3 steps to identify what nonprofit grants to go after
What a treat to speak with so many of you over the last month, helping you win the grants and build the donor relationships you need to make the world a better place!
You know, Social Impact Compass was something I had been dreaming of for a while. So many Executive Directors and fundraising teams told me they were ready to go after grants but they didn’t know how to find grants. In the face of so many things they heard they “should” be doing, they needed a clear path forward that made sense for their specific organization.
And thus Social Impact Compass was born, to give your grants team both the clarity of direction and the how. It was born so you can exceed your fundraising goals with confidence and ease.
To that end, a question I have gotten a lot recently is: What grants should I go after? I share with you my 3 steps to get you the answer!
3 steps to identify what grants to go after
Step 1: Make sure you should go after grants right now
Grants are excellent for providing larger amounts of money in the medium term (think money starting to come in the door in 12-18 months). If you urgently need funds sooner than that, focus first on individual donors or your current institutional donors— for example, you could do a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign or hop on the phone with a current funder to ask if they are open to chatting about engaging more deeply with you. Then, with that short-term cash in hand, it is the perfect time to submit grant proposals for the medium term.
Step 2: Identify your perfect-fit funder
Funding for nonprofits and NGOs often depends on identifying the right funders who align with your mission and scope. This is true too for grants. Knowing how to find grants for nonprofits / NGOs helps you find better funders who are more likely to support your cause.
Funders receive so many proposals that unless you are a perfect fit for them, you will probably get a ‘no’. So look for funders that check ALL of the following:
✅ Fund in your geographic region
✅ Fund the topic you are proposing working on (ex. education, health, economic development)
✅ Fund organizations with your annual budget size
✅ Fund organizations with your type of registration (Registered in the United States as a 501c3? Registered locally in the country where you operate?)
✅ Fund projects with a similar level of innovation and scale as yours (This is a tough one, as these concepts can be very subjective. The way to figure out if you have a similar level of innovation and scale is to look at other organizations and projects that donor has funded and see if they “look” like you and your work. If all the organizations they support are reaching millions of kids and your organization reaches hundreds, you are not aligned with the kind of scale that donor is looking for. But not to fret, there are plenty of donors that are looking to fund that smaller scale, you just need to find them!)
✅ Provide the funding amount you want to request (Keep in mind that if your annual budget to date has been $200,000, for example, you cannot request $1M. No donor that gives funding for nonprofits / NGOs will be comfortable giving you $1M right now.)
✅ Have funded other organizations like yours
👉 ** Not sure how to find this information on each funder and how to find grants that match your criteria? Grab a Discovery spot on my calendar and we can chat about how I can help. **
3. Apply to grants that will give you quick feedback
If your organization doesn’t yet have a track record of winning grants, I highly recommend you only apply for grants that initially ask for just a Letter of Interest (sometimes called a Letter of Inquiry or LOI) or where you know you can ask for feedback if your proposal is not accepted. You are in a learning phase of how to best present your organization and pitch your projects, so it’s critical you only submit to funders from whom you can easily and quickly get feedback. This will get you to “yes’s” faster!
Next steps
I love hearing from you, so shoot me an email and let me know what resonated with you in these steps! Or let me know what other questions you have about how to find grants or about strategies for fundraising for nonprofits and NGOs.
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(Image by nickmorrison on Unsplash)
