Grantseeking Advice for a Challenging Economy

This past Wednesday I had the privilege of being on a panel sponsored by the Margaret R. Grundy Memorial Library, the United Way of Bucks County, and the Bucks County Community College. The event was held in Bucks County Community College's Lower Bucks Campus' beautiful meeting space. As panelists we were asked to offer advice and insight to help nonprofits strengthen their grantseeking efforts.

My advice will be discussed in the next few posts. I wanted to used this post to spotlight something that I learned from a fellow panelist. Linda Goodwin from the Bucks County Foundation encouraged the nonprofits to introduce themselves to the Foundations and make sure that the Foundation knows about your organization before you ask them for money. She recommended that you include Foundations in your newsletter mailings and invite them to events. This way the Foundations know something about what you do when you approach them for funds. Linda also emphasized the value of keeping in touch with the Foundations after they award you funds. They have invested in your orgnaization and want to see you succeed.

How to Take Rejection

At last month’s seminar the Foundations discussed reasons why your grant application might be turned down. These are situations that are out of your control. But when you contact the Foundation to find out why you didn’t get funding, if it is because of one of these reasons, you’ll be encouraged to try again next year.

• There are limited amounts of funds available each year. A Foundation may have certain organizations that it will support year after year and then vary funding from year to year. You may receive funding from a Foundation for several years and then not receive funding. It doesn’t mean the Foundation no longer likes your mission; it just means they are varying the organizations that they are supporting.
• A Foundation tries to diversify its funding. If you are a women’s services group and four other women’s services groups happened to apply that same year, they may only pick one. If it isn’t you this year, it could be you next year, so don’t give up asking.
• A new non profit will rarely be funded the first year. The Foundation wants to see at least one year of history. After that they will be more interested to help keep the non profit going.

Decreasing the Odds

In my last post I shared ways that Foundations suggested you could increase the odds of getting your proposal funded. Here’s the flip side…

Try to avoid:

• Starting a new non profit. If you have a great idea for starting a new non profit, check with your area community foundation or a local family foundation. They will be aware of what is already out there and chances are there is already another non profit doing what you would like to do. The community foundations expressed their frustration with the number of new non profits starting.
• Boiler plate applications. You can certainly copy and paste standard language, project descriptions, or an overview of your mission, but try to personalize the application to the specific Foundation. Have someone else proofread your final grant. Our panel all had stories to tell of applications with another Foundation’s name listed in the application.
• Don’t exaggerate to make your program sound bigger. If you are expanding your program to help 100 new people, don’t say you are going to be helping 500 new people. You don’t want to explain next year why you only helped 100.
• Don’t come back year after year for the same thing. Foundations are looking to diversify.
• Foundations typically do not fund individuals so it’s not likely that you’ll be able to get scholarship funds.

That all said, there are Foundations geared to specific interests. So there are some Foundations that specifically mention scholarships. Some Foundations fund the same organizations year after year. Foundations may change their focus, so keep them on your radar in case their focus does change from North County to South County. Family foundations may be less likely to change, especially if the provisions of the Foundation were established in a will. Community and corporate foundations may change their focus over time and even as frequently as year to year.

Improving Your Odds

Looking to get funded? The following ideas from our panel of Foundations might help:
Keep in mind that an overall goal of the Foundation is to put its money where it can reap the most from its investment.

• Collaborate with another non profit. This allows the Foundation to get more from their investment.
• Read the requirements of the Foundation. If the Foundation only funds in North County and your non profit is in South County don’t waste your time or their time with the application.
• Explain to the non profit organization how your project will be “self sustaining” in three to five years. “Self sustaining” can include increased donations from individuals and other organizations as part of a donor development program.
• The Foundations emphasized that they wanted to be part of a growing organization. They are glad to help something get off the ground but they don’t want the organization to be dependent on them for funding each year.
• As part of this, keep in touch with the Foundation throughout the year so they can see how you are doing. They see themselves as being one of your partners and want to follow your success.
• The Foundation wants to see Board buy in—meaning that 100% of your Board is giving time and money to your organization
• And I’ll mention it again since it was brought up a few times—collaboration is the key to a successful proposal.