Nonprofit Grant Writing Basics: How To Write A Grant For Beginners

our special guest today is Sheleia  Phillips the grant writing coach and she is here to talk to us about nonprofit  grant writing and some tips for beginners now i'm going to leave all of her contact  information below because she is amazing and she also has a free download for you if you go  to our website so with that let's welcome Sheleia well welcome and i would like to start off  by getting an introduction on who you are and what you do because i know you're doing some  amazing things in th

e grants world absolutely hey everybody my name is Sheleia Phillips and i'm the  founder and principal consultant at s p nonprofit consulting pretty much our special jam is helping  non-profits raise more money through grants and sustainable fundraising strategies to date we've  raised about three million dollars in counting for nonprofits all across the country so we're  looking forward to doing much more in the years to come and i'm excited to be here with you today hey  well i'm gonna put all

of your contact information in the description so people want to reach out  to you they can and i'll include your instagram handle because that's where we met yes the grant  writing coach you can find me over at instagram or on linkedin of the same name okay well we can't  really talk about grants without talking about nonprofit grant readiness so do you want to give  us a little intro absolutely so today we're going to do a little bit what i call beginner's guide  to winning grants or just gra

nt writing in general and none of what we'll talk about today makes  sense without making a pit stop and really driving home the point that non-profits should be  grant ready and simply put grant readiness is just your organizations organization's capacity  to find right win and manage grant awards contrary to popular belief and i come across  this a lot especially with newer organizations and they think that the five getting your 501c3  is like the end-all and be-all but when you think about wi

nning grants and just the complexities and  the requirements that go into that entire process it's just one small part of a bigger picture so  being grant ready is the foundational principle that not only do we uphold here at SMP but for all  reputable grant pros they're going to make sure to check your foundation so what does that mean that  means of course checking for your eligibility are you know compliant and up to date in your state  with all of your filings do you file your 990 are you ke

eping up with anything that the IRS  sends you making sure that's up today it's also what we call clarifying your core so what we  call with clarifying your core is checking your mission vision and value statement so  that you're sure about who you are as an organization it's really just your brand identity we look at what do your programs look  like do you have fundable programs do you have programs that are led by and really ground  grounded and centered in community principles and community-b

ased solutions to the issues that  you want to address we look at financials you know things like that just to make sure that your  financial health is in order and then what does your board look like what do you what is your  governance structure making sure that you just have a healthy full picture of how your non-profit  operates who you are what you do all goes into grant readiness and that is extremely important  when it comes to institutional fundraising you know i'm from canada and the sa

me rules apply here  is before we start writing any grants because a lot of ours are government grants and they really  want to know they want to see your financials they want all the program information they want  to know about your board they need all of that information yes yes and i i'm a biologist by trade  so sometimes i pull those principles into writing and if you think about like the cell everything  happens in the nucleus grant readiness can be thought of just as the nucleus of how all

of your  process will work as you expand out rather that foundation grants or corporate grants even into  federal grants all of it goes right down into being grant ready and it just builds upon one  another so i encourage all nonprofits out there to spend some time to do an assessment check what's  going on up under your hood because that may give you some insight into why you may not be winning  the grants that you want or just not winning them consistently yeah now you had mentioned fine  gra

nts and i know that's the number one question is where do you find them okay absolutely so  we've used a couple of different tools but our preferred and favorite tool is instrumental it is  the institutional uh grant research platform that we use here at smp and it's pretty popular here  in the us you can not only find grants that are relevant and match your calls but you can also  do things like project management reporting and grant reporting overall so if you all reach out  to me on social me

dia i have a complimentary quote where you can try it out for free for three weeks  and i would love to share that with you so you can really take a deep dive to see what we see and why  instrumental is really just that preferred tool we have saved somewhere around i think it's  three hours per week using this tool versus others because things can be disjoining when  you're looking at different softwares and google and all of that but since it's all in  one place instrumental saves us a lot of t

ime and with their automations being the millennial  that i am i love automations we get what we call a weekly digest so once you save a project  instrumental automatically sends us a list of updated grant opportunities every monday to you  know review if there's been any deadlines changed if there's been you know any change in the award  amounts we get all of that in real time to not only help us out with our uh grant prospecting  but any reports that we give to clients it just helps us out wit

h those automations yeah we have  we have a couple specific to canada as well which is uh we've got grant watch grant connect a  few of those so i'll probably link some of those in the description and your information so  people can reach out to you for the american ones yes awesome and you know i've used grant  watch before i've also used grant station and they have the international features and  i believe instrumental does too so we can just drop all of those in the chat and let folks kind  o

f peruse and see what's the best fit for them but they're all awesome tools so writing grants  yeah what are your tips on rating grants for us yeah so i guess my number one pro tip and this  ties back to grant readiness is that the clearer that you are as an organization and the work  that you do the easier it is going to be for you to write grants i'm sure folks in the audience  can feel uh have that memory of feeling that that i don't want to call it stress but filling  out a grant application

and there's questions on there that you don't necessarily know because you  haven't taken the time to really develop a full fully blown program or you just haven't taken  time to consider some of the more sophisticated questions that may come on a federal grant or  just a long foundation grant if we're being honest so i encourage all non-profits to before you  go out and really aggressively pursue grants find out what it is that you do right so what  are your program strategies what are the out

comes and the outputs or what's the impact that your  project's going to have in a really clear and succinct fashion and also in a way that is easily  easy to articulate to others so anytime that we're writing we know in our brains like what we want  to say and sometimes that translates out into our writing and we may skip pieces anytime  that you're writing always keep two audiences in mind one you have to be very client-centric so  you're telling their story no one is more equipped to tell the

story no one is more equipped to  tell their stories up for the community so when i think about writing a needs assessment or  writing about the change that we plan to you know really implement i'm really community centric  with this so what are their experiences what have they told us our actual problems and proposed  solutions to you know that need to be funded right and you also have to keep in mind and not so  much yeah just be funder aware is what i call it so that in the individuals who r

eceive your grant  applications they have an ease of readability there so what we call the seven seas of  communications one of those is clarity and clear is kind so make sure that all of your writing is  clear and that only happens when you take a step back and really ask the who what when where why  at all portions of the grant proposal so that you can write easier grants i guess another pro  tip once you've done all of that deep work right we like to use what we call a master  grants library

80 of the grant proposal or the grant proposal process comes  before you ever type a single letter so what we have done to make the process more  efficient and this is especially important now that we're in covid times and it seems  like it's a grant coming out every two days is that we have a library for each of our clients  that we repurpose grant language so you either can refine it of course if there's something that we  may have had a gap or just you know in general we want to enhance some

language or some budgets  that are still relevant that we can submit all of this is important because when that deadline  is fast approaching you want to be able to pull without you know second thought here's where this  information goes or you know maybe we're pulling a narrative from a winning grant proposal  and we want to you know try our shot again so making sure that you have that library  of very standard information of course it's not a traditional just copy and paste and  keep it moving

and it's actually an intentional repurpose of information so that you can one just really continuously refine your language but also to be efficient in your grants  process because grant writing can be a lot of pool of time energy and resources so the easier  you can make that process for you the better yeah i worked for an organization where there was  a few people that were writing different proposals and it was like pulling teeth to get them to share  the information so we can compile the do

cument and come up with you know what received a yes what  received a no how can we look at it yes and i love having this content library because it really  houses all of your institutional collateral and information and knowledge so in the event like  you said it's hard to pull information from teams because everybody's busy and you know with  everyone working from home it can be challenging it preps you for that but it also preps you in  terms of a long term strategy and sustainability because

folks leave organizations so if i'm a  program director and i get a new job somewhere else if i don't have all of that information  in one place we are at risk of losing it so anytime you can document language attachments  reports you know anything that's related to submitting and managing a grant i would put it  all in one place that could be in a cloud we use google drive but i know some folks they use one  drive or dropbox just make sure you have all of that in one place and organize it in s

uch a  way that if someone leaves or just takes a vacation or a sabbatical you know where to go  to get that information without compromising your uh submission process that is a great tip  because i know from the grant writing i've had to do my career the number one thing i hate is where  they ask for indicators objectives like that kind of stuff and it's like oh that's the most painful  so keep it and repurpose it yeah absolutely and it's not just for grants you know when  i think of repurposi

ng content we hear a lot about that in social media but we need to apply  that to grants so when you talk about impact data right it's not just for the proposal but i can use  that for marketing i can use that for emails and newsletters and just in conversation with folks in  general so i remember early on in my career and i had just started out going to luncheons  with funders or you know sometimes uh with individual donors folks who were on our our roster for moves management type work it woul

d give me the heebie-jeebies to try and  call off what we've been doing in a way that i could articulate impact so i was like you know  we've been doing great work and they're like well yeah share some of that you know share something  with me i'm like i can't remember the numbers in my head and you know now that we've shifted as a  uh shifted to more community-centric fundraising that hasn't you know the numbers and the data hasn't been that important or grounded but when i first started out oh

i was so stressed so you know i just personally because i'm a data nerd i like calling those numbers at top of mind so if i have  it in one place i can always go back and revisit you know what did we do last year you know how  transformative was that grant and we're only able to do that if we collect that data in some form  yeah i'm a data nerd too i feel ya also we're here all right winning and managing  that's another section that uh you said that you covered yes so winning  and managing gran

t i feel can be its own master class like cohort because there  is life after the grant so a lot of times especially if you're a newer organization  or just starting out the excitement and the i guess the special actions kind of just  stopped at the at the award agreement the letter and the check right so you're  just like oh my god we want a grant hooray we got to let everybody know on social media  you know we may or may not unfortunately thank the funder depending on you know what your  capac

ity is for fundraising and cultivation but what i find is equally important and any  grad pro will tell you this is just making sure that your management is up to date so what folks  typically don't connect with grants or contracts grants are really a contractual agreement so  when i talk about having a clear program plan and knowing your what we call knowing your numbers  ie your budgets and just what you're going to do everything that you write in that grant proposal  is then going to be inclu

ded in that contract so one we don't make up programs just to  respond to an rfp that's a huge no-no and we also don't fabricate information because  when we get called back to the carpet by this contract that you're going to sign in order  to you know get the grant award you're legally and ethically more importantly ethically held to  that so grant management is key and when i think about management we can just think about it as  stewardship some institution a grant maker has invested their dol

lars into me i am now held  accountable not you know to the grant maker of course but i'm held accountable to my community  to spend these dollars in a way that i've outlined in this grant proposal and what that looks like  practically in the day-to-day is making sure that you're tracking any revenues attached to  the grant any extra dentures so how much have we spent where did we spend it and what are  the codes attached to it how are we keeping up again with our impact and outcomes data and  h

ow you can do that is attendance sheets if you have any surveys that you're collecting data from  whether that's like pre and post comparisons or just you know post the program that's a good  way and also just keeping up with whatever deadlines and due dates come with reports so  in the example of multi-year grants sometimes you have a report that's due every six months  before the final report so i'm just making sure that one you read your grant agreement through  and through which i would say

40 percent of that you should already know because you put it in your  grant proposal to outline what are the milestones that we agreed to achieve what are the deadlines  and what are the requirements of the funder so that we are managing this grant well yeah  no and i've seen so many organizations try to pound a square peg into a round hole in terms  of the grants and then not following through and kind of using the funds for what they said and  it's so not ethical and yeah just wrong we are wh

en we look at just the grant making  process in general and i talk a lot about being community-centric and being and  operating from an equities perspective and lens when we take the perspective of the fun the  funder is my partner it's a mutual exchange of things going on so they invest of course they have  some accountability on their end by not making reporting burdens of not requiring so much of us  that it's a strain or some type of stress on our staff like that is you know that's natural b

ut  we're also held accountable as an organization to do what we say that we're going to do on behalf  of the community that we plan to serve so i think when we look at all of the different factors  the best way that you can show up is just making sure that you're managing and stewarding  the award well because that then leads to more grant awards and that when we look at that  look at it that way more grand awards mean more people that we can serve and more changes in our  community so it's jus

t our responsibility to do as much as we possibly can to make things make  sure things go well now in real life we know that most things don't always go as planned so  that's where the relational aspect comes in to where i'm calling uh my uh my program director and  saying hey we foresee maybe some challenges with enrollment so does this impact our grant in any  way does this impact future payouts things like that or i've had instances where we're not  going to spend the money by the end date so

what should we do can we extend the grant period  out it's all about being relational it's all about centering community in a way and setting up i  don't want to say setting up your case but really articulating and advocating for your community so  that when things happen and they're at the center it allows for a more open and flexible exchange  between you and your partner grant makers yeah no perfect is there anything else that you  wanted to add anything that we didn't cover that you wanted

to mention so one of my other tips that  i have really grown to know and love folks that are familiar with me know that i got into grants  like literally baptism by fire so a lot of what i learned came from google and the very limited  you know resources that were available at the time so as years have progressed my skill set  has not only changed but it has evolved to do more than just the status quo so one of  my favorite pro tips for uh folks who want to look at grant writing and grant prospe

cting  from an equity standpoint in a community centric standpoint is just start looking beyond what's on  the what i call like the checklist requirements so using grant research and an rfp for  example when we do grant research the tools that we use no matter what platform  will tell you very basic information right it'll tell you when's the due date what are the  eligibility terms what is the geographic focus and you know as grand professionals we tend to  stop there like oh we're qualified th

ey're a good you know a good partner but what i love and  particularly love about instrumental is that it allows me to go on the back end and look for more  things that aren't necessarily visible to the naked eye so when we think about community-centric  practices and embedding that into our everyday operations i not only look at the eligibility  requirements but i also look at how do they uphold the community in the way that they practice  grant making so that could look like do they historical

ly fund organizations that are led  by and they serve people of color do they serve organizations of similar size and scope of  his mind are they open to general operating opportunities or multi-year opportunities and  going back to our previous conversation like what does that reporting look like is it you know  burdensome is it very particular is it you know so burdensome that it's taking away staff time and  capacity just to fill out one grand pro one grant report that may only be for five th

ousand dollars  so i encourage organizations that in your prospect research don't just look at the rfp because that's  gonna it's gonna tell you relevant information but it is limited in some sense also  visit the funders website to see you know what they stand for what are their values you know  is there any evidence of their relationship with past grantees and just you know look take a look  at their history because that will let you know that your values align and that this is really a  true

partner i always share with folks that every grant lead does not always equal grant partner so  taking that process from being a lead someone that hey we identified them i think we align with  their work based on some search terms that is awesome that gets you started but you really have  to take take the thunder that you're looking at through a process and it's not you know hard you  just kind of checks and balances based on what you value as an organization to put them into the  grant partner

pool and thus in your grant strategy well that is fantastic thank you so much for all  of this because i know and maybe it's just me but when i sit down to do a grant i feel overwhelmed  i feel like just it's it can be scary and it's really not it's just a make sure like you  say have all of your pre-planning and your readiness done and everything will flow from  there everything will flow from there and just sometimes the grant process is stressful because  we don't know how to organize it when

you look at grants and just the life cycle of it everyone will  know what works for them so any advice that i give to you all today i as my grandmother would say to  the meat and spit out the bones cool what works for your organization and if there's areas where  you're like oh maybe we need to shift do what works for you grants are not meant to be stressful  but it doesn't mean that they're necessarily oh how should i say this grants  are not meant to always be easy but they can be simple so w

hen we think about  simplicity all that comes through strategy and that comes through you know chiming into episodes  like this to learn from uh rem pros like ourselves to you know see how they can work with  their organization oh no i'm not a grant pro i mean 25 years of fundraising but my thing  my favorite thing is the stewardship part so somebody else go out and get the grant and  then pass it over to me and i'll steward the bajeebers out of them so stewardship is  so important to the grant

making process so just look even by honorable mention you'll be  a grant pro a lot of times i cannot tell you how successful we have been with a grant  because we've stewarded that relationship in the long game since so might have had a  conversation in coffee six months ago and here's the rfp today you know and we end up getting  the grant because now we have an advocate an internal advocate who knows who we are knows what  we do and when they go again or not go against go in front of the board

of trustees or whoever  the review board they're saying yeah i know i know Sheleia of abc foundation they're great  you know i've been keeping up with them going to events and things like that so stewardship  is key and i tell folks pick up the phone to even start that off like just pick up the  phone we're humans people give to people even if the way the solicitation comes is uh  different than individual giving so that's all yeah great advice i think sometimes people are  afraid to pick up th

e phone but when i first the first time i ever saw indicators on a grant  request i'm like what i picked up the movement and that's how i learned and then i was able to have  a laugh with the person on the other end and then of course they remember me yeah you know it's been  really fun while i've been in the consulting seat for about a year and a half now uh right at the  very beginning of the pandemic i was still in a nine to five setting doing grant writing full time  and i can't tell you how

fun it was just to see funders in their home element and seeing  kids and pets and that's for me it took the anxiety i don't want to say completely out  but it was significantly reduced because now i'm like oh this is just another you  know another person and just really seeing them holistically and how they maneuver at  home and even how i maneuver at home i might have you know this this coffee mug is very basic but  i would have fun coffee mugs and that could be conversation starts just to ta

ke the pressure  off so you know i have my x-files coffee mug for years yeah so it's things like  that that just really help you take the label off and see people as people even  and even build a relationship beyond what you know we quote would have on our list so yeah we have  opportunities now and i say the best way to get over that fear is to just do it i had to do it by  the skin of my chin sometimes but i'm much better now and able to navigate conversations than i  was seven years ago when

i first started i used to sweat on the phone like just like sweat  like i don't want to do anything wrong but as i as i evolved as a fundraiser and just a grand  professional it got a lot it got a lot better well thank you again and again we're going  to list all your contact information below and people can hook up with you on instagram  yes i look forward to it i look forward to it