Two Approaches
You will approach grant seeking in one of two ways: either as a response to a Request for Proposals (RFP); or proactively, through searching for matches between foundation guidelines and your nonprofit organization's mission. Government funding is most often accessed through an RFP process. Foundations sometimes issue RFPs for specific projects or initiatives, but most often present guidelines describing the location and types of organizations and projects they are interested in funding.
Some foundations are beginning to change their guidelines to look for ways to fund operations in nonprofits that are vital to the community or that have demonstrated “best practices” in their fields. However, most foundations still prefer to fund unique projects developed in response to a community need.
Whether you are writing to guidelines or an RFP, the grant proposal is formulaic; it includes instructions that, in the case of RFPs particularly, must be followed exactly. You also must use the accepted language and approach set forth by your reading audience.
Grant proposals are most often written to seek funding for a specific project within a larger organization. Projects may be capital (for construction, acquisition, or renovation of buildings) or programmatic (to support staffing, equipment, and other items that are necessary to launch a special project). Though it was once rare for grants to be made for operations (utilities, ongoing staffing costs, etc.), operating-fund grants are becoming more common today. Foundation grantmakers are just beginning a trend to ensure that the most outstanding and necessary nonprofit organizations are sustained with operating grants. This trend is an outgrowth of an increased emphasis by all grantmakers on sustaining programs once they are launched.
There are two key factors that often determine whether or not a grant proposal is successful: a creative response to a problem or need; and the potential for sustaining the project and its outcomes after the grant period ends.
Maggie is a freelance grant writer who works with various nonprofits to help them get grant money. In the early 1990s, Maggie received a call from a potential client in her state who wanted to meet with her to share his ideas and enlist her help writing grants to fund the project. He had already purchased a building and was in the process of renovating it into a hospital/ orphanage for children born with AIDS.
As part of Maggie's interview with the client, she asked him why he had chosen this particular project. He responded that his primary reasons were that funders like projects that benefit children, that AIDS was a priority social/health issue of the time, and that the two together seemed a natural way for him to launch his new career in human services.
There's a reason that a statement of need or problem statement comes first in a grant proposal; all projects should identify and respond to a proven need in the community or identify a problem and its resolution. Make sure the need or situation can be supported with testimony or data before you write proposals for funding.
To Maggie, the project seemed opportunistic, manipulative, and motivated more by self-interest than interest in others. She did some research and learned that other long-standing service organizations had also discussed similar programs until they learned that a children's AIDS center was not necessary. One executive director told her, “We thought it might be an important contribution to society, but we learned that there are thousands of foster families that are more than willing to take in children with AIDS. We believe those children would be far better served in a family environment than an institution, so we simply scrapped the idea.”
What are the attributes of “fundable” projects? A project and/or the organization proposing a project must have most of the following:
Strong and recent data to support the need for the project or to describe the problem to be addressed
An experienced project manager or other lead person such as the executive director of an organization
A history of fiscal responsibility (or, if a new organization, comprehensive plans for fiscal oversight)
A response (project description) that clearly addresses the identified need or a solution to the stated problem
Collaboration with others in the community
Community-member involvement in identifying the problem and the solution
A plan for sustaining the project and/or the positive outcomes from the project after the grant period
Maggie turned down the client. “Funders are not stupid. If I could learn with a few telephone calls that this was a ‘phantom’ need, they either already knew that or would learn it just as quickly.”
Projects that don't address a real and pressing community, state, or national issue are not fundable. They might be creative. They might have strong possibilities for collaboration with potential partners. They might appear to address the priorities of a funder. But even with all these earmarks of a fundable proposal, they fall short unless the need is documented with supporting data.
A second major concern of funders is the ability of the nonprofit organization to support the program after their grant funding runs out. In the world of business, banks sometimes provide seed funding in the form of a loan. If the small start-up business is successful, it repays the loan and earns a profit for its owner. Though grants do not need to be repaid, the leader of a nonprofit organization must think like the small business owner and be creative in developing ways that a project can earn revenues sufficient to continue without grant funds. Planning for sustainability can be very complex and difficult, but is a necessary discussion prior to seeking grant funds.
There are trends in funding priorities among both government funders and charitable foundations. During the 1980s and early 1990s, children's issues (child abuse and neglect, early childhood education, etc.) were priority projects for funding. While that focus has not disappeared, the trends have shifted to new priorities.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, closing the digital divide became a new funding priority, particularly at the federal-government level. Other recent trends include projects that support professional staff development, skills in chronically unemployed adults, economic development efforts, and projects that identify the potential for violence and work to prevent it, especially among teens. Since September 11, 2001, projects that address safety and security issues in communities throughout the United States have become especially important. And since the natural disasters of 2005, many grant opportunities have focused on rebuilding and restoring specific regions of the U.S.
