Blog

14 Apr

Posted at 18:00h in Case Statements, Community, Competency Eight, Culture, Funder Relations, Funding Opportunities, Kellie Brunguard, Relationships
In grant seeking, fundraising professionals sometimes refer to low-hanging fruit as the donors who give year after year with little effort, synonymous with “easy money.” While the term is often tossed around, it can be frustrating to funders and grant professionals. Funders may have fewer requirements to increase accessibility to nonprofits or value the longevity of relationships. The funder is still striving to make an impact in the community. Grant professionals understand the nuances of grant seeking and can see the industry landscape increase in competitiveness as more organizations apply for funding and foundations give conservatively in response to volatile markets. Fundraising strategies that rely on these dollars without stewardship may find themselves in the midst of a drought.

07 Apr

Posted at 18:00h in Competency Eight, Competency Five, Grants Management, Megan Campbell, Relationships
All the time and effort you put into designing a great project and developing a clear, well-written grant proposal has paid off and you’ve received a notice of award from the funder. Now, it’s time to ensure that you are a great steward of the grant funds that you have received.

31 Mar

Posted at 18:00h in Competency Two, Funding, Kellie Brunguard, Organizational Development, Organizational Readiness, Research
March Madness is in full swing, and all this talk about competition and brackets makes me think about how grant writing relates. Grants, much like professional sports, are competitive, and increasingly so. We can’t come in on gameday and put together a proposal without any preparation and expect to win big. To be competitive, your grant team must train and prepare to advance through the rounds and win awards. So, while building out/reviewing your bracket for college basketball, consider how these strategies can help your grant team gain a competitive edge.

24 Mar

Posted at 18:00h in Budgets, Megan Campbell
Like any business or corporation, nonprofit organizations must manage revenue and expenses to deliver their products and services to communities. While nonprofits have been charged with addressing the world’s most critical issues, they often lack the adequate resources required to do it. Most organizations need things like safe facilities, light bulbs, furniture, computers, printers, office supplies, etc. to function. Large organizations such as hospitals and university systems are seldom scrutinized for these kinds of “operational” expenses, yet small organizations often accept the nonprofit starvation cycle, assuming that items needed for operations should be donated, mismatched, and held together by duct tape. There is an unspoken yet oft-acknowledged expectation that small nonprofits should rely on free or donated space, equipment, and even underpaid professional expertise more than their larger counterparts.

18 Mar

Posted at 14:30h in Competency One, Federal Grants, Funding Opportunities, Industry News
United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development, Rural Utilities Services Attention organizations and communities interested in providing distance learning or telemedicine services to rural areas! The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development, Rural Utilities Services’ Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) grant program is accepting applications for equipment, software, and other technological needs to provide education and medical services to remote areas with populations of 20,000 and under. Awards range from $50,000 to $1million and there is a three-year period of performance beginning the date the funds are released. A minimum 15% match is required and cannot be from another federal source. This program was created to assist rural communities in acquiring distance learning and telemedical technologies so local teachers and medical services providers who serve rural residents can link to other teachers, medical professionals, and experts located at distances too far to access otherwise.

10 Mar

Posted at 20:00h in Grants Management, Organizational Readiness, Strategy
Staying on top of your grant projects doesn’t necessarily require fancy software or the newest technology. Data or donor management systems are excellent tools, but you only get out of them what you put in. Small organizations sometimes don’t have the staff capacity it takes to utilize all the features they offer. However, if you start organized, it’s much easier to stay organized no matter what system you are working with. Start with the basics. Set up an organized filing or record-keeping process, learn what you need (and what you don’t), and take advantage of technology-supported opportunities when the options arise. If time and cost are obstacles for your organization, here are five tips to keep it together until you have greater capacity:

03 Mar

Posted at 18:00h in Competency Seven, Professionalism, Shauna O'Toole
“For starters, we would like it to be known that it’s International Grant Professionals Day. Many people, even other fundraisers, have not heard of such a day.”  That’s just one of the responses I got when I posed this question to my fellow grant pros - “What do you really want on International Grant Professionals Day? In other words, what could employers and the philanthropic sector do that would really make you take notice?” Their* answers fell into five categories:

25 Feb

Posted at 18:00h in Competency One, Megan Campbell, Research, Strategy
Prospect research is the term commonly used for the process of identifying potential sources of funding for an organization or program. If your organization is a small or start-up nonprofit with limited staff or development support, the task of prospect research can feel both urgent and overwhelming. Fear not. Here are a few tips for beginning your prospect research process that will help start you on a path to success.

18 Feb

Posted at 18:00h in Competency Eight, Competency Seven, Megan Campbell, Relationships, Strategy
Defining Small Nonprofits: Whether a nonprofit or not-for-profit, a charitable organization’s “size” is not determined by its facility, number of staff, or services to the public but by the size of its operating budget. Large organizations have operating budgets in the $10- $50MM range, while organizations with annual budgets of $5MM or less are considered small. Large, nationally affiliated organizations tend to get the lion’s share of public recognition and visibility; however, they are not representative of the U.S. nonprofit sector as a whole. In fact, the National Council of Nonprofits reports that 92% of organizations within the nonprofit sector are small organizations with annual revenue of less than $1MM. Yet the reality is that all charitable organizations depend on public and private support (i.e., government or private grants, individual donations, in-kind gifts, volunteers) to achieve their missions, and small organizations often grapple with how to compete in a market publicly dominated by their larger counterparts.

10 Feb

Posted at 10:32h in Culture, Grant Reporting, Program Development, Research
With increased focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in recent years, more funders are asking for the specific demographics of the populations served by nonprofits. Funders want to know, for example, how many Black individuals or Hispanic families will benefit from the program. While there are many challenges in reporting demographic data, understanding and communicating the differences in race, ethnicity, and nationality is the first step.