The stage is ready: your nonprofit has a sturdy mission assertion, secure packages, and sufficient workforce capability to commit time to grant in search of.
Your workforce feels excited to begin making use of in your first grants, however wait. Whereas all funding is useful, is each grant really well worth the time to use for it?
From researching funders to writing grant proposals to assembling all of the required paperwork, making use of for a grant is an funding of your time. While you examine grant alternatives fastidiously, you’ll discover that a few of these investments supply higher advantages than others!
Earlier than getting too deep into the appliance course of, it’s essential to make sure you select one of the best alternative in your nonprofit.
Prioritization is a useful talent for grant writers, and there are tried-and-true assessments you should use to really feel assured in your selections. As you analysis grants, ask your self these 4 essential inquiries to uncover the true ROI of every alternative.
1. Does the funder give to organizations like ours?
Simply because a basis affords funding doesn’t essentially imply they’re prepared to supply it to your nonprofit. Each grantmaking group has its personal targets and preferences, and it’s as much as nonprofits to verify whether or not they examine sufficient of the funder’s bins earlier than making use of.
Take a look at whether or not a funder is more likely to take into account a nonprofit like yours by:
- Checking the funder’s philanthropic assertion. Most grantmakers clearly spell out what they’re in search of from potential awardees of their philanthropic mission statements. They generally deal with particular mission areas, geographic places, or beneficiary demographics.
- Researching previous grant recipients. One of the simplest ways to foretell what a grantmaker will do sooner or later is by digging into their previous. Whereas many foundations require you to rummage by their Kind 990s to search out earlier awardees, others will publish profitable proposals on their web site. Whether or not you discover a trove or only a few morsels of knowledge, use this knowledge to see in case your nonprofit matches the identical profile as previous recipients.
- Coordinating an introduction. In the event you’ve completed the primary two steps however nonetheless aren’t fairly positive in case your nonprofit is an efficient match, attempt to meet with the muse. Be taught Grant Writing offers some recommendation about how you can method these exploratory conferences:
“On this assembly, your purpose is to not promote your group or proposed venture. As an alternative, be curious. Be taught. Objectively consider in case your organizations are a very good match for one another. In the event you deliver this mindset shift to your assembly, you should have a way more sincere, significant, and productive dialog. In spite of everything, nothing is worse than spending a ton of time on a grant you haven’t any likelihood of profitable. Be skeptical till you will have sufficient constructive knowledge factors to verify the grant is price your time and sources to pursue.”
Begin your grant analysis off on the appropriate be aware by conducting major analysis. Search grant databases for key phrases associated to your nonprofit. As an illustration, an environmental nonprofit devoted to protecting the Mississippi River clear may filter grant alternatives to Mississippi and search key phrases like “clear water,” “air pollution discount,” and “sustainability.”
This method helps you discover grantmakers who’re possible occupied with you and will increase your probabilities of profitable from the minute you sit down to put in writing the proposal.
2. Is the grant too aggressive?
A widespread mistake grant writers make is aiming too excessive too quickly. Whereas it’s good to have excessive aspirations, keep life like. For many nonprofits, this implies avoiding competing with hundreds of different organizations for only a few profitable spots.
Within the grant writing world, a useful rule of thumb is that nonprofits ought to solely apply for grants they’ve no less than a 20% likelihood of profitable.
The workforce at Be taught Grant Writing additionally teaches a technique for approximating a funder’s competitiveness. Evaluate the variety of earlier candidates to a funder’s funding cycle to the variety of grants awarded to calculate their tough win price. (This data might typically be accessible on-line, however contacting the funder together with your questions is usually simpler.)
Put one other method, this rule of thumb additionally means you don’t essentially must rule out grants with many candidates if there are additionally many winners.
For instance, the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts is likely one of the greatest federal funders for creative organizations, and one in all their grant packages acquired nearly 2,000 candidates in 2023. That’s a number of competitors!
Nonetheless, nearly 1,000 of these candidates additionally received funding. That provides this system an unbelievable win price of round 50%, however is that this the entire image?
Similar to with our first grant prioritization check, analysis is your buddy right here. Digging a bit deeper into the NEA, we see that of the just about 1,000 winners, lower than 100 have been first-time candidates. These organizations can actually nonetheless win funding (and infrequently do!), however they’re clearly up towards skilled rivals who already know what the NEA needs.
In conditions like these, the query of competitors turns into a bit sophisticated. Is the grant simply typically too aggressive primarily based on the numbers, or is it too aggressive for a nonprofit like yours? Within the latter case, modify your method. Reasonably than leaping straight into the deep finish with a large federal grantmaker just like the NEA, check out shallower, much less aggressive waters till you’ve constructed up your grant writing expertise.
3. Do now we have a relationship with the funder?
Solely 28% of U.S.-based foundations settle for unsolicited proposals (i.e. from nonprofits they’ve by no means met earlier than or haven’t explicitly invited to use). For nonprofits in search of new grant alternatives, these numbers harm.
One shiny spot: About half of all the highest funders with over $100 million in belongings do settle for unsolicited proposals. However that also leaves a ton of grants your nonprofit can’t apply for!
Earlier than judging these grantmakers too harshly, take into account their views.
The Ford Basis is a large grantmaker that accepts unsolicited grant proposals. Over one 12 months, they acquired over 144,000 grant-related inquiries and proposals for lower than 3,000 profitable spots.
Consider the work that goes into reviewing all these purposes! Only a few grantmakers have the capability to deal with that, so most maintain the door closed.
And for many who do apply, these numbers imply solely a 2% likelihood to win a Ford Basis grant, method under our 20% threshold.
At its coronary heart, grants are one other sort of fundraising, and all fundraising is constructed on relationships. When you’ve got a robust relationship with a grantmaker, they’re extra more likely to take into account your utility or invite you to use. To construct these relationships, attempt:
- Attending conferences. Grant writing and nonprofit conferences aren’t simply an opportunity to fulfill fellow grant writers but additionally to attach with funders. Some foundations even host workshops particularly about their grant alternatives.
- Asking board members to look their networks. Your nonprofit’s board has many tasks, and one in all them is to do the networking for you. Ask well-connected board members to look by their many buddies and see if any have connections to grantmaking foundations.
- Sustaining correspondence with previous grantors. In the event you’ve acquired a grant, nice! However as an alternative of taking the cash and solely offering obligatory stories, go the additional mile together with your reporting and proceed to remain in contact. Not solely will protecting this connection sturdy enhance your odds of profitable funding once more from them sooner or later, however some grantmakers are buddies with different grantmakers—and so they could be prepared to offer you an in with their buddies.
When you’ve got a robust relationship with a grantmaker, and so they’re prepared to just accept a proposal, it’s nearly all the time price it to use. You’ll have increased probabilities of profitable, however even if you happen to don’t, you’ll maintain that relationship sturdy for the subsequent time round.
4. Is the grant price the price of making use of?
Whether or not you will have an in-house or freelance grant author, grant writing is an expense identical to every other use of your time and sources. Between analysis, writing a proposal, and assembling needed supplies, many hours go into submitting a grant utility, and also you received’t know if you happen to’ve generated worth from these hours till you hear again from the funder.
With this in thoughts, some grants might merely not be well worth the time wanted to use for them. Whereas a $1,000 grant is good, it’s rather less good if you understand you spent $2,000 price of workforce time incomes it.
Together with in search of high-value grants, make your nonprofit an environment friendly grant-writing machine by:
- Researching alternatives commonly. An ineffective method is to dig by grant databases, discover about 8-10 grants, and apply for these till the alternatives dry up. As an alternative, make discovering new grants part of your common grant workflow. There are numerous common grant database choices that span all finances ranges.
- Creating templates. Whereas each grant proposal must be tailor-made to the grantmaker, particulars about your group possible received’t change between grant purposes. Create templates of widespread grant sections that may be rapidly added to your proposal and refined somewhat than rewritten from scratch each time.
- Having paperwork prepared. Most grantmakers ask to see the identical supplemental paperwork from candidates, so guarantee accumulating them is simple. Get the ball rolling early by doing all your analysis and securing wanted paperwork so that you don’t get caught ready in your board to log off on one thing proper earlier than a deadline.
Grants are an funding, and the return on that funding will depend on a number of components, together with your nonprofit’s priorities, grant writing expertise degree, capability to use, and extra.
Don’t fall into the entice of going for giant, shiny grants that simply find yourself losing your money and time! This may result in a unfavorable spiral of misplaced grants and your board finally deciding forgo them as a income supply altogether.
As an alternative, know your nonprofit’s strengths and apply these assessments to establish grants you will have a good shot at profitable. This fashion, you may deal with quite a few grants which are well worth the effort.
Grants seem to be free cash, however are they really? Sure and no. They require cautious thought, preparation, time, and sources. Grasp the artwork of grant prioritization, and also you’ll set your group up for extra funding received extra effectively.