Any
nonprofit tax-exempt organization that has applied for and been
designated by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization
is eligible to receive grants from philanthropic funder organizations.
However, not every nonprofit organization is ready to be competitive in
the grant-seeking process.
In exchange for their own 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, foundations commit to giving nonprofit charitable organizations 5% of their annual assets. However, this does not mean that they should be treated like money bags or ATM machines. Grant funders give money to the organizations whose mission and track-record resonates with their own giving priorities. The grants are intended to fulfill the funder's goals to make a difference for the people who benefit from the work of the service or charitable organization. Even though many funders award undesignated grants for general operations, these grants go to groups who are consistently providing innovative solutions for serious social problems. They usually do not go to bail out an organization which does not have a plan to be sustainable or who cannot prove their organizational capacity to continue operating apart from the grant.
MY ROLE AS A FREELANCE GRANT-SEEKER
My role is to help get smaller, newer,
and transitioning nonprofit organizations ready to receive grants. This
usually involves building their capacity by increasing the donor base,
creating policies and procedures to streamline routine administrative
activities, becoming active in social media through blogs, FaceBook,
and Twitter, and up-grading communications in general. Often, I help
boards understand their legal, fiscal, and fund-raising
responsibilities by providing training and resources. The point is to
strengthen an organization so that it can thrive and so that the
important passionate work of the mission will succeed in its purpose to
the benefit of every client. After the organization is ready to compete
for grants, I help them to research prospective funders and to prepare
the requests.
1) Plan the program or project
before even thinking about looking for a grant. Use the same strategic
planning process that you would if you were writing a business plan to
submit to a bank for a loan. What do you propose doing? Who will it
benefit? How will you do it? How much will it cost? Why is it urgent to
do this now? What would happen if you did not do this? What convinces
you that the program will do what it is intended? (Show a research
basis for your plan or provide information about models that have
worked in other similar contexts.) How will you fund this program or
project? If this planning process is unfamiliar to you, I can help you
to do it. It takes a collaborative effort between the board and staff
of an organization and often involves forming strategic partnerships
with other nonprofits or businesses.
2) Research prospective grant funders.
Because I have access to a data base of more than 96,000 foundations
and corporate giving programs, I can do this research with efficiency.
I will provide you with several possible grant funders. Then I will
coach you to make an initial contact with each to discover which are
the most likely to regard a request from your organization favorably.
3) Prepare the grant request.
There is a protocol involved in preparing a grant request that varies
slightly with each grant funder's preferences. I know how to prepare
the most competitive grant request for your organization so that it
resonates with a funder's heart and language. Most grant requests are
between 2-7 pages long but it is not uncommon to be asked for a
proposal that is 20 or more pages in length. Government grants can be
much longer. Proposals must be submitted by the funder's deadline in
the format that they require in order to be considered at all.
4) Be faithful
to do the program according to the proposal if it succeeds in winning a
grant. Communicate with the grant-maker regularly and do not miss any
reporting deadlines without talking to the program officer first.