Gabriel: All right. Welcome, everybody. I’m excited to have you all here for this
panel discussion. So as you're getting ready for it to start,
you want to pop in the Zoom chat. I love to hear kind of what your name is,
a little bit about your organization, where you're located, and what your biggest challenge
related to fundraising is right now. So, that'd be helpful to hear. Maryn: Hi, Gabriel. We’re seeing your entire screen. Do you want us just to see the slides? Gabriel: Yeah. We’ll probabl
y do that. Maryn: Awesome. Gabriel: Thank you. We'll see. Is it better? Maryn: Not yet. Have you started the slideshow? Sheleia: Yeah, I think -- yeah, the slideshow. There you go. Gabriel: There you go. Maryn: Bravo! Gabriel: All right. There we go. Maryn: Little behind the scenes work there. Gabriel: Yeah, no. You’re good. Maryn: Awesome. Gabriel: All right. We got about one more minute, so. Again, just a reminder, for those who are
joining, you want to drop in your name, your organization, ti
tle, a little bit about where
you are, and what your biggest challenge like the fundraising is. That'd be great. And at the same time, while you wait, here's
a $50 off coupon. If you happen to do an annual plan with Instrumental,
so always good to have that in the back pocket as well, so. All right. So just a reminder, it is being recorded today. And we will follow up with the recording afterwards,
if you want to share it with any of your colleagues. If you have questions as we go, if you want
t
o add some hashtags, and I'll show here, here, here, like this in the chat. This will help make sure that I actually get
to see what you're seeing and call out the questions. My name is Gabriel Harkov. I lead the sales team here at Instrumental. And so, it's a pleasure to have you all here. It's one of our standard free webinars that
we offer. So, definitely, if you found this one, you
might be interested in some of the other ones. We have some great topics. I don't know if any are as topical as
this
right now with what's going on in the world. But there are lots of great things that we
present on related to grants institutional fundraising. So, I'm just going to pop forward here a little
bit. Again, just as a reminder, we're going to
talk about how to fundraise in a recession. And we've got some awesome panellists here
that I’ll introduce in just a few minutes. So a little about Instrumental, we help over
2100 non-profits right now in finding, tracking, and managing their grants. And
so, that means we're hearing every day
of kind of what their challenges are and, hopefully, giving them a nice solution from
the institutional fundraising side. One of the things our customers love about
Instrumental is the efficiency we provide. They say they save on average about three
hours a week and they can really significantly increase that grant application output, often
as much as 50%. So, a little bit Instrumental. I promise to be brief here. Just in case you haven't heard about us, on
e
of the core things for Instrumental is helping you find the best fit funders. So, we have over 1200 active RFPs, active
grants on the platform. We have a really special algorithm that helps
match 24/7 against those, so you always get weekly updates. If there's anything new that comes in, if
a deadline changes, all that stuff is there. And if you might see with this green save
button here, you can save them to your tracker, which we'll talk about here in a second to
make sure you're keeping eve
rything kind of organized in your institutional funding world. One of my favourite things, so I worked in
the non-profit space for a while. I would have loved to have had this data of
what is actually the right way to apply to these grants, how much, are they open to new
grantees. So, we help you prioritize faster. We dig into the 990 data for you and we analyse
it and give you some key learnings. We also make it really easy for the team to
collaborate. So, you might have board members. You migh
t have other development team members
who might be a part of your grants process. So, again, we can assign tasks, milestones. We have notes. We keep documents in here again making sure
everything is organized. And then we have a tracker where you can see
kind of where everything lives, what stage they're at, what we've been awarded, maybe
what's out and we haven't heard about yet, as well as our account review and our reporting
tool. And again, everything you might need from
an institutional fun
ding standpoint to make sure that, again, you can apply to some more
grants and win some more funds, which helps fund your mission. So with that, I'm going to introduce our panellists
here. So, I want to make sure I pull up the bios
to get this right. We have some really great folks talking to
you today about fundraising in a recession. So, we'll start with Maryn Boess, right? Did I get the name right? I’m so sorry. Maryn: Maryn. Gabriel: Maryn. Sorry. I'm so sorry, Maryn Boss. Maryn: It’s okay.
Gabriel: Has been on staff grant writer, a
grant consultant. She has won over $42 million for her clients
over 10 years. She’s a grants trainer, a grants reviewer,
an author, a speaker, a mentor, or coach, and even starting in 2006 a grant maker. So, this background brings a unique insider's
perspective to the practical, inspiring training on healthy, successful grantsmanship that
she shares with thousands of people each year through her GrantsMagicU. And you can go there. I'll put the link her
e in the chat in just
a second, so. And we have Cherian Koshy, who is a certified
Fundraising Executive, Charter Advisor in Philanthropy, and Association of Fundraising
Professionals Master Trainer. He is the Chief Development Officer at the
Endowment Partners, an investment management firm that solely works with nonprofits and
foundations. In addition to 25 plus years of fundraising
experience, he serves on numerous boards, including as the Vice Chair of professional
development on the AFP glob
al board. And then we have Sheleia Phillips, who is
the Founder and Principal Consultant of SMP Non-profit Consulting. As a servant leader, she has dedicated herself
to the growth and development of non-profits over the past six years. And she secured and co-authored over $3 million
in grant awards for youth development, education, and health programs. And she's also a Grant Reviewer for federal
agencies such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. So, yeah, I'm really
excited to learn from
you guys today. And I feel like we're all going to hear some
great advice in what seems like it might be a little tricky time. So before we hop in, we've got some panel
questions, questions for the panel ready to go. So, we'll go through that discussion. And then like you said, I'll be looking at
the questions to make sure we get that answered as we go. And then we'll spend some time on those at
the end and, hopefully, give you some good advice as we go. So, I think the fir
st place we want to start
here, let me share --turn off the screen share. Let’s see. Sorry, my Zoom has gotten there, is talking
about where we are today in terms of the economic situation. So, yeah, Maryn, would you like to take that
for us? Maryn: Yeah. Why not? Just jump right in, right? Gabriel: Yeah. Maryn: Where are we today as opposed to yesterday
or a week ago or six months ago? If you ask five different economists this
question, you will get at least five different answers. And I think
it's safe to say two things. First, there really is very little that we
can say with certainty about where we are today on the current economic environment
and where it's heading. And I don't say that glibly either. That is my honest response to this very big
question. And number two, that there really literally
hasn't ever been any degree of “certainty” in the economy that we inhabit as members
of the grants community in what I call grants world. That said, I've been doing grants work for
over
35 years. That goes way back to the Reagan era. And many of you weren't even born yet during
the Reagan era. So, I was there through all of the tumult
during the Reagan years. There was the 2008 recession, the massive
great recession of 2008. There have been all the ups and downs and
twists and turns of the last several years. I will say, and again, I'm just making a very
macro view. Generally, the arc is always like this. So, there are ups and downs that flow gently
over time. It's been a littl
e bit more like this the
last couple of years. And given where we are in our political environment,
I don't think we can say with any certainty what's ahead. So, I'm really looking forward to exploring
what that means for us in the nonprofit world going forward. And I think that's probably a good place for
me to -- oh, and I also want -- it's easy to forget that the US economy is part of the
global economy. There is no clear separation between what
happens in the United States and what's going o
n in the world, the larger world around us. So, just to set the scene and get us thinking
big, I think those are some good points for us to keep in mind. Gabriel: Okay. Awesome. I don't know if Cherian or Sheleia, do you
have anything to add to that? Sheleia: No, I agree. And I think I've heard it once before that
we're in a recession that no one wants to call the recession. So as Maryn mentioned earlier, depending on
who you talk to, everyone has a different perspective on where we are right no
w. But the writing is on the wall. So the stocks are down, inflation is up, remote
jobs are declining, and just overall the workforces are in a real strange place. I would say that the demand hasn't changed. So, we're just in this space of -- regardless
of who you talk to that we should all be paying attention but not panicking. So, that's what I'll add to that. Cherian: That’s great. And I would agree with my colleagues on that. I think what's helpful for you all in the
nonprofit world, as Mary
n mentioned, in grants world, particularly when I was writing grants
or managing grant portfolios, the thing that I would be looking at is, how is this going
to affect the ecosystem? So, we're talking on Wednesday, if you're
watching this recording later, that tomorrow the CPI will come out. And it will indicate -- I think most consensus
will indicate that inflation is still persistently high. It will be in the 6.5, 6.7 range, somewhere
in that neighbourhood, which is lower than it was a year ag
o. But it will still encourage the Federal Reserve
to pursue this sort of aggressive recession or inflation containing measures. And so, if you are watching Jamie Dimon, these
other people talk about when a recession will come, most consensus is or is sometime in
early to mid-2023. I'm licensed by FINRA. So, I'm not going to be very specific about
recommendations because there are all kinds of regulations about what I can say. But as you're looking at the news, the thing
that I would be paying a
ttention to is the unemployment report and that inflation report. And what that means is, for federal grants
in particular, the allocation of federal grant opportunities will continue to change with
the budget. And as Inflation affects the federal budget
and then state budgets, because a lot of those federal budgets or federal grant projects
are then state allocated. You want to be mindful of whether the budgetary
allocation is going to change. But also, what the expectations are around
that fun
ding for the top level. When it comes to family foundations, organizations
that you might apply to, the inflation and unemployment numbers are going to affect them
more dramatically. And in particular, what you should be paying
attention to is how those family foundations allocate their spending. So, are they doing a three to five years rolling
average? And what does that look like? Because it probably was up in 2021 but has
been down in 2022. And so, as you're thinking about 2023 and
forward gr
ant applications, thinking about what that looks like. And then one of the things that we'll talk
about, as we move forward, is the issue of unemployment bumps that will happen in 2023
or 2024. The market is pricing in at 2% increase. So, that has an immediate effect on our organizations,
on our donors, but also the foundations that we would be applying to, and being mindful
of the fact that they may be understaffed as we are because of the job crunch that's
affecting them as well. So, thinking
about that mindfully from your
grant application perspective will be helpful as you move forward through this space. Gabriel: Okay. So thinking about that, Cherian, I’m curious,
how long do you think the recession is going to last? I know that's the big question. But does anyone have any ideas? And maybe if we don't, what should we be doing
to prepare for potentially a longer or shorter recession? Cherian: So, I guess what I'll say -- and
then I'll leave it to my colleagues to comment, is that,
on average, recessions last 11 months. The last one in the pandemic lasted two months. So because of my role, I'm not going to surmise
what that might be. But I think what Maryn said is really important. Recessions are a natural part of the economic
cycle. They happen on average every six or seven
years. So we're way, way overdue. Even with the pandemic when that happened,
we're way overdue for a recession. So, the key thing to remember is that your
organization is important. The needs are impor
tant. You're going to continue to barrel through
this and prepare yourself today for what will happen immediately after the recession, which
is an increase in the economic cycle. So, my biggest recommendation is that organizations
invest in fundraising, strategy, and infrastructure now knowing that at a certain point, it will
-- the worm will turn and you'll need those relationships with funders when the opportunity
is available in the future. Maryn: Yeah, I'll go ahead and jump in because
these
are all great points that I want to kind of continue to drill down on the bigger
ecosystem, which is really understanding that it’s a part of that bigger ecosystem. And first of all, we need to remember that
grants are a long game. Right? There are no fast acting buttons that we can
push or levers that we can pull. No quick course corrections that we can activate
when the economy gets especially jouncy. So, we cannot be reactive. That is the important part. And I really appreciate that. Sheleia
has said that right up front. She said, “Pay attention, but don't panic
because panicking can create its own self-fulfilling prophecy.” And we absolutely want to stay out of that
particular cesspool and maintain that long-term output there. And second, the grantee ecosystem is very
much a creature of the overall economic currents and structures in our country. We don't necessarily think about this as grant
seekers, but as a grant maker. I'm very aware that grant dollars don't just
come from now
here, that they actually come from investment gains in the stock market,
and asset transfers in corporate profits. And all of these are sort of long term streams
that the organizations behind them have worked really hard to kind of smooth out the impact
of them. So whatever is going on in the economy right
now, we generally won't see it. This is my experience. And I'm ready to be corrected because anything
that happened yesterday may not happen tomorrow. We don't know that. That generally speaki
ng, we're not going to
see specific impacts on how the dollars are put out into the grants world until the next
economic cycle. So in other words, the grant makers that I'm
familiar with are operating today out of dollars that were generated a year ago. And that's a long enough time period for most
of those that are doing a good job of managing their assets to take smoothing actions to
kind of mitigate the impacts of that short-term jounciness. It sounds kind of wonky. But I think it's really im
portant that we
stay with what Sheleia said and what Cherian has been emphasizing that this is a long term,
typical, cyclical process that is not -- that should not cause alarm. It should cause us to pay attention but not
be alarmed. Sheleia: And I just want to add as a -- if
we were to put a bow on what my colleagues mentioned, I think, for me, how I see it rolling
-- and, Maryn, you made a great point about how the grants economy is a long game. The event of what we're going through right
now,
it has a ripple effect. So, when we think about all of the things
that are happening today and will occur over the next couple of months, while we're aware
of it, we won't really know the impact possibly until a year, maybe years down the line. So when we talk about not panicking, it's
typically because we can't predict the future, right? So, we might as well prepare for the best
using our best wisdom and just trends that we've seen year over year. And being mindful, even in our grant research,
of how things have probably changed from today versus what's historically there. So, again, just being mindful of those effects
even though the event may be shorter than what we anticipate, as Sherry mentioned earlier. Gabriel: So, I know we talked about the grant
side of things. I know it's not about individual donations. But generally, grants go as part of a full
fundraising like a plan. Right? And I'm curious what you might tell people
who advise folks as I'm thinking about. We think individ
ual donors might go down and
they need to, therefore, increase grants as part of forward thinking. I don't know, Sheleia, what you would tell
your clients or what you're thinking through on that one. Sheleia: Yes. So, my philosophy has always been a balanced
one. And my colleagues, they might laugh at me. But when I think of the world of grants -- and
I'm a grants professional. So if I could be biased, I'm probably more
biased. But I do think of them as more of a lottery. So when you think about
the competitive nature
and just be -- it's not predictable, grants aren't predictable in a sense of we know that
we're going to get these dollars. We need to make sure that we have a diverse
strategy overall and have contingency plans. So, of course, when it comes to grants, there
are grant strategies that you all can consider like making sure that you are applying for
a more general operating fund. So if something happens, we're able to shift
those dollars wherever we need them, or increase th
e amount of grants that you all are submitting
month to month. As long as it does not add to staff or admin
burden, I'm all for that. But don't forget just your other revenue streams
because those do come in the midnight hour to help you out, particularly around individuals. While those will be or we anticipate those
to be impacted, they're still there. And while we're in times like this economically,
it’s not the time to be modest; rather, with your individual donors or your grant
funders. So i
t's a time where, I think, if -- in just
full transparency that those who are focused on being holistic in their fundraising, they're
going to prioritize those relationships, regardless if it's an individual or an institution and
not be modest and be very forthcoming with, “Hey, we have some needs. How can you help?” And see where they go. So, I don't want to suggest a certain strategy
over another. But just be balanced and see how that works
for your organization because there's no one-size-fit
s-all or one answer to help you ride the tide. Maryn: I love that. I love that you land on the image of riding
the tide because the image that I like to bring forward in this kind of discussion was
about how we steer their ship. And we always steer the ship and the waters
can be turbulent and the winds can come from here and the winds can come from there. But we have our destination clearly in mind. And we may need to tack to the left or tack
to the right to get there, resetting our sails. But i
t's the North Star that we’re steering
by. And this is not at all sexy. But what I say and what I teach all day every
day is that healthy, sustainable, successful fundraising and grant seeking is simply a
function of healthy, sustainable, successful non-profit management. And the principles, the foundational principles
of a healthy, sustainable, and successful non-profit are, to me, always the same. And this is the time not to abandon those
principles in favour of some short term reactive strate
gy. But instead, to double down. Double down on mission and stay clear about
your organization's mission. Number one. Number two, double down on collaboration. This is the time to get really, really committed
to looking for ways that we can leverage what we have by working together with others in
our community. Number three, planning, planning, planning. You cannot abandon planning at all at this
point in time. Those funder relationships and good funder
research that both of my colleagues have m
entioned, are absolutely critical. And especially, the relationships that have
carried you through well where you've got a really good relationship of trust, those
are the funders and the donors that you want to be turning to now and then doubling down
on those eight plus grant proposals, getting those proposals out the door. It's not sexy. There's no magic wand. And when the weather gets jouncy, though,
that’s when we're holding really tight to the steering wheel, if you will, and making
sure t
hat we're steering that solid course. So double down, double down, double down on
all the things that are always going to sustain healthy and successful organizations. Cherian: I'll just add one piece. I love that Sheleia said that there's no one-size-fits-all
approach. And I think that's true of almost everything. So as you're thinking about -- as you're thinking
about grants, grants is not one thing. Right? There's not one type of funder. So, it's important to do some segmentation
work on whet
her that funding entity has headwinds or tailwinds. And as coming back to Gabe’s question around
individuals, our firm is a member of the Giving Institute. If you haven't seen the Giving Institute data
so far, I would recommend that you take a look at it. What it tells us is that, in particular, individual
giving has continued to increase over the last several years. But the number of donors who are giving is
decreasing. And Nathan Chapelle has a new book out called
Generosity Crisis that addres
ses that. I would encourage you to pick that up as well. But the point here is that individuals look
at these economic indicators; inflation. And the markets and unemployment are affected
by it more viscerally and more immediately than institutional funders are. So our organization -- our firm does not work
with individual donors, but we do work with family foundations and community foundations
in managing their assets. And so, some of those funding structures,
their spending policy happens in a
dvance. And federal grants, state grants, obviously,
that funding has been allocated. So, it's there to be spent and it's there
for that purpose. It's not fungible. So, if there's a NOFO that says $30,000, or
$300,000, or $30 million is available, that's what's available and you can apply for that. And so, I would absolutely encourage you to
do that and pay attention to that. But when it comes to family foundations, they
have -- as long as they're meeting the legal requirements, there may be mor
e kind of personal
reasons around their spending policy and how they allocate that. We try to have those conversations with them
on a more strategic level. But in general, foundations between 2009 and
2018 funding levels from foundations was around 5.4 to 5.8% of the total corpus. So when there are these types of economic
indicators, if you know how the foundation manages their spending policy, you can get
a sense of, are they going to be more sensitive to what's happening now and what will happ
en
in the next year? And moderate your appeals to kind of think
about, do we ask for more today or do we talk about a multiyear strategy with some of those
foundations that would enable us to smooth out the situation for the family foundation
or corporate foundation, whatever it might be? So, one of the strategies that we've talked
about with our clients is actually asking for stair step funding, because we know that
a recession is happening at some point. I mean, I guess I shouldn't say we know
, but
we anticipate. If your total need is $500,000, maybe ask
for $150,000 in 2023, $250,000 in 2024 from there so that you can create sort of a stair
step multi year relationship that accommodates where the funder is and your overall needs. Just one idea to throw out there, if that's
helpful. Gabriel: So, yeah. I think that's amazing. It's a great kick-off to kind of, as we're
looking at what's coming. We've talked a little bit about preparing. And we also talked a little bit about grants
gene
rally a little more, or even over time because this money is coming from different
periods. If I'm a fundraising professional or I'm a
grant writer, what should I be doing now? What should I be telling my organization now
to make sure that we're all prepared and ready for what some people in the organization might
be thinking is going to be very rocky for all this? So, I don't know if anyone wants to grab that. I can certainly tag somebody. But anyone on the panel wants to pick that
up and tell
us what you think. Sheleia: I'll start. For me, the main priority is to, as Maryn
said, double down on those relationships. I have a dear sister at work, and I hope she
doesn't mind me sharing this with the group. But she tells me all the time that the real
money is behind the back door. So when you have those relationships with
grant makers -- and I've had this in my own personal experience when I was in the nine-to-five
side is that sometimes we had grants that came through without us applying
, without
it being on the website simply because they were familiar with us, our work, and actually
had opportunities to be boots on the ground with us. So when you create environments and really
cultivate those relationships with grant makers, you'll be surprised how they can come through
for you outside of their general cycles. You just never know where their dollars or
where they may get extra dollars from and how they can benefit you. So if you are like me and afraid to cultivate
relationshi
ps, now is the time to overcome that fear. Because it will not only benefit you professionally
to grow as a grants pro, but it will also benefit your clients and your organization
overall. So, reach out. Instrumental does a really great job in giving
us a who's who and see who is in your network. Whether that's through social media or through
your board or your staff, anyone, so that you all can make these warm connections. Or if you have folks who have been down with
you for years, again, I'll
repeat what I said earlier. Don't be modest. Be completely honest and see where that goes. You'll be surprised how that'll turn out as
a win for you. Maryn: I'll take that. You teed that up perfectly for me because
as a grant maker, I can speak from that perspective. I am stunned how few people actually do take
the opportunity to reach out and have conversations with the people that you're asking for money. And it always struck me as a little bit strange. Why would there not be any attempt to at
least
establish a connection? Not become best friends, that's not what we're
talking about. But you’re a representative of your organization. And what I, the grant maker, I'm interested
in is truly less about your organization and more about the work that you're doing in the
world, because that's what you're asking me to invest in through you. So, we are truly prepared to partner with
you in creating change in the community in a certain way. And I think that partnership, if you can get
over you
r fear of talking with somebody who supposedly controls the money, the power is
not in the money. The power is in the muscle on the ground. You've got the muscle on the ground. You've got the know-how. You've got the community connections. You know where the needs are. All we're doing is sitting here with some
money that we need to get out the door because, otherwise, we're going to be taxed on it or
find something. And you are the ones that need to let us know
where that money can best be inves
ted. So, think about us as partners with you in
creating change in the community, or responding to a need in the community, or helping you
become stronger from the inside out and the capacity going braces as members in the community. Again, looking at that long-term goal is less
than reacting. We are less likely as institutions to respond
to emergency appeals than we are to respond well to the sense that you've got a good solid
plan and you're working the plan, and you're committed to following
through the plan, and
you want us to partner with you in that. Cherian: I'll just add quickly one tactical
way of doing that. And building those relationships is what I
encourage everyone on fundraising teams that I managed to do, which is to be involved in
some sort of grant making activity. By that, I mean, if there are multiple public
entities, somewhere in your locale that give out grants that are -- that include people
like community people on those grant review committees. So as an early g
rant writer, one of the things
that I did not understand was, why did we win grants, why did we lose grants? And I just decided, “I'm going to volunteer
and be on a grant review committee.” And as a result of that, I was like, “Oh,
I see how this comes off and what the conversation is like. So, it's an opportunity for you to sit on
the other side of the table. And right now, that's a great opportunity. I mean, generally, most of those public institutions,
they will love that someone wants to sit
on grant review. And having sat through those meetings where
you are inundated with grant requests, I can tell you, having other people in the room
is really helpful because then it evens out the number of planning grants or full proposals
that you have to read and comment on. So if you have an opportunity to volunteer
in that capacity, I would highly, highly recommend that you learn a lot. I certainly did. But it's also a great service to your community. And that builds that relationship. So,
at some point, if you want to apply for
a grant, you'd have to come off the grant review committee, or whatever. But it's a great opportunity for you to kind
of transition that at some point in the future as well. Gabriel: Awesome. I love that idea. That's great. I just want to remind everybody, if you have
questions as we go, please drop them in the chat so we can make sure we bring those out
to the panel as well. I'm curious. So one thing that I saw in the last pandemic
recession, and I'm sure
it's something that nonprofits are dealing with now is, okay,
so we're going to have to get ready for this. So, let's cut our programming. Let's cut our spending. Like going back into a shell almost. And then that's how we'll survive. So, I see you all had some reactions to that
thought. So, probably, the same as what I would have. But I'm just curious. And, Maryn, we could probably start with you. What would you tell your clients? What would you tell folks? Is that a good idea, a bad idea? Mar
yn: Well, yeah. So, again, I'll go back to the long game thing. We don't really know where things are going
to stand a year from now or even six months from now. So, I wouldn't advise doing anything today
that can't easily be undone when situations change again. This is a good time to get together with your
financial team if you're in a leadership position. And certainly, I know a lot of people who
are -- developing grant proposals aren't necessarily part of the leadership team. But this is wher
e you can take some leadership
and work with your leadership team and your financial team to take a look at the what-if
scenarios. You might just say, “Okay, let's take a
look at what our budget planning looks like now.” And if we had to trim 10%, where could we
do that without substantially impacting our operations and without crippling us in terms
of going forward? And then maybe push it to the next level and
go to 15 or even 20%. So, you've got some contingencies in place. You can play out th
e what-if scenarios. And then that just gives you that sort of
subverts the Chicken Little running around the sky is falling energy and gets your feet
on the ground. In reality basis, you've got the numbers on
your plans. You've got the scenarios that you're playing
out. You can make some good and thoughtful decisions
now about how you might steer the course should that need come up. And again, just really be investing on doubling
down, doubling down on those internal infrastructure things that
really go to the core of the strength
of your organization. And never forget to continue investing in
partnerships and in planning and in collaboration and in the mission of your organization. And I know it sounds very general, but -- I
imagine Sheleia will have some specific tactics that she can add to flesh that out a little
bit. Sheleia: Yeah, I just want to add. Well, first, let me answer your question,
Gabriel. No. Absolutely not. That goes towards just that going into panic
mode, right? So
when I think about non-profits in their
programs, I think about just the heart of what you do always makes a demand. And in times like these, the demand tends
to increase. So, I'm always serving people is why I got
into the grants profession, right? And I think to Maryn's point, we have to double
down on our infrastructure to see where our opportunities to save more money. How can we partner with other folks to do
our part in resource sharing? And then what can we do this innovatively? So maybe
it's not a question of cutting our
programs, but are there ways that we can do it differently and still serve people in excellence? So, times like these really help us think
outside of the box. I'll tell you that as a business owner. We find different ways to do things. So, it requires a level of wisdom and discernment
to know what we can do differently without cutting off our ties to our program and putting
our community in an interesting space, so. Cherian: So, I fully agree with my colleague
s
on not under investing. And I think in particular, fundraisers, and
specifically grants professionals, get the short shrift when economic cycles look. When boards and senior leadership look at
ways of cutting organizations, that's when staff gets cut, so. And I'm super biased. We talk with our organizations, with our clients
a lot about change management during this time and what are smart investments and what
are disastrous investments. And I would point to the research, if you
haven't seen t
his article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. I'm very biased because I was the former chair
of volunteer Iowa, which is our state CNCS. And they were very represented in this article
that references the research from Fidelity Charitable that says that during the pandemic;
a lot of organizations got rid of people who managed volunteers. And what we know to be true is that volunteers
make really great donors. And if we were to extrapolate that out -- and
what we do when we talk to boards, is to s
ay, when you cut fundraising staff, when you cut
grants professionals, in particular for you all in this audience, what you end up doing
is creating a knowledge deficit and a strategy deficit in the organization. And this article does a really great job of
indicating. When we didn't have volunteer management and
we didn't engage volunteers, it really crippled organizations. So the main thing that I want to encourage
you to do is really print that article out, share it with your internal leadersh
ip team
and remind them that as we go into these situations, we have to be very mindful about if we do
cut, what we are cutting out of our budgets and make strategic investments in those long-term
relationships both in terms of institutional knowledge internal to the organization, but
how are those community relationships managed so that we maintain them. Because eventually, we will come out of the
recession, for sure, that I will say, without equivocation. We will come out of the recession. We
will need funding again and funding will
be available again. So, we want to make sure that we're mindful
of how those pieces come into play. And if you are rehiring for grants professional
after you have gone dormant for several months, or maybe even a year or more, that's going
to, as Maryn pointed out, these are long-term, long cycles. So if you're starting that cycle again after
reducing staff, it's going to be even longer to -- or a longer road to recovery. So, I would encourage organization
s that are
thinking about cutting to be very, very judicious about what that looks like and don't cut off
your nose to spite your face. Isn't that an idiom? Who knows? You got the idea. Gabriel: We got a number of requests for that
particular article, if you have a link, Cherian. Cherian: I do. Actually, I'll throw it in the chat. Gabriel: And something I was thinking about
that. I know we have some great questions from the
crowd as well, it was okay, so we don't want to maybe stop the spin, rig
ht? We don't want to collapse into a ball. But maybe there are opportunities that we
can identify that are new that will kind of spur growth or make us more able to win grants,
right? So, is there something that we can do? And how do we identify those opportunities? Or how do we have those conversations internally? And I don't know if either of you have seen
that. And if you've seen that in the past, that's
kind of like using the recession or recession, we'll see which way it goes, as like an op
portunity
for growth for the non-profit. Maryn: What's really interesting is that it
sparked a memory. Because we've all been through something very
similar through the pandemic, which is really unprecedented in our lifetime. But from an economic perspective, it is sort
of the ultimate jouncy economic experience, right? And one of the interesting things that I found
was that while people weren't able to work in their traditional modes, there was a lot
of opportunity for them to double down on th
eir training. So, my business actually took off in a nice
way. And because that's all I do is train and teach
people, share information about how to be more successful and healthy grant seeking. And so, that would be an absolute. This is a great opportunity to build that
internal capacity and the knowledge base and the skill level, not just vested in the one
grant writer. I call grants girl or grants guy that everything
that grants goes to that person and nobody else, but the entire leadership t
eam develops
a more robust understanding of how grants really work. And I don't mean just filling the blanks on
an application, but the entire economy and how much the leadership team as a whole has
to do with the help and success of that entire fundraising/grant-seeking function. So in addition to doubling down on the five
principles that we've been talking about all along is a terrific time to double down and
get some really good solid skills and context training in these exact issues. And you
've got great people right here in
front of you on the screen today that are a part of that, who can be a part of that
process for you. Sheleia: And I just want to piggyback off
of Maryn's point. What came to mind while she was speaking is
that pressure tends to show out the cracks in your foundation. Maryn: Yes. Sheleia: So one of the things that I noticed
at the beginning of the pandemic is just how can I be more efficient in my writing, like
the deadlines are not going to stop. At that time,
I was the grants girl at an
organization. So, everything came to me. And you all can imagine how much of my hair
came out just with the increase in opportunity. So not only did we have our regular grant
cycles, we had COVID response funds. And everyone was just being extremely generous. We didn't know how this pandemic was going
to actually turn out. So, when I came to the consulting side, training
and capacity building was foreign. But I'm learning. Similar to Maryn is that that's what a lot
of
organizations want, especially if they aren't in a position to afford a done-for-you
provider. So, we have just taken the last few months
to create different types of opportunities, whether that's in a do-it-yourself form or
in a done-with-you form to help non-profits really hone in on those areas that they feel
they need to either increase their capacity, strengthen their internal readiness or grant
readiness, or just make the grants were less stressful for them. So, this is a perfect time for
you all to
invest in those types of services. There are so many different options out there
so that when we emerge out of this, you'll be more competitive and ready to go. Gabriel: Awesome. Thank you. So, Jewel Nems sent a question. She said, “There's a lot of money in donor
advised funds right now and it's parked there. Is there anything that we can do as grant
professionals or as fundraisers to help get a little bit more of that release?” Any ideas on getting folks to part with their
donor ad
vised funds right now? Cherian, you are nodding your head. So, I'm going to ping you first. Cherian: Oh, sure. So first and foremost, absolutely. That is true and significantly true. Check out the research on that. And the first thing that I would say is you’ve
got to make it super easy for people to make gifts from their DAFs. So if you don't have a DAF widget on your
website, that's one way of doing it, especially if you know that you have people who have
DAFs in your donor community. The othe
r thing is to be proactive about letting
people know that they can make guesses out of their DAFs directly to you. And that's a great option because that money
has already been given. They've already gotten the tax benefit and
whatnot. Helen Brown also has a tool. I'll throw this in the chat. I know you all are going to ask. That I've seen and it looks really cool. That's called DAFinitive. It allows you to search donor advised funds
by topic area. So if you're an arts organization, for example,
you can look for DAFs that give money to arts organizations, for example. So, I would check that out. There's no affiliate, anything like that. Helen showed it to me. I think it's the only DAF search engine out
there. So, that's helpful. If you don't want to pay for that service
or whatnot, I guess the other thing to be mindful of is that your local community foundation
probably houses a bunch of DAFs. And so figuring out how you can kind of cross
market your needs to those donor advised funds
would be the other way to approach that. Gabriel: Okay. Awesome. I have some other questions here. I'm going to combine two into one. So, we have someone who's wandering newer
to grants. Where's the best place to go for training? And, obviously, I'm biased to say Instrumental. But I know there are lots of great resources
out there. And then the second question, which I think
kind of goes hand-in-hand is, how do we find maybe a help from the grants writer, a new
contract grant writer, or a staff
person who's a grants writer to help us win more grants? Because that's something that they don't necessarily
have right now. So, I don't know. Sheleia, if you want to start to kick us off
on this one, and then we can go on from there? Sheleia: Absolutely. So, I'll go back to the basics with this one. We just had a chat last week with my social
media community about, if you're looking for a grant writer, here's a few things that you
should do first. So, the number one thing that I would suggest
is that you check your organization's grant readiness. So, that's just a simple way of saying what's
your organization's capacity to find, write, win, and manage grant awards? Now, for the sake of time, I can't get into
all of the nuts and bolts. But a skilled and ethical grants professional
will help you check your foundation to just see, one, do you have the capacity? And are you competitive for grants? That's the first and foremost thing. Okay? Second, I would say check and make sure that
you
actually have a budget for a grants pro. I know there's a lot of talk throughout the
pandemic and on social media about writing on commission, and things like that. That is unethical. I saw someone drop the GPA in the chat. And that's an excellent resource both to check
our ethics and how we should operate in this space as well as a consultant directory. But be prepared to just have a budget set
aside for grants pro. And if you can't afford it done for you, I’ll
repeat again, try some do it you
rself or done-with-you options. And then, number three, make sure that you
have some internal staff capacity to work with the grants pro. So, there's this -- I'll say it's just a myth
that if I hire grants professionals, I can wash my hands of the entire process. And this is just certainly not true. I will tell you from personal experience that
we will reach out to you to review narratives, if there are some last minute attachments
and things like that. It's more of what Maryn said, relationship
and partnership. So, we're your partners. We're not your miracle workers. So, those are just some tactical things to
consider. And again, if you want to either reach out
to some folks on the GPA, please, in addition, reach out to Maryn and myself, and we'll direct
you to the right place. Gabriel: All right. Maryn and Cherian, any other thoughts on that
one? Maryn: Oh, I forget what the original question
was. But I was so enthralled by Sheleia’s response. Gabriel: It was very comprehensive. Yes.
Maryn: It was a terrific response. Oh, about, yeah, bringing somebody into your
organization to help with grants. And I'm just sort of still buzzing from that,
we're your partners, not miracle workers. It's like, yes, absolutely, a hundred percent
on that. And just a soft pitch here, again, I appreciate
Sheleia offering, we can help you with those resources. If you want to email us, I imagine you'll
have access to our emails afterwards. And if you're looking for specifics in terms
of directions
that you can go for training or to contact top notch ethical and trustworthy
grant professionals, we'd be happy to help you with that. Gabriel: Awesome. That’s great. Cherian: I can’t add anything because I
don't do grants writing and consulting. We help organizations that do grant writing. But the one thing that I would share with
you is I've lots of friends who do that work. And GPA is a great resource. But in conversations with people like Diane
Leonard and Ken Miller, one of the things that
keeps coming up are the questions not
to ask in those circumstances. And one of the things that we think about
is how successful are you at raising money through grants? And in reality, as Sheleia mentioned, that
has a lot to do with you and your organization and your internal capacity. There's no magic wand that the grant writer
can do to take something that's junk and make it into something amazing, like a $100 million
grant proposal. So rather than thinking about, “Can this
grant professiona
l transform my organization and give access to us to hundreds of millions
of dollars in grants?” is, really, “Who do you trust to work with and really get you
to the point that you as an organization can get to?” So, just asking the right questions, I think,
would be very helpful. Gabriel: Okay. Awesome. So one other question we had -- and this goes
back to Cherian's point of joining a grant making organization and what your experiences
were there. Are there a couple of top things that you
would
see in grant proposals? Or, maybe everyone else in the panel can answer
this. That would be like a no-go, like these were
clear toss out, make sure you go through your proposals that don't have these things in
there. Oh, okay. Maryn: I teach you this all day every day
from sweat. We call it from inside the grant maker's black
box, what happens inside the decision making process that people who are working so hard
on their grant proposals never see the things that make the grant makers, the revi
ewers,
and the decision makers go, “Aah!” And I will say the big thing is, if you are
not writing your grant from a plan that's already been developed independent of the
grant proposal, your grant proposal is going to sink down to the bottom of the pile because
we can spot it right away. It's like this looks like they were just sort
of spaghetti throwing things in in response to the questions. I don't get a sense that they have any plan
behind this other than just reacting to the questions that
we ask on this grant form. So, that is the number one thing that I see
on my side that I know that grant writers often don't think about. And other than that, the clear simple declarative
sentences, dispense, please, with fancy language. You're not trying to win us over or persuade
us. Actually, I think of that as not a competition. I've heard the word competing come up. And I take issue with that because I know
that's what it feels like from the grant writer’s side. But from the grant maker’s s
ide, we don't
feel like you're competing. We feel like you are showing up and showing
us what you've got and giving us an opportunity to audition with you and select from the proposals
that are available to us. Given the amount of money we have to fund
that portfolio of projects, especially going to further the cost that we want to be investing
in. So, there's a different dynamic when you're
thinking about writing a proposal as trying really hard to pull the levers and push the
buttons and make
somebody change their mind, which is very manipulative. Versus simply saying, “Let's just show up
and show you what we've got, tell you who we are, tell you what we're doing, tell you
why that work is important, tell you what our plans are, and show you exactly how we'd
love for you to partner with us in moving those plans forward. It's really subtle. It feels like a really subtle thing. But, truly, it comes through on the other
side. And the proposal is so loud and clear. You'd be surprised how
many proposals get
set aside because these guys are just trying to manipulate us. And I don't really trust them as much as I
do. This is just showing up and saying, “Here's
what we're planning to do. You want to be a part of this with us?” That's my plea. I have an opportunity here to speak from my
heart as the grant maker. And also, the best advice I ever got as a
grant writer was from a program officer, a federal program officer years and years and
years ago who just been through a week of ap
parently -- I don't know, anyway. But I called with a question about the RFP
that we were responding to. And he said, “Before I let you go, I have
one thing to ask you.” And I said, “Oh my gosh, what's that? What are you asking me?” And he said, “Please, whatever you do, do
not, under any circumstances, send me another dull, dry boring as bone dust grant proposal.” I spent the entire week ploughing through
stacks and stacks of dead, dull, boring, dry as bone desk proposals. Please, will you simp
ly make your proposal
sing? Sing, S-I-N-G. And it's like that has infused everything
that I've done ever since 30 plus years ago and everything I teach as well. So, I have the opportunity to share that with
you. And, Gabriel, I'm so glad that you asked that
question from the other side of the grant review side. We're ploughing through dozens, maybe sometimes
hundreds of proposals. Yours will stand out, if it sings, if it's
clear, and if we can tell right away that you've got a good solid plan be
hind it. Gabriel: Awesome. Sheleia: Really quickly, Maryn. We call that “You can’t pull on heartstrings
alone, but you'll win grants by division you can articulate.” So make sure that when you all watch the recording,
write down everything that Maryn said because that's the real deal in how they feel in the
world of grants, making sure that you actually have a plan and not throwing emotional language
and fluff in there. So, yeah, I agree. I don't have my pompom today. But if I did --
Maryn: It's
different with individual donors. I understand there's a different dynamic in
terms of relationships with individuals. But we're talking about grants, and that's
what I can tell you about that process. That said, it's certainly interesting because
there are certainly grand organizations where the decision can be made by a single individual
based on their own whim and their own preference. And they can come in and an entire decision
making process could have been gone through with the community
team. And the family member who sits on the board
of that family foundation can come in and say, “I don't like any of this. I'm going to have the money to go here.” So, there's all those dynamics that happened
behind the scenes that we as grant writers don't have any control over. So, there are no buttons that you can push
and levers that you can pull that are going to reliably result in anything. But we're giving you the good solid. These are always good strategies and foundational
principles t
o be paying attention to. Cherian: I think it's really important to
experience this for yourself because -- like I said, as a state service commission somewhere
near you where you can volunteer to be on grant review. And the dynamics at play in that room obviously
changed based upon the people who are in it. But it is fascinating. And so, what Maryn just said about Family
Foundation is very much true, right? You can have someone who's dead set on funding
a particular project or proposal and has
some relationship. And because of their relationship with that,
that happens or it doesn't happen. I think that's also true, sadly, on some of
these community review boards. Someone has something that they're really
willing to go to bat for and to advocate for versus not. And I think it's helpful. Going back to what Sheleia said of -- there's
no one-size-fits all. It's just sort of experiencing that in your
community. So, if it's a community foundation or a United
Way, or some other organization
that's giving out grants, being thoughtful and mindful of
who those people are in the room, what are the things that they care about, building
those relationships. And then as you are able to volunteer and
experience those things, I would just encourage you to do it. Gabriel: Okay. Awesome. I think that's a really excellent place to
stop. I know I learned a lot. So, thank you to our wonderful panellists
for all the expertise that you guys have shared with us today. I am going to drop a quick li
nk in the chat
as well. It certainly does offer a 14-day trial. So, just something that I would say is a great
way of getting a tool. And see if maybe you can find some ways of
helping over the next few weeks and months as we go through these fun economic times. We have a couple of awesome other webinars,
workshops coming up, 5 Steps to Perfect Post Award Grants Management and Project Budgets:
What To Do And What Not To Do. The RSVP is right here at the bottom. And I will drop that in the chat a
s well here
in a second. And then, yeah, just a reminder, we have a
14-day trial. Thanks for joining today. We do offer $50 off if you do monthly or two
months off if you do annually with our plan. So, yeah, thank you again, everybody, for
all your help, information, all the questions, the interaction. I thought it was a great session. And I hope you all have a great rest of your
day. Sheleia: Thank you so much, Gabriel, for facilitating
this awesome session and to my colleagues. It was great to
pick each other's brains. Gabriel: Yeah. Maryn: That was terrific. The time just flew by. Thanks everybody. Cherian: Thanks everybody. Sheleia: Thank you everyone. Gabriel: Bye
Sheleia: Bye-bye.
Comments
How would you suggest finding grant reviewing opportunities in our area?