Are You Ready to Write Grants? Read This Before You Apply

“It can literally take years of special events to match the income that one grant can bring into an organization.”

— Betsy Baker, author of The Essential Fundraising Handbook for Small Nonprofits

Winning grant funding isn’t only about bringing in new cash for your organization. Winning grants endorses your nonprofit as a worthwhile investment and can be the critical step that puts your organization on the map.

Below you’ll learn how you can defy the odds, get your nonprofit “grant ready” and prepare winning proposals.

What does it mean to be “grant ready?”

One of the biggest mistakes small nonprofits make when it comes to seeking grant funding is putting in too little time preparing for fundraising.

Many small groups believe that writing a compelling proposal, having a popular mission or even having great connections will win them the grant.

Being “grant ready” means investing in preparation time upfront and requires a close examination of your organization’s readiness to take on additional capital.

To make getting “grant ready” straightforward and easy, let’s break the process up into simple steps.

Step 1: Have grit

Fundraising can be time consuming. Not just on you, but the whole organization. So what happens when you hear your first “no” from a grant maker? Will you turn your tail and say “never again!”?

The most successful nonprofits prepare for and even anticipate hearing “no” multiple times. They stay strong and persevere by establishing a plan before they begin the grants process.

Step 2: Measure your readiness

In the book “The Essential Fundraising Handbook for Small Nonprofits*,” Betsy Baker lays out a dozen questions any nonprofit can ask themselves to determine how ready they are for grants. We’ve modified them slightly based on reading hundreds of grant applications.

So, grab your colleagues, get in a room and answer the questions below together. As you work through the questions, you’ll be able to quickly determine how ready you are to submit a proposal and what work still needs to be done.

When you’re answering these questions, do so in complete sentences because your answers will give you the skeleton for future proposals.

What problem/ pain are you solving?

• Can you demonstrate need for your program?
• Can you cite the need using reputable sources?

What is your solution?

• Can you show what difference your program is making?
• Do you have evaluation results that prove your impact?

Who is your target audience?

• Can you describe your target audience in detail?
• What are the reasons for assisting this particular audience?

Why your nonprofit?

• Can you provide third-party endorsements such as awards, testimonials, community support?
• Why is your group uniquely positioned to solve this problem/ pain?

Is your nonprofit a sound investment?

• Do you have a clearly defined mission?
• Do you have the ability to manage the project for which you’re applying?
• Can you show that your approach follows best practices in the field?

Step 3: Turn your template into a reusable proposal

By putting time into preparing answers to the readiness questions beforehand, you’ll convey clarity and strength in your proposals and you’ll have the bones of any future proposals at your fingertips.

Use the answers to your questions above to keep your ideas organized and ready for when you need them. I recommend making a master Word doc or Excel spreadsheet to store your answers. Make sure to always go back and update information as you get better and better at talking about your organization.

Step 4: Find grants where you’ll have the best chance

Now that you’ve measured your grant-readiness and have fleshed out the details about why your nonprofit is worth investing in, you’re much better equipped to start searching for the most relevant grant makers.

To begin your search, start broad and use process of elimination to hone in on the best match. Find any and all grant makers that accept unsolicited proposals about programs like yours, whether that be environmental education, animal welfare, land conservation, etc.

Then, check to make sure you meet the grant maker’s geographic restrictions in terms of both where your organization is located and/or where the program must be undertaken. Note that many private funders not only have a hard geographic restriction, but also a preference for where the program must take place.

To really get the fullest picture of your chance of success, locate the funder’s most recent IRS-990 form to find a list of every organization awarded in the past year. Look for grant makers who have funded organizations similar to yours in the past. This will give you yet another layer of data from which to inform your decisions.

So remember, even small nonprofits can hang with the big guys, it’s just a matter of preparation!

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*Baker, Betsy, Kirsten Bullock, Gayle L. Gilford, Pamela Grow, Lori L. Jacobwith, Marc A. Pitman, Sandy Rees, and Sherry Truhlar. The Essential Fundraising Handbook for Small Nonprofits. Louisville, KY: Nonprofit Academy, 2014. Print.