Today I received a link to the 2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report from Kivi Leroux at Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com. I look forward to reading this report every year because I know the treasures within will help nonprofit leaders I work with position their nonprofits against…

To find funding for your programs or project, you must identify the foundations, corporations, and government institutions that are the “right fit” for your work. Grant prospecting is the act of using database tools, professional networks, and personal contacts to identify and cultivate the most appropriate potential funding partners--the "right fits" for your mission and programs.…

Some have asked, “Is the key to winning grants an art or a science?” I believe it is both. The “science” of grant seeking involves aligning your proposal to precisely conform to the grant maker’s guidelines. It also means adhering to the standard rules of writing (see Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, for example) and formatting your proposal document to make your case for support easy to follow for the reviewer. The “art” of grant seeking includes marketing your project (whether it is a…

Different types of grant makers require different cultivation and solicitation strategies. Soliciting family foundations, in particular, requires a thoughtful and well-planned cultivation effort to increase your chances for grant funding.

 

Family foundations are those whose funds were created by or derived from members of a single family (Council on Foundations, 2010). Today, of the more than 75,000 private foundations in the U.S., nearly half are family foundations . Family…

The Sustainability Plan is intended to assure your prospective funder that the program or solution to a community problem you propose will continue long after their grant funding ends. No one wants to provide funding to an organization which does not have a plan to continue the program without grant funding. An example sustainably plan (along with the question posed by the Health Resource Service Administration) that I recently wrote for a federal application follows:

How…