What have people been saying about it?

Now, onto this week!

It’s Grants time!

But first, if you don’t already follow them, please follow Sandy Rees and Pamela Grow, subscribe to their blogs, and just get on that, because they know SO MUCH about grants!

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.

Which is why we created this Android App to help you do it.

So now you’ll remember each step and it will be super easy to stay on top of your grants!
And for $1.99, it’s like, so worth it.

So, you can buy Wild Grants! in the Android App store!

If you’ve downloaded it, please leave a comment here or a review at the app store, we are always trying to get better, and this is only our second app, so we know we’ve got a ways to go!

PS. Also, you should follow Desiree Adaway. Because she rocks at nonprofit management!

Do you need some grants? We’ve made an Android App to help you. originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on August 26, 2011.

“Hey, can you research a grant to help us get a computer lab and computers for our nonprofit?”

And I said,

“Here are the 7 different places that you can get free donated computers from!”

and he wrote back and said,

“No, seriously, we need a GRANT to get a computer lab, and the computers!”

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.”

You can look for grants for two weeks, spend another two weeks writing the proposal, and still only have a slim chance of getting the grant.

When I first started fundraising, I thought that all we had to do was get a grant, and then we would have it made. But in reality, all of the grants that we applied for did not get funded. And I felt bad that I had been paid but they had gotten no money from grantors out of the arrangement.

This is the usual error with small or fledgling nonprofits. They think that fundraising = grants, when, as you and I both know, grants are only a TINY piece of a much larger pie. See the pie chart below. This ain’t just a fancy metaphor!

Here’s a graph that explains how things get funded with nonprofits. 13% of money comes from grants, 75% comes from individuals.

GivingUSA Individuals versus Grants

And this graph shows which causes get money. These two graphs come from GivingUSA.com.

grant priorities

When I last looked into computer lab grants, in 2009, it would take over 6 months to even hear back if a proposal got a chance to go to the second round of the approval process for granting.

If you need money for programs NOW, I doubt that a grant would deal with your more immediate need.

Unless you or your board know someone at a foundation or fund already, you would be better off at looking at who can be major donors, and then asking them for the money for the computer lab, and getting donated computers in the meantime.

You should know the lay of the land, know which foundations are accepting proposals, which are not, which have scaled back their giving due to Depression 2.0, which foundations your board members and staff have connections to, and more.

Before going to look for a grant, ask staff and volunteers and board if they know anyone who knows anyone at a foundation. Chances are, someone will know someone.

Grants CAN make a difference for your nonprofit’s bottom line. Grants are useful in many ways. Grants should not be a stand-in for ALL fundraising activities, or depended on long-term for operation funding. As you can see, the majority of money comes from individuals. Even project funding could be much more easily obtained from individuals than from foundations.

I’ve got a sample grant proposal below that can help you make your next proposal more compelling. You CAN get grants, as long as you are willing to wait.

Here’s a free place to find grants.

What Grants Can, and Can’t Do for your Nonprofit originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on April 11, 2011.

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 a ‘boycott.’”-Jonathan Evans of Cisco.

Great question.

I committed Facebook suicide and it is wonderful. I have saved so much time, I’ve written a book and started a business. Now I use phone, email, and letters to connect with others.

These articles about “Is there life after facebook” in the NYT are so funny. If there was life BEFORE Facebook, why wouldn’t there be life AFTER?

With all of these privacy concerns, where can facebook users go?

I talked about this in my blog post called “Shut your Facebook.”

Facebook users can go to Twitter, use Twitpic if they want to share pictures. We can’t afford the risk of giving away our whole lives on there. I mean, just look at Failbook. Facebook gaffes are legendary.

As far as the friend-feed thing goes, I don’t think we need to hear about every hard boiled egg you ever ate.

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Where should a nonprofit look to obtain grant money to fund their organization’s strategic planning? -Tina Rust, Chief Operating Officer at Resume Your Life

Dear Tina,

Go to the foundation center database cooperating collection in your city.

If you can do a google search, you can find the grant for you. It’s really easy.

Once you’re there, ask someone to help you with finding a grant for strategic planning in your region and for your cause.

You can search by grantmaking institution, or by grants received. Looking at grants received is probably the best bet at first. Once you’re in there, go to Subject area, and find “Strategic Planning” and then put Nationwide and your state in region. Then take a note of each granting institution, their deadlines and guidelines. Put these in a spreadsheet, and apply! This should help you find the grant you want.

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“Imagine yourself having a considerable amount of money and time. Imagine you want to invest these goods in making the world better. What would be your priority? Would you focus on the environment, helping children, finding cures for diseases?” – Krzysztof Kolczyk, Team Leader/Designer at Motorola

When I lived in Indonesia for several months, I came in with ideas on what people there needed. I thought they needed condoms!

Imagine my surprise when I was in a mobile health clinic in Jakarta’s poorest slums, and what people came in with were all manner of skin diseases, and what they really needed was clean water. WATER was the key.

People in that community now have water filters and they sell water to neighboring slums. The kids now get to go to school, because they can afford uniforms and books, and people are getting healthier and richer by providing this service and the product of clean water.

You need to help people start small businesses around the world. The best way to do that is to think what the community needs (Clean water for example) and then help people in that community provide it.

Economic empowerment of women will help people stop rape, it will help jumpstart entire economies, and it will help get more of the children educated, which will cut down on overpopulation worries.

When giving things to other countries, we must realize that we can hurt more than we help if we just GIVE things that we think people need. We have to help empower people to offer these things to their communities for themselves. I’ve written a whole blog post about Toxic Giving here, would love to continue the conversation there!

Do you have any questions for me? Leave a comment or email me at info at wildwomanfundraising.com.

Are you new here? Welcome! Sign up for my newsletter and get fresh nonprofit fundraising, management and career ideas monthly!

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Ask Mazarine: Best Answers on LinkedIn originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on October 19, 2010.

Incredible Grantwriter

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!

1. Blind submission. In this current economic climate it will save you time and energy to find out about any application submission changes. Funders are addressing economic cutbacks in various ways, including suspending funding new applicants, postponing deadlines, etc. Do your research beforehand to ascertain if there are any limitations or restrictions given in this current financial climate…or if the funder even accepts applications!

2. Ignoring directions. This one is tragic. Heed the directions and use them as a guide in developing your narrative answers to review criteria, page and font restrictions, required supplemental materials, levels of funding, and submission deadlines. It’s critical to pay attention and follow the directions so that you have enough time to collect and package required materials, carefully and succinctly answer the review questions/criteria, and submit the completed application by the deadline.

3. The proposal doesn’t match the funders’ objectives. Don’t assume that just because a funder gives generously there’s support available. Do your research and find a funder aligned with your project idea, and tailor your application to meet the funder’s review questions/criteria.

4. The narrative is written as if everyone knows your organization. The narrative should be written so that someone not familiar with your organization can easily understand it. The reader could be from another city, or even another state, and not know a single thing about your organization.

5. Saying much without saying much. Be clear, concise, and to the point. Make sure that your proposal has substance and clarity, and that you explain what you mean. Avoid over-using jargon and acronyms. Organize information, use paragraph breaks — don’t submit multiple pages of text sans any breaks…just don’t.

6. Answers to funder’s questions/review criteria lie buried within the narrative, like a treasure hunt. Don’t make this a mystery! Identify how clearly you meet the funders’ criteria and goals. State your case and use headings so that the reader can successfully navigate throughout the narrative without getting lost, or worse, frustrated. Another good idea is to answer the review questions/criteria in the order the funder lists them. You can also try re-wording the questions/criteria, uniformly bolding headers, or even centering or off-set spacing headers.

7. Style is emphasized over content. Here, the focus is on presentation and style, rather than actual content, i.e. the nuts and bolts of the project. Give the reader details about the project’s intent and design.

8. Inadequate or insufficient cost analysis/Budget mistakes. I bulleted some points below:

§ Ask for what you need, and be sure that the budget backs up your requested amount.
§ Make sure your budget accurately reflects the costs of the project’s activities, including cash and inkind.
§ If the funder requires a cash match this should be reflected in your budget.
§ Double check your budget to confirm that revenue and expenses balance.
§ Prepare your budget in Excel, don’t use a word processing document. Additionally, Excel has formulas and function keys that you can use to help prevent user-generated math mistakes.
Where appropriate, for line items include a brief budget detail to describe how expenses were determined, i.e. Project Dir./Instructor pay: $120 x wksps (4) = $480

9. Forgetting that funders fund people — True, it’s a grant request full of information, but this doesn’t mean your request needs to be sterile or devoid of personality. How boring is that?…real, real boring. Don’t be shy about emphasizing relevant qualifications. Give details and emphasize your organization’s greatness.

10. Poor grammar, spelling errors, or factual errors. Invest in the time to make your proposal look professional. Use spell-check and print out your proposal for review — proofreading the hard copy
somehow helps catch mistakes that tend to be overlooked on-screen. Also, ask someone else to read over your proposal to see if it makes sense to him or her. Also, double check your stats and facts.

11. Illegible/sloppy presentation, materials or information omitted. If your proposal is disorganized or hard to read, this communicates an inability to properly express your idea, and that won’t get you funded. Things to remember:
§ Follow the directions — if you need to, make an application checklist or photocopy guidelines, and mark items off.
§ Clearly and concisely tell your story, use the funders’ review questions/criteria as a guide.
§ Follow page formatting and font size guidelines.
§ Include all the required attachments and info requested.
§ Use adequate white space so the proposal isn’t overly wordy.
§ Make sure your budget makes sense, and includes all project costs and expenses.

Ms. Pennie has gotten one organization’s entire budget financed by grants earlier this year. She will get you results. You should really hire her.

Are you new here? Welcome! Sign up for my newsletter and get fresh nonprofit fundraising, management and career ideas monthly!

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Top 10 Grantwriting Mistakes People Make-Guest Post by Tonya Pennie originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on July 9, 2010.

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 are tight right now. So here’s what you can do. Start to ask for help.

It would be nice if you could do it all, but you can’t. And anyone who tries to tell you that you must is on some serious crank. Get volunteers, interns, and other staff to learn how to fundraise. This presentation talks about why and how.

Was this helpful for you?

Is there anything you would add that volunteers could do? Please leave a comment.

FYI, this is best viewed in full screen.

Teaching other people how to fundraise originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on June 1, 2010.

We all have our little tricks for making do, for getting by with less. Here are mine. What are some of yours? Leave a comment!

1. Marketing: Go to the same printer every time, negotiate a lower price based on your loyalty and the urgency of your cause.

2. Ask a major corporation if they’d like to sponsor the publication of your annual report, and put their logo in it. Great exposure for their brand tied with yours.

3. Use the downturn to negotiate a lower price for t-shirts, pens, buttons, etc.

4. Get interns to do graphic design for you.

5. Free Publicity: Try getting an interview on your local community radio station, KOOP in Austin Texas, or Kaos in Olympia, Washington. If you’re in England, try University Radio York, and if you’re in Vancouver, Canada, try CO-OP Radio.

6. Go to your local tv station and get a free interview with your nonprofit leader. Portland Community Media is one place I’d recommend for Portland Oregon.

6. Appeals: 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.

7. Get volunteers to stuff envelopes for you. If you’re in Canada, post an opportunity at Volunteer.ca. If you’re in England, post what you need at this site. Try Workforce Solutions in Austin, Texas, and Steps to Success is a good one for Portland, Oregon.

8. Get a pitney bowes machine to put the correct postage on your letters and packages. This will save you money in that trip to the post office.

9. Events: Get space and food donated for events. Use your board member connections.

10. Getting things done: Get free advice from wise people at SCORE, the Service Corps Of Retired Executives, everything from starting a nonprofit to running a marketing plan. You can take a class or get free counseling. I’ve used their services and I recommend them!

11. Grants: Need to research grants? You can view the Foundation Center Database for free. Go to your local cooperating collection to view grants for your charity.

12. Major Donors: Get free annual reports from similar nonprofits and find out which corporations care about your cause.

13. Also, get the Business Journal’s Book of Lists to find out which new companies to approach for supporting your cause.

14. Data entry: Do you need a database? How do you choose which one to use? Check out NTEN’s unbiased free survey of donor management databases to see which ones have the features you need.

15. In-Kind: Get a local coffeeshop to donate meeting space or coffee to your next meeting and promise to put their logo in your newsletter.

16. Get free yoga for your nonprofit by asking a local yoga studio to give a demo at your next staff meeting.

17. Negotiate with a new bakery or office supply store to tell people about their businesses, and give discounts to your employees or donors, and get free baked goods or office supplies.

18. Get donated auction items.

19. Post volunteer opportunities everywhere you can (local high schools, colleges, universities, volunteermatch.org, idealist.org, etc). Each volunteer hour is worth $18!

20. Use a new avenue for messages: If your nonprofit is almost at its goal, text message your most loyal supporters, asking for help in this last push.

21. Bonus: Get reduced price software from TechSoup!

Thanks for reading!

What are some of YOUR money saving tips?

20 Money Saving Tips for Fundraisers originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on May 24, 2010.

You have to be the development director, development associate, development assistant, events director, grantwriter, outreach coordinator, major gifts officer, grant researcher, volunteer coordinator, envelope stuffer, marketing director, graphic designer, etc.

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.

You must not only look for funds, rub shoulders with major donors, and keep your programs on track, but you must fight the utter confusion, board member inertia, and culture of destitution.

Nonprofit organizations have a culture of destitution because they lack the ability to think strategically enough to grow an organization.

You must be strong enough to scold your CEO for being a poor business person, for creating and perpetuating a culture of destitution.

You must be able to go and get volunteers and interns from somewhere, and you must have clear job descriptions for them, and you must be RELENTLESS in delegating tasks and asking for help.

To remain able to think strategically, you can’t be thinking about how you’ll survive into next week if you don’t get some more money. You must be compensated fairly. Many nonprofits do not want to compensate you fairly, and so you either have to be very firm in the negotiation process, or you have to bring in a union. And that would help everyone in your nonprofit, not just you.

How do you deal with all of this pressure?

What else do you need to know when fundraising in a small shop?

Here’s a resource for you. Laura E. Kaufman has written an excellent post about development planning over on her blog.

Comment and tell me how you deal, and what else you do.

I want to know what you want.
Please tell me. Takes 5 mins. Tops.

Are You Fundraising in a Small Shop? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on May 17, 2010.

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. The Xeric Foundation grant deadline is coming up. The grant must be received by March 31st, or they can wait until the next cycle.

This foundation was started by the creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, remember them? These generous creators have awarded over $2 Million in grants to worthy recipients. And some beautiful comic books and graphic novels have come out as a result. In a time when many funders are cutting back their arts gifts, it’s nice to see a foundation that is still committed to giving to individuals with a dream to publish their own comic book.

More than that, there are interviews with people who have gotten Xeric grants on their website, and it gives you tips on how to cut costs as you go through your first printing experience.

Images copyright Stef Lenk (above) and Jenny Jaeckel (below)

Xeric Grant Recipient

For your favorite comic artist-a grant deadline originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on March 20, 2010.

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 for your nonprofit.

For instance, a small nonprofit got a government contract to help seniors, and it provided quite a bit of the agency budget. The process to do full reporting took a little work, but eventually the nonprofit automated it enough so that it wasn’t arduous, and it allowed them to have 6 full time case management and other staff that helped 300 people per year.

I took a workshop with Joyce Scott of Superb Speakers, and she was FULL of advice on how to get federal government contracts. With all of the stimulus money floating around these days, and even after that is gone, government contracts are a good way to keep money flowing into your organization, as fickle foundations would probably not fund you for ten years or more.

0. Find out of you are in the HUB-Zone. This will allow you to be more eligible for grants and contracts.
1. Get a Dunn and Bradstreet number.
2. Ask your Small Business Development Center (SBDC), how do I sign up with the Central Contractor Registry database?
3. Get training from the SBDC, for free.
4. Know your NAICS code.
5. Keep going to SBDC classes, just to get updated on the latest procedures.

In every agency there’s someone who is there to help small business get in. Talk to your HUB coordinator at your state and local level. You are a small business if your nonprofit makes less than $6.5M per year.

Do your homework. They buy far more products than services. Critical to your success are your Capacity, References, Team strength and Past Performance. You need to show them that you provide the Best Value in the Price Factor, Evaluation of your impact, Weighing and Region.

Knowledge is power.
-> Who in your nonprofit cause area wins government contracts? See if you can talk to them.
-> Learn the buying trends in your sector.
-> Competitive analysis is key.
-> Form alliances with your competition, and you’ll both be that much stronger when you set out to win government contracts.

“Never take advice from anyone whose life you wouldn’t want to live.” -Joyce Scott

Want more free advice on fundraising? Follow me on twitter @wildwomanfund

Could your nonprofit get government contracts? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on March 11, 2010.

What is your call to action like? Is it as good as Amplify Your Voice? If not, consider how to engage a volunteer, no matter what time of the day or night it is, with the skills that they possess right now. Do they like to blog? Make it easy for them to create a blog post about your organization. Do they want to get involved in your next phone-a-thon, special event, walk-a-thon? Then post the date and signup sheet there too. Make it exciting with pictures. Make it easy. They’ll come back again and again to keep working with you.

Have you heard of Volunteer Match? This is one place where you can find volunteers to help you with your programs and fundraising campaigns.

Ask your volunteers

What are you good at?
What could you be the best at?
What makes you happy?
What excites you?
What makes you feel accomplished and good about yourself?
What are you most proud of having accomplished in your life?
What do you enjoy sharing or experiencing with other people?

Because I asked these questions, I learned what their skills and abilities were. But I also learned what would keep my volunteers happy, excited, and motivated to come to our nonprofit.

For example, one volunteer was an amateur photographer. He photographed our events, and uploaded these photos to flickr. Because he got to practice his art, he was also willing to do some data entry for us. If you need nonprofit event photography in the Portland, Oregon area, I would recommend Kyle.

Another volunteer that I worked with was skilled in creating volunteer schedules. She also wanted to learn how to grantwrite. So I taught her how to write grants. She made a volunteer schedule for our career fair, and helped organize other volunteers, which I was profoundly grateful for. So if you need a good grantwriter or volunteer manager, I would highly recommend Jenny.

How can you appreciate your volunteers today?

Follow Wild Woman Fundraising on Twitter!
Follow Wild Woman Fundraising’s Feed! It’s free!

Ask your volunteers originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on February 23, 2010.