 1.Show
Some Tact, Stupid
Want to
ensure that your grant doesn't get approved? It's simple to do. Make
a fancy, over-packaged presentation that's heavy on technology to your
respected grantmaker.
That's a surefire
way to tick off Gara LaMarche. LaMarche, of the Open Society Institute
(a private foundation established by financier George Soros), gave
this and other advice to grantmakers at a Greater New York Chapter
of the Association of Fundraising Professionals luncheon.
LaMarche acknowledged
that his list of annoyances are personal, idiosyncratic in nature
and most likely differ from others. But some of them might be universally
distasteful to grantmakers. Here are a few of them.
- LaMarche doesn't
enjoy being pitched for money through a video or PowerPoint presentation.
He prefers an actual conversation.
- Sending emails
that ask for the status of an application is annoying.
- Researching
a foundation and the person you're talking with is important, but
don't have specific biographical material in front of you during
a meeting.
- Don't argue
with the foundation about its mission in an attempt to get money.
You're only wasting time.
- Don't play
around with the truth to get a buck. Honesty is the best policy.
Be honest about your program and its mission.
2.
It's more than just writing away
If your
organization’s fundraising plan calls for raising money through
grant proposals, one of the most important things you can do is develop
strong, peer-to-peer relationships with the decision-makers.
And here are a
few strategies that may be helpful.
- All grantmakers
are unique. Every foundation is different and should be treated
as such. There is no standard process to follow.
- Treat foundation
officers as peers. You’ll find that most funders want to
be addressed as equals, but it can be difficult given the power
inequities in the relationship.
- You’re
human, so admit it. Treating foundation officers as peers means
acknowledging your discomfort and mistakes. Present your organization
in the best possible light while telling them the truth about errors
and the obstacles you face.
- Be professional.
Do your homework thoroughly and accurately on a foundation.
- Accept defeat
gracefully and move on. Pros file their rejection letters and move
on to the next funder/proposal.
3.
Put technology proposals into human terms
How can
you make your technology proposal stronger? There are a number of ways
to improve the quality of information in technology proposals, according
to David Altshuler, president and chief executive officer of TechFoundation,
which has offices in Cambridge, Mass., Washington, D.C., Seattle, and
New York City.
1. Skip
the technology gobbly-de-gook. Technology gobbly-de-gook is a term
used for impenetrable sequences of acronyms and jargon that non-computer-people
cannot possibly understand.
Make sure the proposal is understandable to people who don't understand techno-speak.
Provide a glossary and/or background information on the terms and issues
surrounding the proposal. Over-explain so that the reader feels comfortable
that they understand what is being proposed.
2. Address
the risks of the project in the proposal. Information technology
projects are notoriously high-risk -- meaning that they often fail
to deliver the promised results, or run over budget or beyond schedule.
Your proposal should clearly identify the risks (there are always
risks) in the project. Estimate the probability each risk will
occur, and the impact or severity of that occurrence. From this
estimate, you can prioritize the risks. For the high-priority risks,
develop common-sense risk mitigation strategies. This will demonstrate
that you are aware of the inevitable risks but have thought through
strategies to deal with them, should they occur.
3. Have
a project plan. You want your funder to believe you are capable
of managing this project. Break the project down into pieces or
phases that form a project plan. For example, phase I may be "gather
and document requirements from staff as to their needs for improvements
to our membership database." The rest of the plan may be:
Phase II: design enhancements
Phase III: implement enhancements
Phase IV: test
Phase V: train end users on new system
Having a project plan demonstrates that you have thought through how the
project will evolve and are prepared to manage its success.
4. Provide
cost/benefit analyses. One mantra should be: "A project that
pays for itself is easy to fund." To demonstrate how a project
pays for itself, you need to calculate implementation costs, t
as well as the anticipated benefits. This can be as simple as adding
up the time staff spent waiting on a slow Internet connection.
The idea: one minute per hour, eight hours a day, five days a week, 52 weeks
a year, and five staff, translates into almost 350 lost staff hours per year.
At $20 per hour, that is $7,000 of productive staff time that would be saved
with upgrading the speed of Internet access. Any solution that costs less
than $7,000 a year would "pay for itself."
If you can't justify the cost of the project in terms of real tangible benefits,
you might want to reconsider why you are doing the project in the first place.
5. Tie
the technology to the mission. Even something as simple as new
computers can be justified as part-and-parcel of service delivery.
Make sure you frame the request for technology in terms of the
benefits to the programs and projects your organization runs.
4.
Getting your foot in the door
Getting
foundation money takes tact that fundraisers need to have if they’re
going to tap into the largess available at their local and regional
grantmakers.
Here are five
ideas for getting your foot in the door.
- Meet them at
the foundation office. The easiest strategy is to call and, after
you’ve described your project and gauged their interest,
request a meeting. Prior to your call, however, you should read
the guidelines and assess your likelihood of getting a grant.
- Attend “meet
the grantmaker” events. Check with your local community foundation
or United Way to learn if something similar is offered in your
area.
- Go to conferences.
Schmoozing is key. Shake as many hands as you can and find out
as much about what grantmakers fund as you can.
- Invite grants
officers to visit your facility.
- Invite funders
to observe your group in action. Encourage funders to attend your
next public event. This could change the dynamic of the meeting
and may dampen some people’s desire to be fully honest or
outspoken, however.
5.
The process takes planning
Grants
can make up a large part of any organization’s funding,
and the writing of proposals for grant funding has become an
art in itself. In “The Only Grant-Writing Book You’ll
Ever Need” (Carroll & Graf, 2003), Ellen Karsh and
Arlen Sue Fox present a comprehensive look at the process of
writing proposals.
Karsh and Fox
suggest that even before a proposal can be written, even before a
proposal can be planned, an organization must answer certain questions
about itself. They posed the question “Who am I?” and
offer the reminder that there are three main categories of organizations:
grassroots organizations, social service agencies and advocacy groups.
It is important for an organization to know its identity and to remember
that grants generally are directed toward specific types of organizations.
Before asking
if you even need a grant, identify the problem that your organization
wants to solve, decide what to do to solve it, and figure out how
much that may cost.
Also, some organizations
have learned that chasing grants can take them away from their core
mission or move them in the wrong direction. The most successful
programs are not grant driven, they are mission driven. They are
not created and manipulated to fit the requirements of a particular
grant.
6.
Educating grant-providers
In
their book The Only Grant-Writing Book You’ll
Ever Need (Carroll & Graf, 2003), authors Ellen Karsh and
Arlen Sue Fox point out that the need or problem statement
for a grant proposal to a federal agency or national foundation
usually requires extra work because the people making the determination
might not be from the same area as the party making the request.
Therefore, they might not be familiar with the physical, political
and social conditions in the area needing the funding.
For such proposals,
then, it is especially important to include:
- Proof that
the target population in the community is, in fact, eligible to
receive services under the federal or foundation guidelines
- Data that demonstrate
the existence and extent of the problem in the community, including
specific gaps in service that the proposal will address.
- Full understanding
of the theories and practices put forward to solve the problem
in the community and elsewhere.
- Knowledge of
relevant solutions that have worked in the community and elsewhere,
especially when some elements of these efforts are incorporated
into the plan.
- Explanation
as to why there is still a need for a new program if successful
solutions already exist.
7.
IRS requires info for regranting programs
Regranting,
the process of giving money that has been received in a grant
to a second organization in another grant, can be attractive
to foreign grantmaking organizations receiving funds from a
U.S. organization and then passing them along. Very often,
these organizations have better access than American grantors
to information about local projects.
According to attorney
Jane Peebles, in a chapter about international grantmaking contained
in the book Foundation Management: Innovation and Responsibility
at Home and Abroad by Frank L. Ellsworth and Joe Lumarda, U.S.
donors whose money will be regranted have responsibilities under
an IRS ruling published in 1997. Under that ruling:
The U.S. grantor's
expenditure responsibility requirement regarding the secondary grants
are satisfied if the initial grantees are bound by written grant
agreements to meet the applicable requirements in connection with
the secondary grants. The initial grantees must also provide the
grantor with satisfactory reports, the grantor must have no reason
to doubt the accuracy of those reports, and the grantor properly
reports the initial grants on its Forms 990-PF.
If the initial
grantee makes a secondary grant to an individual, it may use procedures
for which the U.S. grantor has received pre-approval from the IRS.
The initial grantee
need not make reports to the IRS regarding the regrants even though
technically a pledge to exercise expenditure responsibility entails
proper reporting to the IRS.
8.
Grantmaking - Expenditure responsibility is yours
A private foundation considering making a donation to a foreign
organization must determine either that the proposed donee is the equivalent
of a U.S. public charity or, failing that, must exercise "expenditure
responsibility," according to Jane Peebles, in a chapter about emerging
legal issues in international philanthropy in Frank L. Ellsworth and
Joe Lumarda's Foundation Management: Innovation and Responsibility
at Home and Abroad (2003, Wiley).
Expenditure responsibility
means making full inquiry in order to make a reasonable determination
that the proposed grant-receiving organization can fulfill the charitable
purpose of the grant. An officer or director of the foreign grantee
must also sign a written grant agreement specifying the charitable
purpose of the grant and committing the receiving organization to:
- Repay any funds
not used for the grant's purpose
- Submit annual
reports detailing how the funds have been used, compliance with
the grant agreement and the grantee's progress in achieving the
purpose for which the grant was made (these grantee reports usually
must be made until all of the grant funds have been expended
- Maintain books
and records that are made reasonably available to the grantor
- Refrain from
using any of the funs for lobbying, direct or indirect influence
on any public election or voter registration drive, or any activity
for a non-charitable purpose, to the extent that such use of funds
would be taxable to a private foundation.
9. Foundation
as Investor
There are four characteristics of investor behavior that are
particularly applicable to trustees and foundations, according to
Russell T. Hill and Craig T. Cross in their chapter on investment
in the book Foundation Management (2003, Wiley). Grant-seekers
need to keep these in mind when making applications
The four characteristics are:
- Loss aversion.
A highly explicit risk and return tradeoff is required to get many,
or even most, people to accept an appropriate level of risk in
either their own investments or an investment pool for which they
bear responsibility.
- The “do-something” impulse.
Humans have a disposition to act when they hear information. A
key benefit of both an investment policy agreement and the delegation
of investment decisions to a separate committee of more sophisticated
investors is that the do-something impulse can be tempered by good
judgment and a disciplined investment process.
- Herding. This
is the tendency, when faced with adversity, to want to know what “they” are
doing, since “they” must know something, coupled with
the fear of straying too far from what “they” are doing.
- Reputation
risk. This is the concept of agency risk, of “not on my watch.” Trustees
who may have a relatively short remaining tenure or staff members
who may be rotating in function decide that it is not in their
best interest to take on risk in return for long-term benefits
for the organization.
10. Make the case in an executive summary
One of the essential
parts of a grant proposal, and one that can be overlooked or underestimated,
is the executive summary, also called an executive brief or overview.
In their book How
to Write a Grant Proposal , Cheryl Carter New and James Aaron
Quick offer advice about writing an effective executive summary.
They note that such a summary should always be included in a proposal
unless specifically prohibited or prevented by severe page limitation.
It is a snapshot of all the major aspects of the project.
Never more than
one page in length, it should include a project title, contact person,
name of the submitting agency and mission statement. In addition,
it should include:
- Summary of problem
statement and project synopsis. Since the entire summary is one
page, this should be one or two paragraphs. State concisely what
the problem is and what you intend to do about it. What are the
key elements of the project and the main focus?
- Expected results.
Provide an overall statement of the expected outcome of the project
mission.
- Funding request.
State the overall budget for the project, and then state the amount
of your request.
- Your investment.
Discuss how much you are investing, as well as the amounts that
partners are contributing.
11. Project
description smooth the process
It is no secret
that a grant proposal must include a description of the project to
be undertaken. Also called a narrative, a project narrative or a
project explanation, it provides the prospective funder with as complete
a description as possible of what is intended.
According to Cheryl
Carter New and James Aaron Quick in their book How to Write a
Grant Proposal , including certain items in the goals and objectives
is a necessary part of the project description. This items could
include:
- Project setup,
which may include such things as establishing advisory committees,
hiring temporary staff, partner meetings and planning sessions
- Materials and
training, which may include such things as designing training and
delivery, setting up a library of materials, development of curriculum
for students, review of materials to purchase, and development
of manuals
- Infrastructure
setup, which may include such things as building renovation, purchase
and installation of equipment and purchase of reference materials
- Intake activities,
which may include creating written procedures for registering participants,
scheduling, assigning of activities and registering participants
- Project implementation,
which may include starting classes, beginning research, providing
access to information and whatever else it takes to start the project
- Project evaluation,
including such things as surveys, statistical studies, outcomes,
participant tracking and results of tests
- Project management
is important as a goal to assure the funder of your awareness of
a need to effectively administer and fiscally manage the project.
12.
It's a small world, after all
As the world shrinks
and foundations organize their grantmaking thematically instead of
simply domestically, some foundations are funding programs about
the role of the United States in a globalized world.
According to Jane
Peebles, in a chapter included in a book by Frank L. Ellsworth and
Joe Lumarda, Foundation Management: Innovation and Responsibility
at Home and Abroad , several factors have led to this growing
awareness and increased international grantmaking:
- Partnerships between
U.S. foundations and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
are on the rise.
- Numerous conferences
have been held around the world in recent years to focus attention
on global issues and to facilitate dialogue among donors, business
leaders, NGOs and development specialists, leading to attempts
to formulate and disseminate "best practices" in overseas giving
as well as to educate attendees about policy and procedural matters.
- Several international
philanthropic networks have been established, allowing grantmakers
to share their knowledge and experience.
- The Internet has
simplified research in connection with overseas grants; and the
legal requirements for U.S. foundations making grants for use abroad
are slowly but surely being clarified and somewhat simplified.
In addition, wealthy
immigrants to the United States have begun establishing foundations
that provide funding for projects in their homelands, as well as
donor-advised funds at local community foundations to support such
projects.
13. Having
a continuation plan
Nonprofits depend
heavily on grants, but nonprofit leaders are well aware that grants
do not continue indefinitely.
In their book How
to Write a Grant Proposal , Cheryl Carter New and James Aaron
Quick suggest a continuation plan both to assure grantmakers that
they are making a good investment and to provide the organization
with a sense of what it will be doing when the grant money stops.
Also called sustainment or institutionalization, a continuation
plan raises and answers several questions: Why do funders want
to know about continuation? Grant funders want to solve problems,
they want suggestions from prospective grant recipients and they
want to invest their money as well as possible.
Grantmakers do not
want to fund a project that runs for a year and then disappears.
What are the keys to continuation? New and Quick suggest the following
considerations:
- Things needed
for infrastructure
- Funding for studies
and planning
- Training
- Reference materials
- Temporary staff
to accomplish setup and initial implementation
- Consulting
- Equipment
- Research
Grant funding should
not:
- Go on forever
- Support key staff
- Support ongoing
activity
How do you prove
you will continue a project? Get managers on board. Develop a plan
to continue the project after funding runs out. The project should
be important enough to be institutionalized.
What is the evidence
of continuation? Show a clear line of oversight by a top manager.
Have the manager write a letter, describe the plan for continuation
and get partners to write letters of support.
14.
Research is the key to winning
It is no secret
that a successful request for a grant takes a lot of work, including
the basic task of doing the homework.
In his book Grassroots
Grants , Andy Robinson stresses the main aspects of writing
a grant, such as doing the necessary research to learn about a
grantmaking organization and learning the guidelines for a grant,
but he also offers several more ideas.
While the Internet
and online sources are an abundant source of information, they are
not the only source available. Print sources, such as those available
in almost any library, are also a setting with plentiful amounts
of material.
In addition, Robinson
also stresses what he calls sleuthing, looking around for clues,
constantly, asking questions, drawing conclusions and then testing
those conclusions.
The hallmarks of
sleuthing:
- Get information
from nonprofit newsletters. You may be able to get one just by
contacting them, you may need to make a donation or you may be
able too set up an exchange or get your organization on their mailing
list. Keep an eye on local nonprofits; the local connection is
important.
- Check with your
peers in other groups. If they received a grant, ask them how they
did it. And don't be secretive.
- Talk with funders.
People who give away money for a living know and talk to a lot
of other people who give away money for a living.
15. Project Management
And Your Proposal
A project management
plan, also called project administration, is an outline of the ways
in which a project will be managed at various stages. In their book How
to Write a Grant Proposal, Cheryl Carter New and James Aaron
Quick write that few funding organizations require such a plan but
that it should be addressed in a grant proposal. It is a way of assuring
a funder that an organization can handle the project.
Among the necessary
features of a project management plan:
- Include an organization
chart. It connects a project to upper management and shows how
important it is to the organization. This may not be necessary
for a simple letter proposal.
- Discuss the responsibilities
of key personnel. Many funders want biographical sketches. In a
project management plan, an organization has an opportunity to
provide an overview of the relevant credentials of key personnel.
- Discuss loaned
or volunteer staff. It is important to show any partners' contribution
to the project. Funders like partners because the more partners
there are the more secure the project is as an investment.
- Provide an overview
of fiscal management. If you have experience with grants management,
provide a very brief statement about managing grant funds.
- Offer to submit
an evaluation. Provide a statement about the manner in which the
organization will evaluate the project.
- Describe documentation.
Provide an overview of how the program will be documented.
16. Effectively
making your case
No matter how well-intentioned
it is, a case statement still must contain certain basic features
to do its job. In his book Making the Case, Jerold Panas offers guidelines
on the eight essential elements that every case statement must include.
The elements are:
- The title.
It develops the theme and tone for the case statement. Its inexorable
job is to get the reader to turn to page one and begin reading.
- Grabbing the
reader. The introductory paragraphs create an irresistible bridge
into the material. Often, a compelling quote helps here.
- The irrefutable
case. This is the place to develop the need and the urgency. The
case may even look bigger than the organization itself.
- Your unique
position. This describes how the organization is uncommonly positioned
to meet the need head-on. This must burn itself into the minds
and hearts of the reader.
- Waving the
flag. Describe the strength of the organization, its mission and
its history.
- Reinforcing
the urgency. This reminds the reader of how pressing the need is
and that it must be dealt with immediately.
- Making it happen.
This describes what will be needed financially to meet the need.
Achieve congruence with the reader.
- The benediction.
This provides the close and final blessing to the program. The
theme is employed again at the end for emphasis.
17.
Federal government cutting cash flow
Though nonprofits
have been hit hard by government budget cuts in recent years, federal
funding still holds opportunities and potential benefits with a few
caveats.
Alex Weekes, partner,
ML Weekes and Company, PC in Stamford, Conn. presented a few pros
and cons of federal funding during a recent nonprofit accounting
conference. Weekes, a former government auditor, pointed out the
following positives:
- Federal funding
is an excellent, generally consistent, source of revenue.
- You can get paid
daily on incurred costs.
- It pays overhead
and fixed costs.
The cons of federal
funding are:
- Compliance with
rules and regulations;
- Additional administration
burdens;
- Lack of resources
and assistance from the government;
- Audits are common.
Compliance issues
include allowable costs, allocation of costs, time and effort reporting,
and grant administration, according to Weekes.
Also keep in mind
that grants are cost reimbursable, audit clauses are generally included
in rewards, and many contracts are cost reimbursable, but fixed price
awards are common, according to Weekes.
Review the following
federal rules and cost principles for more information:
- Nonprofits - OMB
A-122
- Hospitals - OASC-3
- Colleges and universities
- OMB A-21
- State and local
governments - OMB A-87
- Administrative
requirement OMB Circular A-110.
18.
The effective case statement
The task of writing
a case statement can be a daunting one, full of pitfalls.
In his book Making
the Case, Jerold Panas maintains that anyone putting together
a case statement can get off to a good start by remembering that
there are seven ways a case statement is used. According to Panas,
those seven ideas are:
- The case statement
assures and secures agreement, understanding and commitment among
your primary leaders and board members. There can be no question
there is total dedication to the cause and a precise understanding
of the institution's objectives and long-range goals.
- The case statement
provides a direction and a defined strategy for how to present
your vision and the urgency to your primary constituencies most
effectively and dramatically. It becomes an expert witness for
your mission.
- The case informs
leaders and workers of your audacious dream. It demonstrates and
substantiates how the success of the endeavor will work to the
immense and unending benefit of those you serve.
- The effective
case enlists friends and new leaders to your cause, in sufficient
numbers and at the proper level to win the effort.
- It is an early
working document and cultivation piece for prospective major donors.
- It is a document
that helps others endorse and share your vision.
- Nothing happens
until you first describe the dream; then the case becomes the source
book and guide for the writing of subsequent publications, articles,
foundation proposals and video presentations.
19. Grantmaking - Expenditure responsibility is yours
A private foundation
considering making a donation to a foreign organization must determine
either that the proposed donee is the equivalent of a U.S. public
charity or, failing that, must exercise "expenditure responsibility," according
to Jane Peebles, in a chapter about emerging legal issues in international
philanthropy in Frank L. Ellsworth and Joe Lumarda's Foundation
Management: Innovation and Responsibility at Home and Abroad (2003,
Wiley).
Expenditure responsibility
means making full inquiry in order to make a reasonable determination
that the proposed grant-receiving organization can fulfill the charitable
purpose of the grant. An officer or director of the foreign grantee
must also sign a written grant agreement specifying the charitable
purpose of the grant and committing the receiving organization to:
-
Repay any funds
not used for the grant's purpose
-
Submit annual
reports detailing how the funds have been used, compliance with
the grant agreement and the grantee's progress in achieving the
purpose for which the grant was made (these grantee reports usually
must be made until all of the grant funds have been expended
-
Maintain books
and records that are made reasonably available to the grantor
-
Refrain from using
any of the funs for lobbying, direct or indirect influence on any
public election or voter registration drive, or any activity for
a non-charitable purpose, to the extent that such use of funds
would be taxable to a private foundation.
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