinity groups
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Supporters Lists of other similar, but non-competing, organizations
Where to find potential grant funders (away from your desk) •
Speak at conferences
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Speak at conferences for affinity groups or volunteer to help with their “tours”
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Write white papers and op-eds
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Ask current funders to introduce you (can be anything from an email introduction to a coffee meeting to a funders briefing)
What to do when you have a potential grant funder •
RESEARCH!!!!!!!!
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Read EVERYTHING on their website
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Internet-stalk their board and staff (just kidding, just research them and don’t be creepy about it)
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Get copies of their 990 from the last three years to see their giving totals and names of grantees if that info is not on their website or if you don’t have a database subscription to Foundation Directory Online
What are we looking for? •
Connections we have to their board or staff (whether through people, interests, or organizations in common)
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Red flags — are there corporate connections or other ethical issues we need to know about and be aware of
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The language they are using to talk about themselves, grantees, the issues, and the community.
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“Fit” — that magic something-something that makes them want to give you a grant
“Fit” Explained: Find the Right Match for the Funder’s Theory of Change •
Grants as Relief
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Orgs in Direct Services
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Grants as Improvement
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Orgs in Education or Training
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Grants as Social Reform
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Orgs in Advocacy, Policy, and Organizing
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Grants as Convening
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Orgs in Coalition
Therefore: •
Spend 75-80%% of your time dedicated to grants on researching and building relationships with potential funders
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Do your homework and map out those funder relationships
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Get the direct service and education components of your work funded by local foundations, and get the advocacy and policy aspects funded by larger and/or regional and national foundations.
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Expect to spend a lot of time educating funders about the issues and what you do, especially if your approach is not yet considered “the norm”
Q&A
Tip #2: Use a decision matrix to help you prioritize what to pursue
Good Money vs. Meh Money •
Flexible, general support
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Rigid, restricted support
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Large amounts
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Small amounts
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Multi-year
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One-time
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Stable
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Irregular (time-outs)
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Easy to get
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Hard to get
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Easy to maintain
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Hard to maintain
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Renewable
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One-time
What is your capacity? •
How much can it raise?
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How long will it take?
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How time/work intensive is it?
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Renewable income or one-time funds?
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Likelihood of success?
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How much up-front cash investment is required?
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Is it aligned with our mission?
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How much outside expertise will we need?
Use a Decision Matrix to Prioritize Fundraising Efforts How much Renewable Likelihood How long How much time/work it can or oneof will it take? with it take? raise? time? success?
Govt Grant Foundation Grant Major Gifts Event 1 = worst option, 5 = best option
Total
Q&A
Tip #3: Decide what is Boilerplate material and what is not. Then organize it where you can get to it easily.
Good to use as Boilerplate: •
Your mission statement
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Your organization’s history and accomplishments
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Your answer to the “sustainability” question
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Summaries of your array of programs
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Common attachments such as board lists, staff bios, org charts
Sections/Info you can prepare as raw material, but will likely have to customize to some degree •
Annual objectives and deliverables
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Descriptions of “target populations” and community need
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Data with sources to be able to use in case statements
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Multiple written case statements from perspective of your most common funders’ interests (youth development, education, health, civic engagement, etc.)
Tip #4: Stop using spreadsheets to track your proposal submissions and reporting
Try a Project Management Tool instead •
I’m providing you with a blog post I wrote a long time ago (no longer available online) about how I use Asana to track the grant pipelines of multiple organizations.
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It’s free in its basic version.
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Trello is another good option.
Q&A
Tip #5: After you learn that you received a grant, sync up the actual award amount with the deliverables and budget.
Tip #6: If you don’t get the grant, ask the funder what you could have done differently
Q&A
Additional Resources • Kim’s Fix It and Get Funded workbook • Project Management tool for tracking grants “Using Asana Instead of Excel
• Grant Professionals Association (GPA) • More questions or suggestions for future workshops? Send them to Aurelia Camacho acamacho@libertyhill.org
Effective Grant Writing Strategies for Rising Nonprofits Presented by Kim Tso of Velocity Ink, LLC January 25, 2022
Thank You!