Blog Topics
Click the “+” sign to see the list of posts under each category or scroll down to view all posts organized by publication date.
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Answers to the Most Commonly Asked Questions We Receive about Grants
What Should You Be Doing: Fundraising or Pursuing Grant Money?
Setting Yourself Up to Win a Foundation Grant Before the Funding Opportunity Comes Out
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Using Evaluation Criteria to Prepare a Stronger Grant Proposal
Is It Possible to Submit the Same Proposal to Multiple Funders?
Good, Better, Best: Three Tips for Transforming a Mediocre Grant Proposal into a Great One
The Fastest Way to Prepare a Compliant, Responsive Grant Proposal
How to Increase the Odds that Your Grant Application Will Be Funded
Tips for Creating an Organizational Chart for a Grant Proposal
How to Write a Grant Proposal Part II: What Will You Need to Prepare?
6 Strategies to Make the Grant Proposal Submission Process Less Stressful
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Lessons for Grantseekers from USAID’s Closure
If you work for an organization outside of the U.S., or if you are based in the U.S. but rely on grants from private foundations and not federal sources, the closure of USAID may seem like an unfortunate event, but one unrelated to your grantseeking. Although USAID’s dismantling may not affect you directly, some lessons from USAID’s shuttering apply to all grantseekers. In this post, we cover four lessons that we believe are universally applicable.
What Should You Be Doing: Fundraising or Pursuing Grant Money?
If your organization needs funding (and what organization doesn’t?), you have three primary options for raising funds: 1) you can solicit donations from individuals; 2) you can submit proposals to foundations and government agencies to receive grant funding; or 3) you can hold fundraising campaigns and community events to collect donations.
Updating Your Grant Strategy
Developing a grant strategy involves identifying the funders and funding opportunities you intend to pursue over a certain period of time (usually a 12-month period, although it could be longer). Grant strategies should be updated at least annually. This is not only because the funding environment changes over time but also because an organization’s priorities, resources, and programmatic interests can change as well.
You’ve Submitted Your Proposal—Now What?
After you submit your grant proposal, you may be tired of thinking about it and relieved the process is behind you. And while the process is mostly over, there are a few remaining things to be done between the time you submit the proposal and the time you hear back about its fate. Below are our suggestions for some post-submission activities to finish up the process.
Simplify Your Knowledge Management System with Slab
What kinds of software solutions do nonprofits need? Pretty much everything for-profit businesses need, including tools for knowledge management.
This brings us to Slab (www.slab.com), which is the focus of this post. Slab is a browser-based knowledge management tool that companies (and nonprofits and educational institutions) can use to create, organize, store, and share information. You can read about several use cases for Slab on Slab’s website. However, since the use cases are oriented more toward companies, we thought it might be helpful to show how Slab could be used in three scenarios commonly encountered in a nonprofit context.
How to Secure Grant Money: Three Truths for Grant Seekers
If you’re new to grant writing or have not been consistently successful in securing grant funding, this post is for you. We’re covering three essential truths about grant funding to help you prepare a strong grant strategy.
Improve Your Chances of Getting Grant Funding: Create a Communications Strategy
If your organization doesn't have an online presence, you may be hurting your ability to secure grant funding. Below are six free and low-cost suggestions of how you can start to build an online presence.
How Nonprofits Can Be Innovative without Changing What Works
How can you be innovative enough to keep the grant money flowing without changing your tried 'n true approaches to core services?One approach is to innovate around what's working. If your programs are effective, maybe you can bring innovation to the operations side and how you manage your programs. If your organization has strong service delivery programs and program management infrastructure, perhaps there are opportunities to be innovative in the way you approach the sustainability of your programs and services.
Why Nonprofits Should Be More Like Corporations
Nonprofits would do well to borrow some of the corporate world's practices when it comes to resource management.
Resources for Creating a Business Plan for Your Nonprofit
If you work in the nonprofit sector, when you hear "business plan" you may think it doesn't apply to your work setting. But nonprofits, just like for-profits, need to use their resources wisely and plan for the future.
Paths to Nonprofit Sustainability
When it comes to grant funding, regardless of whether you are just starting out or have been in operation for years, it's not safe to assume that you'll be able to maintain your organization's operations on grant funding alone. Grants should be part of your business plan, but relying on a steady flow of grant funding as the cornerstone of your funding plan could put you at risk.
Should You Be Relying on Grant Funding?
Grant funding is part of the funding mix for most nonprofits. For some organizations, grants make up the bulk of their funding. However, few organizations can rely solely on grant funding. In part this is because grant funding is unpredictable. Both the number of grants received, and the awarded amounts, can vary considerably from year to year. In addition to the unpredictability of grants, there are other drawbacks. Five are outlined below. Before you embark on the pursuit of grant funding, you'll want to prepare for each of these challenges.
