If your nonprofit group is still in its startup phase, applying for grant money probably shouldn’t be the first method of fundraising to try. Without a history of success, you'll find it challenging to persuade funders that your organization can do what it plans to—or will even be around in a year or two. In addition, preparing an appealing grant proposal requires significant time and planning.
The groups most likely to succeed at securing grant funding—and to satisfy funders with their follow-through—are those that have:
Sure, you'll probably be happy to get funding from any source. However, your approach and your chances of success could depend in part on what type it is.
All foundations are themselves charitable organizations, which are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. But their funding comes from different places.
Private foundations are usually funded by a wealthy individual or one or more families or corporations. They thus often follow the narrow interests of their founders. Private foundations must spend at least 5% of their investment assets on philanthropy each year. (This includes money spent on reasonable administrative expenses, such as salaries, facilities, and travel.)
Corporate foundations account for just a small percentage of the foundation money granted every year. That’s because most corporate giving, rather than being channeled through foundations, is given out directly by the parent corporations.
Family-based foundations are sometimes so private that you might think they want you to just go away and leave them alone. In fact, a few do want just that—often evidenced by the fact that they don’t have websites.
Public foundations don't have a source of cash backing them up. They must typically forage for their own funding in order to make grants. They might have a focus or list of interests, but they also need you, as a member of the nonprofit community, to feed them exciting new ideas that they can use to stimulate their donors’ interests.
When looking for foundation grant money for your nonprofit, you'll want to do some fairly deep research. You can definitely search databases such as those offered by Candid.
However, it's also good to keep your ear to the ground. Talk to similarly situated organizations about which foundations fund them and watch the press for announcements of grants to organizations like yours to get a sense of the funder's actual local interests.
When you come across a promising lead, check out its website. With any luck, this will tell you all about the foundation's mission and funding opportunities. But sometimes even that comes up dry.
You'll next want to look at the foundation’s Forms 990 (which it must file with the IRS annually and make publicly available), available through Candid's 990 Finder or Guidestar.
Look for the 990 Supplementary Information page showing “Grants and Contributions Paid During the Year or Approved for Future Payment.” This should show what organizations the foundation made grants to in the past year, and in what amounts.
If, based on your research, you feel there’s a good chance this foundation might be open to a proposal from you, glean all you can about its application guidelines from external sources, and follow them closely. If you can’t find out enough application information to be helpful, mailing or emailing a short query letter is often the best next step.
]]>In any case, you'll find that funders usually ask for the types of information listed below, either in narrative form or as quick lists or fill-ins. (You will likely also be asked to supply document showing things like your IRS grant of 501(c)(3) status, resumes of high-level staff participants, and your organizational chart, but this article will focus on the narrative bits.)
The title page normally lists basic information like the project’s title and your organization’s contact information. Give your project a name that’s short and catchy but still descriptive. The table of contents simply lists the various headings and corresponding page numbers.
The executive summary should outline all the key segments of your proposal, including background about your organization, a clear statement of the good work you hope to do, and the proposed change(s) you seek to bring about. The summary shouldn’t be more than two paragraphs long. (Write it first or write it last? Different fundraising professionals differ as to what works best.)
Here’s where you show that your organization is the best one for the job. You might want to point to its mission, history, major programs, reputation, receipt of awards, and unique strengths. If your organization has been around for a long time, emphasize its experience and durability. If your group is relatively new, describe how innovative, exciting, and responsive to current needs it is.
Also name the key players in your organization (both staff and board members) and describe their qualifications, interests, and experience. Even your physical facilities might be worth mentioning.
This can also be a good place to indicate where your organization fits in relation to the “competition”—that is, other organizations doing similar work. Instead of presenting your competition as groups to be elbowed out, portray them as worthy groups that occupy a different niche—or better yet, that you're collaborating with.
Although the community need might seem obvious to you, it probably won't be to a foundation officer inundated by other “crucially needed” funding proposals. In short, you’ll want to describe exactly what the need is—and what the consequences are of not acting promptly to meet it. Focus in this section on establishing your organization’s professionalism.
Statistics, study results, other information from neutral and reliable sources, and your own organization’s surveys should be marshaled and presented to support your assertion of need. Depending on the funder’s guidelines, you could decide to add charts or graphs within the text or as attachments at the end.
If no numerical or statistical information is available, go with more anecdotal material—but make a note to ask your program leadership to put more effort into finding ways to quantify the need for your services for future grant proposals.
The purpose or goal of your nonprofit's proposed project should be presented broadly and optimistically. To do so, answer this question: If all goes well, what will our organization have achieved? For example, “reduce teen drug addiction” is a goal or purpose; “provide counseling” is not. Don’t get too lofty, however. While working to save Riverfront County’s historical buildings is a measurable and realizable goal, “saving the world” is neither. Make sure your goals are consistent with your mission statement.
In this section, tell the funder what you plan to use its grant money to accomplish. Objectives should be tangible and should include numerical targets and other indicators of success. An example might be “to provide job training and counseling that helps 40 developmentally disabled youth to develop and market their skills.”
Don’t promise what you can’t deliver. Ask your program staff to carefully review the objectives section to make sure you have set realistic targets that will also satisfy the funder.
The action plan (also called the “methods” section) is where you get to bring your organization’s work to life. Explain which activities your organization has chosen and why, as well as when it plans to meet its goals and objectives. Don’t forget to bring up behind-the-scenes aspects of the work, like staff training or client selection.
If you aren’t asked to include a project timeline elsewhere, include it here. For the “why” of your activity, explain why you chose your approach over other alternatives. Make your plan sound effective without making it sound easy.
Funders are increasingly interested in making sure that they are funding projects that take diversity, equity, and inclusion seriously. You might be asked detailed questions about what populations your project will serve, for example based on race, ethnicity, sharing sexual orientation or identity, and disability. Gathering such information can require sensitivity and advance planning.
Here you’ll want to explain how you’ll evaluate the results of your project. Coming up with an effective system of project evaluation and outcome reporting will require input from program staff.
One approach is to keep the focus on what the project accomplished, reporting on numbers of people served or tasks accomplished. Another is to focus more subjectively, by trying to answer the question, “How did we do?” This could involve as simple a method as passing out evaluation forms to your clients, trainees, or activity participants. Feel free, as appropriate, to mix and match numerical and judgment-based evaluation methods.
The person reading your proposal will likely turn to this section first. Never mind all your fancy explanations; many readers think raw numbers tell the real story. Though you’ll probably be asking for a nice round number, you’ll have to show how you arrived at that figure and how the money will be spent. Follow the funder’s budget format if one is provided.
If the funder won’t be the project’s only source of funds, list other prospective or actual grantors, as well as in-kind donations, such as volunteer time. Foundations always like it when their funds are leveraged, especially if your individual donors will cover administrative expenses so that all foundation money can go directly to programs.
Many funders will ask not only for columns of numbers, but for a narrative explanation as well. With the help of program staff, craft a brief narrative that brings your numbers to life for the funder.
Funders want to ensure that they’re not helping create a bubble project—one that will burst as soon as its funding ends without having achieved anything. Your best bet, given that you can’t guarantee where this or next year’s funding will come from, is to describe your organization’s development or fundraising plan, if one exists. (If it doesn’t, consider creating one.) You might also call attention to your development office’s record of success.
If you can name particular funders that you believe are likely to fund the proposed project in the future, great. More likely, you’ll simply want to describe the types of funding, whether from foundations, individuals, or others, that you’ll be pursuing.
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