Feeling fuzzy about why your organization is lacking funding success? About.com has provided us with some handy hints about how nonprofits can increase their grantwriting savvy.
- Getting a grant: Quick fix. Finding and securing your first grant is like finding and securing your first job. It requires a lot of time and patience. However, if you keep on keeping on, you are much more likely to find success.
- Grants: Unique form of fundraising. Networking, networking, and more networking. The better your relationship with your potential funders, the more favorably they will view your organization during grantmaking season.
- Bad economy = no grants. Maybe larger foundations may be doling out less in grants than before the economic crash, but that may mean that you should diversify your funding base. Look to smaller and mid-size foundations!
- Grants don’t give us the operational support we need. More and more foundations are shifting from solely funding programs, to providing more overhead support. In fact, CAAP did just that with our grants in August!
- No shoulder-rubbing = no funding. Don’t worry if you don’t know Melinda Gates personally. Instead, you may well have a board or staff member at a foundation. Work that connection!
- We have no access to grants. With a little creativity, (using the library or free databases online), you won’t have to pay in order to attain grants featured on expensive databases.
- Grantwriting: Confounding! Tell your story and follow the guidelines. That’s pretty much it.
- No grant writers on staff!! You’d be surprised who will turn out to be capable to perform this crucial task. You can engage volunteers or find a grant writer who would be willing to train members of your organization.
Be sure to check out resources like Guidestar’s Anatomy of a Grant, and keep checking our blog for more grant-related news!
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