I had the fortune to hear a friend of mine, Betsy Baker, give a presentation on grantwriting recently.  She shared a lot of good information, and I wanted to pass on a few tips to you.

Did you know?  Over $38 billion dollars were given to nonprofit organizations from private foundations last year.  That’s a LOT of money!  And that’s just from private foundations.  It doesn’t count government money.

If you’re just getting started with grantwriting, start with a private foundation grant.  They’re easiest.  Don’t start with a government grant.

Be ready to prove that your programs are important to the community.  Your persuasive writing must demonstrate this fact to the grant reader.

When you apply to a potential funder, you are a possible investment for them.  So think about that as you’re putting your proposal together.  Would you fund you?

Talk about the benefits of your programs and projects, not the features.  Features are fact – benefits are emotion.  When you share the impact your nonprofit’s work has on the community, you’re sharing benefits. 

Find potential funders that are a good match for the program or project you are seeking funds for.  When you have a hand-in-glove fit, you’re much more likely to get funded.  So do your homework before you start to write anything.

Want more?  Check out Betsy’s website at www.yourgrantauthority.com and sign up for her newsletter.  She shares lots of good grantwriting tips!

I read this book last week called “How to Write Knockout Proposals” by Joseph Barbato.  It was a quick read and had lots of golden nuggets.  I thought I’d share a few with you along with my interpretation of them.

• One size does not fit all.  Don’t put together one proposal then send it to lots of different funders.  It’s lazy.  Spend the time reviewing the potential funder’s website or guidelines.  Make sure that your proposal is a good fit, then explain that fit in your proposal.
• Your proposal should be written in layman’s terms.  Don’t inundate your reader with technical terms, industry jargon, and acronyms.  Keep it simple.  Remember, you don’t want to give the proposal reviewer any reason to toss your proposal.
• Emphasize the benefits.  Be sure you explain clearly the impact your program or project will have.  And explain how it will benefit the people you serve.
• Every assertion in your proposal must be supported by facts. Don’t say you will do things that you can’t.  Don’t say you’ve done things you haven’t.  If you claim that your program is innovative, be prepared to explain how and share supporting data.

Barbato says “Your goal is to write a persuasive proposal that will get funded.”  I agree.  There’s a lot of money out there for you if you can learn to be a good grantwriter, and this book can help you do that.

Many nonprofit Fundraisers focus on writing grants to bring in dollars.  Unfortunately, the thought of creating a budget to go with the narrative or the application strikes fear in the hearts of the bravest Fundraisers.  Here are some ideas to help you overcome the fear and be on your way to creating a successful budget.

First, you must get your head in the game.  If you think “I’m not a numbers person” you must change that thought. When you think that and say it out loud, you are in essence letting yourself off the hook.  If you raise money for a nonprofit, I’m here to tell you that you must be a numbers person.   Once upon a time, I didn’t think of myself as a numbers person, but I soon realized if I was going to do a good job of raising money, there were some numbers I needed to get comfy with.

Now, let’s have a look at what a program budget for a grant really is.

A program/project budget is more than just a list of expenditures.  It’s a way of describing your program/project with numbers.

Incomplete budgets are a sign of sloppiness, so make sure to include all direct and indirect expenses.  Direct expenses are those expenses that directly relate to your program/project, like program/project supplies.  Any staff that are directly involved in a program or project need to have their time included on the budget.  In other words, be sure to include salary expenses in the budget as appropriate.  Indirect expenses are those are expenses that don’t directly relate to your program/project but are critical to your program/project, like utilities for your building where your program/project is housed.

If the funder has a specific budget form or format, use it.  Otherwise, you can use your own format. Be sure to include all line items requested by the funder. I’ve included my Budget Templates for you, both the simple version and the detailed version.

Include in-kind items like donated time (volunteers) and donated items.

Once you have all your budget numbers plugged into the form or format, manually calculate the numbers to make sure the totals are correct.  I’ve seen Excel do some weird things before that left grantseekers with mistakes on their budget sheets!

Don’t inflate your numbers to appear more impressive. Share the truth.  Actual numbers or estimates are much better.  It’s easier to believe that $1280 is a real budget number than $1,000. Overstated budgets are a sign of waste or ignorance about the program/project. So, it’s important to have an accurate, clear, well-planned program/project budget.

Lay your budget out so that it’s easy to read – use descriptive column headings and make sure your numbers are aligned.

You’ll find that the more practice you get in working with numbers and budgets, the more comfortable you’ll become and the easier it will be to put them together.