How to Capture Those Elusive Grants

The issue with obtaining grants from foundations is that you whether have to be very well known, like a children's hospital or a well-established school, or you have to have a very strong "in." Most non profits, especially new ones, typically have neither. So...what to do? Don't sit back and assume you haven't got a shot, instead look at what you Can do.

Do:

Train Table For Kids

1. Work on your public awareness. Try to find a Pr man for your board. If you can't, reconsider hiring one. If you have dinky funds be upfront with your counselor and tell her or him how much you can spend: "we are dinky to 0 so we would appreciate your help in training us on how to implement a Pr campaign."

2. Do something radical, have an outrageous event. Have you ever noticed that on the news you oftentimes see a requisite of a school shaving his head because his students read so many books? This isn't absolutely newsworthy but it's something fun and thoughprovoking and a welcome relief from all the tragedy out there. Send press releases in fullness of time to allow great press/media coverage. If you want to make the evening news (and get your name out there so that when you do submit grant requests the grantor will think "oh, yes, I saw them on the news last week...") then do something silly, interesting, or different. Such as, if you serve habitancy with physical disabilities challenge some of your local businesses to a backward wheelchair race (don't do wheelchair basketball-it's been done to death.) whatever your cause think of what your constituents do and ask some group in your society to duplicate that in some bizarre, twisted way. If you serve beavers have a dam building contest, if you serve blind individuals have a group paint a huge mural blindfolded. Treat your corporate participants like kings and queens. Print their names everywhere, even on the napkins you hand out. Seek a donation as a door prize so that more habitancy will attend the event. Have fun, the sillier the better.

3. Check such directories as the Foundation town (FoundationCenter.org) and study, study, study. Look up agencies similar in cause to yours and see who is funding them. Then peruse those granting sources. (For example if you serve special needs kids look up schools for special kids, schools for kids with autism, therapy programs, etc. If you find the Morgan Foundation and the Shining Friends foundations consistently fund in this cause area then you have a great piece of information on where to target your information.) Find out what their submission guidelines are (deadlines, length, information they want...) conclude if they offer any training on filling out the application and be there with bells on.

4. In our above example you can try asking the Morgan and Shining Friends (fictitious) foundations if you can have fifteen minutes of their time and make a presentation. Put together a small flip chart (that can sit on a desk-or a power point if you can set it up and get it going in a flash avoiding retention them waiting while you fiddle around) with just a few statistics and photos. Make determined you have some heart-touching real-life stories ready to share. You Must have a board member with you as this reinforces your non behalf nature. If the paid staff just go and gift it can appear that they want money to put in their own pocket-a death knell in fundraising. One of the key points to make is that you will Use Their Money Wisely And Exactly As You Say You Will. So you must gift as very expert and trustworthy. The other option to visiting them is to ask them to visit you. Of course, if they agree, you must have something for them to see-like seals being treated, kids in therapy, homeless folks receiving new clothes, etc.

5. Join expert groups such as the association of Fundraising Professionals. They often have seminars where the directors of these foundations speak and hold round table discussions. These are a wealth of information and an opportunity to make great connections. If you want to get close to one of these directors ask them a short, accepted request and start it out by saying: "I'm Davy Jones, I'm the director of Find Homes for Seals, we serve more than 2,000 seals a year, finding them homes, providing health care..., and I had a request about item 14..." Use that two second opportunity to get your name and mission out there. One of the top rules in fund raising is manufacture yourself known!

6. Take a grant request writing course. There you will learn invaluable tips on grant etiquette and approaches that help you gift as an assosication that knows what it is doing.

Don't:
1. At conferences and seminars don't stalk those granting directors. Never intrude. Never make yourself a nuisance. I've seen women supervene a grant director into the bathroom. How rude is that? And how self-defeating?

2. Send grant requests (remember the precise terminology is that the papers you submit to a grant board are the grant request while the check they send you back is the grant therefore you are "grant request writing,") to everyone and their brother hoping that man will read it and give you money. It is a terrible waste of trees, ink, postage, and your time.

3. Send videos or newsletters. This makes you look like an amateur.

4. Call two weeks after you've submitted your request and expect them to know who you are and the status of your request. Exception: if it's been six months a gentle inquiry is okay. Sometimes things do get lost in the shuffle or there may have been a request that you can write back for them. If they say you have been rejected thank them for the information and ask if there is something you could do to make your proposal stronger next time. They often will give you costly nuggets of information you can record and use.

5. Send gifts of any kind, or offer to take them out to lunch/dinner, etc. This is strictly forbidden

6. Realize that grant funding is a long haul. It takes time to build up rapport. I found, in my agency, that grant boards will typically give you a small grant to get to know you. Some foundations have a policy to not fund any assosication in the following funding cycle so that you may have to wait months of even two years before applying again. When you do receive funding make determined that you send in all required documentation of how the grant was used. This will build a great path back to their door-and other funder's doors. I was often amazed when I talked to grant directors that one of their first questions was "who else are you receiving money from?" No one wants to test the waters first, they all want assurances that you are credible and trustworthy. Therefore when you receive that first small grant send out press releases, put it in your newsletters for months and months. It's your foot in the door for many golden opportunities.

Best of Luck

How to Capture Those Elusive Grants