You’ve just heard about a previously unknown grant opportunity that looks like a great fit for your organization. But the deadline for proposals is only a few days away. What should you do? In "Managing Short Deadlines" (CharityChannel, July 15, 2009), Alyssa Hanada offers guidelines. First, look at the proposal requirements. How complicated and time-consuming will it be to respond? Are you already working on proposals or reports that must be completed within the same time period? If responding to the new opportunity means you risk missing other, critical deadlines, then pass. Otherwise, get your team into action, giving everyone clear assignments and deadlines. Hanada adds that, even when working with anticipated deadlines, you can eliminate a lot of last-minute stress by setting up schedules that give everyone involved enough time to complete their part of the job.

[The complete article can be accessed only by CharityChannel subscribers.]

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The global recession is having both short- and long-term effects on corporate giving. Recent articles in The Nonprofit Times ("Corporate Philanthropy: 2009 & Beyond," by Rob Blizard, July 1, 2009) and The Chronicle of Philanthropy ("Businesses Buckle Up" by Noelle Barton and Ian Wilhelm, July 2, 2009) reach similar conclusions. The writers predict that, while levels of corporate giving will continue to fall, at least through the end of 2010, donated products, services, and volunteer time will account for a larger proportion. Cash gifts will increasingly be directed at organizations that focus on helping the poor and the unemployed weather the recession. In the long term, corporations are likely to continue and expand the following pre-recessionary giving trends:

• Tighter limits on the range of areas in which grants are made
• Close alignment between business and social objectives
• Commitment to the causes their target customers favor

[Note: Article from The Nonprofit Times is available in print edition only.]

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A three-part article, "Tips to Get the Grant Funding You Need," by Karen Stinson and Phyl Renninger (Local/State Funding Report, June 22, June 29, and July 13, 2009) suggests ways to raise your chances of success:

• If you’re a first-time grantseeker, go for smaller grants.
• Identify your organization’s competitive edge.
• Since you’ll need to refer to and/or attach standard documents when preparing grant proposals, keep a collection of these documents on hand.
• Develop a consistent process for seeking grants.
• Apply only for grants that match your organization’s mission.
• Don’t limit your funding searches only to grantmakers that focus on your constituency.
• Make sure your organization has the capacity to carry out the purposes of the grant.
• Put together a strong team before drafting your proposal.
• Develop a week-by-week schedule for preparing your proposal.
• Limit the number of needs described in your proposal. Don’t include every possible problem.
• In your proposal budget, show how each proposed activity will be paid for.
• Explain clearly how you arrived at the figures in your budget.
• Stay organized during the application process.

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Since proposals submitted vastly outnumber grants that can be made, grant reviewers are usually pressed for time. Try to avoid pushing their "pet peeve buttons," warns Jeannette Archer-Simmons in "Top Ten Ways to Frustrate a Grant Reviewer" (CharityChannel, May 27, 2009). The irritants most likely to send your proposal straight to the reject pile:

• Your proposal is in 8-point type; it has ½-inch margins; it’s in a plastic cover that clamps shut; and you sent fewer copies than requested.
• You included unrelated attachments and/or failed to send requested attachments.
• The budget you submitted has a different total from the one in the proposal, or it doesn’t balance, or it includes expenses that aren’t eligible for funding.
• You used lots of jargon, abbreviations, and incomprehensible acronyms.
• The proposal is the same one you sent to several other grantmakers.
• The amount you requested doesn’t match the funding available.
• You didn’t follow instructions or answer questions.
• You don’t respond to the funder’s telephone calls or emails.

[The complete article can be accessed only by CharityChannel subscribers.]

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Could reliance on grants be sabotaging your mission? In her forthcoming book, Reliable Fundraising in Unreliable Times, Kim Klein outlines a surefire defense against mission creep.

Our entire sector has gotten into trouble because we failed to answer a simple question: "What kinds of income streams will best help us accomplish our goals and objectives and do the most to fulfill our mission?"

The reason most organizations don’t have this conversation is clear: If we don’t have money, we can’t do our work, and we don’t have time to stop raising money long enough to step back and think about how our work might be enhanced by how we raise our money. But that vicious cycle got us where we are today—with not enough money, not enough time, and further away from accomplishing our goals and objectives.

Consider the various sources of funds available: foundations, corporations, government, and individuals. Foundation, corporate, and government fundraising usually involves researching funders and writing proposals to obtain grants. Grassroots fundraising means raising funds from individuals in your community. Although fundraising is a pretty straightforward concept—we need money, and to get it, we have to raise it—each choice we make about pursuing a source of funds or a combination of sources says something about our beliefs.

Let’s focus for a moment on grassroots fundraising. People often misunderstand the term grassroots fundraising to mean getting a lot of little gifts. In practice, however, the term grassroots denotes any kind of effort that derives most of its power and its reason for being from a community and from common, ordinary people. Grassroots fundraising means that an organization uses a range of strategies to invite as many people as possible to give donations of widely varying amounts. Given that strategy, grassroots fundraising also means that a lot of people are involved in raising the money needed.

A grassroots organization is independent: No one source of money is of ultimate importance to that group. If a person or a corporation says, "We don’t like what you are doing and we don’t want to fund you anymore," the nonprofit, instead of saying, "Oh, no, don’t leave! We will change what we are doing to please you!" can say, "We are sorry to hear that, and we will miss you." Similarly, no new program or organizing idea is evaluated against the question, "Can we get it funded?" It is evaluated as to whether it promotes the mission or not.

All the ways you raise money to do your work reflect your values, whether you have articulated those values or not. So, for example, if there is government funding available for the work you do, in taking such funding you are expressing the value that the work you do should be supported by taxes. If you get most or all of your money from corporations, on the other hand, the implicit value is that the work you do can be done in partnership with for-profit companies and that your agenda as a nonprofit can exist in harmony with the agendas of corporations.

If, however, you feel that the work you do should be supported by the people who most benefit from it, and if you want to have the maximum amount of independence in what you choose to do and how you choose to do it, then you will want to have your money come from as many people and places as you can manage. That is grassroots fundraising. Grassroots fundraising does not preclude an organization from also receiving corporate, foundation, or government support, but it means the organization is not dependent on any one source.

Kim Klein, a fundraising trainer and consultant, is the founder of the bimonthly Grassroots Fundraising Journal and the author of numerous books, including Fundraising for Social Change (now in its fifth edition, 2007). This article is adapted from the forthcoming book, Reliable Fundraising in Unreliable Times: What Good Causes Need to Know to Survive and Thrive (Jossey-Bass, September 2009) with permission of Kim Klein.

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