What You Need to Know Before Plunging into Grant Seeking

the grants lady tells it like it really is

by Jennene Colky

So many people are frustrated and confused by grant seeking. They think that to be successful they need to know special tricks or magic buzzwords, or have an "in" with the foundation's board. Here's the real story - getting grants is a time-consuming, challenging process in which creativity, hard work and persistence make all the difference between success and failure. This is territory I know firsthand. I've been seeking — and winning — grants myself for 25 years, working in a variety of nonprofits. Since 1990, I've been an independent trainer and consultant, helping organizations of all types - higher education, K-12, health care, social service, advocacy - develop grant seeking strategies that work for them. One of my favorite jobs is helping novice - or wayward — grant seekers gain a better understanding of exactly what's involved in the business of raising money through competitive grants programs.

That's why I'm really tooking forward to an IAPD/IPRA Pre-Conference Workshop on January 22. I hope you'll be in the audience, although, I warn you, I can get rather evangelical on the subject of grants. First off, to dispel any confusion, let me clarify that this program will not be a 'how to' on proposal writing. What we'll be doing in January is taking a broad scan of the grants environment so that you can make informed decisions about whether or not your organization is prepared to do what is necessary to pursue grants as a revenue source. To get you started down that road, let's look at some factors common to organizations that are good at getting grants.

Meet the Author at the Conference
Pre-Conference Workshop 105
Understanding, Seeking and Getting Grants
Thursday, January 22, 8:30 - 12:00 p.m.
                        Columbus E/F, Hyatt Regency, Chicago

The Grants Lady is Jennene Colky, an independent trainer and consultant based in suburban Chicago, whose clients have included the Association of Illinois Middle-level Schools; Corlands; the University of Illinois College of Medicine; Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine; Esperanza Community Services; and the Government Assistance Program at DePaul University. Jennene earned certification as a Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) from the Association of Fundraising Professionals in 1989, serving from 1988 to 1990 on the board of directors of the Chicago chapter. She also has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Consultants to Non-Profits, and was their president in 1996-97. She is a charter member of the American Association of Grant Professionals (AAGP). In addition to her private consulting work, Jennene is a contract consultant with the international fund raising firm of Skystone Ryan based in Cincinnati. Visit The Grants Lady at www.thegrantslady.com.

Planning
Planning is the essence of all fund raising and grant seeking is no exception. You can do it fast or you can do it well, but you can't do both at once. Planning takes time.

I know from working with them that most organizations are so overwhelmed dealing with daily crises that the mere concept of planning — let alone the actuality of it — is almost laughable. As a result, far too many engage in what I call guerrilla grant seeking, which is characterized by sporadic, reactive proposal submissions, frequently begun the very same day the proposal is due and almost always without any cultivation of the prospective funder.

These requests seldom get funded, a frustrating and discouraging result that may lead you to conclude, erroneously, that you shouldn't invest any more staff time in grant seeking when, in fact, the exact opposite is true, you need to invest more time, usually a lot more time.

Organizational Support
Grant seeking is not a solitary occupation, although far too often I encounter what I call The Lone Grant Seeker,' some poor soul who virtually gets locked away until he or she 'comes up with a grant.'

Organizational support means that all of the stakeholders in your agency are invested in the grant seeking process, because to do this right, you will need to pull together many disparate elements: by which I mean people — in your organization and even in the larger community — over a period of time. In various combinations, these people might include your board or committees of the board; staff and volunteers; clients and collaborators; and, particularly in the case of tax-supported bodies like park districts, local governments.

Meetings must be scheduled and held, action steps determined and followed through on, budgets developed, endorsements solicited, all leading up to the day when you take that package (with the triplicate copies, and signature in blue ink and letters of support from respected community members and organizations) and you hand carry it to the funder as if to say, "Here, prepare to be awe-struck by what we plan to do to help senior citizens living in the area served by our park district." Because that's the result you're going for, and you'll need a lot of organizational support to pull this off.

Persistence
Some years back, I read the statistic that less than one in ten proposals submitted gets funded. For context, I'll suggest that this number refers to the entire universe of formal requests, including a whole slew that never should have gone out the door and that have no relevancy whatsoever to that particular funder's interests. Still, that's a pretty staggering figure to consider as you set course for a grant seeking program.

The most common reason given for a decline — and it's usually the truth - is that the funder simply ran out of money. It may seem like an institutional or a public funder with $20 million to disburse should not be running out of money, but consider that that fonder may be reviewing $250 million in requests. Even $20 million only goes so far.

The point I want to get across is that grant seeking is a highly competitive business and turndowns are simply a fact of life. The very real possibility that all of your best efforts may meet with rejection is something you have to factor into the grant seeking plan. Please understand that mis does not mean that your organization should expect to get only one in ten proposals funded. The more usual rule of thumb is to identify and seek out three times as much funding as you need to raise from grant sources, which is to say that to raise $10,000 in grants you should, ideally, have $30,000 in prospects.

Learning More
While planning, organizational support and persistence set the stage for your organization to pursue a grant seeking program, I readily acknowledge that they are general, and possibly even ephemeral, concepts. You will want to learn more about some very specific and more tangible topics, including designing fundable projects; how to identify and qualify prospects; and the decision-making matrix in public, private and corporate funders.

One way — I hope an enjoyable and painless way — to start the process is to attend workshops such as those that are offered at the upcoming IAPD/IPRA Annual Conference. Because experience is the best teacher, you won't learn everything you need to know about grant writing at one conference session or even at an intensive course on the subject. But I highly recommend the personal touch that comes from attending a conference session or a workshop. After all, a grant is more than a document; it's a living, breathing plan to provide benefits to living, breathing people. •

"Identify and seek out three times as much funding as you need to raise from grant sources."

94 ¦ Illinois Parks and Recreation