Beverly A. Browning - Grant Writing For Dummies

Whether the private-sector funder is large or small, the attachments are a major portion of what counts with this group of grantors. The private-sector funder may ask for a copy of your organization’s IRS letter of tax-exemption, a board of directors roster, organizational and project budgets, a copy of the nonprofit’s tax return, Form-990, an organizational chart, and an audited financial statement.

Your organization’s executive director or a member of your governing board’s executive committee should build a relationship with any potential private-sector funder before you start begging for a grant. Courtesy and protocol mean everything in the private-sector funding environment, so always establish communications via email, a letter of inquiry, or a face-to-face meeting before sticking your hand out. In Chapter 22, I give you lots of tips on how to build relationships with potential funders.

If a board member at your organization happens to know a board member at the foundation or corporation you’re targeting for funding, board-member-to-board-member contact can help a ton. Foundations and corporations make decisions based on specific funding priorities, which change periodically, sometimes even annually, based on the direction that the board of directors wants to take the foundation or corporation. Although the program staff initially reviews your grant proposal and makes recommendations to the board of directors, the board has the final approval or veto. Remember, board members can override staff decisions.

Whether you’re submitting a hard copy of your grant application or a digital (e-grant) version, always follow the funder’s instructions. I can’t stress this enough! Here are some additional must-do’s when preparing a grant application:

Read the guidelines three times: one time to understand the general instructions, a second time to focus on the technical formatting requirements, and a third time to note the narrative content requirements.

Highlight all technical and content requirements.

Call the funder (if permissible) to clarify any conflicting instructions and ask questions in general.

Write the grant in chronological order (the same order that the funder asks for the information in its guidelines).

Get a second and third set of eyes to read the guidelines and check your application document line for line. Your readers should be looking at grammar, punctuation, formatting, content, clarity, connection between the narrative sections, budget accuracy, and inclusion of all mandatory attachments.

Don’t forget to keep a copy of your proposal documents for your own files! For anytime access, I moved all my grant-related backup files from my computer’s hard drive to cloud-based storage.

After you submit all your funding requests, you need to develop a tracking system that helps you keep up with their progress and cues you when the period of silence from grantors has been too long. Most public-and private-sector grantors specify a timeframe for when they will announce grant awards somewhere in the application packet or in the published description of their application process. At the federal and state levels, you can even enlist tracking support from your legislative team. To do this, you can directly call or write. However, at the corporate and foundation levels, you’re on your own (unless, of course, members of your board of directors have friends and associates on the grantor’s board of trustees).

The old-school approach is to develop a manual or electronic tracking system to monitor what you’ve written, who received it, and the status of your funding request (pending, funded, or rejected). However, the new and easier way to keep track of submitted requests is to purchase grant management or tracking software. Look at lots of cloud-based grants management options to meet your needs. You can find out what’s available by typing “grant management systems” into your favorite web browser. These systems can cost thousands of dollars. However, many offer a free trial or demonstration, so you can see whether the program suits your needs before you buy.

Keeping track of how many grant requests you submit on an annual basis is a best practice. You also want to know how many of those requests were funded. For example, if you wrote 20 grant applications and 10 were funded (at any level), one-half or 50 percent of your requests were successful. Your success percentage is interpreted as your funding success rate. When you’re looking for a raise or promotion, or simply trying to start your own grantwriting consulting business, everyone who has control over your future will ask you for your funding success rate. Track it; know it!

When you win, you celebrate, right? Well, yes, you celebrate, but you also notify your stakeholders of your success in winning a grant award. And you prepare for the implementation phase now that monies are on the way.

When you win a grant award, it’s important to remember to thank the funder (by a letter, a resolution, an invitation to your board meeting to acknowledge their monetary gift, and so on) and determine if you can issue a press release or if their contribution is confidential.

If your grant request wasn’t awarded, you have some critical steps to take to determine why your funding request was denied and when you can resubmit it. Follow these steps (and refer to Chapter 21for more details):

1 Contact the funding agency and ask why your grant application wasn’t recommended for funding. Ask for a review of your application or for the reviewer’s remarks.You may have to ask for this feedback in writing so the grantors have a paper trail of whom they release information to and why.

2 When you know where the weakness is in your grant application, develop a plan for rewriting.You want to rewrite the weak sections of your narrative and ready it for submission to other grantors and even for future resubmission to the same grantmaking agency that rejected the first request. Grantors usually allow you to reapply in the next funding cycle (the next year).

Chapter 2

IN THIS CHAPTER

Assessing your organization’s grant readiness

Determining your governing board’s grant readiness

Creating a grantfunding plan

Increasing your chances for success