You’ve gotten the green light to work with a grant writing consultant and found a skilled professional to help your organization secure much needed funds. Way to go!
Every consultant is different, and your process will also vary depending on the size and type of grant—however, carefully considering these five questions will help you get off to a smooth start.
1. What content do you already have that tells your organization’s story?
It is essential that your grant writer gets a thorough understanding of your organization before even reading the first question of a grant application. This background content might start with annual reports, evaluation summaries, and polished 1-pagers, but it could also include that artfully written round-up in your member newsletter, or the recent blog post that pointed out unique aspects of your organization’s work. Sharing past grant proposals (especially those that were successful!) is also helpful. Set up a shared folder where you can start dumping in any files that would help paint the picture of not only your organization’s accomplishments, but its vision and ethos. Exploring the folder will be a key first step for your grant writer, and it will continue to be a place to come back to when areas need filling in.
2. Why does your organization need the money?
This might seem like an obvious question (you know, to pay staff!), but funders want to know why now is the time to grant your organization funds. How will this year’s funding requests build on the hard work your staff has done this past year? What will additional funding set in motion? Think big—and articulate your vision clearly. The more concrete you are about your organization’s potential growth, the better. It’s important to build understanding about how the many moving parts of your organization work together and how funding will set ripple effects in motion. Also, giving your grant writer the “big picture” of where you want to go this year will help you work together to outline the roadmap that will get you there—the grants calendar.
3. What data points do you have to demonstrate the community’s need for your services and your organization’s track record of meeting them?
Equip your grant writer with data that will help build funders’ confidence that your organization is presenting an informed approach to meeting your community’s needs. Most grant proposals have a needs statement where your grant writer will want to include data that is accurate, current, and relevant to your work. Share your go-to sources of research, reports, and demographics, remembering that you are the expert who lives and breathes this stuff on a daily basis. As far as demonstrating impact, provide key signs of your organization’s success, such as numbers and demographic makeup of those reached, while also pointing to more qualitative indicators such as changes in attitudes, growth in confidence, and lasting partnerships built. In addition to gathering numbers, be sure to ready your grant writer with touching quotes and anecdotes that will enable them to tell a rich story that your funder will want to be a part of. I wrote more about setting yourself up to demonstrate impact in a previous blog post here.
4. How organized is your grants calendar?
It is important to discuss and set reasonable expectations about the volume and types of grants you’d like your grant writer to pursue. You may have already outlined a calendar of grant deadlines and are merely in need of a skilled writer to execute them. Or, you may be looking for someone to build out your pipeline through grant prospect research. Regardless of where you fall, it’s important to have a solid system for tracking deadlines to prevent a hurried dash to submit a proposal. While it is inevitable that last-minute opportunities will come up, keeping things organized in advance will ensure that your team has adequate time to thoroughly vet proposals and your organization puts its best foot forward. And, your grant writer will be able to use their time more efficiently and have more bandwidth to do prospect research.
5. Who on your team will be involved in grants?
It is always helpful for your grant writer to have a clear idea ahead of time of where to turn for key information, and who should be involved in a final review. Your grant writer will likely need information about: program goals, objectives and outcomes; evaluation plans and data; budgets and financial statements; demographics of the staff, board, and program participants; diversity, equity, and inclusion policies; current strategic planning goals; and relevant partnerships. Let your grant writer know who will be the point person for key areas, and put them in touch via email. Letting staff members know ahead of time what is expected will make for a smoother grant writing process.
Extra Credit: Grant Attachments
Artfully crafting responses to the myriad of narrative questions is only half the fun! Grant applications usually end with a long list of required attachments. In the shared folder you’ve set up (see Question 1), go ahead and gather the documents that your grant writer will likely need.
Here is a list of common attachments:
- Organization Budget for current fiscal year
- Budgets for any programs for which you’re seeking funding
- Board List
- List of Key Staff, with bios
- Year-end Financials (Statement of Activities, Statement of Financial Position)
- List of Major Funders (list foundations and corporations, but keep individual donors anonymous)
- Evaluation Report, if available
- Annual Report, if available
Thinking through these questions will help you and your consultant build a solid working relationship and become a “dream team” that scores grant award letters. Looking for help with grant writing? I’d love to talk to you about my services.
Cover photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash
Three Notch’d Nonprofit Solutions, LLC 