GrantsChampion

Reapplying for a grant after one has been rejected

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 11:04:33 -0700

Rejection is a part of life when you are a grant writer. Andafter 25 years in the field, when a proposal doesn’t get funded, I still get asinking feeling or, if it was a really big effort, a little gut-punched.

We’re human. We like to belong, and we like to be chosen andby extension, our work and ideas be chosen. And in some cases, not getting agrant can mean big consequences for our programs and work.

Two normal reactions are to make ourselves wrong (I’m a lousy grant writer, I should have worked harder, I don’t have good ideas) or them wrong (What are they thinking? Don’t they know how vital this is to our community orthey are narrow-minded and lacking in vision).

While perfectly normal, both reactions will leave you disempoweredand collapsed either into hopelessness or caught in anger and righteousness.So, notice your reactions and give yourself some space to have them – give thema seat at your table.

Once, you’ve done that, it is time to move out of collapse intoassertiveness.

1. If you received an email, reply to it and askfor a 15-minute conversation to get feedback if no written reviews are available.Was it an issue of the program design, fit with the funder’s priorities,timing, the way it was written? Often, the program officer will tell you that it was good but they have 5x as many good proposals as they can fund.

2. If you got a letter, follow up via phone oremail if you can and, if not, via letter.

3. In the conversation with the program officer, doyour best to listen instead of reacting or strategizing. Really try to do yourbest to listen to what they have to say and their point of view.

4. If it was a public sector grant, ask for thereviewer’s comments. Take a deep breath and then read them. Then walk away andcome back in a few days and read them again....Read More

Why Grant Writer’s Should Care that Earmarks are Back

Wed, 26 May 2021 09:02:11 -0700

Earmarks used to be a part of the grants scene – so much so, that the venerable Frank Mandley, GPC and I gave a presentation on pork at the Grant Professionals Association National Conference in 2004. Then Congress closed that door in 2011 and there has not been a lot of talk of earmarks at the national level. As you’ve probably heard in the news, earmarks or “congressionally directed spending items” are back.

1% of total federal discretionary spending or $10 billion will be allocated through congressional earmarks. Each congressperson is allowed 10 earmarks a year. Only non-profit entities are eligible. To date, Senate Democrats will be using earmarks but Republicans still have a rule against them. According to the Wall Street Journal, some Republicans plan to ignore the rule.

Despite its reputation, earmarks tend to go to non-controversial projects because no one wants to be singled out by media for the next bridge to nowhere project. Forbes just published a pretty interesting overview of the earmarks that have been submitted in the House already. I looked at the ones in my region and the vast majority are infrastructure projects – sewer, water, bridges. However, there are a smattering of projects for hospitals, shelters, and higher education institutions. Most of the projects are above $250,000 and many in million-dollar range.

Earmarks can be a path to getting a large project funded outside of the usual grantmaking channels

You may be familiar with how earmarks work because they have continued at the state level. In NYS where I live, 2/3 funding set aside for the Senate, 1/3 for the Assembly and then it is divided up by rank and party. Typically, earmarks for Assembly members are smaller ($25k range) than Senators...Read More

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Masterclass on Strategic Planning

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 10:30:37 -0700

Today, I took a break from the computer to go on a bike ride along the Black Diamond Trail. I’m pleased to report that here in the hearty north, there are signs of spring emerging. The grasses along the creek beds have become vibrant green and the willows and forsythia along the waterways are beginning to take on a golden hue.

On the bike trail it is so obvious that water brings life and so I was musing on what the equivalent of water is for non-profits? The easy answer is money. But what are the conditions that allow money to flow? And then it occurred to me that Governor Andrew Cuomo is demonstrating a fantastic example of the kind of strategic planning and leadership that is a precursor to the development of the conditions necessary for resources to flow.

Like many Americans, I have been tuning into to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily briefing on COVID19 preparedness. His leadership is a great example of the kind of strategic thinking that happens during the grant development process. Let’s take a look.

Step 1: Be clear about your organization’s mission

His stated mission is that his administration serves the people of New York. In a grant proposal, this is part of the introduction.

Step 2: Be clear on your values and boundaries

He has stated that he is committed to protecting all New Yorkers including the most vulnerable – no one gets left behind. In a grant proposal, these values are wound into the narrative.

Step 3: Look at the data and define the problem that needs to be addressed

Early in the crisis, NYS used world-class projection models to determine a potential need for 110,000 hospital beds and 30-40,000 ventilators. Current stock includes 53,000 hospital beds and 3,000 ventilators. The problem to be addressed is clear. The data aren’t solid, so leaders are making best guesses based on current information and taking into...Read More

Some Preliminary Thoughts on COVID-19 for the Grants Profession

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 09:44:56 -0700

There is a voice in us all that is ever present, a voice that always sings its melody to the world. This is a voice of truth and certainty, the voice that lays bare the hidden mysteries of the soul.

~ Jonathan Star

First, I hope that you and loved ones are well.

Second, I’m writing to share two things:

To let you know I’ll be starting a new online Grant Writer's Well course in the next few days.
A few preliminary thoughts on COVID-19 – and more will follow in the days to come.

Some Preliminary Thoughts on COVID-19

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a client who I’ve been working with for the last 6 months and I thought I’d share some of what I suggested in case it is helpful to you.

I’ve been in the non-profit field for over 30 years and so have worked through the 1989, 2001, and 2008 market crashes. In each of those instances, the impact on non-profits and grant writing took some time to filter down. After the market crashed, individual donations still kept coming in and dwindled once layoffs began, foundations honored their commitments and took time to readjust to their new capacity for giving, and the federal and state government didn’t make immediate cuts in their budgets that impacted Medicare payments and other revenue streams that many non-profit health organizations rely on.

This time is different in a couple of regards

First, this is immediately impacting non-profits’ bottom lines. Critical fundraising events have been cancelled. With required restrictions, overnight, some of my clients have lost their primary revenue stream from after-school care, gyms, theater performances etc..

Second, it is global crisis so will impact all sectors and regions. In 2001, the market crash immediately affected the tech industry...Read More

Useful Data Source

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 08:21:00 -0700

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for some crime and poverty data for three towns in New York State and came across a really useful resource that I thought I would share with you: https://datausa.io.

It was developed by a team at MIT and Datawheel with funding from Deloitte and is the most comprehensive website and visualization of publicly available data for towns, cities, counties, and states. It includes a lot of variables such as health, population, income, economy, education, housing and living. It also includes an overview of the geography in question.

You can select a city and then ask the system to compare it other units such as the state or the county in which it sits. I found it very useful, user-friendly, and laid out in a really clear fashion. It is free and I tried to find out the funding/revenue model for it but couldn’t – so if you know please let me know.

It is often not easy to find granular data at the local level so this site is a boon for those of us who work in rural areas.

I hope you find this as helpful as I did.

Jana

What your attitude to jigsaw puzzles says about your capacity for grant writing

Sun, 18 Aug 2019 18:04:48 -0700

It’s August and the weather is divine so instead of laboring over an article, I thought I’d share with you a nugget that didn’t make it into my book based on interviews that I did with 25 top grant writers who have collectively raised $500 million for my book (Grant Writing Revealed: 25 Experts Share Their Art, Science, & Secrets).

Over and over again, the people I interviewed equated some aspect of grant development to puzzle solving and clearly are people that love to solve puzzles and figure out how pieces fit together. So, if you love puzzles and you’re a grant writer, or aspire to be one, you are in good company. And, if you are not a lover of puzzles and have an errant 50,000 piece puzzle waiting to be put together, I’ve got the perfect holiday guests for you.

So, let’s take a look at how thinking about the grant proposal as a puzzle could be helpful to you.

The RFP puzzle

Mark Eiduson said, “RFPs and RFQs are like puzzles and it’s fun to pull them apart and write strategically to meet the requirements.” What he points to here is his ability to really deeply analyze an RFP. Less experienced grant developers are apt to read the RFP but experienced grant developers analyze, devour, and dissect an RFP.

This is especially useful in government RFPs where one word can change an entire approach. For example, I was recently in a meeting where our data person asked what the federal definition for disability was in this particular program. The way that disability was defined could mean the difference between us having a pool of 1000 people to work with or 200 – clearly changing our competitiveness.

I recommend reading an RFP once to get the lay of the land and then going through it with a toothcomb to pick out what needs to be addressed and highlight questions that come from a thorough reading. And, of course, its best when you can talk it over with someone who is familiar with the project and the funding...Read More

Update to "You have a better chance of getting into Harvard than getting a grant from most foundations"

Tue, 28 May 2019 14:28:42 -0700

A lot of people responded to my post last week and so I’d like to share an update and some suggestions that came in.

After I sent the email, I felt a wave of relief to have spoken what has been festering inside for years. And then I started receiving your emails – one after another, all day long for days saying “me too, thanks for speaking the truth, that I can’t say so openly in my position. I too share the despair and the frustration.”

And then someone said they felt guilty for feeling anger and despair and it struck me how brutal that is. Anger, sadness, and despair are perfectly normal and healthy responses for anyone with a conscience to have in the face of global extinction, hunger, and warfare. And then piling on to that a sense of guilt for our feelings seems brutal. It was only when one you, clearly a person dedicated to the welfare of others, wrote it to me that I could see it so clearly for myself. So, please do me a favor and don’t add insult to injury by feeling guilty for ‘negative’ feelings. Maybe it’s high time that more ‘good’ people owned and expressed our healthy anger rather than turning it in on ourselves in ways that depletes us and maintains the status quo.

Hours after I published the blog, I went to my bookshelf and picked up my copy of The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune by Conor O’Clery. The book was published in 2007 and on the back cover it includes a quote, “Chuck Feeney is what Donald Trump would be, if he lived his entire existence backward.” It has been on my shelf for almost a decade and I just hadn’t...Read More

You have a better chance of getting into Harvard than winning a grant from many foundations

Wed, 08 May 2019 05:19:21 -0700

I’ve been sitting on this post for a few months now because I was worried about how it will be received. The disquiet it expresses hasn’t gone away – so here it is...

I’m on day 2 of sitting in airports watching my flights get delayed as I try to get from Ithaca, NY to Edmonton, AB for the weekend. I know, trying to fly across the midwest in January was probably a futile exercise, but here I am. And I’m pissed off. I’ve been feeling an under-current of annoyance for weeks and, voila, one attempt at a mid-winter 3-legged flight and it’s bubbled to the surface.

So, here is an ugly truth about the grants world. The odds of getting funding are getting crappier by the year. Here’s the bottom line. You have a higher chance of getting into Harvard than getting a grant from a lot of foundations and an increasing number of government grant programs. The class of Harvard 2022 acceptance rate was 4.6%. I recently worked on a grant proposal where the cut-off was 99.8% and a student recently told me of a foundation with a stated 3.5% acceptance rate. Increasingly, these are not anomalies.

Here’s why. The rich are getting richer and the rest of us are getting poorer. Wages adjusted for inflation have been stagnant for decades. Any doctor will tell you that most Americans are one major illness away from bankruptcy. Manufacturing jobs have disappeared and the middle class along with it. Food banks are opening up across the U.S. as are the signs for fundraisers at the local supermarket for people who are sick. All this means that demand on non-profits is up – way up in some...Read More

Writing Sustainability Plans that Sing

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 12:56:30 -0800

Some lucky proposal writers have the good fortune to be able to write “Organization XYZ has sufficient resources to sustain this program, once developed, as part of its core programming. Our board passed a resolution on April 1^st to commit itself to sustaining this project in full once grant funding expires, see Appendix.” If this applies to you, please stop reading now and use your time more profitably.

The rest of us need to be a little more creative.

Most public RFP’s and many foundations ask respondents to ‘demonstrate how you plan to sustain the proposed activities after the grant period.’ Typically, proposal writers address this question with cursory comments such as ‘we intend to investigate alternative funding from public agency y, corporation x and foundation z.’ However, by taking a little time to brainstorm with your grant proposal team you can devise a sustainability strategy that will stand above the rest.

A good sustainability strategy will show the reviewer that your organization is so well managed that not only have you conceived this imaginative, responsive and visionary project plan but you also have the ability to conceive its long-term future.

During the program planning phase it is helpful to decide how you will create a long term sustainability plan once funding begins and then show the funding agency that you are well-prepared by including as much detail as possible in the proposal. Several organizations such as the National Center for Community Educators, the AfterSchool Alliance, the Finance Project, and the Center for Civic Partnerships have created tools and recommendations for sustainability planning. The following is a brief synopsis of their recommendations to give you a flavor of the information that is available.

When to Start Planning for Sustainability

Sustainability planning should start during the proposal planning phases and be implemented as soon as the project begins....Read More

Structuring Our Days for Success

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 12:52:20 -0800

Here's a short video for you about how we can go about our work, and our lives, with a little more consciousness, grace, and success. I'd love your feedback or also feel to email me with your questions and I'll answer them in an upcoming video.

In case you are wondering...the background is Taughannock State Park.