By: Barbara Floersch
Funders want to hear your story–the narrative of what your organization does and how that work improves lives and strengthens the community. The story may be the hook, but unless you can back-up feel-good anecdotes with cold hard numbers your case for support won’t result in a grant.
The strain of inadequate, insecure funding is exhausting and often sends nonprofits tilting at every windmill that might throw out a grant dollar. Every organization has its own pressure points and problems, but there are some commonalities throughout the sector.
Put yourself in the funder’s shoes—who would you choose to fund? These tough decisions are complex and include assessing an organization’s ability to deliver on the promises made in the grant proposal.
For many nonprofits, the term “grants management” conjures up visions of navigating an ever-changing labyrinth of rules and regulations. While there is a learning curve when managing regulation-heavy grants from various levels of government, it’s nothing diligence and determination can’t conquer.
Nonprofits are dedicated to their missions, pouring every ounce of time, energy, and money they can muster into their fight to make positive change.
With a rock-star proposal writer on staff, why spend precious dollars priming the pump? The grant awards are rolling in and all is right with the world. But getting too comfortable with the successful status quo is risky.
It’s a well-accepted best practice that the development of grant proposals should be well coordinated with the administrative, financial, human resources, and programmatic functions of the organization.
