I just remembered to do this.....

so this is going to be a hard, fast and basic little blog on grants. BTW, don't think I forgot which ones of you "volunteered" me to do this first....

Alright, the first thing you want to do is look at three things: your organizations needs and strengths, your community and its needs, and potential funders and their focus areas. Next, you match. I include community in here because a lot of times ppl will say that they want to develop a program for, say, education and they look to see what the focus areas of some major funders are and just try to do that. However, if you try to develop an adult literacy program b/c you find funders with that as a focus area, you will still not recieve funding if a)adult literacy isn't a problem in your geographic area and/or b) there is another organization in town that is already fulfilling that need in a community. Plus, even with programs already institutionalized within your organization, you will still have to prove to funders that there is a real need for that program in your community. So you really have to know your community and understand your role within that community.

Tip- Look at a foundations 990 (tax return) for the previous year (they are required to make it public by law) b/c it will list all the orgs they funded the previous year and the amounts. This is useful b/c often you will find that an organization says it funds, for example, "youth issues, mental health issues and breast cancer." You look at the 990 and find out that 99% of their money went to breast cancer research, so it still wouldn't be a feasible fit even if your org. has a youth or mental health focus. Also be sure they fund in your geographic area. A lot of funders say CO and mean metro Denver. Also, look on the tax forms of similar organizations and see who gives them money.

To find funders: www.foundationcenter.org is wonderful- go to log in, go to log in to foundation directory online, and then log in. You need to be a subscriber to use this service but, lucky for you all, I discovered the Denver Libraries username and password. denverlib is the name and also the password. If you have a conscience and don't want to piggyback on their subscription, almost any public library has a subscription and you can legally use foundationcenter there. You will have to ask Ian about which individual Weld libraries have subscriptions. After you are into foundationcenter, it is pretty intuitive to use. Also, you should subscribe to a number of listserves which send out grant updates for CO: JVA Consulting, http://img.channing-bete.com/H3037/cbc_H3037.html, http://www.coloradogrants.org/resources/deadline-calendar.php, and foundation center has a RFP listserv also.

Ok, now that you have your list of funders that you feel are a really good fit for your organization, I would recommend filling out a standardized fact sheet on each of them. Being a nerd, I already have one if you want me to send it to you. But basically you need a sheet on the foundation which is going to summerize the foundations focus, what you need to include in your narrative, what attachments you need, and sets your timeline. You might discover that you have 5 grants due March 1st and you need to get a few together now to be on track. Plus this will obviously be really helpful six months from now and keep you from losing a grant b/c you forget to include something basic. Make grant folders with your summary sheet, the actual application and whatever else you feel will help you. Then make some kind of organizational system that works for you to keep everything straight. Along with these grant folders, make a folder that has multiple copies of various things which are commonly asked for such as your financial statements, budget, IRS Determination letter, board of directors list and financial contributions, Success Stories, Statistics, anti-discrimination statement blah blah blah. You will realize what these are as you go. Your Director should be able to produce these for you fairly immediately.

Alright, if you are actually still reading this, we are going to move on to actually writing the narrative of your grant. After you have written a few grants, you will be able to cut and paste and assemble a new grant very quickly depending on what your funder is asking for and their particular focus area. That is the good news. And since I don't think any of us are at brand new nonprofits, go back and look at the copies of successful grants from last year to help you assemble what you need. I use the same org. history for every grant which I pulled from a grant Gwen wrote right before I came to A Kid's Place. The only thing that changes is the length depending on what I am working with. However, you need to be sure of a few thing when writing or assembling your grant. Number one, for the love of GOD, have someone proofread your grant. You will miss something and most funders will automatically throw out an application with obvious grammatical errors. Plus, you need to make sure you are clear with your org/program descriptions which is difficult.

Number two, make sure you focus on the parts of your program which matter to funders. This can be done two ways. You write a program grant instead of a general/operating grant or you just spend the majority of your time talking about that aspect of your org. For example, if your org provides numerous services to adults with mental disabilities, but your funder is all about providing work opportunities to adults with mental disabilities, you should be sure to go into detail about that program and probably include a short success story from it.

Number three, you NEED to have statistics. You need statistics on your community and you need statistics/info on your programs to prove you are successful and important (include number of volunteers if applicable). For example, for A Kid's Place, I include all our numbers on the people we helped, Weld County's child abuse statistics to show the need for our services and number of volunteers to show community support for us. You will need different stats in some instances for different things. For a diversity initiative at any nonprofit, you would include county population stats for instance. Basically, you need to remember that whatever your program/org is you need to justify why it is needed in the community and worth funding. You also need to show that the program is stable and well developed (especially for a new initiative). For a new initiative, be detailed. Give your timeline, staff profiles on those in charge, talk about other orgs you are partnering with, other funders that are already on board....anything to make the funder feel secure in offering support.

Number four, you should include goal(s) and outcomes. So, "Our goal is to increase the literacy of adults in Weld County" Outcomes: "We will provide services to a minimum of 100 people in 2009." "75% of students will pass the basic skills test" your director should have these, if not, chat with them and come up with something feasible. Funders love these b/c it shows that you are evaluating yourself to make sure you are doing the best job possible and it gives them something concrete to measure you by when you submit your final report.

In the end, you will have something like this: Contact Summary(org name, contact name, address, phone #....), Specific Grant Request (amount and for what), Org. summary (Mission and History), Community Need for Org/Program (statistics and stories to substantiate need), How does our org/program address the need (Methods, statistics, who benefits and how, maybe a heartwarming success story), Timeline and WorkPlan (if applicable), Measurable Goals and outcomes, attachments.

Hmmm...anything else.....make the grant easy to read and easy to follow/navigate. It being pretty does matter to a certain extent. the contact information for a grant will be your executive director in most cases. It just looks better. Sucking up to the foundation is good...say something like "The Blah Foundation has proven over the years that it has a strong commitment to helping the most vulnerable people in our society. That is why Organization thought that you would make the perfect partner for our new Child Abuse Prevention program. Statistics show that children who...." If you are unsure about something, call the foundation. They like it. They take note of it and often give you advice on what they like to see on an application. Alternatively if you are unsure of a funder, send a LOI. For a LOI, include your essential statistics (community need and your success), superbrief org. history and summary and why you approached that funder.

Anyways, not the most clear or sophisticated of lessons, but it should be of at least some assistance. If something is confusing or you want me to send you a sample of something, just ask since this was a very "College student writing a paper at 3am for a class at 8am" blog. Yeah. Don't write your grant like this.

BJK