Wild Woman Fundraising

So. You’re working for a social services nonprofit. You’re writing a grant. You’re stuck. How do you show the funder the magnitude of the need? Read on! Or what if you’re the communications person? If you serve vulnerable populations and you can’t put pictures of the people you really serve in your annual report? You’re [...]

Now, if you’re like me, you have grants heaped on your plate along with 100 other things, like marketing your nonprofit, events, major gifts, house parties, appeals, etc. Oh yeah, and social media too.

All of which could be full time jobs in and of themselves! So sometimes when you go to look for grants it’s hard to remember everything.

And I said, “So, you think that getting a grant is like dialing for dollars huh? That a grant will just plop into your lap and Boom you’ll have a computer lab? I’ll look for you, but here’s something you should know, first.”

grant priorities

You’ve Got Answers! According to LinkedIn, I’m an expert in Nonprofit Fundraising, Philanthropy, Work-life Balance, Non-profit Management, Social Enterpreneurship, and Public Relations. Here are some questions where my answer got chosen as best answer: “Facebook – serious concerns regarding privacy, where would all the ‘facebook’ users go? Plenty of the industry voices are calling for [...]

As a grantwriter and grant panelist I’m fortunate to have experience on both sides of the grantmaking process. Here’s my list of the Top 10 grantwriting mistakes people make, plus one bonus one!

Are you the lone development person, or even part of a small team? What is one of your biggest problems? If you answered “Capacity” I think you’d be right. How can you build your capacity to raise more money? Well, you can’t put more hours in the day, and you can’t hire more people. Budgets [...]

3. Batch your fundraising appeal letters. Send out 150 at a time. Test out different messages, graphs, charts, quotes, pictures, see what works with who. This way you can avoid an appeal letter that bombs.

If you are fundraising in a small shop, I salute you. It is hard. You come to work and often receive no kudos or respect for what you do. I want you to know that I know what you’re going through. And I appreciate that you take a small part of your limited time to read this.

Do you know a person who loves to draw and write comics? If so, they could get up to $5,000 to publish a comic book with this grant.

If you’ve combed the Foundation Center Database over and over, it might be time to start thinking big with your nonprofit. What do you do that the government would like done? Whether it’s providing social services or cleaning up the environment, you could get a steady stream of income from your local or federal government.