Founders, CEOs and grant managers! I'm putting together a tip sheet for my team about fundraising and grant proposals. Fundraising is a learned skill and so is grant writing. I find people sometimes struggle to do it because they cannot step out of "this is what works for the non profit/charity/organisation" mode and fail to take into account the funder's remit and interest. Or not understanding the mechanics of funding risks we undertake to ensure sustainability. Fundraising is mostly done by me since Chayn began and while I have many team members helping me here and there, I find myself having similar conversations so I thought what better way to put together a tip sheet before I head off on maternity leave. What would be your tips? Happy to open up the document once it's done!
Few tips from me: 1. Most basic and practical. Start as early as possible, funding applications always take much longer than you expect them to. 2. Treat it like a job application - the funder needs something that you can provide, but you need to be very specific. Start with a table and set out all the criteria in the left column and how you meet these criteria in the right column. Do this at three levels starting from big to small. First (big), the 'area' that the charity operates in e.g., if I was writing a grant to the British Lung Foundation I'd write about the relevance of my organisation's research for respiratory illnesses. Next (medium), the specific charity's/funder's mission, how does the activity of Chayn support this mission. Finally (small), the specific criteria of the grant/funding call - be really really specific, make sure you pick out all the key words and aims of the grant, as well as how it will be assessed and write how you will meet them. If these aren't made clear - ask for an informal chat with the grant provider/funder, or see if you can infer them from the description of the grant and write them for yourself. ... cont...
I would also add - don’t fall into the trap of writing in ‘funding speak’. A lot of people start to write applications how they think funders want to read them, so they become quite clinical and samey and lose the inspiration of the project/ programme they are trying to describe. Funders have lots of applications to read so make it clear, concise, jargon-free and don’t lose magic of what you do in the process.
Love this! A few more tips: 1. Involve other departments as early as possible, particularly finance. This helps ensure various questions are answered/things squared away before the grant agreement is signed, and it also helps with planning. We even have finance join some of the early meetings with the donor and have found it shows donors that we have it together and know what we are doing. 2. Don't be afraid to humanize yourself and them. It's all about the relationships and it's easier to connect when you remember the person behind the screen. 3. Perfection is the enemy of good!
Have a specific day of the week/time of day/month to focus on fundraising - otherwise it gets pushed down the priority list until too late. Make a separate sub-folder/email address for funding newsletters and pop them in there until the specific fundraising time. And be open to sources of funding you might not have previously considered - be flexible and let funding determine other decisions, like legal structure, internal structuring and practicalities (like bank accounts): ultimately you can't do anything without money! Thanks for starting this conversation ❤️ x
Adding to all the excellent points from Jessica. For grant proposals/ anything with a proforma response- be clear on what is needed from the get go (e.g word/ character count) and draft bullet the response accordingly. Nothing worse than having to shed words in the final hour (and yet... we always end up doing it!) Have someone outside the writing team to check you have answered all parts of what has been asked. Another one for the start of the process- multiple people to read the asks of the funder/ website to determine their interest areas. Conversation in the team about whether it is worth pursuing or whether you will tie yourself up like a pretzel trying to fit the work to something that's not quite right (and likely not get the funding anyway). Can also be from the flip side when it's a total punt but the time and resources you need to respond are not huge and it's worth taking the chance!
In addition to the deck that Geoffrey MacDougall shared below, we collaborated to document the first part of his approach — the "mindset" — for a group of grantees in the US who are supporting youth and adolescent reproductive health. It's under the same CC license: https://bit.ly/fundraising-reflection-guide More on Aspiration/Geoffrey approach is here... I'm calling it human-centered fundraising :) https://aspirationtech.org/programs/strategicdevelopment/howtoraisemoney
Most importantly, 1. Map your theme/social issue to the funding avenue that will bring the best ROI. This is to avoid stretching yourself too thin trying the entire universe. 2. Cultivate within the org the need for all members (at least most of them) to wear the fundraising hat.
Hi Hera! Mutual friends pulled me this way. Turned the last 30 years of fundraising--including building Mozilla's program--into a workshop / mentoring practice for emergent, activist EDs. All sorts of CC-licensed resources and templates here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ujs3SLuNaFp9B1VlyUSf1YwL8A4bxlPe8jsbgAEbkq8/edit#slide=id.ge1d200784c_1_6
Love this idea. Thank you for sharing, folks have fantastic tips and suggestions. I would also add, to see what the dollar amount is. Base your activity on that. If your budget is ready, then talking about the issue is easier.
Founder & CEO, Chayn I Ashoka Fellow | Forbes Under 30 | MIT Innovators Under 35
12moYou all are too kind. One of my tips is really as blunt as "Unless a funder has asked for it, using time and energy to question the problematic nature of fundraising/philanthropy/grantmaking for struggling non-profits is not an effective use of your or their time. As much as we want to call funders in and out, a fundraising proposal isn’t the place to do it (unless they have specifically asked you for it)."