Lost City Press

Getting a Grant

2012-01-18T10:28:00.000-08:00

One approach to getting a grant is to write a proposal and then fire it off to as many funding bodies as you can find. It’s the lottery approach, and sometimes it actually results in getting a little money. The problem is that it can cut you off from the larger amounts of cash that you could garner with a more targeted effort.
A targeted effort, however, requires planning programmes, researching foundations and government programmes, and cultivating contacts within those foundations and ministries.

Perhaps the first thing to realize is that you shouldn’t be asking for a grant if you are starting from zero. Very few funding bodies will give money to organizations with no track record, or to untested programmes. The second thing to remember is that grant givers, like donors, want to know what the money is for. And it isn’t to fund your organization. It’s to fund a programme that meets a need in your community. So the first step is to sit down and answer the question, What is the objective of this programme?

Your group likely engages in more than one activity. A group that deals with a particular disease, for example, may want to provide funds to help find a cure, and also to provide palliative care to the people who suffer from that disease. But these are two different programmes and when it comes to grant money, you have to be clear about which of your group’s programmes you are seeking funding for.

Most of the time, you will be asking for the grant-giver to provide continued funding to an existing programme, or you will be asking for money to expand the reach of a programme. If you need funding for a completely untested project, going for a grant right off the bat is probably not the way to go. In this situation, you need go back to step one—asking everyone you can think of for a donation. If you know people who might be willing to provide a large donation, then face-to-face fundraising is the right approach.

Once you have some money, you can put your new programme in place and carry out some of its activities long enough to be able, hopefully, to point to some tangible, positive results. Then you will be ready to ask for a grant.

Contacting Grantors
Once you have compiled a short list of prospective foundations and/or government granting bodies, the next step is to make contact with a real person. This can be as simple as sending some printed material about your organization with a covering letter that mentions your intention to apply for funds in the near future. Simply say that you would like to discuss the programme for which you will seek funding. In the case of government grants, there will be a grants officer to contact.

Wait a couple of weeks, and follow-up with a phone call. Regardless of whether or not you are successful in meeting someone personally, try to get some idea of how interested they are in your programme. If they ask a lot of questions and seem receptive, this is a foundation where your efforts are more likely to be rewarded than one where they seem disinterested and off-putting. In either case, a willingness to meet you personally indicates a high interest level.

Once you have identified the government programs that you think you might qualify for, the first step is to make contact with a grants officer. This person’s job is to determine whether your project falls within the program’s guidelines, and to help you fill out the application properly. Another aspect of their job is to help their department maintain accountability.

It’s important to remember that the money for these programs is tax money. Politicians need to be able to justify the expenditure of these funds, and the primary way they do that is to mandate these various programs to give you money only as long as your project meets very specific criteria. That means that the words on your application have to echo the words in the corresponding legislation. A good grants officer will tell you what the right words are, and how to make your project and their programme’s objectives come together on paper.

One thing to keep in mind as you go through this process is that it will take time. Deciding whether to fund your initiative is a judgment call that has to be made by more than one person as your application works its way up through the various bureaucratic levels. Once it makes its way to the minister’s office, a grants officer will most likely only be able to tell you whether you have been successful or unsuccessful and not a whole lot more since they are required to keep their conversations with ministers confidential. Don’t, however, underestimate the grants officer’s influence since his or her recommendation for approval goes a long way towards improving your chances of success.

Don’t worry too much about the minister’s opinion of your group, even if he or she seems to have an unfavourable opinion of your type of cause. If your application meets the programme’s mandate, the minister likely won’t reject it on the basis of not liking you.

Soon you will have your A-list of potential funders, and it is time, with the help of the grants officer to start writing your proposal.

This is an excerpt from my book The Best of Fundraising 101. To learn more, click here

Making a Case for Support

2010-03-10T13:38:00.000-08:00

Here is another excerpt from The Best of Fundraising 101. I've been using InFix PDF Editor to bring the book up-to-date and there is already a corrected e-version available on the Lost City Press website.

What Type of Case Is It?
Before you begin writing, you also need to have it clearly in your mind what you are building a case for. Is it the case for supporting your organization and it’s activities, or is it the case for supporting a particular campaign or programme? The story of one person’s positive experience with your organization is always a good starting point. Taking, again, the example of a group working with the underprivileged, perhaps you have helped someone learn about computers, or become involved in sports. Maybe they have gone beyond what you were able to teach them, and have started teaching others. So now they are filling a role in society, and society as a whole is benefiting. This is what your organization exists to do. What prospect or donor who is concerned about the problem of poverty could fail to support that kind of activity?

On the other hand, don’t confuse telling one person’s story with telling the history of your organization. One person’s story can illustrate why you exist, and provide proof that your methods work. It is something you can use in your fundraising pitches as a bridge to saying that there are more people waiting for this kind of help. How your organization got started, it’s location, and how many buildings you have are not really central to why someone should support you. Provide this information if you have a good reason, but keep it in the background.

In a longer case statement, you should certainly feel free to cite the successes you have had and to discuss the positive impact you have made, but only as a way of proving that your organization has a history of effective action, and that your team knows how to make its programmes work. Don’t, however, fall into the trap of discussing your organization’s growth as something glorious. Keep the focus on the people you intend to help, not on the buildings, or the equipment, you have acquired. Donors don’t want to buy facilities; they want to buy access to facilities for people who can’t otherwise afford them.

Don’t confuse the means with the ends. You may need a new computer to do your job more efficiently, but that isn’t what donors give to. In general, what they give to is a positive improvement in someone else’s life. In many cities now, unemployed and homeless people sell a newspaper about street people because it makes them feel they are doing something more worthwhile than begging for quarters. The people who pay a dollar for these publications, however, aren’t buying a newspaper; they’re buying an improved level of self-esteem and dignity for the seller. Many of them are also, no doubt, buying the hope that some of these people will learn that they can do something about their own situation, and eventually go on to better things.

In the non-profit world hope is, if not a marketable commodity, certainly what people get when they give you their money or time. So look to the future, and offer your vision of the best that can be achieved, given adequate funding. Whether you achieve it or not, it’s what you are working towards. Don’t provide a lecture about all the evil that will befall if people don’t support you, but rather a picture of the good that will ensue if they do. Take an inspirational look beyond the current crisis to a better day. Your case should contain some of the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. saying, ‘I have a dream this afternoon.’ His civil rights marches didn’t achieve all the changes that he talked about, but they certainly brought about considerable improvement, largely because he inspired people to believe in the need to work for the best possible society.

Once you have pointed the way to a better tomorrow, the task is to convince prospects that you know the way and have the best vehicle to get there. If you’ve done your market/case statement research, you already know what the people you are addressing want to hear. You should be able to say that your reason for being is to deal with one of their greatest concerns. Before they’ve even become involved, reading your case should make prospects feel a sense of ownership towards your cause.

Asking for Money

2010-02-08T10:37:00.000-08:00

It's easy to fall into the feeling that you are bothering people when you ask them to contribute to your cause, or volunteer to help you with it. And some of the time you might be, but you never know who might be waiting for you to call and ask them for help. In general, people don't go around offering money or help to others but that doesn't mean they don't want to give it. It could mean that they have a policy of only supporting groups who ask for their support. But that could mean that they are actually just waiting for you to ask.

After all, how does a prospect know you need their help? Maybe if they offer it to you, they'll take it not because you actually need it so much but just because you don't want to turn it down. I'm talking more about non-monetary support here, like volunteering or gifts in kind but the same thing applies to gifts of money. The way most people decide who to donate to is by waiting until someone asks them.

That's why the first rule of fundraising is, ask! Not ask and ye shall receive, as my old boss Ken Wyman used to say, but you don't ask, you don't get.

It's like being a door-to-door sales person. The job is to work your way through the people who don't want you to knock on their door until you get to those who are. Those are the people who want to do something about society's problems but are maybe not sure how to go about it, or they are too busy to take on the problem themselves. Maybe they don't know you exist. Maybe they have forgotten that yours is a cause they care about. Whatever the case, keeping asking until you reach them. They are out there.

As for those people who see your solicitations as an annoyance, you just never know. They might come along another day. Attitudes can soften over time and you might be surprised by who chooses to support you in the future.

Raising Money on the Phone

2009-07-07T11:12:00.000-07:00

Many groups shy away from using the phone for fundraising because they are afraid of alienating donors. They don’t want to be put in the same boat as those annoying dinnertime telemarketers, but the truth is that most people don’t mind being contacted on the phone by charities they already know. And the fact also is that the telephone is the best way to renew lapsed donors and clear the deadwood out of your direct mail house list.

Most non-profits who conduct direct mail campaigns have people on their list who haven’t made a donation in a long time. This doesn’t mean, however, that they will never give you another gift, but it probably means they have moved and the current resident is just throwing your packages in the trash. Or it might mean that they’ve passed on and should be removed from your list. Maybe they’ve just lost interest in your cause. Perhaps you’ve done something they don’t approve of or they’re suffering from a misperception based on an inaccurate news story.

Clearing Things Up
There are many possible reasons for someone to stop giving and the easiest way to determine the truth is to call and ask what’s up. If you do, you will most likely make money by reactivating several donors and save money by no longer sending mail to people who aren’t interested in you anymore. What’s more, you will get a better idea of what some people think of the work you are doing. If there’s a general misperception about your work floating around, it’s best to find out what it is and clear it up.

This is an excerpt from Issue 49 of Fundraising 101. The entire issue can be downloaded as a pdf file for CDN $7.95 by going to http://www.lostcitypress.net/fundraising 101.html.

Simple Fundraising Ideas

2009-07-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

Idea #1: Feed the People
Here’s a simple fundraising idea that you can adapt to your own needs. Ask your local transit authority if you can set up a table in one of their busier stations to give away coffee and donuts to commuters. If they agree, then you solicit a donation of coffee from a manufacturer and maybe get the donuts or Danishes from a large baker like Sarah Lee. You will probably have more luck getting such donations from companies that won’t see this as competition, but rather see it as a form of promotion. A company that sells coffee and donuts to commuters might see it as competition; a company that sells coffee in supermarkets, Maxwell House for instance, probably won’t.

The companies provide signs to promote their products, and you of course erect your own. Have your organization’s literature on the table and a jar for donations. Your minimum donation should be what the coffee and Danish would cost, but of course many people will give you more. Additional benefits include the free publicity you get, especially if you invite the local television news channel to come out and film you, and if things go well, you may have sown the seeds for a more significant corporate sponsorship from the coffee company, or the bakery, if it is large enough.

This is an excerpt from Issue 48 of Fundraising 101. The entire newsletter is available for download at www.lostcitpress.net/fundraising101.html

The Right Order for Implementing Fundraising Campaigns

2009-07-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

Here’s a basic outline of how a group puts together a successful fundraising program.

Decide what you want to accomplish.

Decide how you are going to accomplish it.

Make a mission statement and a case statement.

Put together a committed and involved Board of Directors.

Apply for foundation and government grants.

Use some of the grant money you receive to implement your programs and some to implement new campaigns.

Develop mechanisms for tracking your success rate.

Use your successes as a springboard for other self-sustaining programs, such as those listed below.

The annual direct mail campaign.

The annual special event

An on-going face-to-face program.

Publicize your group’s work, using as many free or low-cost techniques as possible.

Recruit committed and involved volunteers.

Implement a programme of donor stewardship.

Only after you have laid a strong foundation with direct mail, face-to-face, and special events should you look into the techniques listed below.

Corporate Sponsorships.

Planned Giving.

How to Ask for Money So That People Say Yes.

2009-06-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

The real task for fundraisers is asking in such a way that you hear ‘yes’ more often. The first step in doing that is to have a clear idea of what the money is for, and then you have to be able to articulate that in a couple of sentences. Dear Friend, Would you be willing to support our organization if you knew it would make a significant difference in the life of another person? That’s the basic fundraising question, but before you can ask it with confidence, you ought to have already helped at least a few people. If you’re an established group, that shouldn’t be a problem, but if you’re a relatively new group, establishing a track record should be a major priority. Fundraising is a lot easier when you can point to your successes and tell the prospective donor that what you are asking them to do is help make an already successful enterprise even more successful. The usual path for getting to that point is to apply for a foundation or government grant, and then implement at least one programme. Once your programme is underway, and you have seen some positive outcomes, then you can move onto more self-sustaining forms of fundraising, such as special events and direct mail.

This post is an excerpt from Issue 32 of Fundraising 101 and is also a chapter in my book, The Best of Fundraising 101.

The Best of Fundraising 101

2008-10-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog post. I am a 52 year-old Toronto writer who has written and produced three self-published books about bicycle touring and one fundraising manual. They are available for purchase on my website, http://www.lostcitypress.net/.

Both The Best of Fundraising 101 and Ten Bike Tours in and Around Toronto can be instantly downloaded as pdf files.