"Five Days to Foundation Grants" is a succinct (a mere 77 pages) distillation of grant proposal writing magic! The author covered all the basics of grant proposal writing, including foundation prospect research on a budget (nothing needed but an internet connection), how to use storytelling to your organization’s advantage, how to submit an online grant proposal, and what materials you’ll need. I’ve taken two day accredited courses that didn’t cover as much material as this book. The grant checklist forms alone are more than worth the price! Highly recommended!
Your simple course has been incredible! It has made more sense in five days than many of the $1000 courses. Thank you very much for taking the time to do this and truly help those of us who are struggling to bring in the revenue."
How many times have you scrambled to meet a grant application deadline with minutes to spare?
Are you spending more time focusing on getting funded – at the expense of the programs and people you serve?
Are you wasting valuable time drafting tedious proposals for State, Federal and Foundation dollars, with nothing to show for it but rejections and a trickle of funds? Have you ever relied on government funding, only to find out at the last minute that the funds have dried up? Has this ever happened to you?
I know I keenly remember the day I watched a program director tell ten destitute moms that the agency could no longer provide early intervention services to their developmentally delayed babies because a proposal I had written to continue and expand the program was not fully funded due to cutbacks at the state level. Maintaining that image in my mind as I pursue grant funds puts those dollar goals in perspective. I vowed to never let anything like that happen again from that day forward.
How would you like an organized proposal writing method – a system complete with every resource you needed to locate and tap into the hidden wealth of foundation funding, including an easy to use grant tracking database, AND pre-written proposal samples of funded grant proposals? Imagine being spared hours of time and frustration and getting the funding that your non-profit deserves!
If you’d like to have complete control of your operating budget, generate incredible funding for your agency’s programming – and build more programs, read on.
I used to believe a lot of these myths myself – until I developed The System that Puts Your Foundation Funding on Auto-Pilot. How many do you believe?
Truth: Nonsense. I‘ve worked with organizations that derive a good 70-80% of their overall budgets from foundation funding. And, while a well diversified budget is important, there is no reason why, with a well run system of developing compelling proposals and sending and tracking your grant requests and reports on a regular basis, you can’t begin relying on foundation grant funding for a major portion of your budget today!
Truth. If you’re writing a grant for state or federal funding, yes, expect a long, tedious, time-consuming chore ahead of you. Writing to private foundations is, however, quite another story. Certainly, the guidelines vary for the assortment of foundations out there. Many are very typical, asking you to submit your IRS Letter of Tax Exemption, a project budget, audited financial statements, etc., along with these often standard questions such as:
If you’re familiar with your organization, the clients you serve and the programs that set your agency apart from the pack, writing a proposal should be a piece of cake. Our system provides you with not only easy to use, pre-written templates and outlines for organizing your proposal, but also specific instructions on how to write truly “compelling” proposals guaranteed to get your prospective funder to sit up and take notice!
Truth: Despite the similarities of many foundations grant application guidelines, every foundation is as unique in its history and mission as your organization. Learn how to create proposal templates expressing your unique benefits that can be individually tailored to match the priorities of each distinctive prospective funder’s – quickly and easily!
Myth: The “XYZ” Organization’s board member knows one of the trustees at the “XYZ Foundation.” We don’t know anyone.
Truth: Yes, building relationships is crucial to establishing a pattern of growing foundation grants. And yes, cultivating relationships with funders takes time. But in one short month I was able to raise over $55,000 in foundation grant funding from foundations with which my organization had no previous relationships. Some grants were sizeable and others fell into the $250 to $500 range. I didn’t “know” anyone at any of these foundations.
Myth: Foundation grants are large and come from large foundations. They wouldn’t be interested in our modest non-profit.
Truth: See above. A veritable plethora of smaller, little known foundations exist throughout the United States, with assets of $1.5 million or less. And by virtue of their very size they often require little more than a letter of application. Learn how to locate and target these foundations,and, most importantly, when to target them!
Myth: XYZ Foundation only supports grants for education and human services. They wouldn’t even look at our arts program …
Truth: Don’t be too sure of that. Many development professionals make this common mistake. When I was seeking funding for a crucial component of my organization, I came across a regional foundation with the some of the most specific funding criteria I’ve ever seen. My organization was health-related but we certainly didn’t have anything to do with their pet cause, Crohn’s Disease. Yet I managed, with a single one page letter, to generate the funding necessary to buy expensive and very much-needed equipment.
Truth: Here’s a common misconception that I took away from spending six years working in programming for one of the nation’s largest foundations. My foundation did not generally…
Discover The System That Puts Your Foundation Funding On Auto-Pilot!
No comments:
Post a Comment