7 Grant Writing Tips For Nonprofit Organizations New to The Grant Scene & Looking to Win Funding

hey there in today's video we are talking all  about grant tips for your non-profit if you are new to the grant writing scene  all right so with that let's hit alrighty number one we have to understand  what grants are and aren't and i want you to think about it like a cake so grants are  not the entire cake they're the frosting so what i mean by that is that a grant should not be  something you're depending on entirely for your organization right like it is you do not want  to be 100 grant fund

ed you want to have 20 30 of your organization can't be grant funded that's  a more healthy relationship and ratio so again thinking of it as like this is the frosting on  the cake but we're not entirely dependent upon it as revenue for our operations okay tip number  two know where to look so half the battle is not preparing the grant application frankly it's  figuring out what grant to go after in the first place and hands down my top recommendation  on this is instrumental so instrumental is

a grand database we use we teach it we love it however  if you do want to check out what else exists i'll link below we have a very popular blog post  on the top 10 databases that we've researched so you can go see what's best for you but i'm telling  you instrumental is awesome okay tip number three build a relationship with a funder so  when i was writing my book and i was adding a new chapter in the second edition about  what funders want you to know i will never forget what one of the funder

s told me she said nothing  is worse than getting a perfect propose wait not not worrying that correctly nothing is worse than  getting a grant application when i have no idea where it's coming from even if it's perfectly  prepared so that means that as much as you want to be an introvert be behind the scenes crank out  this whole proposal and then just deliver great work it's not enough they want to know you they  want to confirm that this is a good fit right so i will include we can tell you a

t the end how  you can get the top 10 questions that i like to ask funders to start building that relationship  and that can be maybe a little bit of glue to get you going okay so that's that one tip number four  partner my friend's partner no grant agency wants to know that their money just goes into this  little black hole and who else is it impacting so not only is it literally going to have a bigger  impact like we one plus one equals three in the world as far as i'm concerned right when you

have  a right partner on board that you're working with you are exponentially more effective and so the  same thing applies when you're preparing to apply for grant funding is showing those partnerships  it's so key like it is the make or break between those that will get funded and those that will not  so really think about what is our zone of genius and what is something we need that someone else is  so good at we don't need to go reinvent the wheel okay so that's number four number five is s

pend  time on the grant proposal so what is the most common mistake i see people make when they  start jumping into grant writing they totally don't under give themselves enough time and they  slam that proposal out like a minute before it's due and what is that a recipe for burnout it's  terrible and you're going to be making mistakes often dumb mistakes that cost you all that effort  and stress anyway so it's really strategic to learn about how do i actually understand  the requirements of thi

s grant narrative what it's going to take to wrangle my cats i.e  maybe your co-workers etc to really assemble this proposal and get this in two three  days early stress-free okay tip number six independent review what do i mean by that you  might also hear me say quality control so this really does tie into that previous proposal and  the idea is you really need to have someone with a fresh set of eyes looking at your proposal before  it goes out the door and there's just something about when y

ou've been in a narrative for too long  you just can't see things clearly or you're so in your organization that you don't even know  that you're using your own lingo and no one else is going to know what you're talking about so it  can be very beneficial to give it to someone else literally a friend but not inside the organization  and say hey would you be willing to read this like that's the bootstrap version of doing it i've  done it where like i asked my sister to do it and then she would pu

t in my amazon cart the thing  she wanted me to buy her as you know payment for her time so you can figure that out how you  want to do it can be someone in your organization but it needs to be like i always prefer it  just to be another grant writer someone you have a relationship with you can pass work  back and forth just because they know what to look for but they also know how to catch you  from maybe not being as clear and concise as you should be okay tip number seven get trained  to win

more grants okay i must seem like like of course i want you to get trained i teach  you how to write grants but it comes from a place of serious love and hardship because you do not  have years to learn how to write grants and let me tell you it is truly not rocket science but  it's not so easy that we can just roll off the couch crush it and be winning grant proposals  ooh my light's going off probably noticing that it's getting cloudy outside so i want you to think  about how can you level up

invest in this skill set put it in your toolbox so that your win rate  is way up and you feel confident about writing graphs versus feeling like you're just thrown in  it and trying to figure it out and unnecessarily stressed out so i'll link in the below description  our mini course grant writing main course it's seven steps on how to write a grant and i  think you're gonna find that very orienting okay the bonus step i have to add that i forgot to  cover here would probably happen here so step

zero assess your readiness this is a really common  issue i see as well where we basically we're not actually ready to go after grants and we jump the  gun on a little bit and then we're not successful and we burn out and we wonder what the heck's  going on when we should have taken that time spent going after a grant we weren't ready for  and just prepared do we have a clear project scope do we know what this project budget is going to  cost have we actually taken the time to build our partner

ships and negotiate agreements together  right like there's a lot you can do it's what we teach with the project planning toolkit it's like  this is what a funder is going to look for so just focus on what you need to know you can prepare a  grant proposal so that's something i really want you to start thinking about i also cover that  in my book so if you want to go read about it you can go grab a copy okay friends i think  that's it and uh last thing is i'll link also below a blog post that ta

lks about the full 10  tips where you can kind of get nerdy on each one of these points but my lucky number seven so  i've pulled seven of the ten okay that's it if you found this video useful love it if you would hit  the like and subscribe button add a comment love to chat with you and from there let me know what  else you want to learn about it definitely helps me come up with new ideas on what we should  be covering all right that's it see you later you