The stage is ready: your nonprofit has a strong mission statement, secure packages, and sufficient crew capability to dedicate time to grant searching for. 

Your crew feels excited to start out making use of on your first grants, however wait. Whereas all funding is useful, is each grant actually definitely worth the time to use for it? 

From researching funders to writing grant proposals to assembling all of the required paperwork, making use of for a grant is an funding of your time. While you evaluate grant alternatives fastidiously, you’ll discover that a few of these investments provide higher advantages than others!

Earlier than getting too deep into the applying course of, you have to make sure you select the most effective alternative on your nonprofit. 

Prioritization is a useful talent for grant writers, and there are tried-and-true assessments you should use to really feel assured in your selections. As you analysis grants, ask your self these 4 vital inquiries to uncover the true ROI of every alternative.

1. Does the funder give to organizations like ours?

Simply because a basis presents funding doesn’t essentially imply they’re prepared to supply it to your nonprofit. Each grantmaking group has its personal targets and preferences, and it’s as much as nonprofits to substantiate whether or not they test sufficient of the funder’s containers earlier than making use of. 

Check whether or not a funder is prone to think about a nonprofit like yours by:

• Checking the funder’s philanthropic assertion. Most grantmakers clearly spell out what they’re in search of from potential awardees of their philanthropic mission statements. They generally give attention to particular mission areas, geographic places, or beneficiary demographics.  

• Researching previous grant recipients. One of the best ways to foretell what a grantmaker will do sooner or later is by digging into their previous. Whereas many foundations require you to rummage by way of their Type 990s to seek out earlier awardees, others will publish profitable proposals on their web site. Whether or not you discover a trove or only a few morsels of knowledge, use this knowledge to see in case your nonprofit matches the identical profile as previous recipients. 

• Coordinating an introduction. If you happen to’ve completed the primary two steps however nonetheless aren’t fairly positive in case your nonprofit is an efficient match, attempt to meet with the muse. Learn Grant Writing gives some recommendation about the right way to method these exploratory conferences:

“On this assembly, your objective is to not promote your group or proposed mission. As a substitute, be curious. Be taught. Objectively consider in case your organizations are an excellent match for one another. If you happen to carry this mindset shift to your assembly, you should have a way more sincere, significant, and productive dialog. In any case, nothing is worse than spending a ton of time on a grant you haven’t any likelihood of profitable. Be skeptical till you will have sufficient optimistic knowledge factors to substantiate the grant is value your time and assets to pursue.”

Begin your grant research off on the best be aware by conducting major analysis. Search grant databases for key phrases associated to your nonprofit. As an example, an environmental nonprofit devoted to retaining the Mississippi River clear would possibly filter grant alternatives to Mississippi and search key phrases like “clear water,” “air pollution discount,” and “sustainability.” 

This method helps you discover grantmakers who’re probably fascinated about you and will increase your possibilities of profitable from the minute you sit down to write down the proposal.

2. Is the grant too aggressive?

A common mistake grant writers make is aiming too excessive too quickly. Whereas it’s good to have excessive aspirations, keep lifelike. For many nonprofits, this implies avoiding competing with 1000’s of different organizations for only a few profitable spots. 

Within the grant writing world, a helpful rule of thumb is that nonprofits ought to solely apply for grants they’ve no less than a 20% likelihood of profitable. 

The crew at Be taught Grant Writing additionally teaches a method for approximating a funder’s competitiveness. Examine the variety of earlier candidates to a funder’s funding cycle to the variety of grants awarded to calculate their tough win fee. (This data might typically be accessible on-line, however contacting the funder along with your questions is commonly simpler.)

Put one other approach, this rule of thumb additionally means you don’t essentially have to rule out grants with many candidates if there are additionally many winners. 

For instance, the National Endowment for the Arts is without doubt one of the greatest federal funders for creative organizations, and one in every of their grant packages obtained nearly 2,000 candidates in 2023. That’s a number of competitors! 

Nonetheless, nearly 1,000 of these candidates additionally received funding. That provides this system an unbelievable win fee of round 50%, however is that this the entire image?

Similar to with our first grant prioritization take a look at, analysis is your good friend right here. Digging a bit deeper into the NEA, we see that of the virtually 1,000 winners, lower than 100 have been first-time candidates. These organizations can definitely nonetheless win funding (and sometimes do!), however they’re clearly up towards skilled rivals who already know what the NEA needs. 

In conditions like these, the query of competitors turns into a bit difficult. Is the grant simply typically too aggressive based mostly on the numbers, or is it too aggressive for a nonprofit like yours? Within the latter case, alter your method. Quite than leaping straight into the deep finish with a large federal grantmaker just like the NEA, check out shallower, much less aggressive waters till you’ve constructed up your grant writing abilities. 

3. Do we now have a relationship with the funder?

Only 28% of U.S.-based foundations settle for unsolicited proposals (i.e. from nonprofits they’ve by no means met earlier than or haven’t explicitly invited to use). For nonprofits in search of new grant alternatives, these numbers harm. 

One vivid spot: About half of all the highest funders with over $100 million in property do settle for unsolicited proposals. However that also leaves a ton of grants your nonprofit can’t apply for!

Earlier than judging these grantmakers too harshly, think about their views. 

The Ford Foundation is a large grantmaker that accepts unsolicited grant proposals. Over one yr, they obtained over 144,000 grant-related inquiries and proposals for lower than 3,000 profitable spots. 

Consider the work that goes into reviewing all these purposes! Only a few grantmakers have the capability to deal with that, so most hold the door closed. 

And for individuals who do apply, these numbers imply solely a 2% likelihood to win a Ford Basis grant, approach under our 20% threshold. 

At its coronary heart, grants are one other kind of fundraising, and all fundraising is built on relationships. In case you have a powerful relationship with a grantmaker, they’re extra prone to think about your utility or invite you to use. To construct these relationships, attempt:

• Attending conferences. Grant writing and nonprofit conferences usually are not simply an opportunity to satisfy fellow grant writers but in addition to attach with funders. Some foundations even host workshops particularly about their grant alternatives. 

• Asking board members to look their networks. Your nonprofit’s board has many tasks, and one in every of them is to do the networking for you. Ask well-connected board members to look by way of their many associates and see if any have connections to grantmaking foundations. 

• Sustaining correspondence with previous grantors. If you happen to’ve obtained a grant, nice! However as an alternative of taking the cash and solely offering necessary experiences, go the additional mile along with your reporting and proceed to remain in contact. Not solely will retaining this connection sturdy improve your odds of profitable funding once more from them sooner or later, however some grantmakers are buddies with different grantmakers—and so they is likely to be prepared to offer you an in with their associates. 

In case you have a powerful relationship with a grantmaker, and so they’re prepared to just accept a proposal, it’s nearly at all times value it to use. You’ll have increased possibilities of profitable, however even in the event you don’t, you’ll hold that relationship sturdy for the following time round. 

4. Is the grant value the price of making use of?

Whether or not you will have an in-house or freelance grant writer, grant writing is an expense similar to every other use of your time and assets. Between analysis, writing a proposal, and assembling crucial supplies, many hours go into submitting a grant utility, and also you received’t know in the event you’ve generated worth from these hours till you hear again from the funder.

With this in thoughts, some grants might merely not be definitely worth the time wanted to use for them. Whereas a $1,000 grant is sweet, it’s rather less good once you understand you spent $2,000 value of crew time incomes it. 

Together with in search of high-value grants, make your nonprofit an environment friendly grant-writing machine by:

• Researching alternatives repeatedly. An ineffective method is to dig by way of grant databases, discover about 8-10 grants, and apply for these till the alternatives dry up. As a substitute, make discovering new grants part of your common grant workflow. There are numerous popular grant database options that span all funds ranges. 

• Creating templates. Whereas each grant proposal ought to be tailor-made to the grantmaker, particulars about your group probably received’t change between grant purposes. Create templates of widespread grant sections that may be shortly added to your proposal and refined relatively than rewritten from scratch each time. 

• Having paperwork prepared. Most grantmakers ask to see the identical supplemental paperwork from candidates, so guarantee accumulating them is straightforward. Get the ball rolling early by doing all your analysis and securing wanted paperwork so that you don’t get caught ready in your board to log off on one thing proper earlier than a deadline. 

Grants are an funding, and the return on that funding depends upon a number of components, together with your nonprofit’s priorities, grant writing expertise stage, capability to use, and extra. 

Don’t fall into the lure of going for giant, shiny grants that simply find yourself losing your money and time! This could result in a detrimental spiral of misplaced grants and your board finally deciding forgo them as a income supply altogether. 

As a substitute, know your nonprofit’s strengths and apply these assessments to determine grants you will have an honest shot at profitable. This fashion, you’ll be able to give attention to quite a few grants which are definitely worth the effort. 

Grants look like free cash, however are they really? Sure and no. They require cautious thought, preparation, time, and assets. Grasp the artwork of grant prioritization, and also you’ll set your group up for extra funding received extra effectively.