Strength in Numbers: Building a Resilient Future for Non-Profits

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:37:12 GMT

Strength in Numbers: Building a Resilient Future for Non-Profits

It’s no secret that nonprofit leadership is often an exercise in extreme multitasking. Executive Directors and staff wear dozens of hats and spin just as many plates, usually at an unsustainable pace. For years, "passion for the mission" has been used to justify this exhaustion, but passion alone isn't a business model.

In 2026, this pressure has reached a tipping point. With 52% of nonprofit leaders reporting symptoms of burnout and a 25% decrease in traditional volunteer hours over the last decade, it is easier than ever to fall into the "Founding Executive Trap”, or the belief that if you aren’t doing everything yourself, the mission will fail.

The Myth of "More"

It may seem like the only solution is a larger staff and an endless pool of money. While resources are vital, the data shows a different reality: the strongest organizations are rarely the largest. They are the ones with the most robust ecosystem of partners.

Consider the math of the current landscape:

The Competition: There are now over 1.8 million nonprofits in the U.S. vying for support from roughly 86,000 foundations . That is a ratio of nearly 21 to 1 .
The Time Tax: A single federal grant can require upwards of 100 hours of focused labor. For a small team, that is two and a half weeks of lost productivity on the ground.
The Partnership Edge: Organizations that utilize professional grant-seeking partners to submit 6–10 high-quality applications annually see their funding success probability jump to 96% .

The Power of the "Pit Crew"

No organization is designed to be "all things to all people." We are meant to be subject matter experts who support other subject matter experts. When we partner, we don't just add resources; we multiply impact.

It’s no different than a race car driver needing a pit crew, a symphony director needing an orchestra, or an architect needing a construction crew. Success is a symbiotic relationship. It is mathematically and operationally impossible for one person to drive it alone.

Grant writers are a valuable part of your pit crew. By bringing in specialists to handle the research, the data-alignment, and the 100-hour writing marathons, you aren't just "outsourcing"—you are building the support system your mission deserves.

You have the vision; we have the map. Together, the pathway to growth is clear.

Your Nonprofit's Best Year Starts on Purpose

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 12:18:28 GMT

Your Nonprofit’s Best Year Starts on Purpose

A new year doesn’t automatically create new results— intentional leadership does . If 2026 is going to be your nonprofit’s strongest year yet, it won’t happen by simply working harder or doing more. It happens when you get clear on what matters most , build a plan you can execute, and stay consistent long enough to see momentum turn into measurable impact.

Yes, the news can feel heavy. Funding priorities shift. Community needs grow. Uncertainty is real. But here’s what we know from years of coaching mission-driven teams: impact doesn’t pause just because conditions are challenging. In many ways, this is when your mission becomes even more essential. There is still enormous promise in the year ahead—because people still need hope, organizations still need leadership, and communities still need doers. The call to do good hasn’t changed.

So what does intentional planning actually look like? Here’s the coaching we give at the start of every year:

Define success in 2–3 outcomes. If everything is a priority, nothing is. Choose the wins that truly move your mission forward.
Align leadership and board around the same direction. Unified priorities beat scattered effort every time.
Turn goals into a real execution plan. Break annual goals into quarterly targets—and quarterly targets into weekly actions.
Strengthen your fundability. Clear story, strong data, solid budgeting, and documented programs make it easier for funders to confidently say “yes.”
Measure what matters and adjust early. A plan isn’t a cage—it’s a compass. Track progress, learn quickly, and refine as you go.

If you want a different year, start with different decisions. Clarity creates confidence. Planning creates capacity. Consistency creates results. And if you’re ready to start 2026 with expert guidance—Pathways to Growth is here to coach you, strengthen your strategy, and help you build a year that delivers real impact.

Define and Communicate Your Mission: The Cornerstone of Nonprofit Success

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 15:07:45 GMT

Every great nonprofit begins with a powerful “why.” Your mission is more than a statement on your website or a line in your brochure—it’s the heartbeat of your organization. It defines who you are, why you exist, and what change you’re striving to create in the world. A clearly defined and well-communicated mission has the power to unite stakeholders, inspire donors, guide decision-making, and ensure long-term impact.

So, how do you go beyond words on paper and bring your mission to life?

It starts with clarity, alignment, and storytelling.

1. Articulate Your Purpose with Clarity and Passion

Your mission should be direct, memorable, and deeply rooted in your values. It should answer three essential questions:
- What problem are you solving?
- Who are you serving?
- What change are you working to achieve?

Example:
Let’s look at Feeding Hope, a local food insecurity nonprofit. Their original mission statement read:
“We aim to reduce hunger.”

While noble, it was vague and lacked specificity. After a mission review, they refined it to:
“Feeding Hope fights food insecurity by providing nutritious meals and sustainable support to underserved families in the Tri-County region.”

This new statement tells you what they do, how, for whom, and where. It positions them as a solution-oriented organization with a clear geographic and demographic focus.

2. Ensure Alignment Across All Stakeholders

A mission can only lead effectively if everyone follows it. From your board and staff to volunteers and donors, all stakeholders should not only know your mission—but believe in it, speak it, and use it to guide their roles.

Board Members:
Your board should use the mission as a touchstone for governance decisions. Are new initiatives aligned? Are partnerships helping further the mission or creating distractions?

Staff and Volunteers:
Train your team to see how their work contributes to the mission. Even administrative staff or volunteers working one event a year should understand how their role helps move the mission forward.

Example:
Youth Thrive, a mentoring organization for underserved teens, holds an annual “Mission Moments” breakfast for all new staff, board members, and volunteers. During the breakfast, alumni share personal stories of transformation. These testimonials put a human face on the mission and create an emotional connection that keeps stakeholders engaged beyond the event.

3. Document the Need for Your Services

It’s not enough to say your work matters—you need to prove it. Documenting the need with both data and stories helps demonstrate why your mission is critical and relevant.

Use Local and National Data:
Show trends, gaps, and disparities. If you're tackling homelessness, present the latest statistics in your service area and connect those numbers to the people you serve.

Tell Impactful Stories:
Pair data with compelling stories that showcase real lives changed by your work. A powerful narrative helps donors see their dollars in action and helps policymakers understand your value.

Example:
Bright Futures Literacy Foundation wanted to highlight the importance of early reading intervention. They published a community impact report showing that 68% of local third graders weren’t reading at grade level. Alongside this data, they featured the story of Jaden, a second grader who struggled to read until joining their afterschool program. Now reading above grade level, Jaden’s transformation became the face of their fundraising campaign—raising 40% more than the previous year.

Final Thoughts: Mission as a Living Strategy

Your mission is not a static statement—it’s a living strategy. It should be reviewed regularly and woven into everything from fundraising appeals to annual reports, staff meetings, social media posts, and public presentations. When everyone in your organization can clearly articulate the mission—and more importantly, see how their role fulfills it—you become more than just a nonprofit. You become a movement.

In a world with many causes vying for attention and resources, a clearly defined and powerfully communicated mission is your greatest tool for cutting through the noise, building trust, and driving real change.

The Heart of the Matter: Infusing Emotion into Your Proposals

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 14:05:13 GMT

We've all been there: staring at a blank screen, trying to craft a compelling proposal that will capture a funder's attention. We meticulously lay out the facts, the figures, the impact, but sometimes, it feels like something is missing. What is it? Emotion.

It's easy to get caught up in the technical details, the data, and the logical arguments when writing a proposal. And while those are undoubtedly important, they often don't tell the whole story. To truly make your proposal stand out, you need to bring the emotion, the heart of the proposal, to the forefront.

Think about it from the funder's perspective. They review countless proposals, each detailing worthy causes and impactful projects. What will make yours memorable? It's the ability to connect with your client on a deeper, human level through your words. You want them to feel the passion, understand the urgency, and envision the positive change your project will bring.

So, how do you infuse that crucial element of emotion into your proposals?

Tell a Story: Instead of just presenting statistics, share a brief, impactful anecdote about someone your client has helped or will help. Let the funder see the faces and hear the voices of those who will benefit.

Use Vivid Language: Don't be afraid to use descriptive words that evoke feelings. Instead of saying "the program provides support," try "the program offers a lifeline of hope and stability."

Focus on the "Why": While the "what" and "how" are essential, spend time articulating the "why." Why is this project so vital? What problem does it solve for real people? What transformation will occur?

Show, Don't Just Tell: Instead of simply stating your client's impact, illustrate it. Describe the tangible changes, the newfound opportunities, and the improved lives.

Be Authentic: Your passion for your client's mission should shine through. When you genuinely care, it resonates with the reader.

Remember, a strong proposal isn't just a collection of facts; it's a narrative that inspires, connects, and ultimately, moves funders to action. By focusing on the emotional core of your work, you'll create proposals that not only stand out but truly make a difference.

Here at P2G, we understand the power of emotion in grant writing. We don't just craft technically sound proposals; we work closely with our clients to unearth the impactful stories and genuine human experiences that truly differentiate their mission. Our goal is to help you translate your passion into compelling narratives that resonate deeply with funders, fostering a connection that goes beyond the numbers.

Stop Guessing, Start Granting: The Power of Tailored Applications

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 12:15:44 GMT

It's a common trap in the world of fundraising: you successfully secure a grant from one foundation, and suddenly you feel like you've cracked the code. You assume that what worked for Fund A will surely work for Fund B, especially if they appear to be similar – perhaps both are community foundations, or both are family foundations.

Stop right there.

This mindset is precisely why so many grant applications miss the mark. The most crucial rule you can ingrain in your fundraising philosophy is this: If you know one funder, you know ONE funder.

Let that sink in.

While organizations might share a broad category, like "community foundation" or "family foundation," their individual priorities, processes, and even personalities can differ dramatically. The following provides specific examples of how funders can differ:

Community Foundations: These are often geographically focused and aim to improve the quality of life in a specific area. However, one community foundation might prioritize education and workforce development, while another in a neighboring county focuses heavily on environmental sustainability and arts and culture. Their application processes, reporting requirements, and even their preferred communication methods can vary wildly.
Family Foundations: These are established by individuals or families and reflect their unique philanthropic interests. One family might be passionate about medical research, another about alleviating homelessness, and yet another about preserving historical landmarks. Their grantmaking can be highly personal and may not always follow traditional grant cycles. Some may even operate with minimal public transparency.

It is Imperative to Read the Directions Carefully

This leads directly to the second, equally vital piece of advice: Read the directions carefully.

This isn't just about ensuring you submit all the required documents. It's about understanding the funder's specific asks, their preferred format, their deadlines, and their unstated nuances.

Do they want a brief letter of inquiry or a full proposal?
Are there specific attachments required, like a logic model or a list of your board of directors?
Is there a character limit for certain sections?
Do they have specific impact metrics they want you to address?

Missing these details not only makes your application look unprofessional but also signals to the funder that you haven't taken the time to understand their unique needs and preferences.

What This Means for Your Fundraising Strategy:

Do Your Homework: Before you even think about writing, deeply research each potential funder. Explore their website, look at their past grants, and see if they publish annual reports or other strategic documents.
Tailor, Don't Template: Every application should be uniquely tailored to the specific funder. Generic proposals rarely succeed. Highlight how your mission and project align precisely with their stated priorities.
Pay Attention to Detail: The "small things" often make the biggest difference. Adhering to every instruction demonstrates respect for the funder's time and process.

In the competitive world of grant seeking, success hinges on precision and personalization. Never assume. Always investigate. And always, always, always read the directions carefully. Your next grant award might just depend on it.

At P2G, we live by this golden rule. We understand that effective fundraising isn't about mass outreach; it's about strategic, informed engagement. Here's how we put this philosophy into practice:

In-Depth Funder Research
Customized Grant Strategy
Personalized Proposal Development
Rigorous Adherence to Guidelines

By focusing on precision and personalization, P2G helps you move beyond the "one funder" trap and build a strong and strategic grantsmanship plan.

Are You Speaking The Funder's Language?

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 01:15:20 GMT

It's a common pitfall in the world of grants and proposals: we get so caught up in what we want to do that we forget to consider how we're saying it. But here's a secret that can dramatically increase your success rate: using funder language shows that you are aligning with their mission.

Think about it from a funder's perspective. They have specific goals, values, and areas of focus. They've likely invested significant time and resources into crafting their mission statement, strategic priorities, and even the language they use to describe the problems they want to solve and the solutions they envision.

When you mirror that language in your proposals and communications, you're doing more than just being polite. You're demonstrating a deep understanding of their vision. You're signifying that your work isn't just good, but that it's exactly what they're looking for.

Why Funder Language Matters

It builds immediate rapport: When a funder reads words and phrases that resonate with their own internal discussions and documents, it creates an instant sense of familiarity and trust. It's like speaking the same dialect.
It shows alignment, not just interest: Anyone can express interest in a grant. But using their specific terminology, priorities, and even their preferred way of framing issues shows a deeper alignment with their organizational purpose.
It streamlines their review process: Grant reviewers are often sifting through hundreds of applications. When your proposal uses their language, it makes it easier for them to quickly identify how your project fits into their strategic objectives. It makes their job simpler.
It demonstrates thorough research: Taking the time to understand and incorporate their language signals that you've done your homework. You've gone beyond a superficial understanding of their grant program.

How to Speak Their Language

Immerse yourself in their materials: Read their website, annual reports, strategic plans, past press releases, and, most importantly, their grant guidelines. Pay close attention to keywords, phrases, and the overall tone.
Identify their "buzzwords": What terms do they use repeatedly? Are they focused on "community empowerment," "systemic change," "sustainable solutions," or "equitable access"?
Understand their priorities: Beyond general statements, what specific problems are they trying to address? What kinds of outcomes do they value most?
Tailor, don't just copy: It's not about stuffing your proposal with their exact words. It's about subtly weaving their linguistic framework into your own narrative. Adapt their concepts and phrasing to clearly articulate how your project achieves their goals.
Look at their past grantees: Often, a funder's website will highlight projects they've previously funded. This can give you clues about the types of initiatives and the language they used to describe them.

In essence, speaking your funder's language isn't about being disingenuous; it's about being strategic. It's about bridging the gap between your incredible work and their specific philanthropic mission. So, before you hit submit on your next grant application, ask yourself: Am I truly speaking their language?

At P2G, we live and breathe this philosophy. Our grant writing approach is fundamentally built on deep research into each funder's specific language and priorities. We don't just write grants; we translate your mission into the precise language that resonates most powerfully with potential funders, ensuring your alignment is clear from the very first word.

Strategies for Focusing Your Nonprofit's Capacity Building Grant Request

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 11:57:46 GMT

One of the most controversial “asks” in the nonprofit sector, alongside general operating expenses, is the request for capacity building funds. It can be challenging to find a funder who will financially support capacity building. Unlike a programming request, an organization cannot point to a specific event and report, “The company served an additional 500 people by upgrading its customer relationship management system.” It is more challenging to quantify the impact of purchasing upgraded technology—but it is not impossible. A nonprofit’s superpower is what it already has: the organization’s mission and vision.

Capacity-building funding is central to American philanthropy and to a civil society. In order to thrive, nonprofit organizations need to be free to develop their skills and abilities—to get even better at what they do best.

The National Council of Nonprofits defines capacity building as “whatever is needed to bring a nonprofit to the next level of operational, programmatic, financial, or organizational maturity.” It is the type of funding that allows a nonprofit to advance its mission and act on its vision. Capacity building funding is central to American philanthropy and to a civil society. In order to thrive, nonprofit organizations need to be free to develop their skills and abilities—to get even better at what they do best. This is why capacity building is vital.

A nonprofit can enhance its capacity building requests in three ways: by focusing the lens on the organization’s mission; by expanding the lens to look at the organization’s vision; and by changing the lens to consider succession planning. All these elements can open funding streams that allow an organization to get even better at what it does best.

Mission Impossible - Without Full Capacity

When considering applying for capacity building grants, focus on the organization’s mission. This can be an effective way to frame a nonprofit’s funding request.

Suppose an organization provides adult daycare services for seniors in its community. In that case, the organization’s mission might be to provide quality programming that supports the social and mental wellness of area seniors for improved health outcomes. Perhaps the team is noticing that the demand for its nonprofit’s services is exceeding the staff’s availability. The nonprofit may need to purchase a volunteer management system or recruit and train more volunteers. Collaborate with the team to articulate the request that will help take the nonprofit to the next level of programmatic maturity.

To craft a persuasive capacity building request focused on the company’s mission, consider the following:

Mission - What is the organization’s mission statement?
Need - What does nonprofit need that it currently does not have in order to fulfill its mission?
Data that supports this need - How does the team know the business needs this?
Request - What is the nonprofit requesting? How much is the cost of each budget item? Include a budget breakdown for the funder.
Return on investment - How will these capacity building funds help the nonprofit fulfill its mission? How does the team know?

In terms of data, consider what would have the most impact on the potential funder. For example, if the organization is applying to a financial organization, the applicant might refer to the bottom line—the cost of doing business. In April 2024, the Independent Sector, in cooperation with the Do Good Institute at the University of Maryland, reported that the estimated value of one volunteer hour in 2023 was $33.49, a 5.3% increase over 2022 (independentsector.org). How does that $33.49 contribute to the organization’s ability to fulfill its mission?

Capacity building starts and ends with a nonprofit’s mission. The mission is what the organization does best. Make it clear why funding this capacity building request will help the organization do its best for the target population. Show, don’t tell, a potential funder how it is impossible for the business to fulfill its mission without being at full capacity in a given area of the organization, such as volunteer management.

Vision Screening - Seeing up close and far away

Mission is seeing up close. It is what the nonprofit team does on a day-to-day basis. Vision is far-sighted; it is stepping back and looking at what the organization wants to accomplish over a period of years.

Suppose a company is a nonprofit that provides after-school mentoring for at-risk youth. The organization is receiving feedback that the needs of the students the team serves—and the needs of the mentors who serve them—are changing. Students need access to technology, and mentors need training on new tools and resources to best meet those demands. The company has been getting by with what is available, but it is time to step back and look at the bigger picture, to evaluate what could be possible for the organization and the people the team serves. It is time to review—or create—the organization’s strategic plan to identify and order the company’s needs.

The strategic plan is a nonprofit’s roadmap to success. It helps a company prioritize its needs by outlining its goals and identifying how the team plans to meet that vision. A strategic plan outlines an organization’s identified needs over time. But how does a nonprofit balance the needs outlined in a strategic plan alongside the needs that arise from day-to-day interactions with the people the organization serves?

When using a strategic plan to identify a vision-aligned capacity building funding request, consider the following:

Vision - What is the nonprofit’s vision statement?
Need - What are the organization’s immediate needs? How do these needs align with the nonprofit’s identified needs over the next 2-5 years?
Data that supports this need - How does the team know these are the organization’s short-term and long-term needs? What are the data points? What is the nonprofit currently [not] able to do? Where are the gaps? How does the team know?
Request - What does the nonprofit need to guide the organizational development? Can the organization do this work internally, or does the leadership team need to hire a consultant?
Return on Investment - How will these capacity building funds help the nonprofit fulfill its vision? How does the team know?

In terms of data points, how does the organization evaluate current services? Does the team use qualitative tools (narrative feedback), quantitative tools (surveys with closed-ended questions), or mixed methods (a combination of the two)? In terms of the request, what does the company want and need this request to include? If the organization has a lot of competing needs, it can be helpful to hire a consultant to guide the team through the prioritizing process. Include that cost in the capacity building request.

Capacity building allows an organization to grow and meet the next level of operational maturity. Having—and using--a strategic plan is essential to a thriving and responsive nonprofit.

Succession Planning - What you don't know can hurt you

According to BoardSource’s latest Leading with Intent Report (2021), only 29% of nonprofits surveyed reported having a written succession plan in place (councilofnonprofits.org). While succession planning involves deliberate consideration of who will take over in the event of a retirement or other transition at the leadership level, succession planning is not an event (naming a successor); it is a process. If a nonprofit does not already have a succession plan in place or needs to update its plan, consider requesting capacity building funds to financially support this process.

The National Council of Nonprofits (councilofnonprofits.org) identifies ten planning tips for leadership transition, from engaging the board and the staff in meaningful conversation about managing intentional transitions in leadership to dedicating time and money to deliberate on-boarding. This planning incurs costs, and securing capacity building funds can make this process easier.

Leadership - What are the organization’s current leadership roles?
Need - Why does the nonprofit want to develop a succession plan? What would be the impact on the organization and its programming if the nonprofit does not have a succession plan? How would such chaos impact the company’s mission and vision?
Data that supports this need - What is the organizational structure? How does the team decide who serves in each capacity? How many Board members does the organization have? Staff members? Volunteers? How many people does the nonprofit serve? How many team members serve in multiple roles?
Request - How would the organization use capacity building funds? Break down the component costs, from creating an Emergency Leadership Transition Plan to developing new leaders to onboarding leaders.
Return on Investment - How will these capacity building funds allow the nonprofit to fulfill its mission and vision? How will it save the company time and money in the long run?

Capacity building funds are necessary for securing the long-term health and survival of an organization. Data tells us that 71% of nonprofits are ill-prepared for a change in leadership, whether that change is planned or unexpected. Investing in purposeful succession planning using capacity building funds can help safeguard an organization, allowing the team to take the nonprofit to the next level of financial and organizational maturity.

Be intentional

The key to requesting capacity building funds is to be intentional. Know who the nonprofit is, who the nonprofit serves, and how the nonprofit serves (mission). Know where the organization is today and where it wants to be in 5-10 years (vision). Know who the leaders are today—and in five years (succession planning). All of these are part of capacity building. A contender is hard-pressed to complete a grant application or draft an LOI without addressing sustainability—how a team plans to stay afloat as an organization. Capacity building makes sustainability possible. By staying focused on the nonprofit’s mission and vision, an organization can craft a capacity building request that allows the team to get even better at what it does best.

Now that’s a superpower!

Whimsical Wisdom: Grant Writing Storytelling with a Voice for Change

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 16:29:55 GMT

Every child has a hero, someone who inspired vision in them, someone they aspired to be like. For me, as a little girl, I had two heroes- Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Seuss. Although from different times and disciplines, they both taught me invaluable lessons I still use today.

Despite their different fields of expertise - Franklin in politics, science, and invention, and Dr. Seuss in children's literature - they both left a lasting legacy that continues to shape and inspire generations. Both were unique influential philosophers who found purpose and fulfillment through connections to others.

From the wisdom of “Poor Richards Almanac” to the lyrical ingenuity of “Oh The Places You Will Go,” both Franklin and Seuss were storytellers with a voice for change.

Their words made me think and encouraged me to dream. At eight years old, I knew I also wanted to write and tell stories that would encourage people and change the world.

It's fascinating how childhood aspirations can pave the way for unexpected yet fulfilling careers. Little did I know that this passion would one day lead me to a successful career in grant writing. Inspired by the works of two literary giants, I found myself drawn to a path of advocacy and change. So, after a successful 25-year career in non-profit Executive leadership, I was given the opportunity to join the Pathways to Growth Team as a grant writer. Pathways has been a leader in the non-profit consulting arena for many years so to be able to work with the best of the best has been a privilege!

To me, grant writing is a harmonious blend of science and art, where data-driven methodology meets creative expression to produce persuasive and impactful proposals. Sounds impressive, right? So, what did I learn about grant writing from these two? For that, I will start with good ole Ben.

Prepare, prepare, and then prepare some more!

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." Ben Franklin.

Preparation is key to crafting successful grant proposals for grant funding support, Franklin's words highlight the importance of thorough research, planning, and attention to detail in presenting compelling arguments and evidence to funders and is crucial for success. Preparation means doing thorough research, planning well, and paying attention to details. It's like laying a solid foundation for a building – it sets you up for success by helping you present your case effectively to potential funders.

Know Your Audience.

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." Benjamin Franklin

When it comes to writing, it's not just about the words on the page; it's about the worlds they can create, the emotions they can evoke, and the impact they can have on readers. Every story, every piece of writing, starts as something small—a spark of an idea, a few words scribbled on a page—but it's what we do with that raw material that matters. We shape it, mold it, and breathe life into it until it becomes something greater than the sum of its parts. This is especially true in grant writing.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise- writing a grant is telling a convincing story. It may involve technical language, statistics, be loaded with inputs and outcomes, but simply put, it is still a story which the funder needs to understand in order to give you the funds to complete your project. Statistics can add depth and credibility to a story, providing evidence and context for the narrative being told. It is important to cite your sources giving credit where credit is due. They serve as the backbone of your story, supporting any organizational growth strategies or measurable outcomes you present. However, it's not just about numbers; it's about weaving them into the fabric of your narrative to enhance understanding and urgency.

Don’t Overthink!

"Sometimes the questions are complicated, and the answers are simple." Dr. Seuss.

Overthinking is the process of making simple things complicated. Grant writers do this all the time. We tend to over analyze questions instead of simply just answering them. While it's valuable to adopt a "funder's mindset," it's essential not to become too absorbed in it. It's easy to get caught up in trying to anticipate what funders want, but it's equally important to maintain clarity and authenticity in your proposals. Striking a balance between understanding funders' perspectives and staying true to your own vision ensures that your proposals are both appealing and sincere.

When you overthink a grant proposal, you run the risk of getting lost in the details, losing sight of the bigger picture, and becoming overly focused on minor aspects of the project. If you are working in collaboration with partners, making sure everyone is on the same page, and clear communication as to what everyone’s assigned role is will help make things more productive.

It’s Not Over Once the Check’s in the Mail.

"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning." Benjamin Franklin .

There will be times when you don’t get funded. Various factors, such as misalignment with the funder's priorities or resource constraints, can contribute to this outcome. However, it's valuable to seize these moments as opportunities for growth. Whenever possible, reaching out to the funder to express gratitude for considering the proposal and seeking feedback can provide valuable insights for improving future submissions.

If funding is granted, it's crucial not to overlook the subsequent reporting requirements. Timely and thorough reporting is essential for maintaining transparency, accountability, and compliance with the terms of the grant. Neglecting these responsibilities could result in having to return the funds and potentially jeopardizing future funding opportunities.

How Do You Define Success?

"And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed." Dr. Seuss

Benjamin Franklin might define a successful grant proposal as the result of hard work, using your skills and good qualities wisely to achieve important goals and improve society

For Dr. Seuss, he would probably measure the outcomes in whimsical ways. Horton would tick boxes by proving he really did hear a Who, Sam I Am would celebrate getting someone to munch on Green Eggs and Ham, and The Grinch? Well, he'd toast to learning the eternal message of Christmas hope and snagging some roast beast while he's at it!

For me, success is simply knowing that at the end of the day, my work with Pathways to Growth allows me to impact someone’s life in a positive way and just like my two heroes, be a storyteller with a voice for change.

Maximizing Grant Impact: Strategies for Effective Program Implementation

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 18:36:26 GMT

Securing a grant represents a monumental achievement for any entity or individual striving to confront societal challenges or propel constructive transformations forward. It signifies a crucial step toward making a tangible impact and fostering positive change within communities. While obtaining a grant marks a substantial milestone, the true impact transcends mere acquisition; it hinges on the adept execution of the proposed program or project. Effectively implementing the envisioned initiatives is where the transformative potential of the grant truly manifests. Maximizing the impact of a grant necessitates a meticulous approach, characterized by thorough planning, strategic execution, and continuous evaluation. This comprehensive process ensures that resources are allocated judiciously and utilized optimally, ultimately leading to the attainment of desired outcomes. Below are eight fundamental strategies essential for the effective implementation of programs, designed to unlock the full potential and maximize the impact of grants. These strategies serve as guiding principles, shaping the trajectory of grant-funded initiatives toward meaningful and sustainable outcomes.

Define Clear Objectives

Before diving into implementation, it's crucial to define clear and measurable objectives for the program. These objectives should align with the grant's purpose and the organization's mission. Clear objectives serve as guiding principles throughout the implementation process, helping to focus efforts and resources on achieving specific outcomes. Additionally, incorporating measurable objectives equips organizations with the tools to systematically monitor advancements, gauge the effectiveness of interventions, and enact timely modifications as warranted, fostering a dynamic and responsive approach to program management.

Develop a Detailed Implementation Plan

A well-thought-out implementation plan is essential for the successful execution of any program. This plan should outline the steps, activities, and timelines required to achieve the stated objectives. Key components of the implementation plan include:

Timeline: A realistic timeline that identifies key milestones and deadlines.
Budget: A detailed budget that allocates funds for various activities and expenses.
Roles and Responsibilities: Clear assignment of roles and responsibilities to team members, volunteers, or partners involved in the implementation.
Monitoring and Evaluation: Strategies for monitoring progress, collecting data, and evaluating outcomes throughout the implementation process.

Cultivate Stakeholder Engagement

Engaging stakeholders effectively is paramount for the success of programs supported by grants. It serves as the linchpin for building meaningful relationships, fostering collaboration, and ensuring alignment between the program's objectives and the needs of the communities it aims to serve. Stakeholders may include community members, beneficiaries, government agencies, donors, and other organizations. Involving stakeholders from the outset helps build buy-in, fosters collaboration, and ensures that the program meets the needs of its intended audience. Strategies for stakeholder engagement may include regular communication, soliciting feedback, involving stakeholders in decision-making processes, and fostering partnerships with other organizations or agencies.

Foster Collaboration and Partnerships

Collaboration and forming strategic partnerships represent indispensable avenues for amplifying the impact and extending the reach of grant-funded initiatives. By leveraging the collective expertise, resources, and networks of diverse stakeholders, organizations can cultivate synergistic efforts that drive sustainable change and address complex societal challenges more comprehensively. Collaborative efforts may involve partnering with other nonprofits, academic institutions, government agencies, or private sector entities. When selecting partners, it's important to identify organizations that share similar goals and values and have complementary capabilities and resources.

Implement Effective Project Management

Implementing robust project management methodologies stands as a cornerstone in ensuring the effective oversight and efficient utilization of resources within grant-funded programs. By adhering to stringent project management practices, organizations can maintain alignment with timelines and budgets, mitigate risks, and optimize the allocation of funds, thereby fostering a climate of accountability and maximizing the program's potential for success. This includes establishing clear communication channels, holding regular meetings to review progress and address challenges, and maintaining transparency in decision-making processes. Project managers should also be prepared to adapt to unforeseen circumstances and make necessary adjustments to ensure program success.

Embrace Innovation and Flexibility

Grant-funded programs often operate in dynamic and evolving environments. Embracing innovation and flexibility allows organizations to adapt to changing circumstances, seize new opportunities, and overcome obstacles more effectively. This may involve experimenting with new approaches, technologies, or partnerships to improve program outcomes. Organizations should also be open to learning from both successes and failures, using insights gained to inform future initiatives.

Monitor Progress and Evaluate Impact

Monitoring progress and evaluating impact are essential components of effective program implementation. Regular monitoring allows organizations to track progress toward objectives, identify challenges or bottlenecks, and make timely adjustments as needed. Evaluation involves assessing the overall effectiveness and impact of the program in achieving its intended outcomes. This may include collecting data, conducting surveys or interviews, and analyzing results to measure changes in behavior, attitudes, or conditions among target populations.

Communicate Results and Lessons Learned

Effective communication of results and lessons learned is vital for demonstrating accountability, building credibility, and informing future decision-making. Organizations should disseminate findings and successes through various channels, such as reports, presentations, press releases, and social media. Sharing lessons learned allows others to benefit from experiences and insights gained during program implementation, contributing to collective knowledge and best practices in the field.

Maximizing the impact of grant-funded programs requires careful planning, strategic execution, and ongoing evaluation. By defining clear objectives, developing detailed implementation plans, cultivating stakeholder engagement, fostering collaboration, implementing effective project management practices, embracing innovation and flexibility, monitoring progress, evaluating impact, and communicating results, organizations can enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of their programs. Ultimately, by maximizing grant impact, organizations can make a meaningful difference in the lives of those they serve and contribute to positive social change.

Board Giving and Grant Success – A Vital Link

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 18:41:00 GMT

The Old Days…

In the old days (over thirty years ago) I wrote my first grant for a small nonprofit when the vital link between board giving and grant success was almost non-existent. It was a federal grant for $90,000 for a rural runaway youth shelter. There were no questions about how much the board members contributed of their own funds to the organization. There were no questions about what percentage of board members gave. We won the grant and I was hooked!

Through this win, I was able to realize the power of my writing! I found I could make a big impact on the world with my attention to detail. Of course, this was in the day when we still received the Federal Register in the mail. There was no internet. If we wanted to research a foundation, we made our way to the nearest library with a foundation section. Once in the foundation section, we spent hours going through gigantic books and making copies of prospect information.

Board Giving and Grant Success Today…

Today the grant process is very different and as you can imagine, the grant-writing world has changed. Funders ask many different questions now and require a lot more documentation. Their funding processes are also often vastly different. One of the key changes I have seen over the years is the increase in funders who want to know what percentage of your board members give financially to the organization. Some take it a step further and ask what percentage of your entire agency budget comes from board donations. For those boards that do not have a 100% giving rate, this can be very problematic, possible consequences are:

the organization may not be awarded a grant because of poor board-giving records
the organization may lose points in the scoring process

The bottom line here is that funders are social investors. They are looking for:

SROI (Social Return On Investment)
Organizations and boards that are passionate about what they do
Evidence of board commitment through financial giving

It is already a very competitive grant world out there, so be sure you understand the vital link between board giving and grant success. Be sure your board is not hindering your success with their lack of financial commitment. Your board will be well on its way to ensuring a positive impact on the organization it supports if members understand the vital link between board giving and grant success. If you need board training to help your board understand this important role, contact Pathways to Growth for agency-specific board training . You can also register for The Role of Boards in Grant Writing , an upcoming training by our president, Jule Colvin, to be hosted by Catalyst Consulting on September 22, 2021.

Everything Rises and Falls on Leadership

Wed, 05 May 2021 18:12:00 GMT

According to John Maxwell, author of over 70 leadership books, everything rises and falls on leadership. As the leader of your nonprofit, your leadership abilities are crucial for the welfare of your staff, volunteers, and the community you serve. It is imperative that you continue to invest in developing yourself. One sure sign of a good leader is the ability to prioritize your own growth.

Servant Leadership

The Key

Servant leadership is the key to leadership success in your nonprofit, but there are so many other critical points of leadership that you need to master. This article is not intended to cover the topic of leadership in its entirety, but the following are just a few key insights for you as you move forward in this endeavor.

We Rise by Lifting Others

You must learn to be a master communicator and connector.
You cannot be a lone ranger leader. By definition, you are not a leader if you are alone! If you think you are a leader, but no one is following you, you are just taking a walk.
You must become adept at addressing current issues with your organization while also seeing into the future, being a visionary, and charting your course.
You must be intentional about attracting the right people for your team and you must build a strong inner circle.
Your ability to empower others to lead will make or break your nonprofit.
As a true leader, you must be passionate about leaving a legacy of leadership.
You must be a master manager of your time and set correct and effective priorities.
Know that as you grow in your responsibilities, you will diminish in your rights – the true mark of a servant leader.

Charisma, passion, and/or intelligence will only get you so far as the leader of your organization. Leadership is a skill and art you must work on purposefully to develop. There are many options to help you through this development process including outstanding books, tapes, workshops, and coaching from certified coaches. The success of your nonprofit will rise and fall on your leadership abilities.

A Great Place to Start or Continue Your Leadership Journey

John Maxwell Leadership Books, Workshops, and Training

John Maxwell’s books on leadership are truly the standard for leaders. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership , Developing the Leader Within You , The 360 Degree Leader, Leader Shift , and many others are filled with strong leadership wisdom and practical advice. John also has certified coaches, speakers, and trainers across the country who lead small mastermind groups and workshops. They also offer personal leadership coaching skills. In addition, you can complete an automated Leadership Assessment online to see where you need to improve your leadership. Your returns on this investment of time and money will be far above what you can imagine.

Tell Your Nonprofit’s Story by Wagging Your Own Tail

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 19:32:00 GMT

To quote my Aunt Babe (age 93), “It’s a poor dog that won’t wag its own tail.” This gives you permission to share positive observations about yourself. For nonprofits, not doing this could literally lead to being ‘poor’. Wagging your own tail starts with documented effectiveness – it is an important part of how you tell your nonprofit’s story. So why don’t nonprofits do this more? Nonprofit organizations would do well to heed this admonition: share more positive observations about yourselves!

Wagging Your Own Tail

It may seem that the work of your nonprofit is one of the world’s best-kept secrets. The daily grind that often comes with “doing good,” coupled with understaffing and the quest for sufficient funding can challenge one’s commitment. It can be hard to lift people up and work for the greater good. It follows that time, energy, and funds for public relations are often scarce. Consider the following points on the connection between how to tell your nonprofit’s story through public relations and increased funding.

Good PR Can Help Nonprofits Raise Money – Smart non-profits realize that a strong PR effort and good press coverage can lead to increased fundraising. How can good PR help you raise more money?

New Prospects Find You – These prospects may be donors or volunteers who want to learn more about what you do and find out how to donate to your work.
Raising General Awareness – When people in your community start to know your name, they become aware of the resources and services you provide, they understand your mission.
“Social Proof” – This may include press coverage to provide good social proof that what you are doing matters and connect your mission to the needs of real people in your community. This can lead to donors, but it can also lead to grant funding when funders can see who you are.

Stay Mission & Vision-Focused - Successful nonprofits generate great stories about the successful work they do and stay focused on their mission and their vision.

Great PR Rarely Just Happens - It takes lots of calls, press releases, and follow-up to generate good coverage. Tell your nonprofit’s story with ore tail wagging!

Where Should I Start?

Start by crafting the story you want the world to know about your work, your mission, your organization.

To craft your story, you must document your effectiveness.
To document your effectiveness, collect and share:
Organizational and program performance data;
Personal impact testimonials: and
Photographs of related activities and events.

Demonstrate how you improve the quality of life for people or animals and elevate local standards for community development or enrichment. Illustrate how the extent of the needs and your use of successful strategies justifies requests for the expansion of your program(s). Give a clear picture of your passions and priorities to draw the attention of funders with similar drive and focus. Show how your efficient use of resources maximizes a funder’s return on investment.

What’s Next?

The next step is to compile a contact list for all of the press outlets and reporters in your area, including TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and online outlets. Then start pitching stories! Send out press releases, and hold press events. Generate newsworthy items, and get that press coverage rolling in. Get that tail wagging!

[Excerpts from Fundraising & Public Relations: What’s the Connection? (thefundraisingauthority.com)

Aunt Babe also says, “A little of his gravy goes all over my plate.” This means she doesn’t care very much for that person. What does this have to do with documenting your nonprofit’s effectiveness and wagging your own tail? Nothing actually, but it’s still funny. Now go out there and tell your story. Increase your funding. Wag your own tail!

Efficient Productivity for Grant Seeking – Part II

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 18:59:00 GMT

Part II: Steps Toward a More Productive Year of Grant Seeking

This article is a continuation of a blog we posted two weeks ago on efficient productivity in grant seeking. Here is a recap of the first five steps: 1) Manage your Energy, Not Your Time, 2) Be Your Own Coach or Find A Trusted Coach, 3) Read About Productivity, 4) Set Goals.

Let’s continue with #5…

5. Create and Follow A Budget

Some of your SMART goals will inevitably be tied to money and you cannot measure them if you are not tracking your expenses and revenue. If budgets are intimidating for you, and you don’t have a finance department to take care of this process, start simply. Ironically, if you are a big nonprofit or a small one, the basic process is the same.

Small Nonprofits w/ few staff

Enlist the help of a key board member
Make a goal to identify one major budget category each day for a week
Utilize a budget tool to help make the process easier (excel, Centage, Prophix, QuickBooks, Wave,)
Start budget planning at least 1 month BEFORE you need a final budget

Medium to Large nonprofits with more staff and/or a finance department

Involve key departments (or people) in the budget process
Make time-bound goals for all departments to submit their budget needs
Utilize one of the budget tools listed above
Start budget meetings at least 2-3 months BEFORE you need a final budget. For example – if your fiscal year starts in January, you need to start planning in October or November, so you are ready to present your budget to your board for approval BEFORE January 1st arrives (don’t forget that many people take time off in Nov. and Dec., so start early to make up for this).

6. Find Tools That Work for You

There are so many tools in existence today to help you stay organized and have efficient productivity. If you are old school and like to write things down on paper, take time to shop for a notebook or planning calendar that has all the features you like. It may even be bound in your favorite color! Do whatever you need to do to make the process a little more fun. If you are tech-savvy or need a tool for all of your staff to use, schedule some time each week to look into tools that can create efficient productivity. There are tools for email, calendars, contact management, project management, etc.

7. Seek to Understand the Needs of Your Target Population

Do not assume you know what your target population needs. Even if you do think you know, you should engage in the work it takes to show funders how you know. Take the time to talk to the consumers of your services. Utilize surveys, focus groups, and public data to really understand what people need. This will lend credibility to your grant writing, but more importantly, it will also ensure that the services you are providing and how you provide them are relevant.

8. Schedule Your Priorities Instead of Prioritizing Your Schedule (Steven Covey)

This circles back to Step #1 and emphasizes why it is at the top of this list. If you are a leader of a nonprofit or busy professional, you must schedule things like exercise, meditation, and date nights. This may seem silly, but those of you who do this work get it. If it’s not on your schedule, it often gets pushed to the side. You have to intentionally schedule your priorities so the day-to-day tasks don’t take over.

And there we have it…now go forth and be efficiently productive. If you are searching for additional tools and services to help you with grant writing, head on over to our services page.

Efficient Productivity for Grant Seeking – Part 1

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 17:16:00 GMT

Part 1: Steps 1-4 of 8 Steps Toward a More Productive Year of Grant Seeking

Some of us are wired to organize and seek out efficient productivity. Some of us are not, but no judgment here! The good news is that regardless of how easy it is for you to stay organized and have efficient productivity on a daily basis, there are some tried and true steps that will help you stay on track and meet your grant goals. These steps are both personal and professional in nature because these two parts of our lives are inner-twined.

1. Manage your Energy, Not Your Time

No matter what your tole is in the grant seeking process, be sure to get enough sleep, exercise, eat mindfully, meditate, and/or do things you love! These things will help you renew your energy. You can’t make more time, but you can increase your energy!

2. Be Your Own Coach or Find A Trusted Coach

Grant seeking requires motivation and organization because there are a lot of moving parts. Some people just seem to be wired to be organized. If this is you, then you are your own coach – and you can usually keep yourself on track. If you are not a natural ‘organizer’, then own this and find a ‘coach’ to help you. It takes all of our amazing talents and personalities to make this world such a wonderful place, so you cannot excel at everything! There may be a staff member or board member who can be a coach for you and help you stay motivated toward your grant seeking goals. Just don’t make excuses not to have efficient productivity. I have a good friend who knows she needs someone to help her be organized and stay productive. Ironically, she is an amazing motivational speaker! The point is, she knows she needs help, and she seeks it out instead of making excuses for herself.

3. Read About Productivity

Grant seeking also requires regular productivity. If you pause too long with your grant seeking you may pay in lost revenue later because grant seeking is an investment in the future. So how do stay productive when you haven’t had a recent award? Find a blog or a group that regularly discusses productivity and take a few minutes to learn from them every week. I love John Hall’s weekly newsletter on LinkedIn about Mastering Time Management and Productivity . Set aside a scheduled time each week when you will learn from your source of productivity and stick to it. You may only have ten minutes and that is okay, just do it.

4. Set Goals

You may be tired of hearing about goal setting, but if you write grants, you know how important this is. There is a reason you keep hearing about it setting goals -it actually works. Does this mean that you will meet all of your goals all the time? You may not, but if you use the SMART goal formula (just as some funders require you to do for grant proposals) you are more likely to be successful.

Specific – “My nonprofit will increase grant revenue by $5,000 this year” NOT “My nonprofit will increase grant revenue”.
Measurable – “I will increase my business productivity by tracking my time every day” NOT “I will be more productive”.
Attainable – “Therapy staff will receive incentives to attend 2 continuing education sessions each quarter” NOT “Therapy staff will receive incentives to obtain their doctorate degrees”.
Relevant – “All staff will receive safety training in the 1st quarter”, NOT “All staff will learn how to line dance in the 1st quarter” (could be fun – but not very relevant!)
Time-based – “I will hire 2 new finance staff by the end of the 3rd quarter”, NOT “I will hire 2 new finance staff

No go out there and start grant seeking with efficient productivity and look for Part 2 of this blog in a couple of weeks!

Lessons in Grant Seeking from a Tricolored Heron

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 18:20:00 GMT

The Heron

A bike ride leads to an inspiring Heron rescue

I did not expect to receive lessons in grant seeking while on holiday break this year with my husband. On New Year’s Eve, we ventured to a new bike trail….one of our favorite pastimes. We sort of stumbled upon it as we were adventuring around and what a treasure we found! The scenery and Florida wildlife were stunning. We had some close and personal moments with a name-yet-unknown heron and an alligator. However, the height of the trip happened when we suddenly became part of a bird rescue!

A team of rangers and trained nature enthusiasts had been trying, unsuccessfully, to catch a tricolored heron for about a month. They were concerned about a plastic ring that had lodged around his graceful, beautiful neck. One moment we were tooling around on our bikes and the next moment we were up close and personal to experience the loud sound of the net gun, the joy of the rescuers in finally catching him and, eventually after much intricate work, the freeing of the heron sans plastic neck ring. It was so exciting and inspiring. We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to video it all. You can see the rescue video at the end of this blog.

Lessons in Grant Seeking

How does the Heron rescue translate to lessons in grant seeking? Let me expound!

1. Never give up

Grant winning can seem elusive, especially when you are just getting started. On our bird adventure, the man who successfully caught the bird said he had tried netting a bird 18 times before he finally had success. This was a truly victorious day for him! While you might get discouraged in grant seeking, there truly is nothing like the feeling of a win! Grant seeking is a chase that is worth pursuing.

2. Know your stuff

The nature lovers who were helping this poor bird knew so much about this particular species of bird. They handled him expertly and with great care. As a grant seeker, you must spend time studying funders in order to know their passions and to discover how you can help them to achieve their philanthropic goals. Your goal is to catch them in your net!

3. Build a team

No person on their own could have caught that spirited bird! There were people around the park scouting to find the bird. One woman was on guard as they were in the process of capturing the bird and asked us to stop so as not to startle the bird. Another team member was a professional photographer and videographer to capture the scene. Great grants are written by great teams . Be sure to find knowledgeable, passionate, and detail-oriented people to present a well-rounded grant proposal.

4. Remember the ultimate purpose of your grant seeking

It is important to not lose sight of the ultimate benefactor of your grant seeking. The money is only part of the goal – transforming the lives of those your organization serves is the ultimate goal. Just as this team of rescuers kept their hearts and minds on their ultimate goal to help the tricolored heron, your team must be sure to keep plugged into your why!

5. Draw funders into a great story

I certainly did not wake up that particular morning thinking that I would be privileged to be part of a tricolored heron rescue. In fact, I had never heard of a tricolored heron. But, as God would have it that day, we were in the right place at the right time to watch this great story unfold.

We were introduced to the main character, the bird in need. Next, were the rescuers – those just like your staff and volunteers – who were spending the last day of 2020 searching for one small bird to rescue. We were blessed to learn of their passion and sacrifice. And then we were introduced to the point of the story – how the bird and the team interacted to create transformational change…. change not only for the heron but for each team member and for my husband and me as bystanders. Your grant-seeking team needs to create that story and pull in the reader for transformation to occur.

Another key thing to remember from this story is that I wasn’t thinking about grant seeking while this story was unfolding. In fact, I was trying diligently to forget about work that day. However, the story so moved me that as I returned to work it came back to my mind and inspired me to relate it to grant seeking. Now that is an example of a great story, one that you just keep thinking about days afterward. That, fellow grant writer, is your team’s vigil in the park, so to speak. What stories can you tell to enthrall the funder? There, you will find success!

Heron Rescue Video

Grant Budgets & Cookie Recipes!

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 19:05:00 GMT

Writing the narrative takes the bulk of the time you spend preparing a grant proposal, just like mixing the cookie ingredients. However, grant budgets are just as important; they are like recipes when you are baking. This analogy is taken from Marilyn Boess of Grants Magic U , a presenter at the 2020 Grant Professionals Association Annual Conference in November. The presentation compared the grant writing process to baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Genius!

Baking Cookies and the Grant Writing Process

How these processes are similar

Do you open your cabinets and throw random amounts of ingredients around the kitchen when you bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies? Do you stand there and hope they will magically transform into delicious chocolate chip goodness? Of course not!

You probably do something like the following:

consult your recipe
check to see if you have the necessary ingredients
check to see if you have the correct baking tools
preheat the oven
run to the store if necessary; or borrow a stick of butter from a neighbor.

Cookie Recipes & Grant Budgets

How recipes are like budgets

Here is a diagram of how grant budgets inform key parts of the proposal process just like recipes inform the cookie baking process. If you don’t have the correct ingredients, then you must get them somehow. If your oven won’t heat to the temperature in the recipe, then you may have to put off baking cookies until it’s fixed. Sometimes, despite all your best efforts, your cookies may come out under-cooked or over-cooked. However, you are much more likely to experience success with a solid recipe to guide you!

The Grant Professional Association is a great resource for budget information. By becoming a member, you have access to free webinars and other training opportunities that are invaluable. Pathways to Growth also offers training on grant budgets as well as a number of other topics, so please check out our Nonprofit Business Training to learn more!

The Three Keys to Winning Grants

Sat, 05 Dec 2020 15:24:27 GMT

A Roadmap to Funding Success

Securing grant funding can be transformative for nonprofits, educational institutions, and community organizations. But winning grants isn’t just about luck or having a good idea—it’s about strategy, preparation, and execution. If you want to consistently land grants, you need to master three critical areas: being grant ready both programmatically and organizationally, finding the right fit of funding sources, and writing compelling grant applications. Let’s break each one down.

1. Be Grant Ready—Programmatically and Organizationally

Before you even think about applying for a grant, your organization must be ready to receive and manage it. That means having both the programs and the infrastructure in place.

Programmatic readiness means your initiatives are well-defined, evidence-based, and aligned with community needs. Funders want to see that your programs have clear goals, measurable outcomes, and a track record of success or strong potential.

Organizational readiness involves having the right systems, policies, and people in place. This includes:

A solid board of directors
Financial transparency and audited statements
A strategic plan
Staff with the capacity to implement and report on grant activities

If your organization isn’t grant ready, even the best-written proposal won’t get far. Funders want to invest in organizations that can deliver results and steward their resources responsibly.

Pathways to Growth offers a complimentary Assessment for Grant Readiness to help nonprofits assess their readiness. You can find it here.

2. Find the Right Fit of Funding Sources

Not all grants are created equal—and not all funders are a match for your mission. One of the most common mistakes organizations make is chasing every opportunity, regardless of alignment.

Instead, focus on funding fit :

Research funders whose priorities align with your mission and programs.
Look at past grantees to understand what types of projects they support.
Pay attention to geographic focus, funding amounts, and eligibility criteria.

When possible, building relationships with funders—through networking, attending events, or even reaching out with thoughtful questions—can also help you stand out. When you find funders who truly resonate with your work, your chances of success increase dramatically.

3. Write Compelling Grant Applications

Once you’ve found the right opportunity, it’s time to craft a proposal that grabs attention and inspires confidence. A compelling grant application is:

Clear : Avoid jargon and write in a way that’s easy to understand.
Concise : Stick to the word limits and get to the point.
Impactful : Use data and stories to show the need and your solution.
Aligned : Tailor your proposal to the funder’s priorities and language.

Don’t underestimate the power of storytelling. Funders want to feel emotionally connected to your mission. Combine facts with heart to make your proposal memorable.

Winning grants isn’t just about writing—it’s about being ready, being strategic, and being persuasive. By focusing on these three keys, your organization can build a strong foundation for funding success. Remember: grants are not just financial lifelines—they’re partnerships. Treat them as such, and you’ll not only win funding but build lasting relationships that fuel your mission for years to come.

#Grant-Seeking as a Priority During COVID-19

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 19:34:00 GMT

Why keep #grant-seeking as a priority during COVID-19 when there are so many urgent needs? Take a breath, take a minute, and remember – your mission depends on it. I don’t have to tell you that the world seems to be spinning out of control. Many #nonprofits are facing unprecedented challenges such as:

Scrambling to focus on basic safety for staff and clients
Struggling to provide hallmark services
Watching reserve funds diminish at a rapid rate

This is not the first challenge the nonprofit sector has faced and it will not be the last. Here’s how to keep grant-seeking a priority.

1. Connect with Funders and Give them Guidance

It is up to you to help funders know what your organization needs to serve your community. If you excel at authentic human connection, this is your moment to connect with funders and give them guidance. This is the time to be your community’s best advocate.

Remember that funders legitimately want to help . They know that grantees have more and different needs than ever before. Do not be afraid to pick up the phone and call a funder. While you are advocating for your community’s needs, remember, funders have their own set of challenges such as:

navigation of work-from-home realities and socially distanced workspaces
virtual meetings and technology challenges
logistics related to distributing money quickly
shrinking endowments

Try to be understanding of their challenges – I think we all can agree that we need more of that right now. Let it start with you.

2. Creative Impact Awareness

Don’t be afraid to be creative. I have seen this happening already and it is amazing! Show funders how you are tackling your community’s crisis. The following are all creative ways to help supporters see the impact your nonprofit has on the needs of your community:

Social media posts
online events
videos
virtual tours

3. Discuss Changes

Finally, talk to funders about changes you may need to make to programs and grant reporting . Discuss changes or new ways in which you are serving clients before you write your #grant report.

If the outcomes and deadlines of your grant no longer make sense, help funders understand the reasons why and how you plan to adapt.
Respectfully ask funders for what you need. You will not know if you do not ask. If they decline (which they might) at least you know you tried and where they stand, and you can figure out how to move on.

Please don’t stop seeking grants and interacting with funders. Strong nonprofits know that grant-seeking is a cycle of action. Suspension of the cycle now can mean losing ground that is difficult to regain later. Keep #grant-seeking as a high priority during COVID-19 and keep moving your mission forward!

What is your organization doing to prioritize grant-seeking during COVID-19? If you need expert advice about how to navigate this unprecedented time contact us .

#Blog #PathwaysToGrowth #Grants #Grant-Seeking

Podcast: Do You Know Your Pathway to Growth?

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:41:00 GMT

Jule Colvin has been in the trenches of grant writing for almost two decades. That means, she has had had share of wins and losses. No wonder she says’ “The elation always comes from a win. The grant wins never get old. Even if it is a few thousand dollars or like last week when we had a $1.2 million win. That was great! But we just celebrate all of it. No win is too small.”

To Contact or Not Contact the Funder? That is the question!

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 16:33:00 GMT

Many years ago, when I was a “younger” professional, I attended a training session on how to write grants. The speaker shared some opening tips, and one of the key points that has stayed with me is to know your funder.

So, how do you go about knowing a potential funder? Grant seeking, like fundraising in general, is often more successful when there is a relationship. Of course, many funders are inundated with requests and do not have the capacity or desire to hear from a multitude of thirsty grant-seekers, each with the most worthwhile project ever in existence. Here are three important points to consider before you attempt to contact a funder.

First, learn all you can about the funder. Conduct research to determine if they are a good fit with your program or project.

Review the funder’s website.
Refer to their tax return to see who they have funded previously (GuideStar is free and easy to navigate).
Determine how much they typically fund.
Ask yourself, will our organization help this funder meet their philanthropic goals?
Find out who is on their board of directors.
Search for articles online or links that can provide useful information.
Set up Google alerts to stay informed of any press releases or announcements.
Find out if anyone on the board of your organization knows anyone on the funder’s board. If so, would they be willing to open the door for you?

Second, if you do not find any indication in your research that contact is unwelcome, reach out to the funder. If you successfully scheduled a call or meeting:

Send a short paragraph or an “elevator speech” succinctly describing who you are.
Carefully review the funder’s application or RFP (if available) prior to the call.
Be prepared with a list of relevant questions from your research.
Let the funder do the talking. The goal is to determine how your organization’s and the funder’s missions align.
While being professional, it is always great to make a personal connection asking the contact person about themselves. Find common ground that you can build on.
End the call with a short pitch for your program or project and ask for input on the possible request, the suggested amount, the reporting and recognition.
Invite the funder to visit your organization or schedule a virtual tour.

Finally, follow-up with an email or note thanking them for the call. If an application is submitted, check-in to ask if there are any questions or additional information needed. If there is a denial, always ask for feedback and develop a plan for next steps.

Grant seeking is hard and rewarding work but knowing your funder and building a relationship is often at the core of all successful fundraising!

Pathways to Growth provides extensive funder research and professional grant writing and capacity building services to our clients. Learn more at pathwaystogrowth.us and grantpathways.com .

A Message from our President

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 14:23:00 GMT

Greetings!

As a Christian, American, human being and President of Pathways to Growth, I have struggled to find words to pen this communication. I have written many intros and drafts and rolled countless others over in my mind, never feeling that I was hitting the mark, concerned I would say something to offend someone, or from a selfish standpoint, concerned my words would be just a voice among so many without true purpose.

I then realized my words cannot fully communicate truth, fully inspire, change a person’s heart, mind and spirit, but I am intimately acquainted with The Author who can, the God of the Bible. As is said in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another - showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.” His words are far more powerful than mine.

As I decided to let go of my need to impress, explain my viewpoints, defend my innocence or promote our brand in relation to the senseless death of George Floyd and the ensuing turmoil in our country, I only knew to go to God’s Word for answers to share how we at Pathways to Growth will carry out our work and attempt to make sense of this tragedy in the days to come. I know there will be those who read this who are not Christians, but I hope and believe you will find the words I will share to come from a universal place of love and unity.

I believe the evil of racism has been a powerful force throughout our country’s history. Hebrews 12:15 tells us to “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.” Slavery and the treatment of African Americans in the U.S. certainly did not extend grace. In fact, it caused thousands of people to fail to obtain the grace of God. And as a result, a “root of bitterness” has sprung up to cause trouble and defile many. This is the tragic state we are in today. I present that we as a society , starting with Christians, and moving throughout the country, need to repent of racist behavior, including silence in the face of racism, remembering that repentance doesn’t just mean saying we are sorry, but requires us to turn away from and walk in a new righteous direction. We must pursue behavior that shows grace, mercy, love and equality from all sides.

As we move forward in this direction to a better society for all, at Pathways to Growth we will...

Speak out against racial discrimination, injustice and inequality. We will promote solutions that result in equality and justice. These principles are found in the following scriptures:

Zechariah 8:16: “These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace.”
Proverbs 11:1 “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight.”

Hold to behavior found in Micah 6:8 : “He has shown you, O mort al, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” We don’t have all of the answers. There is much we don’t understand. We will listen, learn and act with humility in order to bring forth unity and peace. We will be approachable and welcoming as a part of this continued conversation. However, we are looking for more than conversation, we are seeking change.

Promote forgiveness and peaceful actions. E phesians 4:31-32 tells us: “ Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Also, as found in Proverbs 16:29: "Violent people mislead their companions, leading them down a harmful path." Repentance and commitment to change will accomplish little if forgiveness is not extended in response . Violence and destruction are not the answers.

Continue to serve, support and encourage our clients who are working diligently for racial equality, to improve education opportunities for minorities, to help build thriving communities, and much more. We look forward to opportunities to work with other similar nonprofits. We will utilize our skills to help build strong nonprofits and attract needed grant funding for this critical work.

Work diligently to follow the words of Colossians 3:12 to, “Clothe ourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.”

I realize we did not get to where we are overnight and we will not solve our issues overnight, but we are committed to working daily to move forward with impactful change as quickly as possible. Throughout my personal and professional life, I have been actively involved in racial reconciliation and relationship building. As a result, I have been tempted at times during this current crisis to feel hopeless and think that all that work was a waste of time. How could we be back here? But I am not choosing to believe that all has been lost. We are not without hope. Every day I meet and work with nonprofit leaders who are laying their lives and livelihood on the line to make a difference for African American communities. They are heroes in this work. I choose to lead the team at Pathways to Growth to work alongside them as we continue to create the new world prayed about by our esteemed brother Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. below.

In Humility,

Julé Colvin

President

Pathways to Growth

Grant Writing in Times of Crisis

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 04:09:00 GMT

Click here for a video from the NonProfit Leadership Center on grant writing during these times of crisis.

How to Apply for a Grant

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 04:08:00 GMT

Click here for information from the NonProfit Leadership Center about how to apply for a grant!

How to Write a Grant Proposal

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 04:06:00 GMT

Click here for a great blog from the NonProfit Leadership Center about how to write a grant proposal.

2019 Spotlight Moments!

Mon, 13 Jan 2020 02:27:00 GMT

It has been an exciting year at Pathways to Growth! In 2019, we expanded our grant writing and management team, served over 40 nonprofits in several states through grant writing and capacity building services, taught 50 students grant writing skills and raised over $3,000,000 in grant dollars with an average ROI of over 500%. We are blessed to work with such a great group of grant writers and nonprofit organizations. Because our writers often work “behind the scenes,” we thought it would be fun to spotlight their favorite moments from the past year of hard work at Pathways to Growth.

“My favorite moment this year was watching one of our fearless and selfless leaders, Robbin Sotelo Redd (the Executive Director of the City of Tarpon Springs Housing Authority / Local Community Housing Corporation) be recognized for her life’s work at the Housing and Education Alliance’s 2019 HEART Awards. The HEART Awards are similar to the Academy Awards for the affordable housing field. She was selected as the winner of the most respected award of the evening – the Bob Samuels Leadership Award. It was a privilege to have played a small role in helping her to achieve this recognition and I will never forget her tears of joy and sincere surprise when they called her name in front of over 300 of her most esteemed colleagues, her Board Chair, and her employee. It was a great evening indeed!”

-Caterina Tassara, Writer

“The best for me personally was teaching the 16-hour grant writing classes at the Nonprofit Leadership Center of Tampa Bay. A student told me this year that I seem like I could teach the class in my sleep because I know the material so well. It really is wonderful to be able to share my years of experience and give back for those in the nonprofit world who have poured into me over the years. I love knowing that my teaching will multiply to other writers, nonprofits and those in need into future generations. What a blessing!”

-Julé Colvin, President/CEO

“Continuing to learn about important issues in our society is the best part of being a grant writer for nonprofit organizations. This past year, there were two facts about homelessness in our country that I found especially shocking: 1) families now represent one-third of those experiencing homelessness, and 2) more than one-half of Americans received a means-tested benefit like food stamps, Medicaid, welfare, disability insurance or housing assistance, between 1997 and 2017. One-half of Americans! The work these nonprofit agencies do could not be more critical.”

-Diane DiGiacomo, Writer

“This year several of our clients received funding through the Lightning Community Hero Award as a result of some amazing, dedicated individuals who selflessly volunteer their time, talent and funds to improve the lives of those less fortunate. It is both humbling and incredibly rewarding to learn not only how these heroes help others but inspire those around them to do the same, starting a chain reaction that makes our community a better place to live.”

-Carolyn Miller, Writer

“In 2019 I had the pleasure of being assigned to write for The Florida Holocaust Museum. From the beginning I felt a powerful connection. And, as much as I gave, I got. I learned so much about the Holocaust, met Survivors and heard their stories, and stood in awe in front of Boxcar #113 069-5, trying to comprehend the terror and sadness of the women, men and children that were once inside it. Working with The FHM and winning grants for them was the highlight of my P2G year.”

-Sharon Fennell Kennedy, Writer

“The best part of my Pathways to Growth year was realizing that I am part of an amazing group of individuals that would be there to support me, yet most of us have never actually met face-to-face!”

-Alicia Kuranda, Writer

“This year, I helped a client complete the paperwork to turn an idea into an official 501(c)(3) organization. We worked closely together for several months to get the application together, and on December 10, her ‘God dream’ was approved by the IRS. As a result of our work together, this organization will enter 2020 with much greater potential to help victims of sex trafficking. The best part of this job is meeting so many wonderful people who see a need and voluntarily step forward to give their time, talents, personal funds, and career path over to serving their community.”

-Sarah Bonnema, Writer

“My fondest Pathways to Growth moments of 2019 were visiting some of our nonprofit partners – hearing the precious little people of A Brighter Community sing some tunes, viewing the beautiful artwork of the talented clients of PARC, seeing a happy baby and mom enjoy lunch at ALPHA House of Pinellas County and attending the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new property of Dawning Family Services. We are proud to partner with these organizations, and many others, that make a difference every day in the lives of many.”

-Chrissy Bond, Nonprofit Management and Grants Specialist

Giving Thanks to Your Organization’s “Foundational” Supporters

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 17:42:00 GMT

You know you work for a nonprofit organization when the holiday season makes you think of “year-end giving strategies” instead of “sipping hot cocoa by the fire.” Roughly 30% of annual giving to nonprofit organizations occurs in December, so it’s natural that we want to turn our attention to “those” holidays and skip right past November’s.

But if you did, you’d be missing a valuable opportunity to thank the foundations and corporate funders who have supported you the rest of the year.

Take a few minutes—maybe make that cup of hot cocoa!—and get ready to learn how to give thanks to the foundations who keep your organization going.

Use the excuse.

You likely acknowledged the funder when you received their gift. Maybe you kept it professional—a cordial letter or an end-of-program report—or maybe you called them and squealed loudly with excitement the second you received their gift. Regardless of how you initially handled it, there’s no harm in sending another acknowledgment—and there may be some gain!

Use the holiday season as your excuse, and use the template below as a starting point:

As we are counting our organization’s blessings this Thanksgiving, we think of XYZ Foundation. We want to thank you for your _____ (grant, event sponsorship, naming gift, matching grant, etc.—name their contributions). Without your generosity, we would have never been able to ____ (name something specific your organization accomplished as a result of their gift). You are truly a valuable partner in our efforts to (briefly describe your mission), and we are so grateful for you!

Writing a card like this accomplishes four things:

It gives you an excuse to communicate with the funder,
It expresses gratitude for their support of your mission,
It builds a deeper relationship with the funder, and
it reminds them of your organization’s mission and work.

Use their name.

If you want to build a long-term relationship with a foundation, customize a communication piece for each funder every single time.

Yes, it is easier to produce one generic “Thanksgiving” piece and send it to every funder on your list, but what is more meaningful to YOU when you check your mail: a form letter addressed to “Your Name (or Resident”), or a personalized letter in a dear friend’s handwriting?

Likewise, “Dear Jones Family Foundation” will attract the reader’s attention and seems more authentic than “Dear Valuable Supporter.”

Note that you will win double points if you can direct your “thank you” card to a specific person at the organization. If you do this, make sure you use the person’s name initially and also include the foundation’s name elsewhere in your letter. Example: “ Roberta, we want to thank you for the Jones Family Foundation’s support of our…” )

Use visuals.

Your thank you card should include at least one of the following visual elements:

-Photos of your work in action
-Scanned feedback expressing gratitude in your clients’ own handwriting
-Drawings/artwork from participants, especially if you work with children. (Be creative: I support a bird sanctuary that sends talon prints from the birds it helps!)
-Related stock photos accompanying client feedback or a client success story
-Have your CEO or Director of Development sign the card in his/her own handwriting.

We recommend a “snail mail” card (and lots of fascinating research backs up the use of print).

However, a virtual thank you is better than nothing. If you are e-mailing your thanks, keep these two tips in mind:

1) Send your thanks from an individual’s email account—such as your Executive Director’s—instead of a general organizational email account.

2) Consider embedding a video message.

Use the opportunity.

This is NOT an “ask” piece—its goal is to thank your funder! Still, in your second-to-last paragraph, you can use the opportunity to remind the foundation how they can get more involved with your organization. For example:

-Remind them that they are always welcome to make a site visit.
-Give them your Development Director’s phone number/email address and remind them that their questions are always welcome.
-Invite them to attend your next event.

We hope we have convinced you of the value of a well-timed thanks. We are thankful for YOU and for all of our clients at Pathways to Growth!

How to win a $700,000+ Grant – Part 1

Wed, 04 Sep 2019 18:54:00 GMT

Our grant writing team recently experienced the thrill of a big win (think over $700,000) with one of our nonprofit clients.

In this 3-part series, “How to Win a $700,000+ Grant,” I’ll share some critical information to help your nonprofit develop solid relationships with funders, build a stellar grant team and, ultimately, win more grants.

Reflecting on the key elements of this recent win, we found virtually every important component related to dynamic teamwork. Our client, though inexperienced in grant writing, brought passion, extensive program knowledge and diverse personality types and skill sets to the project.

Our team brought extensive grant writing knowledge, an “outsider perspective” and our own personal strengths to the process.

This win really was a result of teamwork that made the dream work.

One-size does not fit all.

I once heard a colleague state that if you know one foundation, you know one foundation. It has stuck with me as a simple, profound truth in grant seeking. Funders are as different as the people who oversee them. While they are similar in legal structure and intent for philanthropic purposes, they vary in a myriad of ways including funding interests, how they want to be approached, and application processes. Some funders are almost impossible to contact, while others invite you to call them prior to application. It is critical to grant success for nonprofits to do in-depth research and practice due diligence prior to approaching a funder.

Research. Relationship. Preparation. Focus.

The keys to our team approach in this win you can adopt as you pursue grants are as follows.

Our team did our research and found a strong funder match. Our clients then realized they had a personal connection with the funder and took advantage of that for initial connection. They chose a team member with strong oral communication skills who was passionate about the cause and had in-depth knowledge of the organization and its programs to initiate the first call.
The team submitted an LOI (Letter of Introduction). We so appreciate funders who request LOIs as the first step. It is very considerate of the time and money nonprofits often spend to prepare full proposals to no avail. The LOI allowed our client to introduce their request to the funder and then be invited to submit a full proposal.
The team continued to interact with the funder throughout the preparation process for feedback. If a funder allows you to interact, ask questions and send proposals for review during the process, ALWAYS take advantage of this. This allows you to not only write a stronger proposal, but to be sure you are helping the funder meet their philanthropic goals.
It is never enough to simply find a funding area of interest between a nonprofit and a funder. You must also work diligently to focus on a project of interest. Our team discovered during conversations with this funder that their current focus was on advocacy. We then were certain to focus the request with that in mind. It is entirely possible this grant would not have been funded with a different focus.

What about You?

You might be thinking – “this is all great, but our staff, volunteers and board members are not engaging to help us make connections with funders,” or perhaps you don’t even have the time to research potential funders well let alone begin to talk with them about your program needs. My response is, just like a household is financially healthier with more than one funding stream, today’s informed nonprofit leaders know they need to diversify their funding streams to include grants.

Yes, there is some risk in grant seeking in terms of ROI, but you are guaranteed not to win grants for which you don’t apply. And if your board and appropriate staff are not involved in helping you find funding sources, then you may seriously need to look at replacing them or finding a way to expand your team for grant seeking purposes. With money on the table, you should be working to land some of that money in your nonprofit’s bank account. A strong grant writing team is a key to making that happen.

Next Time – Part 2

Next time, I’ll share more about this 700k plus win and how it relates to the Johari Window of psychology and how to think like a grand funder in terms of social return on investment.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you. What have you experienced in your interactions with funders prior to and during the applications process?

Blog Series- An In-Depth Look At Common Segments Of Grant Proposals Part 4: Measurement/Outcomes And Evaluation – Are Numbers Set In Stone?

Fri, 31 May 2019 15:19:00 GMT

Most grant proposals are divided into sections. Each section serves a specific purpose in convincing funders that your organization is a strong match for their funding priorities, a good steward of their dollars, and is meeting a critical need in your community. This blog series will break down the grant proposal and look at each piece individually – its purpose, the message that piece conveys to the funder, and the best practices for sharing that information. We’ll look at:

Cover Letters – What to Include and What to Leave Out
Organization History and Background – Developing a Narrative that Appeals to Funders
Need Statements – Making the Case for Your Organization
Measurement/Outcomes and Evaluation – Are Numbers Set in Stone? (this post ?)
Presentation of Budgets for Grant Applications
Preparing Your Grant Proposal Packet for Submission

The Statement of Need and Proposal are the heart of your grant –they tug at the heartstrings and make the funder want to support your organization. But every funder receives far more requests for funding than they have the finances to support. There simply isn’t enough money to go around. A substantial part of the decision about where grant dollars will go comes down to which organization is providing the best investment opportunity. That is the question you are answering in the Measurement/Outcomes and Evaluation sections of the grant proposal.

How will you measure the successful progress and outcomes of your program? When funders ask this question, their goal is to learn what data you use to determine success and how you gather that data. The easy answer when providing measurements is to share the quantity of activities/services your organization provided. This data is easy to track – the number of meals served, children who participated, or patients served.

Measuring outcomes is messier – it takes more time, often requires tracking participants over time, and isn’t entirely within your control. Some program participants may not stay in the program long enough to measure an outcome, some may not respond to your survey after leaving the program, and others may only accomplish a portion of the change you hoped for.

Measuring program success may include:

1.Sharing the tools/tests you use to measure progress and your goal for program participants. Examples for students include your state’s Kindergarten Readiness Assessment for early childhood education programs or the SAT for secondary education. This type of measurement produces objective, quantitative data. Your organization may set a goal related to the tool/test such as:

After implementation of the Dinosaur Curriculum, 100% of ABC Child Development Center 5 year olds will be assessed socially and emotionally “ready for kindergarten” on the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment. – The data collection tool is the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment
Students who participate in the after school SAT preparation course will improve their test scores by at least 100 points. – The data collection tool is the SAT

If you use this type of quantitative data, you need to refer to the impact of these metrics in other sections of the grant. Funders need to understand why it is important for students to be socially and emotionally “ready for kindergarten” or how improving the SAT score by 100 points influences a high school student’s college application.

2. Tracking your organization’s progress in completing the tasks laid out in the grant proposal. Remember: don’t just track your organization’s activities. Show the funder how their support and your organization’s activities directly impact outcomes for your participants.

On end-of-season surveys, kitchen staff will indicate meal preparation time decreased by at least 20% after installation of new stoves, cooking range, griddle, and food processor. – Data collection tool is the end-of-season survey of staff members; funded item is the new kitchen equipment.
Educators report 80% of students demonstrated comprehension of science modules covered during their visit to new exhibits at the Museum of Arts and Sciences. – Data collection tool is the educator survey; funded items are the new exhibits.

3. Tracking your participants’ progress in achieving the goals laid out in the grant proposal without using a formal tool/test . Participant-centered outcomes focus on measurable outcomes in the lives of those you serve. These measurements demonstrate meaningful change that has long-term value for the individual or community, and this phrasing can maximize the impact of your grant proposal.

25 families will obtain and retain housing that meets their full cost of living and accessibility needs. – Data collection tool would be a client exit survey and a client follow-up survey to ensure the “retain” standard is met.
80% of employment services clients will obtain a position that is sufficient to meet their basic household needs. 75% of employment services clients who obtain a position will remain employed after one year. – Data collection tool for the first goal would be a client exit survey. Data collection tool for the second goal could be a client or employer follow-up survey.

How will your organization evaluate the success of your program? When funders ask this question, they want to know if you actively seek feedback about your programs and services from various constituents. Other phrasing of this question may include:

How does your organization conduct qualitative evaluations?
How does your organization share stories, successes, or lessons learned?

Funders want to know that your organization leadership is actively listening. Responses to this question should include multiple sources of program evaluation including:

1.Constituent Feedback – End-of-season evaluations, annual program surveys, exit surveys, workshop evaluations – every program and service you provide should include a way to collect feedback from your constituents. Evaluations should include opportunities for constituents to answer questions like:

What went well, and what areas of the program/service could be improved?
Did the program/service help you make progress toward the defined goals the organization has established? (i.e. did the client obtain a job that meets his/her household needs?)
Did the program/service meet your need(s)?
What programs/services could the organization offer to better support clients in the future?

2. Employee Feedback – Your staff team is critical to the success of your program/service. They are the ones in the classroom, working with the animals, preparing the meals, sitting in meetings with clients, or doing the specific tasks of your organization. You need to know if they are happy in their jobs, if they have the proper training and support to do their work, and if your constituents are giving them feedback that aligns with your program goals.

What aspects of programs/services are running well, and what areas could be improved?
Did you receive sufficient training to do your job? Did you have sufficient support from administration/supervisors to do your job?
What is the greatest challenge to successfully serving clients in your position?
How could our organization do more to accomplish our mission and meet the needs of our clients?

3. Volunteer Feedback – Volunteers are a wonderful asset for nonprofit organizations. They may supplement your workforce, complete needed repairs and maintenance on your facilities, or raise needed funds for your organization. Seek feedback from your volunteers to learn about their experience, encourage them to return, and maximize your ability to engage more volunteers in the future. The same questions raised above apply to volunteers.

4. Escalation of Concerns – We all hope that programs run smoothly, but challenges are part of program management. When you write about evaluation in grants, include a statement about how your organization addresses concerns raised by participants or employees outside the evaluation process. Active listening and engagement should be a continual process in your organization. Funders want to know that organizations will take action to address challenges immediately and integrate new policies, procedures, or practices based on what they learned from those challenges.

What happens if we don’t hit our numbers from a grant application?

This is one of the most common questions I hear from clients when we are writing grant applications. Putting the goal down it writing seems to set it in stone. This is a myth. Much like a budget, the outcome measures in a grant proposal are a forecast. They are your best guess at what your program will achieve with sufficient funding. That does not mean every outcome measure will hit the goal.

When writing outcome measures, it’s important to set your goals based on previous experience at your organization. At the start of the grant year, you should expect the program to hit the goal. However, if the program doesn’t hit the goal, you need to provide the funder with an explanation in your grant report. For example:

If you currently have 100 children in your after school program and 25 of them are in a literacy program, you can forecast based on existing numbers and costs that a grant of $10,000 for a second literacy coach will allow 20 more kids to participate in the literacy program. Your outcome measure forecasts improved reading levels for 90% of the kids in the entire program, but only 80% of the kids hit the goal.

When you write your final report to the funder, you need to provide an explanation for why you didn’t hit the target – it’s possible the new literacy coach didn’t start as quickly as anticipated, maybe it was a really snowy winter and your program was cancelled more days than anticipated, or perhaps there was a higher rate of student turnover in the program this year. Provide a reasonable explanation for the variance, and the funder is unlikely to raise an issue with your grant report.

If you know far in advance that you won’t meet the outcome measure, contact the funder. This is a common issue with capital campaigns. Your organization may not reach the financial goals of the campaign and need to delay building or change the plan. Contact the funder to discuss the new plan. Most funders that commit funds for capital campaigns are willing to make adjustments in these situations.

The Measurement/Outcomes and Evaluation sections of the grant proposal are your opportunity to convince the funder that each dollar has a substantial impact on your constituents, and that you keep track of that impact through both qualitative (evaluation) and quantitative (outcome measures) feedback.

Common Mistakes in Grant Applications

Tue, 21 May 2019 15:16:00 GMT

Grant writing is hard work. The last thing you want is for your work to be wasted! Here are some of the most common grant writing mistakes to watch out for, and rules to help you avoid them in your grant writing.

Mistake 1: Barking up the wrong tree

Before you begin an application, make sure your organization is a fit for the funder. If your organization’s focus area, ideology, approach to problems, population served, or priorities don’t align with the funder’s, your grant will not be competitive and your efforts will be in vain.

Confirming that your organization aligns with a funder requires you to carefully research each funder. Some funders clearly spell out their ideology and approach by providing a grant making philosophy or mission statement. For example, the White Family Foundation from Tampa, FL states on their website:

“Philosophically, the White Family Foundation supports organizations that excel at helping those in need while promoting self-reliance and personal responsibility.”

Other funders may not share their positions as publicly. If you can find contact information for the funder, try calling to learn more about their approach to funding through a personal conversation. Discuss the organization’s needs with the foundation staff to see if there is an interest/funding match.

If you can’t find a website contact or phone number for the funder, research the funder’s board members and the organizations that the funder has supported previously. Our Pathways to Growth team uses subscriber-only databases to look at organizations’ past giving, but a free Google search can also be enlightening. For example, you may learn that the board president is an avid hunter—which means he may not be as receptive to your organization’s vision of “a world without guns.” A foundation that gives large gifts to Planned Parenthood may not want to fund your pro-life counseling program. A Jewish funder may not support your mission to “share the gospel of Jesus with every man, woman, and child.”

Rule 1: Look for funders who are excited about what you do and how you do it. Grant writing takes time—spend that time wisely, writing to funders who are a good prospect for your organization.

Mistake 2: Right message, wrong time

So, you’ve identified a funder that is a good fit ideologically. Time to apply for the next grant cycle, right? Not so fast!

Research the funder’s funding opportunities. Many funders have multiple grant cycles and categories, and it’s important to “match” to the category and cycle that best meets your needs.

Talking with the foundation staff may help you do this. Websites provide general guidelines for funding categories, but foundation staff have better understanding of the details and can provide the best guidance about what funds match an organization’s service category, programs, and funding needs.

Here’s a real life example: Foundation A offers five types of grants. One of our clients originally planned to apply for Foundation A’s $10,000 grant category that would fit the client’s existing programming. However, when our grant writer talked with Foundation A, she learned about an opportunity to apply for a much larger grant category that would fund dream programming for multiple years.

Also, be wary of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. If you miss the funding deadline for your category, wait until next year. Applying in the wrong category and getting declined may cause a 1-year wait until your next grant application, preventing you from applying in the correct category next year.

Rule 2: Make sure you’re applying in the category that makes the most sense for your organization’s goals.

Mistake 3: Mistakes in messaging

Once you’ve followed rules 1 and 2 and you’re applying for a grant that makes sense for your organization, use your words wisely!

Avoid jargon and abbreviations that make sense to your staff, but not to a stranger. Asking someone outside of your organization to read your application can help you spotlight these “insider terms.” I have been lucky enough to use my sister, brother-in-law, husband, and babysitter as first reviewers of my grants in the past. I tell them, “if something doesn’t make sense as you read, let me know.” A funder has a stack of grants, and likely will not continue reading your proposal if it doesn’t make sense to him/her.
Speak their language . When possible (and when you can still be ethical and accurate in doing so), try to use a funder’s terminology. For example, one of our most successful clients is a nonprofit preschool that serves children who reside under the federal poverty line. Funder A may refer to these children as “children from low-income households,” which doesn’t contradict our term, so we will use “children from low-income households” in our application for Funder A. Funder B may use the term “economically disadvantaged children,” which also doesn’t contradict our term, so we use that term for Funder B.
Write with the head AND the heart . It can be tempting to ONLY share heartfelt testimonials, or just to document the successful metrics from your organization’s last evaluation. As you review the grant you’re writing, ask yourself: do I have an emotional tug? AND do I have “proof” that what we’re doing is needed and that it works? A successful grant application will address both.

NOTE: This is a general rule. Exceptions to this rule are very rare, but do exist. There are occasionally funders who say: “make me cry!” and “I don’t want your evaluation plan”—or a government agency whose cumbersome federal grant leaves no space for emotion. Always respond to the requirements and preferences of the funder.

Rule 3: Know your audience and speak their language.

Mistake 4: Rush jobs

Organization is a key part of writing successful grant applications. Work far ahead to ensure that you have time to obtain all of the necessary information and documents, develop appropriate budgets, AND have an editor review your grant package (the application and all required documents) for grammar, internal consistency, accuracy, and completeness. When multiple contributors are working on an application, it is easy to overlook details and forget to incorporate changes throughout an entire application. Identify an editor, and set him or her up for success by finishing well in advance of the application deadline.

Make sure that you review your finished grant package against the original grant application before submitting. Sometimes, questions may get merged or pages may get lost.

Remember that every time you submit something to a funder, you are presenting your organization and its reputation for review. If you haven’t had time to ensure an error-free, complete, and thoughtful document, you won’t win—and you are not leaving a good impression with the grant committee or foundation staff. The negative impression from this grant application may carry forward to future applications.

Rule 4: Give yourself enough time to complete an application. If you can’t produce an error-free application, consider sitting this grant out.

Blog Series – An In-Depth Look at Common Segments of Grant Proposals Part 3: Need Statements – Making the Case for Your Organization

Tue, 16 Apr 2019 15:35:00 GMT

Cover Letters – What to Include and What to Leave Out
Organization History and Background – Developing a Narrative that Appeals to Funders
Need Statements – Making the Case for Your Organization (this post ?)
Measurement, Evaluation, and Outcomes – Are Numbers Set in Stone?
Presentation of Budgets for Grant Applications
Preparing Your Grant Proposal Packet for Submission

The third section of a grant proposal is the Statement of Need. The purpose of the Statement of Need is to clearly define the problem your organization or program is trying to solve and substantiate the presence of that problem with data.

What are the components of a Statement of Need?

The Problem – Nonprofit organizations and their programs exist because there are unmet needs in our communities. Your organization’s community may be as small as a neighborhood or as large as the globe. The problem you are trying to solve will exist on the same scale. In two to three sentences, briefly describe the problem your community faces – a workforce that hasn’t recovered from the recession, families in Africa struggling to survive on $3-$5 per day with no money left over for healthcare, a neighborhood trying to rebuild years after the last hurricane while the homes around them continue to sink into the ground on cracked foundations. The first few sentences of your Statement of Need should help the reader visualize the specific challenges of the community you serve.
Recent Relevant Data – Once you’ve defined the problem, you need to provide confirmation from sources outside your organization that the problem exists and that the issue is significant in nature. When searching for data for a Statement of Need, I recommend combining at least two of these options:
Data from government sources – Most local, state, and national agencies report data at regular intervals. This makes it easier to compare statistics over time, compare one region to another, and update statistics as new grant applications are developed. Data from government sources is also considered reasonably trustworthy, especially if it is supported by a secondary source.
Data from universities/colleges in your region – Local universities can be a rich source of data specific to the challenges in your community or region. For example, research done by the College of Business at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg on the economic impact of domestic violence in Pinellas County is ideally suited to grants written for domestic violence programs working to reduce the generational cycle of family violence in most counties in South Florida.
Data from peer reviewed journals – Research printed in peer reviewed journals has the benefit of validation from other experts within the field. If you don’t have access to an academic research database, OMICS International has an extensive library of over 700 Open Access peer reviewed journals. In addition to peer reviewed journals, you can also look for articles with titles including the words “meta-analysis” or “research survey.” These terms mean a researcher has reviewed multiple research studies to compare the outcomes. For grant writing purposes, these studies are sometimes more helpful. If your Statement of Need includes a statement such as, “in an analysis of 11 research studies about the long-term impacts of crisis counseling for survivors of domestic/sexual violence,” you add substantial weight to your argument while only citing a single source.
Data from recognized sources – In the eyes of a foundation, data from the Pew Research Center carries more weight than a survey conducted by John Smith from DataSource, Inc. Recognized sources might include major regional nonprofits such as the United Way or Area Agency on Aging, national foundations such Annie E. Casey or W.K. Kellogg, local or national media organizations, etc.

All of the data used in the Statement of Need should be as recent as possible and no more than five years old. In most nonprofit fields, a lot can change in five years. If you cannot find data from within this timeframe to support the need for your organization or program, it may be time to re-evaluate if the need exists.

Demographics – Provide specific information about the population your organization/program serves. A no-kill animal shelter statement of need should include the number of unhomed pets in the community, the number of feral animals in the community, and the number of surrendered pets dropped off at shelters and the pound each year. A disability advocacy organization would provide statistics for the number of people in the community who have the type of disability served by the organization. Other demographics for the disability advocacy organization may include an age breakdown, income/poverty levels, healthcare needs, or any other population statistics relevant to the community they serve. The Census Bureau is an excellent source for most demographics data related to people in the United States.
A Connection to Your Mission/Vision – Wrap up the Statement of Need by connecting it back to your organization’s mission/vision. There must be a constant thread throughout your proposal that ties all of the pieces together. If I were writing a Statement of Need for an employment organization, I could wrap up a series of statistics about local unemployment, underemployment, and families who are food insecure and/or at risk of homelessness by stating:

FloridaWorks! employment coaches stand ready to work with local job seekers to secure employment that will meet the financial needs of their household. Each job sets one more family on the path to food security and housing stability.

5. Any Criteria Required by the Funder – Read the application directions carefully. Some funders will ask for specific content in the Statement of Need section. Commonly requested content includes:

Organizational Capacity/Qualifications – Does your nonprofit organization have the capacity (sufficient staff/facilities/project management experience/collaborative relationships/room to increase programs) and qualifications (certified staff/appropriate licenses and accreditations/network to increase reach) to respond to the problem? If funders include this requirement, it may be in the Statement of Need, in the Proposal, or in a separate section.
Similar Organizations/Duplication of Services – Funders may ask you to address if there are other organizations/programs in your community that are already addressing this problem. If similar organizations exist, there are two viable reasons for funding an additional organization/program:
Your organization is unique – If so, tell the funder what sets you apart from others who are trying to solve this problem.
The demand for services is too high for the available programs to meet – For example, there is currently a shortage of licensed foster homes in most states. The public and nonprofit system is unable to meet the needs of children who are entering and living in foster care. If a nonprofit organization has the capacity and qualifications to develop or grow a foster parent licensing program, it is a necessary program in most regions. This is a valid justification for duplicating current services.
Specific Demographics – Some funders are very precise about the demographics that need to be included in the Statement of Need. Common requirements include income, ethnicity, gender, and county/region. Watch for these guidelines.

Areas that can be Tricky:

Statistics and Other Data in Text Blocks – Do you remember struggling with math word problems in school? From middle school through college, I remember a large portion of my classmates bemoaning math problems presented in paragraph format. It can be hard to keep track of which numbers attach to each label. If you are comparing numbers, it gets even harder. When sharing several numbers, make life easier for the grant committee by using infographics, charts, or tables. They present the data in a way that is easier to understand and provide a visual break in your proposal.
Cite Your Sources Accurately – It is acceptable to summarize information from a report or paraphrase a quote due to space limitations. If you choose to change the wording or order of information from a source, be sure you do not change the results or implication of the data. For example, the infographic above pulls a few statistics from the United Way ALICE 2017 Report for Florida. The graphic lists only three out of more than a dozen statistics cited in the report for a county in Central Florida. The county was selected because it was more populous than most in the region but the data was still similar to the majority of the other counties.

The Statement of Need section verifies that you are seeking an investment for programs or services that are needed in your community. Funders are looking for a clearly identified problem, independent data that supports the existence of the problem and that validates the method you are using to address it, and a connection between the problem and your organization’s mission.

Blog Series – An In-Depth Look At Common Segments Of Grant Proposals Part 2: Organization History And Background – Developing A Narrative That Appeals To Funders

Tue, 02 Apr 2019 00:44:00 GMT

Cover Letters – What to Include and What to Leave Out
Organization History and Background – Developing a Narrative that Appeals to Funders (this post J)
Need Statements – Making the Case for Your Organization
Measurement, Evaluation, and Outcomes – Are Numbers Set in Stone?
Presentation of Budgets for Grant Applications
Preparing Your Grant Proposal Packet for Submission

Whether your nonprofit serves animals, people, or the environment, the Organization History/Background is where you tell the funder what you do and why.

The second section of a grant proposal is typically called the Organization History, Background, or Applicant Description. There are many different terms funders may use to describe this section of the proposal, but they all boil down to the same thing – a brief description of your nonprofit and why it is a valuable part of your community. Think of this section as your elevator story with a bit of extra history thrown in – an engaging, informational story about how the organization was established, what it has accomplished, and why it needs to continue serving a specific need locally, regionally, nationally, or globally.

What are the components of this story?

The Beginning – When was your nonprofit founded? Was it founded by an individual, a grassroots group, or a group with a common need or interest? Start your story by sharing this background information. Every nonprofit has a “why” behind it. One of Pathways to Growth’s clients runs a child development center that has served its community for more than 125 years because two women established schools for children of immigrant families who did not have access to public schools.
Your Mission/Vision – While it isn’t necessary to say “The mission of ABC Child Development Centers is to engage children as we prepare them to meet the academic, social, and developmental skill requirements for K-12 education,” you do want to clearly indicate your mission in your story. Depending upon the space available, you can use a summary statement or rephrasing of your mission statement, an expansion of your mission statement, your vision statement if the mission statement was provided in a previous question, or relate your mission/vision statement to the mission and priorities of the foundation. If you have a compelling mission statement and it hasn’t been stated in the cover letter or an application text box, this is the place to use it.
What You Do – What population do you serve? What role does your organization play in your community? What programs and services do you provide? This section of the application is your opportunity to provide general information about all that your organization does. This is a key component for organizations with multiple programs and services. You may be applying for a grant that only supports a single program area. Use the Organization History and Background to paint the full picture of what you do and how all of your programs come together. Sharing this larger picture may provide the critical piece of information the funder needs to engage with your organization. I recently wrote a grant seeking funding for a camp program. The funder later told the organization that they moved the application forward because they were particularly interested in the services for seniors provided at a different program site. If the funder hadn’t received a full picture of all of the programs and services provided, the grant most likely would have been declined.
What Makes You Unique – There are probably at least twenty after school programs in a single mid-sized community. Why should a funder provide a grant to your middle school arts program rather than the program at the YMCA two miles away? Regardless of whether you are working in education, substance abuse programs, arts programming, or the environment, there is a huge amount of competition for every dollar of grant funding. Let funders know why your organization is uniquely qualified to deliver this service – your major achievements, your connections in the community, anything that will set you apart from the rest of the field. It is okay to brag a bit, but also remember to keep things brief.
Show that you are Stable – Funders want to know that your organization is a good investment. Demonstrate that you are fiscally responsible, that you have an engaged board with strong governing capacity, and that you have diversified funding streams. It is also helpful to tell funders briefly about the capacities or qualifications of your staff or volunteers. There may be an opportunity to provide this information later in the proposal. If so, it is not necessary to include it in the history/background section.
Connect the Organization to the Foundation – Tailor your organization history and background to highlight ways in which your nonprofit aligns with the mission, guidelines, and grant making priorities of the foundation. If the foundation focuses on a specific geographic region, clearly state that your programs or services are in that region using their terminology for the region. If they focus on serving a specific county, refer to your services in the county. If they focus on serving a city or metropolitan area, use that as your point of reference. These same guidelines apply to grant making priorities. Use the foundation’s terms for service areas (i.e. victims of domestic violence vs. survivors of domestic violence, workforce development vs. employment services).
Follow the Directions – The funder may have specific guidelines about what to include in this section of the proposal. If they provide a list of topics for you to address, be certain to write about each topic in your proposal. To make reading your proposal easier for the funder, it is easiest if you address each item on their list in order. You can include additional information as well, but keeping their items in order makes it easier for funders to check off each answer as they read through the proposal. The directions may also specify the length of this section.

The length requirement can be the hardest part of writing the organization history and background. If you are writing a general proposal (total length of proposal about 4-6 pages), the organization history should not exceed one page. If the funder has set the length for each section, you may be limited to a specific number of words or characters. I frequently see this section limited to 200 words, 1,000 characters, or 2,000 characters. It can be difficult to say everything you want within these limitations. Prioritize any directions from the funder first, then prioritize the bullets in the order they are listed. When words or characters are limited, you will not be able to fit everything listed above.

What to leave out of the story:

Too many details – You may have noticed the word “brief” in various forms above. This is intentional. The story of your organization in the Organization History/Background/Applicant Description is not intended to cover every permutation of your nonprofit. If the organization has changed names 5 times in the last 50 years as the focus and programs gradually shifted, the funder doesn’t need to know. If the nonprofit is relatively new and going through growing pains as it determines what programs will work, how big the board should be, and what staff structure will be ideal, those details don’t belong in the organization history synopsis. The story is about the heart of your organization and why it exists, and that is something that should be consistent over time even if there are changes in your mission statement, name, and the specific programs offered.
Information covered in other sections of the grant – While your story should state why your organization exists/is needed in your community, this is not the place to provide a substantial amount of data. The Statement of Need section is where you insert general data about the population you serve or the problem you are working to resolve (i.e. the number of homeless veterans in your county, state, and in the country). You will also provide demographics data in the project proposal and outcome measures sections.
Testimonials – Lengthy client or community partner testimonials should not be part of your organization history/background. Testimonials are typically included as attachments to the proposal. If the testimonial is a brief quote and the proposal is in document format, the quote can be inserted as a text box for a visual break anywhere in the application. Visual breaks should be evenly distributed over the length of your proposal. To create the most impact, the text box should be attached to an image.

Whether the section is called Organization History/Background, Applicant Description, or any other title, this is typically the most flexible section of the grant proposal and the only opportunity you have to tell your nonprofit’s story. As with any good story, your goal is for the grant officers or trustees reviewing the grant to be able to picture the organization as they read your story. Use your words to paint a picture of where the organization started and where you are today. Make certain the funder can see themselves in that picture and can clearly see the impact their investment will make in your unfolding story. When funders envision themselves in your story, you come one step closer to securing your grant funding.

Assessing Your Organization For Grant Readiness

Thu, 28 Mar 2019 14:18:00 GMT

A parent and a nonprofit founder have many things in common.

They are both passionate about (and sometimes passionately annoyed with) the thing they have “created.” It is exhilarating (and exhausting!) to be in charge of its growth.

They are also both concerned with whether their “creation” is growing and hitting developmental milestones.

Parents may worry about whether their child is making eye contact, walking, and using appropriate vocabulary. They wonder if their child is ready for kindergarten, or if they should wait another year to give their child more time to develop.

Nonprofit founders may wonder if their organization is developing the right mix of volunteers and staff members to help it grow, if their organization has the right mission statement and vision, and if their organization is doing enough to fundraise. Usually, within a few months of the organization’s creation, a nonprofit founder begins to wonder, “Should we apply for some grants?”

As a parent, you can easily find a checklist to help you decide whether little Johnny is school-ready, or if he needs to spend another year in preschool.

Likewise, you can find many checklists online to help you decide if your organization is ready to apply for grants, or if you need a little more time to develop.

At Pathways to Growth, we take these checklists a step further by having new clients complete a comprehensive grant readiness assessment. We use this assessment to create a customized plan to help each client build organizational capacity where needed.

Three of the most common issues we see among clients who are interested in applying for grants—but aren’t quite ready to win them are:

Issue 1: A solid foundation needs to be laid to apply for grants.

You must have completed your 501(c)(3) application and have your 501(c)(3) letter of determination from the IRS.
Your organization should have a mission statement, vision statement, and offer programs or services that align with your mission.
Your organization should have a budget and be able to provide a current balance sheet, and/or a profit and loss statement.
You should have completed an appropriate review of financial statements. The Better Business Bureau Standards for Charitable Accountability state that when the organization reaches $250,000 in annual revenue, it should conduct annual audits. Organizations with budgets between $10,000 and $250,000 in annual revenue should have a review conducted by a CPA. For those under $10,000 in revenue an internally produced complete financial statement is allowable.
You should written financial procedures in place.
You should be able to share success stories from your organization and your work.

Why this matters:

While some funders enjoy funding start-up nonprofits or pilot programs, they still expect organizations to demonstrate the ability to legally accept funds, account for them, and use them to accomplish their mission.

Pro tip:

Returning to our parenting imagery: if the above issues describe your organization, you are in the newborn phase. Newborns require a LOT of attention; they can’t care for themselves. Remember to take the long view! Eventually, that newborn who needs a bottle every 3 hours will learn to feed herself. The newborn who can only cry will learn to say words and even paragraphs. Likewise, your organization will become established in your community and begin to attract donors and outside funders. But you have to lay a lot of foundation first. Don’t grow weary! Keep it up, and surround yourself with support as you face the joys and challenges of these “newborn days.”

Issue 2: You should look committed to fundraising.

100% of your board members should give financially to the organization.
Your board should participate in securing donations.
Your organization should use other fundraising strategies (such as events, direct mail appeals, or social giving) before you apply for grants.

Why this matters:

Funders expect 100% Board giving as a sign of a good investment. A healthy organization has many revenue streams; nonprofit experts state that approximately 70% of your organization’s revenue should come from individual donors (including board members) through donations or events, 20% should come from foundation gifts, and 10% should come through corporate sponsors through event or program sponsorship. If you are a new organization, you probably aren’t there yet. In the meantime, try to show the funder that you are using a variety of funding streams, that your existing funders are committed, and that you think creatively about fundraising.

Pro tip:

It doesn’t matter how much your board gives—it just matters that every member gives something! We recommend that you create a mandatory board giving policy that you advertise and openly discuss during board recruitment and training.

Most funders want to see that the community has an interest and investment in your organization. Foundations don’t want to be your sole source of income because they know that is not sustainable. Show them that you have widespread community support, and you work hard to generate your own funding. This makes you more attractive as a grantee.

Issue 3: Establish your priorities.

Your organization should have a definition of “success” for your programs (also known as “program goals” or “objectives”).
Your organization should be measuring the outcomes of your programs.
Your organization should have a strategic plan.
Your organization should be sure what the actual costs of your programs are—and what funding you really need.

Why this matters:

Funders receive many applications. To help them choose between many good causes, they look for organizations who have a solid business plan, who will measure their success, and who can show them a good “return” on their investment. If your organization has not defined its priorities, you will not be a competitive applicant.

Pro tip:

To begin creating goals and objectives for your programs, consult with a subject matter expert from your field, or talk to other nonprofits providing similar programming. Ask what goals or objectives they measure, and use those as a template.

It will also be important to develop a way to track measurable outcomes for each of your programs by developing a process and procedure for gathering, entering, and analyzing data. Consider what points in your program processes would be good data collection points, and what tools you could use to capture information. If your nonprofit is located near a university, keep in mind that many universities seek research opportunities and have students and faculty members who could help you develop outcomes.

The bottom line:

If you start Johnny in kindergarten too early, he won’t be successful. The same is true for your organization and grant applications. If you start applying before your organization is ready, you won’t be successful. We are here to help you build your grant readiness.

The Florida Holocaust Museum

Mon, 04 Mar 2019 17:10:00 GMT

I had the great honor to attend a lecture last week given by Dr. Susannah Heschel, professor of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College and daughter of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, friend and confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Her lecture marked the kickoff of “Legacy Week – 2019” – a week long annual Black History Month event in St. Petersburg that celebrates people and groups with different backgrounds coming together for the greater good. It was hosted by the Florida Holocaust Museum in collaboration with “Legacy Week 2019” and USF St. Petersburg and was sponsored in part by a grant from the Florida Humanities Council .

Dr. Heschel captivated the overflow audience with excerpts of both her father’s and Dr. King’s writings. We learned that it was Rabbi Heschel who brought Dr. King and his message to a wide Jewish audience, and it was Dr. King who made Rabbi Heschel a central figure in the struggle for civil rights; that they often lectured together and that their mutual concern was “saving the soul of America.”

Dr. Heschel spoke of her father’s and Dr. King’s belief that moral responsibility transcends class, creed and race; that the opposite of good is not evil but indifference and that silence in the presence of evil amounts to consent.

Dr. King once said of her father: “He has been with us in many struggles. I remember marching from Selma to Montgomery, how he stood at my side…I remember very well when we were in Chicago for the Conference on Religion and Race…to a great extent his speech inspired clergymen of all faiths to do something they had not done before.”

I felt honored for the opportunity to hear Dr. Heschel’s firsthand account of these two iconic leaders, two men of the cloth. Her lecture was inspiring, educational and extremely apropos for the divisive times in which we live.

Blog Series: An In-Depth Look at Common Segments of Grant Proposals

Thu, 28 Feb 2019 20:02:00 GMT

Part 1: Cover Letters – What to Include and What to Leave Out

Cover Letters – What to Include and What to Leave Out (yes, that is this post )
Organization History and Background – Developing a Narrative that Appeals to Funders
Need Statements – Making the Case for Your Organization
Measurement, Evaluation, and Outcomes – Are Numbers Set in Stone?
Presentation of Budgets for Grant Applications
Preparing Your Grant Proposal Packet for Submission

Let’s start at the beginning with the proposal cover letter. You can put countless hours into preparing the rest of your grant proposal, gathering all of the support documents required by the funder, and answering questions in an application. All of this time and effort may be wasted if you don’t write a compelling cover letter. If funders accept proposals as the initial approach, your cover letter gets you in the door with the foundation staff or trustees who screen proposals before sending recommendations to the full board of trustees for funding. These funders often receive far more proposals than they have funds available for grant making. If the cover letter isn’t compelling, the remainder of your proposal may not be reviewed.

What goes into a compelling cover letter?

Address the letter to a specific person.
The inside address and salutation should direct the letter to a specific person. This is traditionally either the President/Chairperson of the Board of Directors or the CEO/Executive Director of the foundation. The name of this person can be found on the foundation’s website or their most recent 990. You can also find out the name and title of the person to whom the letter should be addressed by calling the foundation. This also allows you to confirm the mailing address. Letters addressed generally to the “Trustees” or “Board” indicate that you did not take the time to do your research.
Introduce your organization and tell the funder what the letter is about in the first paragraph.
Whether you are providing food to low-income families, college scholarships, or therapeutic horseback riding programs, let the reader know right away what you are asking them to support. If this is your first application to a funder, think of this as your first impression. What would you say to the funder if you met them in person and had the opportunity to introduce them to your organization? If you’ve received funding from the funder in the past, this is your opportunity to remind the funder of their previous support and how it has made a difference to real people, the environment, animals, etc. Be sure to thank them for their past support.
End the first paragraph with a clear ask .
The reader now knows who you are and what you do; now it’s time to tell them what you need. Your ask is more than a dollar amount. It tells the funder what type of support you are requesting (general operating, program, capital investment, etc.) and how those funds will be used. For example:
Explain your connection to the foundation’s mission and vision .
There are thousands of grants available. Why did you pick this one? Something about the foundation, their mission, program priorities, geographic or population focus, or grant making history indicated that their trustees or board would look favorably upon your application. Tell the funder about that connection. This shows the funder that you did do your research, and the match between their mission or program priorities and your organization is more than a coincidence.
Reference any recent interaction with the foundation .
If you attended a potential grantee training, participated in a community event sponsored by the foundation, or met with the grants manager, tell the trustees. Demonstrate that you are investing in a relationship with the foundation beyond asking for money.
Provide contact information .
The cover letter should be on your organization letterhead. If your letterhead does not include your address, phone number, and an email address for the organization, add that information under the signature or in the closing paragraph.
Make sure the letter is signed by the Executive Director/CEO and/or the Board Chair .
Foundations expect grant proposals to be signed by the most senior staff person at your organization. Some foundations will expect both the executive and the highest-ranking member of the board to sign the cover letter (this will be indicated in the application directions). These signatures indicate the grant proposal has been reviewed and is supported by your organization’s leadership, and it is worthy of the foundation’s time and resources.

What to leave out of the cover letter:

Your proposal.
The cover letter is not meant to rehash your entire proposal. It provides a brief introduction to the organization and specific program area/population for which funding is being requested. The cover letter also draws a connection between the foundation and the organization. All of this should fit in one page. Everything else – your organization’s history, an extended discussion of the need, budget information, your community partners, etc. – stays in the proposal where it belongs.
Big words and jargon .
Grant applications in general, and cover letters specifically, are not the forum to break out your most advanced vocabulary. Most funders are not experts in your specific field. They fund nonprofits working in many different areas. Use common language that is easily understood. If you aren’t good at judging when you are overcomplicating your writing or using too much jargon, turn on the Readability Statistics in Microsoft Word or use an app such as Hemingway . These applications tell how difficult it is to understand your writing using word length and sentence length. (This blog post has a Flesch Reading Ease score of 50.4 and grade level of 10.2 – similar to the average readability of Time)
Grammar and punctuation mistakes .
Proper grammar and punctuation are basic expectations in professional communication. If you are uncertain about grammar and punctuation rules, use the grammar check in Microsoft Word or an app such as Grammarly . It is also helpful to have a colleague proofread your writing to check for errors and clarity.

A well-written cover letter connects with the foundation and makes them want to read the rest of your proposal. Like most communication in development, it is donor-centered and tells your organization’s story clearly and concisely.

Pathways to Growth – A Year in Review

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 03:35:00 GMT

It has been an exciting year at Pathways to Growth! In 2018, we expanded our grant writing and management team, served 44 clients through grant writing and capacity building, taught grant writing to 50 students, and helped organizations from 8 states and 3 countries to find funding to sustain and grow their work. We are blessed to work with such a great group of grant writers and nonprofit organizations. Because our writers often work “behind the scenes,” we thought it would be fun to spotlight their favorite moments from the past year of hard work at Pathways to Growth.

Alicia Regan

“The highlight of my year was having the honor to write a grant for University Area CDC that spotlighted the local community hero, Angelo Russo (also known as “Papa Russo”). In the course of the application, I interviewed Papa Russo and was truly inspired by his selfless nature and commitment to making a better future for the youth in his community. In just three short years of volunteering, Angelo’s donations have created a soccer league, baseball league, hockey league, and, starting this past October, a basketball league at the UACDC. For most of these children, the athletic programs the UACDC offers are their only opportunity to take part in extracurricular activities and socialize outside of school. The equipment collected is worth so much more than its monetary value. Its true value is the ability to offer these children the opportunity to be active, healthy, and stay out of trouble.”

Sarah Bonema

“The highlight of my year was finding three new funders for one of my favorite clients — A Brighter Community. Since 2016, we have raised almost $450,000 in grants big and small to support the work of this preschool that has provided affordable early childhood education to children from low-income households in Tampa Heights since 1922. As a parent of preschool-aged children, I understand how much A Brighter Community’s work impacts the lives of these children and their families. It has been my joy to be a small part of their mission, to achieve tangible results that keep their work going, and to show my daughters how we can use our gifts to uplift others.”

Sharon Fennell Kennedy

“My best Pathways to Growth moment comes every time I receive word that a grant I wrote has been won, especially when it is fully funded. This ‘reward’ is validation of the time spent researching, writing, re-writing and ultimately submitting a strong, winning proposal. I am ecstatic for my client and Pathways to Growth when I can deliver a positive result.”

Diane DiGiacomo

“In 2018, like each of the four years since I’ve been consulting, including grant-writing, I took great satisfaction in learning about something new and important. This year I did grant writing for the Brain Injury Association of New York State (BIANYS), and I learned about the prevalence of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in people of all ages. For instance, I learned that every 13 seconds, someone in the U.S. sustains a TBI, most often through a car accident, fall or sports injury. I also was reminded what an important role nonprofit organizations in our country play in addressing all kinds of issues we face.”

Ellen Stone

“My best moment of 2018 was working with a small nonprofit to write template letters of inquiry and proposals. As we were writing the grants and gathering the documents in the Toolbox, the organization didn’t have several of the documents funders were likely to require. I created templates or pulled samples from online and sent them to the client with directions for what needed to be included. The client wanted to learn so his organization could be successful, and was very appreciative of the additional information. By working together to build the background documents, I was able to write better grants that are more likely to be funded, and the organization now has better documentation that sets it up for success in future grant writing endeavors.”

Chrissy Bond

“I attended the Tampa Bay Lightning game and watched our client, Herb Schluderberg of Fresh Start Mentoring, be recognized with the Lightning Community Hero Award for his years of sacrificial service to those who truly need someone to care. While watching his beaming face on the jumbo screen, I thought about how beautiful it was to see him finally recognized for years of unrecognized service to man, and how grateful I was to be a small part of it. I thought of Laura, who helped me navigate our writing tools, Julé, who answered any question I had, and Sarah, who dissected and refined my writing to make it a better, superior product. I was truly grateful to be part of a team – one that strives for excellence and cares about helping others succeed.”

We want to thank every client, referral partner, friend, and cheerleader who has helped us achieve such a successful year! Later in 2019, we will share a more detailed annual report about our accomplishments on behalf of our clients and the communities they serve. For now, we wish you a happy 2019—full of uplifting moments like these!

7 Tips for Writing an Exceptional Grant Report

Mon, 10 Dec 2018 14:07:00 GMT

The end of the year is rapidly approaching. For most nonprofit staff with development responsibilities, that means two things – year end giving appeals and year end grant reports.

Some funders are very precise with their reporting requirements. They provide you with a list of questions or forms to complete. Others are more ambiguous, merely requiring that you submit a report on the outcome of the grant at the end of the grant period. What do you include in these general grant reports?

There are seven things that every grant report should include:

Start the grant report off on the right note by addressing it to the person listed on the award letter . The award letter may provide direction for who you should submit the grant report to. If it does not, submit the grant report to the person who signed the grant letter. This may be an officer/trustee of the foundation. It may also be a staff member at the foundation who is responsible for administering your grant.
Say “thank you.” Your report should start and end with a clear, simple statement of thanks to the funder.
Refer back to the Goals and Outcome Measures in your original proposal, and provide data about the outcomes. Did you achieve all of the goals you set for your program or organization? If you fell short of a goal, is there a reason you didn’t meet the goal? Are you making progress toward the goal and will achieve the desired outcome in the near future? Share your data with the funder. Celebrate your successes and progress, and be honest about areas where you have room for growth. Funders recognize that goals and outcome measures are forecasts that will not always be achieved. If an organization does not meet its goal(s), funders want to know about lessons learned along the way that will improve the outcomes in the future.
Provide budget details. If you received a grant for a specific program, your grant report should include details about how the funds were utilized. This could include copies of receipts for items purchased (if there are only a few, an itemized spreadsheet detailing grant expenditures, and/or an income/expense statement for the program showing the program budget at the end of the year compared with the anticipated budget submitted to the funder. If grant funds were for general operating expenses, a final income/expense statement for the program or organization with budget categories that align with the categories in the budget submitted in the original grant application should be submitted with the grant report.
Client testimonials or impact stories. You told the funder about the impact of their grant dollars using data, but you also need to humanize the impact. Quotes from clients or brief stories about how the funded program or purchased equipment made a direct impact in someone’s life help explain the impact of the funds in a more meaningful way. Be sure the testimonial is different than what was in your original grant application. Ideally, you want to include a success story that is new and specifically focuses on the funder’s donation
Pictures and videos are worth more than a thousand words! Intersperse pictures of program participants with captions explaining the use of grant funds, if necessary, throughout your grant report. Utilize current technology by adding a link to a video tour of your program site, the new playground grant funds built, or the community event that the grant funded. Allowing funders to see their grant in action is a very effective reporting tool. A video does not need to be professionally produced. A video you shoot on your smartphone or a slideshow of photos may be just as impactful if the images are clear.
Follow directions. The funder may not have given you a detailed list of questions, but they did ask for a final report. Did they give you a deadline? Did they ask for it to be submitted by email or by postal mail? If there are any directions related to the final report in the award letter, follow them precisely. If you are uncertain about when or how to submit the final report, contact the foundation and ask.

Whether you are submitting a final report through a detailed list of funder questions or a general submission at the end of the grant year, be honest . If your program was an overwhelming success and exceeded every goal and metric, celebrate that in the grant report. If your organization experienced unanticipated challenges during the grant year that limited your capacity to fully launch an initiative, tell the funder about it. Funders want to celebrate with you. They also understand that nonprofits experience challenges that curtail projects or limit growth. If you report accurate information to funders, you will foster healthy relationships and are more likely to receive additional funding in the future.

Outcome Measures – Using Data to Tell Your Story

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 05:00:00 GMT

One of the most important questions for a nonprofit to be able to answer well is, “What is the impact of your organization?”

The question comes from donors, funders, and community partners. While stories about individual clients served may tug at the heartstrings, most organizations are finding that individual stories are no longer sufficient to generate dollars. The stories must be tied to a larger picture of impact through data that shows your nonprofit is actually achieving its mission.

But how do you gather the data that demonstrates your organization is having a meaningful impact in your community? These four questions will define commonly mixed-up terms in nonprofit data gathering and help you determine the best outcome measures to tell your organization’s story.

Impact: What long-term measurable change are you trying to make in your community or in the demographic you serve?

The vision of Dream Builders Mission in the Sulfur Springs neighborhood of Tampa is to equip all members of their community living in poverty to attain self-dignity, self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and to transition back to mainstream society. The organization tracks statistics at a regional and neighborhood level related to homelessness, risk of homelessness, per capita income, car ownership, and people living in motels to determine their impact on the Sulfur Springs neighborhood.

Outputs: How many units of service did your organization/program provide?

This is the number of houses built, students taught, clothes distributed, people fed, pounds of food distributed, people placed in employment, trauma victims counseled, mothers and babies sheltered, etc. This number tells the quantity of services provided, but it does not tell donors or funders anything about the quality of services.

Outcomes: How did the service your organization/program provided impact your clients?

This is the quality measurement for your outputs. For example:

Are the graduates of a child development center passing kindergarten readiness assessments? If a child was identified with a developmental delay, has the child made progress in catching up with his/her peers?
What percentage of the participants in an employment program obtain employment? What percentage of those participants remain employed 6 months later?

Outcomes data should be measurable and observable. The best outcomes data includes tracking beyond the end of a client’s involvement with a nonprofit organization. This data comes from client surveys sent at designated intervals after completing/exiting the program or collaborating organization surveys conducted at regular intervals.

Outcome and Output Targets: What are your goal numbers for the next year?

Now that you have defined the difference between units of service and impacts, set goals for both categories. If your organization’s fiscal year runs from January to December, this is the perfect time to set your goals for next fiscal year and make a plan to gather data throughout the year. Do you want to increase the number of people served in a program? Do you want to target people from a specific demographic that has been underserved by your organization? Is there an outcome you can improve with concerted effort across your organization? Make a plan now for how your organization will reach the target in 2019. Keep in mind, the best goals are SMART:

Specific – clearly defined
Measurable – easily recorded, scaled, and compared
Attainable – both possible and reasonable
Relevant – reflect your organization’s mission
Time-bound – able to be achieved in the established timeframe

Examples of SMART organization goals for 2019 include:

Increase the number of students from households with incomes below 200% of the U.S. poverty rate receiving scholarships for the 2019/2020 school year by 20%
SMART because there is sufficient time to fundraise before the start of the school year and the amount needed is clearly defined
70% of clients will obtain employment sufficient to meet their income needs within 90 days of starting employment services
SMART if the 2018 placement rate is at or above 66%

Nonprofit organizations need data about the quality of their programs to make their case to funders in grant applications and to donors on their website, and they need data to back up their stories about impact and statements of need. If you have questions about how to develop strong outcome measures for your organization, the Pathways to Growth team would love to help! Contact our office at info@pathwaystogrowth.us or call 813.453.4891 to schedule a free consultation.

Planning Your Giving Season to Target Generational Giving Patterns

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 00:59:00 GMT

In April, Blackbaud Institute for Philanthropic Impact released their study on the Next Generation of American Giving detailing the giving habits of each generation from the Greatest Generation (they call them “Matures”) to Generation Z. This was the third in a series of studies that started in 2010 (studies completed in 2010, 2013, and 2018). Researchers surveyed 1,339 donors from a group controlled to be a nationally-projectable sample of donors.

The study showed both consistency in some patterns and significant shifts in others between the 2013 and 2018 surveys. Understanding the differences in how each generation gives and which groups are giving the most will help your organization maximize the returns as you enter the most generous season of the year.

Who is giving the most?

As a group, Baby Boomers are giving the most, donating $58.6 billion per year. 75% of Baby Boomers donate to a charity each year, and their giving totals 41% of all donations made to U.S. nonprofits. Matures give the most as individual donors each year at $1,250 per person, almost $190 more per year than Baby Boomers at $1,061 per person. 78% of Matures donate each year. While the per person giving amounts dropped for both groups compared to 2013, these two generations remain the top donor groups for individual giving. Blackbaud anticipates that Baby Boomers will remain the top donor group for the next ten years.

While Gen X did not give at these high levels in 2017, more than 20% of survey respondents indicated plans to increase giving in the coming year. Blackbaud points out that this generation is coming into their highest earning potential years, so tapping into their donor potential now is in the best interest of nonprofits.

How to Make an Impact:

Younger generations look for options other than donations to make an impact. Donors from Gen X and younger want to get involved in your mission through volunteering, word of mouth, crowdfunding, or donating items from your organization’s wish list. To engage these younger donors, consider diversifying your ask. Include options that let them donate time, talent, creativity, or tap into their network on your organization’s behalf.

Mobile Giving:

Mobile giving is the rising star of nonprofit fundraising. We have seen a substantial drop in the number of people donating through direct mail (dropped from 49% of respondents in 2010 to 23% in 2018), but email appeals and the variety of social media channels did not pick up the slack. The array of donation options that were thrust on donors in a short period of time seems to have muddied the waters too much and contributed to the decrease in donations. One area of giving that was consistently popular with the three youngest generations and moderately popular with Baby Boomers in the Blackbaud report was mobile giving. Updating your website and features to maximize the use of mobile giving appears to be a worthwhile investment.

Keep in Mind:

The Baby Boomers will continue to give substantially for at least another decade, and Gen X is on deck. These are the groups that nonprofits should be investing the majority of their effort in for donor development. They have the highest giving potential and have stated they plan to donate substantially in the coming years.
Be willing to try new techniques for reaching and engaging donors. Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X all indicate a desire to engage with nonprofits outside of traditional donor relationships. These are your next major donor groups. Whether you use crowdfunding, volunteering, peer to peer fundraising, or advocacy, find ways to engage with your community. Build relationships with these generations now as an investment for when they have the financial capacity to make larger donations as they progress through life and career.
Fewer people are responding to direct mail, but it is still the king of nonprofit solicitations. A majority of respondents in every generation found direct mail to be an acceptable way for nonprofits to communicate, and it is still the highest earner of all communication methods.
All groups value financial stewardship and transparency. With the exception of Generation Z, all generation groups use a nonprofit’s website to research organization efficiency and fiscal responsibility. (That covers 98% of all donors!)

As you plan your giving season appeals, consider the giving platforms that are most effective for different donor groups. Include opportunities for donors to contribute to your organization by non-financial means. Make the most of this time of year and set your organization up for success in 2019.

*All charts from Blackbaud Next Generation of American Giving report
**Birth years added to chart in “Giving by Generation in 2018” – years are stated in text of report, but did not appear in original image.

Has Your Nonprofit Kept Pace With Analytics About Charities?

Sun, 21 Oct 2018 18:04:00 GMT

As we near the giving season, I have seen several blog posts and news articles on how to “give smarter” or comparing the “best and worst charities.” In these days of analytics, there are many ways that nonprofit organizations are compared to one another as donors try to identify the best organizations in which to invest their philanthropic dollars. As you begin to prepare your giving appeals, these articles focus on a few common themes that will help nonprofit organizations stand out to donors:

1.Return on Investment – What percentage of donated funds go to the organization mission vs. fundraising and administration? We all recognize that administrative and fundraising costs are part of running a nonprofit organization, but when these costs exceed 35% of the organization budget, donors begin to wonder if the organization is using their dollars effectively. The BBB Wise Giving Alliance requires charities to spend at least 65% of their total expenses on program expenses in order to receive accreditation. Some funders cap administrative and fundraising expenses at 30%. Be aware of your cost allocations. If some of the costs under “administration” are actually “program expenses,” move them into the “program” category. Accurately tracking where every staff member spends his/her time may require more time and effort, but it is worthwhile.

Additionally, research other nonprofits in your category. Check out their budgets, their program offerings, how many they serve, and their fundraising and administrative cost percentages. If your organization’s numbers are dramatically different, be prepared to explain why—or to adjust accordingly.

2. Make the case for your organization using more than just numbers. What are the positive outcomes your nonprofit organization is providing to your community? It is more than serving 200,000 meals at a soup kitchen, finding jobs for 200 people, or finding homes for 5,000 pets. There are stories behind those people, families, or pets. Tie your numbers to impactful stories that drive home the outcome of donating to your organization. How did finding a job make a difference for a single individual or family? What was the cost of finding that one job? Tie together the data points so donors understand how their gift will make an impact at your organization.

3. Check your organization’s status on the various charity watchdog pages (three are listed in the “best and worst charities” article). If one of the watchdog pages has listed a concern about your organization that you believe is inaccurate, contact them with the correct information. If your organization is not listed on Charity Navigator or GuideStar , set up your profile before sending out your holiday appeal.

The giving season is the biggest donation period of the year for nonprofit organizations. Make the most of this opportunity by telling your story effectively and ensuring that donors are confident their gifts will make an impact on those you serve.

Creating an Engaged Board

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 11:13:00 GMT

How often have you heard non-profit staff members or leadership complain that their board members don’t really understand the organization or aren’t as engaged as they should or could be? Or maybe you’ve even thought this yourself? It’s a common complaint expressed by both non-profit staff and board members.

But why? And how do you get board members more involved in your organization?

All non-profit boards have a primary role in the governance of organizations. They are responsible for policy-making and fiduciary oversight of the organization, as well as supervision of the Executive Director/CEO. And while this is a known responsibility of board membership, it is not the thing that gets most people excited about joining a non-profit board.

People join non-profit boards because they care about the mission of the organization. They are more likely to remain engaged as board members if they know they are making an impact related to the mission. The first step is determining what an engaged board looks like for your organization . The answer will vary depending on the size of your non-profit and the role you need your board to fill.

As the previous executive director of a small non-profit organization, I utilized my board of directors to build the capacity of my organization by adding roles I didn’t have as staff positions. The organization had six staff members including me – so no HR, marketing, full-time accounting, or other specialized departments. My board included a lawyer, a school administrator (who had great HR experience), a CFO, and a marketing executive. When questions or issues arose and I needed help in one of these areas, I reached out to the board member with expertise in that specific arena. My board members knew that I relied on each of them for their specific knowledge to help the organization.

In larger organizations, this type of board knowledge may not be necessary. Yet board members should still be recruited for what they bring to your organization. What specific skills do potential members bring to your organization – personally or professionally? Can you utilize those skills on board committees? Will those skills help the CEO/Executive Director make needed connections for fundraising or advocacy?

To create an engaged board, we recommend six steps:

Set clear expectations for board engagement and share them with prospective board members during the recruitment process. Your board policies should list expectations for governance and non-governance responsibilities clearly so that prospective board members know what they are signing up for. Non-governance responsibilities may include fundraising, committee service, volunteering within your organization, advocacy (if that is part of your mission), making personal contributions, or other responsibilities specific to the needs of your organization.
Have a consistent board onboarding process that orients new board members to the current status of the organization, connects them to board committees, and establishes relationships with board and staff members. Assigning “board buddies” to serve as mentors on large boards can be a great way to help new board members navigate the first few meetings and catch up on items that are unclear. It is helpful for the “board buddy” or a staff member to review minutes from previous meetings with new board members prior to their first board meeting.
Provide opportunities for board members to share about things they have done since the last meeting to impact the mission of the non-profit. This sharing opportunity sets the expectation of activity between board meetings, and helps ensure board members understand the mission of the organization and are confident when sharing it in the community.
Regularly revisit your Strategic Plan. In our June blog post, we asked if your organization had a living Strategic Plan . Keep your Strategic Plan alive and your board engaged by revisiting the plan regularly at board meetings. This will keep your board up to date about progress on goals within your plan, allow them to reassess items if needed, and help the board maintain its long-term vision for the organization. You may choose to review one or two goals per board meeting as suggested in our previous blog, review the entire Strategic Plan at designated intervals, or have a visual “barometer” on your board agenda showing your progress toward meeting your strategic goals. There are many mechanisms for keeping the Strategic Plan active in the minds of board members; only you know which one will work the best for your organization.
Provide opportunities for interaction between board members and your participants or services. Occasionally board members need to be reminded what the organization does each day. Arrange for board members to volunteer in your program, participate in a site visit with a funder, or attend a special event at your program site on a regular basis. These interactions remind board members that the mission is more than a bunch of words on a page. It is actions, people, services, and impact.
Recognize their contributions. We all appreciate being thanked for our efforts, and this is true of board members as well. Take the time to recognize their contributions to your organization with profiles on your website, “about the board” or “from the board” sections in your newsletter, thanking them at fundraising events, and/or posts on social media. Board service can be a helpful career step, particularly for young professionals. When you take the time to acknowledge their work publicly, they are able to share those posts through their professional social media accounts. This has the dual benefit of spreading awareness about your organization and providing a professional hand up for young board members.

By creating an engaged board, you will create some of your most effective ambassadors for your organization. Your board members will fully understand your organization and be passionate about sharing the mission of the organization with their personal and professional networks.

Building Relationships with Funders Outside of Grant Applications

Tue, 18 Sep 2018 00:09:00 GMT

In our last blog post, The Seven Steps of Effective Grant Writing, we talked about the importance of building relationships with funders throughout the grant writing process. This includes reaching out to grant officers while you are writing grants and keeping in touch throughout your grant funding cycle.

But what do you do if a funder isn’t accepting grant applications?

Funders may have a very limited window for accepting grant applications each year or may have a flat policy of only accepting proposals from pre-selected organizations. Deciding whether or not to pursue a funder who does not accept unsolicited proposals can be a difficult process for nonprofits. Their funding priorities seem like the perfect fit for your organization, but you don’t have any obvious connections to their staff or board. Aleda Gagarin, Director of Development at the Foundation Center, wrote a great blog post on this topic.

Gagarin suggests six tips for cultivating relationships with these donors (these tips are also great suggestions for furthering your relationships with the funders you apply to on a regular basis!):

Make sure their program officers are on your newsletter distribution list. This ensures they receive current information about your programs and services, helps them gain a better understanding of your work and potential partnership opportunities, and keeps you present on their radar. All of your grant prospects should be on your email distribution list!
Network! Make a conscious effort to connect with members of their staff and board at events in your community. Don’t be pushy, but find opportunities to introduce yourself and your organization to their team. Community events hosted by the city, the local community foundation, other nonprofit organizations, or convened by any of your local funders are wonderful networking events to engage with other nonprofit leaders and to meet potential funders. (It is also helpful that people at these events are often wearing nametags that identify the organizations they are representing. ☺) Pro tip: sometimes, your identified funder may sponsor local events. If they are sponsoring the event, they or someone from their team will probably attend!
Make connections: Find out who you know who would be willing to make an introduction to a member of the prospective funder’s staff or board. This may be a donor, someone from another nonprofit organization, or someone from another funder in your community. Arrange a coffee, lunch, or other introductory meeting through an intermediary who knows you both.
Send the prospective funder news coverage or materials about your organization that aligns with their mission. This is a great step to take after meeting a staff or board member at a networking event or at a meeting arranged through an intermediary.
Connect through social media. Utilize networking tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to build connections, share relevant content, engage in conversations, and get to know individuals and funding organizations.
Invite them to your program site or event. Nothing tells the story of an organization better than seeing it in action.

More than anything else, successful grant prospecting is about building relationships. The more time and effort you invest in building relationships with current and prospective funders, the more success you are likely to have in your grant applications. These relationships will give you a leg up on all of the other organizations applying to the same funder for limited grant dollars. Pathways to Growth President, Julé Colvin, asked a panel of four funders to join her for a panel discussion on the last day of her grant writing class last week. They all said that, all things being equal on a grant proposal, they will fund the one with which they have a relationship.

The Seven Steps of Effective Grant Writing

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 23:28:00 GMT

Many nonprofit organizations have members of their staff or contractors who assist with grant writing. The position title implies that writing grants consumes the majority of time for this position. In reality, grant writing is a 7-step process, and steps 2-7 are on a repeating cycle for most nonprofit organizations.

Step 1: Prepare Your Grant Toolbox

Before you start applying for grants, it is important to make sure your organization is grant-ready. There are several steps you can take to be sure you have the structures in place and the documentation you need to apply for grants. Check out our previous blog post by Pathways to Growth grant writer Danielle May about Getting Your Ducks in a Row to review a list of documents commonly required by funders and data that will help you develop strong funding requests.

Step 2: Identify Your Goals

Why are you pursuing grant funding? Are you seeking funding for a new building (known as “capital funding”), to fund general operations for your organization (known as “operations funding”), or to support a specific program (known as “program funding”)? Spend time determining the specific funding needs of your organization. There may be several different areas that you consider for grant funding. Make a list with clear costs and priorities. Develop a budget for each item on your list. (Pro tip: staff time may fall under both “operations” and “program” funding, depending on the staff member’s role).

Step 3: Do Your Research

Now that you have prepared for submitting grants and know whether you are submitting a program, operations, or capital grant, it’s time to look at potential funders. There are several foundation databases available online including Foundation Directory Online , Foundation Search , and Grant Station . Most of these databases require paid subscriptions. When I was the executive director of a small nonprofit organization, I was able to access several of these databases free of charge through my local nonprofit resource center. In Tampa, where Pathways to Growth is headquartered, free access is offered at a specific downtown library. Check into the resources available in your community.

As you begin your research, look for funders who have a history of funding organizations in your community or your state with a similar mission. Pay attention to the types of funding available to ensure a match for your funding goals (i.e. some funders do not make capital investment grants, others may only want to fund existing programs, and some only like to fund pilot programs). After identifying potential matches through these databases, review the foundation websites, if they are available, for additional details.

Step 4: Get in Touch

If the funders you identify are local and the profile or website indicates they allow contact with potential grantees, reach out to the foundation to schedule a call or meeting. This will give you the opportunity to learn more about the funding priorities of the foundation so you can write a grant that appeals more strongly to the grants committee. It also gives you an opportunity to build allies for your organization with the staff members who might be able to shepherd your proposal through the application process. Some program officers are willing to review drafts of your grant application prior to submission.

Step 5: Write with Conviction and Attention

Write a grant that tells an emotionally convicting story for your organization but also meets every detail and direction in the application. This step can be overwhelming at first. It may be easier to break it down into steps. If the application lists multiple sections or questions, create an outline that corresponds to those areas. Once you have your outline, add a list of details that need to be included in each section according to the funder’s directions. Now go through the grant application and add notes about items you want to include about your organization in each section. The grant can still be in outline form at this point. You should now have a pretty strong outline for your grant. Start working on converting the outline into a more sentence-driven format. It is a good idea to include bulleted lists, text blocks, pictures, or infographics intermittently to break-up the page and make your grant more visually appealing to review.

Step 6: Submit

Gather all of the documents required for submitting your grant proposal or letter of inquiry. Review the grant application directions to ensure that each document meets the application guidelines. Some funders are very specific about details like including page numbers on attachments, labeling documents with the attachment number or name according to the application directions, or including very specific information on staff or board lists. Check each document to make sure it meets the funder’s requirements. Review your grant proposal or letter of inquiry one more time to be sure it also meets every requirement in the application directions.

Finally, be sure to submit the application prior to the deadline. I recommend submitting online applications at least 24 hours before grant deadlines for as websites occasionally crash, power and internet connections occasionally fail, and other technical difficulties beyond your control may prevent last minute submissions. I recommend mailing grants at least one week before grant deadlines to ensure sufficient transit time for on-time delivery.

Step 7: Follow-Up

Whether your grant funding is approved or declined, it is important to follow-up with the funder soon after you receive notice. If funding is declined, follow-up with the funder to learn the reasoning or what you could do next time to improve the likelihood of a successful application. Sometimes, it takes several applications to win over a funder; Pathways to Growth has had clients apply three years in a row, hear nothing on year one and two, and win big on year three!

If funding is approved, return any required paperwork in a timely manner along with a thank you note that specifically acknowledges the grant and how the funding will impact your organization and those you serve. Be sure to meet any deadlines throughout the year for following up with grant reports.

Investing in relationships with funders should be a constant part of the grant writing process. Some program officers are willing to meet each year to touch base on the status of your organization. Program officers are often grateful for the opportunity to see the grant funding implemented and appreciate photos, invitations to visit program sites, or other chances to engage with grantees when you are not in the midst of a grant application. The more you invest in these relationships, the higher the likelihood of future successful grant applications.

Cryptocurrency and the Nonprofit Sector

Sat, 18 Aug 2018 14:44:00 GMT

In July, we shared a Forbes article about Using Cryptocurrency in Your Nonprofit on the Pathways to Growth LinkedIn page that generated more engagement than anything else we had posted. Because of that interest, we wanted to follow up with additional information.

First, let me acknowledge that I am not an expert in this field. I read more than a dozen articles in financial and nonprofit forums and asked advice from colleagues who advise nonprofits on financial planning to gather information for this blog post. As a former nonprofit executive director, this was where I started when new issues or opportunities arose for my organization – I did my research.

Cryptocurrency is a rapidly growing sector of the economy. Much like the stock market, you don’t necessarily have to understand the intricacies of how it works in order to accept donations (this analogy was used repeatedly in articles – apparently most people don’t understand the stock market J). There are several things that are important to understand:

Cryptocurrency is volatile – the value of each currency varies greatly from day to day and month to month. Some cryptocurrencies seem to disappear while others are relatively stable in presence if not in value. Some people have made millions of dollars investing in this area. Some of those investments have evaporated overnight. If your organization chooses to accept cryptocurrency donations, you will need to establish a policy about what you do with the donations. Do you leave them invested and hope for a strong return, or do you convert them to cash immediately? I strongly urge you to consult with an attorney and/or a financial advisor when making this decision with your board.
Cryptocurrency has the potential to open up new funding streams. Fidelity Charitable reported receiving $69M in cryptocurrency donations in 2017 compared to $7M in 2015 and 2016 combined. From crypto-millionaires who have donated to various nonprofits to the Pineapple Fund which has given almost $56M anonymously to 60 different organizations, there is growing potential funding opportunity in cryptocurrency. Tapping into these new donors is still a bit of a puzzle for most nonprofits.
Cryptocurrency is considered an asset, not a currency, for IRS purposes. This has substantial implications for donors as they may receive a larger deduction under current tax rules. This also has implications for organizations that retain cryptocurrency rather than converting it to cash. (Consult a financial advisor for specific tax/reporting advice)
Cryptocurrencies are anonymous, uninsured, and technology dependent. If something goes wrong, you do not have the same recourse to get money back as you do with a bank or credit card company.
As a nonprofit, you need to exercise due diligence in trying to identify donors, but the IRS does allow for donors to remain anonymous. However, if you are an organization that issues grants, there are additional requirements. Consult an attorney and financial advisor to ensure you meet all applicable standards and best practices if your organization chooses to accept cryptocurrency donations.
Cryptocurrency is an evolving sector. The technology, currencies, philanthropy, and laws are all changing on an almost constant basis. While it is necessary to establish a policy and procedure for accepting cryptocurrency donations, it is important to understand that this is not the type of policy that stays in place for years. If you choose to accept cryptocurrency donations, you will need to reexamine your policy regularly (at least once, if not twice a year) until this sector stabilizes.

For more information on this subject, check out the following resources:

This CoinTelegraph article focuses on current trends in crypto-fundraising and what that might tell about the future
This Forbes article discusses “What You Need To Know About Using Cryptocurrency In Your Nonprofit”
Guidestar: Blog provides a basic introduction to Bitcoin with their view on how early adoption can help nonprofits get a fundraising competitive advantage
com provides a list of 5 things organizations should take into consideration when deciding whether or not to accept cryptocurrency donations
Windfall provides information about the tax implications for donors and organizations when accepting cryptocurrency donations

Please note: Pathways to Growth does not offer legal advice or financial investment advice as this is outside of our area of expertise. Your organization should consult a financial advisor and attorney when determining whether or not to accept cryptocurrency donations and whether to retain or convert those donations.

Grant Writing is a Team Sport

Tue, 31 Jul 2018 12:33:00 GMT

Grant writing sometimes feels like a lonely and repetitive role at an organization.

On the surface, writing a grant isn’t a fundamentally difficult task – it’s simply presenting a problem, and your organization’s solution to that problem. However, telling that story in the most meaningful way using a combination of stories and statistics, a budget that shows your need and that you will use the grant money responsibly, while hitting all of the points that are important to the funder feels like a big responsibility.

But it doesn’t need to be a responsibility that falls solely on the shoulders of one person in development. The truth is you are likely to write better grant proposals that are more likely to be funded if you work with a team that brings a variety of perspectives and skills to the grant writing process.

So, who do you want on your grant writing team?

Recruit people who represent different viewpoints from across your organization that bring with them a variety of strengths and abilities. As with many things, diversity is key. You are looking not only for diversity in their roles, but also in who they are as individuals. Include people from different departments, as well as people of different genders, ages, skill sets, and ethnic backgrounds. This will offer a variety of perspectives as each person reviews your grant application.

There are a few specific skill sets you will want to identify:

The number cruncher – This is the person who knows and understands the most current data for your organization and how those numbers impact the services you provide. Numbers tell a story, but you need to understand those numbers in order to tell your story effectively. Your number cruncher understands the statistics about the population you serve, recent research and public policies that impact your programs or services, and your organization’s outcome measurements. Numbers change over time, and as a grant writer, you may not always be aware of the most recent set of statistics that affect your work. Using the most current statistics within your grants is vital, so it is important that you identify who to ask for this information and that this staff member knows to keep you in the loop when new data becomes available. The number cruncher can also help you come up with appropriate objectives and outcome measurements for your grant. You never want to promise outcomes that you aren’t measuring or won’t achieve!

The stories gatherer – As development professionals, we are constantly in search of mission moments. We want those impactful quotes from families or letters of thanks when programs have made a difference in someone’s life. But the development person is frequently not the staff member who hears these stories or receives these letters. Someone (or multiple someones) on your staff has a treasure trove of stories in their head, in their email inbox, or on their bulletin board thanking them for the work your organization does. It is critical that you foster relationships with staff members so that these stories are shared with you on a regular basis. Balancing these stories, pictures, and quotes with the data that the number cruncher gives you creates the kind of thorough picture that grant makers want to see of your organization with both quantitative and qualitative data. Consider asking program staff to share a mission moment at each staff meeting, or interviewing program staff once a month to ask them about their best moment of the month.

A great proofreader – This is the detail-oriented person who can review your grants and catch every typo, grammatical error, and specific detail the grant maker required that must be included in the grant application before you hit print. Is there a new question in this year’s grant application that you overlooked? Did you gather all of the documents listed in the application packet? You want your grant application to be 100% complete and free of errors, so be sure to proofread the application packet yourself and have a strong proof-reader check it at least once, if not twice.

Both your numbers-cruncher and your story gather should proofread your grants as well. They will be looking for different details beyond grammar, punctuation, and completeness.

Do all of the numbers make sense and are they presented in a way that is clear?
Does the grant tell the story of your organization, the problem you are addressing, and the people you serve?

The perspectives of a numbers person, a stories person, and a proofreader will be very different when reading a grant application, and they will each be able to offer valuable feedback to improve the overall quality of your grant. If you work for a large organization, you may wish to add a budget person, a member of your executive leadership team, and/or additional stories gatherers from multiple program areas to your team for additional perspectives.

By working with a team, the huge weight of responsibility that was sitting on your shoulders can be shared as the applications are sent out and you wait together for word on whether or not you will receive those grant dollars your organization needs.

Does Your Organization Have a Living Strategic Plan?

Tue, 19 Jun 2018 01:50:00 GMT

A strategic plan…that document every nonprofit organization seems to have, but no one ever reads. If you are a staff or board member of most nonprofit organizations, you have probably participated in a strategic planning process at some point. Perhaps it was facilitated by an outside consultant who met with your team or maybe it was led by your Executive Director or Board Chair. Maybe you had a staff or board retreat, talked about what the organization had accomplished in the past few years, did a SWOT analysis, and discussed goals for the future. Then the consultant and organization leadership worked on a final document that was a plan for what would happen in the coming 3-5 years. But what happened to that plan? As you continued your work as a staff or board member, how often did you think about the Strategic Plan?

No matter how well thought out, a Strategic Plan is only effective if it is put into action instead of put on a shelf and only referenced occasionally. There are several ways to make your Strategic Plan an active part of your organization.

Make sure that there is a Work Plan included in the final document. A Strategic Plan always includes overarching goals and objectives that the organization wants to accomplish over the course of the plan’s life cycle. Good Strategic Plans also include a Work Plan that provides a timeline and specific tasks that are assigned to people or groups in order to accomplish those goals or objectives. For example, if one of the goals of your Strategic Plan is to expand services into another region, tasks may be to establish a board and staff committee for this purpose, complete research into costs and sustainability needs, identify potential partners in that region, etc. Each task is assigned a timeline for completion in the Work Plan.
Ensure every staff member has an active role in accomplishing the goals of the Strategic Plan. Change can be difficult for staff, especially those who have been with an organization for years. Hopefully your staff team participated in the strategic planning process and has ownership of the plan. Now that you are executing the plan, make sure that there are roles for different departments and people at all levels of your organization. Building a strong tomorrow is important to a thriving nonprofit, and staff members who are engaged in the process and feel valued will help ensure the strength of your organization for years to come.
Assign each goal area for regular review at board meetings. When I was an Executive Director, our Strategic Plan had four goal areas. Our board had eight regular meetings per year that were not for an assigned topic (i.e. our audit). We reviewed two goal areas from the Strategic Plan at each of those board meetings. This regular review kept the board up to date on the progress the organization and committees were making on tasks assigned in each goal area and also allowed them to reassess some items that needed to be shifted over the course of the Strategic Plan. This process kept the Strategic Plan on the agenda at each board meeting and helped the board to maintain its vision in decision making over the 3-year plan period.
Recognize when it is time to be flexible . We live in a constantly changing world, and none of us are able to anticipate all that will happen in the next three to five years. Strategic Plans provide road maps for organizations to follow in decision making, but they cannot anticipate every scenario that might arise. It is important for organizations to recognize if the timelines in a Work Plan are unattainable or if the goals in a Strategic Plan need to shift based on the current needs of the organization or the community where the organization is working. Regularly reexamining the Strategic Plan as a staff and as a board will help you know if you are on track or if there are items that may need to be reexamined.

Keeping your Strategic Plan alive and active in your organization will substantially increase the likelihood of accomplishing the goals and objectives within your plan. It will also help to keep the staff and board on the same page.

What steps has your organization taken to make your Strategic Plan a living document?

Getting Your Ducks in a Row

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 01:42:00 GMT

A large portion of the effort required for submitting a grant happens in the preparation phase. You are likely to find this process to be the most time consuming, yet the most vital aspect of the process. In fact, one way to instantly separate yourself from the piles of other applicants is to prepare a complete and concise grant application package that tells a prospective funder everything they need to know about your project.

While most foundations will provide you with a list of what they require in order to make an informed grantmaking decision, we have created a list of the standard data and materials required by most foundations. These guideposts are transferable to a variety of grant applications. We recommend that organizations maintain an up-to-date computer and hard copy folder that includes each item listed below. It is imperative that you carefully read the guidelines provided for each grant you select to pursue. We hope this list will help you get your ducks in a row and have a head start!

Document Gathering

At Pathways to Growth, we call this process “building your Toolbox.” Begin by gathering the following documents to build an adequate toolbox prior to your grant seeking efforts:

501(c)(3) determination letter from the IRS
IRS Form 990 for the most recent year
Financial audit for the past two years; if your organization does not have an audit performed, you can ask grantmaking organizations if they will accept two years of financial statements (Income & Expenses, or Budget vs. Actual)
Current year operating budget
Current year program budgets, if applicable
Board Roster with contact information, terms, and affiliations
Organization Chart
Resumes and biographies of key staff
Chart of staff salary and benefits for use in grant application budgets
List of current grants (funder, amount, and grant award period)
List of top 10 supporters (individuals whom can remain anonymous, foundations, corporations, government, churches, civic groups, etc.) with funding amount
Applicable program outcomes and measurements (current year and previous years for comparison) including copies of measurement tools (pre-/post-tests, surveys, etc.)
Written policies including non-discrimination and conflict of interest
List and description of current programs
Any promotional materials or articles previously written about the organization
Previously written grants

Data Collection

Below is a step-by-step breakdown of data you should collect prior to beginning a grant request and can serve as a starting point for all future grant applications.

Mission and Vision Statements : A mission statement should clearly define your organization’s purpose whereas a vision statement describes a realistic desired outcome of your organization.
Organization History : Take the time to interview your Executive Director, Founder, or other individuals who have a long history with the organization. Aim to elicit detailed information regarding the formation of your organization and how it has grown and matured.
Statistics : Collecting background data on your service area and on the needs to be addressed by your project/program will help document your case for support. Always be sure to site the source of your data and provide the year data was published.
Demographics : The demographics of your target population are going to be a substantial data resource within your grant application. To research and describe the demographics of the community you serve – population, economy, geography, and community issues – a good starting point is the American Fact Finder .
Partnerships : Keep a running list of formal and informal partnerships which help your organization achieve its goals. It is always a good idea to include contact information if you should need to include a letter of support as part of your grant application.
Evaluation : Document how your organization measures key outcomes and success. You have struck gold if you have access to a logic model for your project or program!

This process can be time consuming, but we encourage clients to not get discouraged or bogged down by this initial preparation and to let this be a team event. Determine which members of your team already have certain pieces of your toolkit. Share a list and ask your team to help gather the remaining items of your toolkit. Once all of the data and materials are gathered, your organization is in a terrific position to begin writing a grant request…and, more importantly, securing those much needed funds!

2017 Annual Report

Thu, 24 May 2018 11:33:00 GMT

Our team at Pathways to Growth is so excited to share with you the great areas of success that we have achieved with and for our clients in 2017!

Who Is Your Audience? How to Get to Know Funders and Improve the Likelihood of Successful Grant Applications

Wed, 16 May 2018 11:15:00 GMT

Applying for grants can be a daunting process. You know you have an amazing program and are serving an unmet need in your community, but how do you convey that information in a way that is impactful to the nameless, faceless committee who will be reviewing your grant application? You get to know that committee as well as you can before you send them your application to ensure you are writing to your audience.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

Research the online presence and any newsletters or articles about the funder. Make note of their mission statement, giving priorities, funding categories, and geographic region. When you look through the website, social media posts, and news articles, are there any common themes that you notice? Are there any phrases or terms that appear repeatedly – community, belonging, social justice, faith? Make note of these and try to incorporate them within your grant application. As you look at social media, is there any theme to the types of organizations or projects that are highlighted? This will give you a bit of insight into the projects that get the attention of the staff or the priorities for the funder.
Review the funder’s 990 for the past three years. The 990 will tell you:
How much money the foundation gave away in charitable donations.
The number of grants awarded – does this foundation give out 10 grants per year or 100? Were the same organizations funded every year or were different organizations funded each year? This information will give you an idea of your likelihood of success in applying for a grant and help you to determine if it is worth the time and effort required to submit the application.
What was the average amount of the grants funded? If the foundation gave one grant for $100,000, a few grants for $50,000, but most grants were under $10,000, you know that your first ask should be under $10,000.
Where were the organizations they funded located geographically? Sometimes foundations will list a broad geographic location on their website because there is one organization they fund that is a great distance away. However, the vast majority of the organizations funded are in the same county as their primary location. Looking at the 990, this trend becomes apparent.
Notice trends in the types of organizations funded. Were the majority of organizations funded faith-based, organizations that have a common mission, or grouped into foundations with very general giving categories? Does the 990 shows a clear preference for specific types of organizations for grant funding?
Get to know the grant manager/program officer. If possible, set-up a meeting with a staff member from the foundation. Staff members can provide details about funding priorities, trends within the foundation, and what types of grants would be best received. They frequently can provide feedback about the grant you are planning to submit that will increase your likelihood of success. Staff members can also provide insights about the people who are making the final decisions on grants – is the grant committee comprised of lawyers and corporate officers, a rotating committee of staff members from a corporation, or is it members of a family who make the final decision? What type of information within the grant application does the committee focus on when they are making a determination about funding? These are questions that can sometimes be answered by foundation staff. Not all funders are open and available to these direct connections and limit contact with grant-seeking organizations to electronic submission of the grant application or electronic submission of questions. If the funding organization you are looking into is open and available, building strong relationships with the staff at the foundation is a worthwhile investment for your organization.

Question: What has your organization done to gain a better understanding of your funders, and how has that impacted your success in submitting and receiving grants?

Our Story – Contest Entry

Tue, 29 Nov 2016 22:27:00 GMT

Pathways to Growth is a thriving small business comprised of a group of professionals who found their passion…helping nonprofits win grants and transform lives. We are a team of highly skilled, inspired writers and consultants who have won millions of dollars for our clients, giving them the opportunity to grow and amplify their impact in their local communities.

The services we provide enable dedicated nonprofit professionals to help thousands of men, women and children from all walks of life. As a direct result of our services, we have helped low-income children receive the academic help they need to succeed; homeless, pregnant, at-risk teens and women find safe housing and deliver healthy babies; immigrants learn English and become US citizens; people with disabilities receive equipment needed to live a full life; hungry families find desperately needed food and shelter. Although the list of worthwhile causes is endless, and we will never meet the thousands of women, children, families and others who benefit from our work, one of our greatest joys is knowing we make a difference in their communities. Our team works in the background, not only helping our nonprofit clients win grants to fund this amazing array of charitable work, but also growing their impact and influence through our nonprofit development skills. It is truly a remarkable and humbling experience for everyone on our team.

Founder/President Julé Colvin has invested her entire 30-year career helping to grow and develop nonprofits. Regarding Pathways to Growth, Julé states, “When I moved to Tampa in 2004, I never dreamed I would be starting a business. It wasn’t even on my radar. But, as is often said, God works in mysterious ways! Now, almost 13 years later, my little idea to march out on my own to start a business to help nonprofits has grown into a very successful endeavor with national and international reach. We have raised millions of dollars for charitable causes, and helped many clients develop their business acumen, build stronger leaders and boards, develop significant outcomes and move their organizations to higher levels of success. I am thrilled to have been of service to every client with whom we have worked. I am also honored to be leading our great group of writers and consultants. They come from all business backgrounds, each one compassionate and dedicated to producing excellent results for our clients. Our team produces outstanding quality work, completed on time.”

Pathways to Growth currently leverages LinkedIn in a variety of critical ways. We seek to increase our visibility and expertise by sharing our company blog weekly and participating in group discussions. We connect with potential nonprofit clients, and we recruit new grant writers to our team. To date, we have conducted this work primarily through our company president Julé Colvin’s LinkedIn profile, but we are now building our company profile. We hope to utilized LinkedIn Pro Finder to connect with nonprofit leaders who can benefit from our services and potentially bring new writers to our team.

Everything Rises and Falls on Leadership – Including Grant Winning!

Mon, 31 Oct 2016 21:33:00 GMT

Most of you know John Maxwell, one of the foremost leadership gurus in the world. He has written over 70 books on leadership and travels worldwide speaking to Fortune 500 companies, professional sports teams and government leaders. One of John’s most widely known maxims is that everything rises and falls on leadership. I have found this statement to prove universally true, including in the realm of grant winning.

I have been privileged to be in private meetings and calls with John as part of the international John Maxwell Team. On one particular call with John I asked him what advice he would share with nonprofit leaders. His first response was that people haven’t truly led until they have led a volunteer organization. That should come as no surprise to those of you tasked with leading nonprofits! His second response related to the importance of board leadership, which I will share a bit further down in this blog.

In my grant writing workshops I often compare grant funders to for-profit business investors. While grant funders are not looking to obtain financial ROI like for-profit investors, they are seeking to obtain the best Social ROI possible with their philanthropic gifts. Similarly, just as for-profit investors analyze the leadership qualifications of CEOs and other leaders within companies in which they may invest; grant funders consider the leadership of nonprofits in which they are seeking to grant funds.

Of course, any wise investor wants to know that those leading these organizations have strong professional and leadership qualifications that include the ability to use their money wisely, a strong vision for the future and the ability to grow and sustain the organization. In the grant world, if the funder does not believe the organization’s leadership meets those qualifications, the organization is highly unlikely to win the grant.

As you evaluate yourself and your organization in the area of leadership excellence, I recommend that you contemplate the following three leadership keys that will impact your ability to win grants.

Is your CEO/ED a person of influence in your field and/or community?
Another of John Maxwell’s wise statements is that leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less. Your leader must possess the ability to influence the staff, board members, funders and community members for the good of the organization. In order to adequately influence these stakeholders the leader must be respected as a person of integrity and expertise. Their expertise must extend past your field of work, such as helping senior citizens, to also include expertise in nonprofit leadership.
Does your organization have a written plan or policy to develop leadership?
If the success of your nonprofit rises and falls on leadership, you should highly value developing and training leaders. Offering leadership development opportunities is central to your success. Over 90% of Fortune 500 companies provide professional coaches for their leaders because they see the excellent results in productivity and returns. Consider how you might provide professional training and coaching opportunities for your CEO/ED and other senior level staff.
Does your board provide strong leadership?
Now for the second piece of advice John Maxwell shared with me during that phone call in relationship to strong boards. He said he recommends all nonprofit leaders surround themselves wit a strong and active board that personally financially contributes to the organization. He gave an example of how he was always very direct with board members to be sure they knew all he would expect of them, including financial support, as board members of his nonprofits. Highly impactful nonprofit boards are made up of influential leaders who use their influence to promote the organization in the community and to help raise money for the organization. They lead the way financially by personally contributing to the organization. (Many grant funders now expect that 100% of board members are personally contributing to the organization.) They bring their skill sets and expertise to board decisions. They attend the organization’s events and influence others to attend also. Finally, the board as a whole evaluates their performance annually.

As you are moving forward with your grant seeking strategy be sure to consider the role strong leadership as described above contributes to your ability to win. Addressing these issues could be the missing piece to securing your next grant. If you are looking to assess the quality of your leadership, offer leadership training, or provide leadership coaching to your team be sure to contact us for a free consultation.

Question: What tools/systems do you use to improve the leadership of your CEO, staff and board?

Congratulations to A Brighter Community!

Sun, 16 Oct 2016 19:34:00 GMT

Congratulations to A Brighter Community Preschool for their recent grant wins from the Spurlino Foundation and the Saunders Foundation! We have had a great long term relationship with A Brighter Community, helping them to win thousands of dollars in grant funds over our years together. A Brighter Community (ABC) is the oldest still operating preschool in the Tampa area. They have been successfully serving children and families for over 90 yea rs! Read more about their great work at www.abrightercommunity.org .

Children’s Board of Hillsborough County’s Technical Assistance Grant Deadline Coming Soon!

Fri, 07 Oct 2016 20:22:00 GMT

Nonprofits serving children and families in Hillsborough County are very fortunate to have the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County to turn to for help with their capacity building needs. Twice each year the Children’s Board provides grants of up to $5,000 to nonprofits for technical assistance/capacity building, needs that many funders will not fund. These grants can be used for costs such as strategic planning, board development, marketing, fund development, and technology. The grants have helped many nonprofits step to their next level of growth.

Pathways to Growth has been privileged to work with many smaller nonprofits through this Children’s Board grant. Our work with these nonprofits has helped them to develop strategic plans, develop and train their boards, provide leadership coaching to executives, create fund development plans, conduct grant research, develop policies and procedures to assist with grant readiness and provide grant writer training. We are thrilled to see so many of these organizations then move on to attract more grant dollars from a variety of funders, improve the impact of their programs and establish highly effective boards.

The next deadline for the Children’s Board Technical Assistance Grant is November 14th. Please email Pathways to Growth to discuss how your organization can benefit from these grants.

Why “It Depends” is the Answer to Many Grant Writing Questions

Thu, 29 Sep 2016 18:55:00 GMT

I think most people in the U.S. could name the TV show that has contestants clapping, high fiving each other and saying, “Good answer! Good answer!” Of course, that is none other than Family Feud.

Unfortunately, when it comes to specific answers to burning questions from those new to grant seeking, I very often am forced to answer, “It depends.” And, at least at first, most don’t consider that to be a particularly “Good answer!”

Over the past three weeks I have been privileged to teach the Grant Writing Certificate Course at the Nonprofit Leadership Center in Tampa, Florida. It was a great experience that allowed me to meet great leaders from across the area who are working diligently to make a difference in their corner of the world. Being in a room with such devoted souls is “hands down” one of my most favorite things to do!

From the very beginning of the class, as the Q&A sections began, I told the students to beware that my first answer will often be, “It depends.” I lost count of how many times I said that, but by the end of our 16 hours together I know the class had a much greater understanding why. As we discussed all of the intricacies of the grant writing process, their eyes were opened to just how many different options and procedures are involved with each potential funder and grant proposal.

Over the years I have fielded many of the same questions over and over again when an organization and/or grant writer are new to the grant seeking process. I have listed below what I consider to be five of the most common questions in which the good answer is almost always, “It depends.”

Will the funder ask for an agency budget?
It depends. Most funders ask for an agency budget. Almost all will at least ask for your total agency budget number, which is your overall projected income for the year – for example $3,000,000. However, many will ask for a Program Budget or Project Budget in place of, or in addition to, the Agency Budget. The Program Budget is for the program for which you are seeking assistance (preschool) and a Project Budget is just for this specific request within that program – say, to purchase playground equipment. It’s possible the funder could ask for all three!
Is it okay for me to add attachments like news articles and pictures?
It depends. Some funders will ask for these attachments. Others will tell you not to attach anything additional because it will be thrown away. In my experience, most would prefer that you not attach additional documents. They have so many applicants and simply do not have the time to review so many documents.
Should we try to call or email the funder before applying?
It depends. As you research potential funders that are a good match for your organization, pay special attention to their instructions about contacting them. Some recommend that you call or email them prior to applying. Others will not give you clear direction, but make it almost impossible to find their contact information. Still others will give strict instructions not to contact them. The bottom line is to follow their instructions carefully so you don’t start out on the wrong foot.
How much money should we ask for?
It depends. Once again, it is critical for you to diligently research a funder before applying. If you research through a database like the Foundation Center you will be able to look at the funder’s application instructions and their 990 forms to discover their low, high and average grant amounts. For more developed funders, you can find this information on their website. I recently heard a funder say to be sure to ask for what you need. It is important not to ask for too little so you can’t complete your project. Conversely, the funders are knowledgeable about nonprofit costs and they will likely know if you are asking for too much.
Will the funder give to general operating costs and/or staff costs?
It depends. See number three and four above about the nature or researching a funder before you apply. The Foundation Center , the funder’s 990 and their website will tell you specifically whether or not they award grants for operating and/or staff costs. However, generally speaking, more funders are interested in funding direct project costs rather than general operating and/or staffing costs.

Question: I would love to answer some of your burning grant writing questions below. And I will do my best not to answer, “It depends.”

Congratulations to UMCM!

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 21:25:00 GMT

Congratulations to United Methodist Cooperative Ministries/Suncoast, Inc. (UMCM) for their recent win of $250,000 from the federal U.S. Citizenship and Integration Services (USCIS)! We have had a great long term relationship with UMCM, helping them to win hundreds of thousands of dollars over our years together. We are thrilled they have, once again, been awarded this grant to help Legal Permanent Residents to gain English skills and citizenship status. They are an amazing organization that has tremendous impact on the community. In addition to their work with refugees and immigrants, UMCM provides education to at risk-preschool children and feeds the hungry. Read more about their great work at www.umcmsuncoast.org .

Congratulations Friends of Florida State Parks!

Fri, 09 Sep 2016 16:40:00 GMT

Congratulations to our client the Friends of Florida State Parks for all of the great work you are doing to help make Florida parks great and for winning $32,000 in grant funds working with Pathways to Growth so far this year!

We are honored to work with this great organization.

An Introduction to Grant Writing Webinar

Tue, 30 Aug 2016 00:16:00 GMT

If you are looking for some good, solid advice to help you start or improve upon your grant writing endeavors, be sure to catch our one hour webinar on YouTube .

Jule Colvin recorded this for Bloomerang last year and it now has over 21,000 views!

This video is full of great content based on her over thirty years of grant writing experience.

The post An Introduction to Grant Writing Webinar appeared first on Pathways to Growth .

3 Grant Writing Lessons from the Rio Summer Olympics

Tue, 23 Aug 2016 16:03:00 GMT

The Art of Grant Writing

As I became enthralled with the Summer Olympics television coverage this year, I realized I was being drawn into the event through techniques that were about much more than athleticism and that those same techniques could be related significantly to grant writing that is inspirational and compelling.

Let me start by saying that I am not a sports enthusiast nor am I an athlete. I never played team sports growing up, though I do love to watch a great game of basketball while sitting courtside. Otherwise, I greatly admire athletes, but it just isn’t my “thing”. I am more the artsy and dance type.

For those of you who love sports or are athletes, I would imagine watching the Olympics is a thrill. But for a person like me, who would rather watch a musical, I may typically only watch a bit of the coverage. So, how did the marketing professionals of this year’s Summer Olympics entice me to become a more involved viewer? The answer to that question leads to the grant writing keys I am exploring with you today.

If you have heard me teach or have read my blogs before, you know I believe there is both an art and a science to grant writing. I also believe that even professional grant writers never reach complete perfection. We are ever growing in our “practice”, much like a doctor, dentist and, yes, even an athlete. As I reflected on my participation as a viewer and fan of this year’s Summer Olympics I identified three key strategies grant writers can use to help them write more compelling and inspiring grant proposals.

Make a strong human connection with your readers through personal stories.
The Olympics coverage is full of personal stories of defeat and victory that draw in non-athletes like me. I may not care much about who medals in gymnastics and I definitely don’t understand all of the scoring methods, but I certainly care about whether a young woman like Simone Biles wins a medal. Simone’s personal story of rising above her difficult beginnings is inspiring and drew me into following her next steps to victory. Suddenly a young woman I hadn’t even heard of before became my friend, countryman, and could even be my daughter. I was drawn in by inspiring words and pictures along with the television coverage. And the interviews with the winners after their events was the pinnacle of inspiration! As a grant writer, you must strive to connect the reader to personal stories in order to captivate and inspire them to open their mind, heart and wallet to your nonprofit.
Be a winning organization people want to follow and invest in.
You would almost need to be living under a rock in the United States to not know the name and accomplishments of Michael Phelps. While he has had his public ups and downs, no one can deny that he is a champion. His reputation as an excellent swimmer and his comeback story this year drew me in. I simply had to watch and support his races. As a grant writer your job is to present your organization as an example of excellence with a winning reputation. People follow winners. Philanthropists give money to winning organizations they know are a good investment for their money.
Tell your stories through multiple venues.
The personal stories of defeat and victory prior to the Olympic coverage were abounding on Facebook, Twitter and other media outlets. Your job as a grant writer is easier when your organization is actively marketing with personal stories about your target population and your organization through multiple marketing outlets. Of course, your nonprofit doesn’t have the marketing budget of the Olympic Committee, but you should endeavor to market your organization as much as you can possible afford. Your goal, especially with local funders, is for the funder to recognize your organization’s name as soon as they see it. The last thing you want is for the funder to say they have never heard of you before!
Be patriotic!
I know I said there are only three keys, but I just had to add this one. While it may not be as directly related to grant writing, patriotism draws us into the Olympics as fellow Americans. This year I think it is more important than ever for all of us to classify ourselves as Americans, not as any particular race, religion or other divided sections of the population. The experience of seeing your countrymen and women victorious is inspiring and compels us to strive to be all we can be. Perhaps we truly can use our grant writing skills to draw funders into our story, into the American story of compassion for our fellow countrymen and women and a belief that America still has a great future ahead because of organizations just like yours.

Question: How do you strive as a grant writer to inspire your readers?

UMCM wins a $100,990 grant from the Foundation for a Healthy St. Pete for their new FISH Program

Tue, 26 Jul 2016 12:00:00 GMT

UMCM Suncoast will use these funds to develop a Fresh Initiatives Supply Hub (FISH) project in the Lealman neighborhood in order to improve access to fresh healthy foods for food pantries and residents in the immediate area. The goal of this project is to: Increase the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables delivered to food pantries in the Lealman food desert; Increase the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables delivered to individuals living in the Lealman food desert; Decrease the travel time of food pantries to pick up fresh produce; Increase food safety; Increase consumer knowledge on nutrition and fresh food preparation; Increase consumer consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis.

You can read more about UMCM at www.umcmsuncoast.org and more also about the great work Foundation for a Healthy St. Pete is doing in St. Petersburg, Florida at www.healthystpete.foundation .

What Records Must an Organization Keep?

Mon, 18 Jul 2016 12:18:00 GMT

Excellence and accuracy are essential in nonprofit accounting. It all starts with proper record keeping and a knowledgeable bookkeeper. Today I would like to share with you some important tips from a professional bookkeeper regarding nonprofit record keeping. It’s very short, but is full of great advice. You can also find other great videos from this professional on YouTube.

Click here to watch!

Due to the many intricacies involved in nonprofit accounting related to such things as the IRS, donations and grants, I highly recommend that organizations hire bookkeepers and accountants with knowledge and experience in nonprofit accounting. I have been working with the presenter on today’s video, Samantha Abraham, for many years and never hesitate to refer my clients to her. Samantha is the CEO and Founder of My Paper Pusher. Be sure to check them out at www.mypaperpusher.com for more valuable advice, or better yet, to engage their services for your nonprofit.

5 Important Benefits of Grant Seeking That Don’t Include Winning Money

Mon, 11 Jul 2016 22:51:00 GMT

Grant seeking, especially in the beginning, can be a scary endeavor for nonprofits. The process takes time and money, with no guarantees of returns.

Clearly your goal should be to do whatever is in your power to increase your probability of landing awards. But the bottom line is that all final funding decisions are always outside your control, no matter how strong your proposal. Believe me, if I could change anything as a grant writer it would be find a formula that guarantees results. However, there are two important things I can guarantee: 1) our team of writers will prepare excellent proposals aimed at each specific funder to which we apply, and 2) over the years I have found that the process of grant writing will bring other critical benefits to an organization.

Many times over the past 30 years I have had the thrill of sharing in the joy with many clients who won grants. That certainly never gets old for me! Likewise, I have also shared in the disappointment of many losses. However, I am a firm believer in making lemonade out of lemons, finding good in everything or whatever other phrases capture that sentiment. The clear truth I have found in grant seeking is that while the joy may not always be in the journey, improvement of an organization absolutely happens during the development of excellent grant proposals. Here are just some of the many additional important benefits you gain during the grant seeking journey.

Whether you are contemplating grant seeking or already on the journey, I encourage you to consider these five critical benefits of grant seeking, regardless of whether you win or lose.

1. Targeted marketing to movers and shakers.
Imagine if a marketing consultant told you they could guarantee delivering your mission and key message to your most influential and wealthy target market of donors. You would jump at that opportunity. Grant seeking accomplishes just that, win or lose. Your ultimate target market will be reading your message, actually studying it, and not tossing it in the trash without even a look, as often happens with direct mail! Almost 100% of the time the proposal will be read by multiple people within that funder’s organization. Regardless of their decision, those readers have learned valuable information about you they will remember and perhaps share with others. I have been part of a funding committee where an individual gave personally to an applicant organization when it didn’t win the grant award. While it’s certainly difficult to track the impact of grant writing in this way, the potential impact is undeniable.

2. Honing your message.
Excellent proposals are created through numerous drafts and honing the language. Writing that is clear and succinct is key in grant seeking. Many funders will force you to write succinctly by limiting characters, and even spaces and punctuation. This process is very valuable for not only your grant seeking, but also for many facets of your marketing. Often, well written grant language can be used for a variety of other marketing purposes.

3. Looking at your organization with a magnifying glass.
I have developed grant proposals for many nonprofits ranging from start-ups to very large agencies. Regardless of size or years in operation, the grant preparation process will uncover weaknesses in the organization 99.9% of the time. Preparing your organization for the rigors of grant seeking is a very beneficial exercise in organizational self-evaluation and development.

4. Building business structure.
Funders are looking for social return on their investment (ROI) when they award grant funds to a nonprofit. Just as a savvy investor in the for-profit world investigates the structure and inner workings of a business opportunity, funders are interested in knowing many things about the business side of what you do, such as the qualifications of your staff and board, policies and procedures you have in place, your financial standing and much more. The grant writing process will help you further develop these critical business elements that will benefit your organization and its long term sustainability.

5. Improving outcomes and evaluation.
Essential to the concept of social ROI mentioned above are the critical elements of measurable outcomes, program evaluation and organizational evaluation. To be competitive in the grant seeking arena you simply must be able to report strong impact through measurable outcomes. Included in that process is an ability to evaluate your impact and performance programmatically, organizationally and at the board level.

Be sure to keep these five key benefits in mind as you contemplate your next steps in grant seeking. All is not lost in the process when you do not win the grant. And, if you keep working to improve your organization, your proposals will be strengthened as well.

Question: What additional benefits has your organization experienced in grant seeking?

New 2016 Forecasts Expect Decreases in Charitable Giving in 2016

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 19:42:00 GMT

Raising funds for charitable organizations is, at its best, a challenge, and at its worst, like climbing Everest! Nonprofit leaders are pulled in many directions as they seek to grow and sustain, operate the business side of their organization and continue to conduct and develop programs that have measurable impact on those they serve. A tug of war in nonprofit leadership often happens between the focus on mission and the focus on money. And simply put, mission is difficult to achieve without money.

As I was preparing to write this blog today I went back to the Foundation Center to pull from an article I had seen just recently that forecasted continued growth in charitable giving in 2016. But to my dismay, instead I found a new article entitled 2016 Outlook for U.S. Giving Weakens Amid Uncertainty. I recommend that you read the article in its entirety here . At its heart the article points to decreases in giving impacted by a volatile stock market. While this is alarming news, it adds fuel to the advice to be sure your nonprofit creates a diverse funding base for times like these.

Just as families are well-advised to develop multiple streams of income to ensure financial security, today’s successful nonprofits are continually thinking of ways to diversify their funding sources. Fortunately, there are many options for nonprofits to consider to brace themselves against financial insecurities. The top five most utilized strategies for fund development are as follows.

Grant Funding:
Conventional wisdom in the nonprofit field is to seek to raise about 30% of your budget in the form of grants. While the grant world continues to be highly competitive, nonprofits who are well-prepared for the rigors of grant seeking continue to receive grant funds to help them with general operating costs, capacity building, project-specific costs, etc. While the larger grants are typically reserved for larger nonprofits, we also have seen significant success for smaller organizations. Grant seeking continues to be a viable way to help grow and sustain a nonprofit.
Individual Donors:
Depending upon the type of nonprofit, individual donor giving can be a cornerstone for nonprofit income. The philosophy rests upon many people giving small to mid-size regular donations, theoretically decreasing the chances that all donors won’t stop giving at the same time. This continues to be a key fundraising strategy, but is not without its downside. Effectively running an individual donor program can be very time consuming and can become expensive. At its core, this type of fundraising must include well developed relationship building and well-timed, heartfelt gratitude to the donors.
Online giving:
At a minimum, nonprofits should include a giving button on their websites. For those who can afford online marketing help to increase online giving, the rewards can be very significant. One only need to look at the success of crowdfunding campaigns and the like to see that online giving is a recognized part of nonprofit fundraising. You might also take a look at sites like Give Back Nation for additional options for online giving.
Social Enterprise:
It is very exciting to see the myriad of ways nonprofits are raising funds today through social enterprise. Leaders are thinking way past bingo and thrift shops. Some of my favorite social enterprise examples include the development of the Winter the Dolphin movie (and all of its ancillary products) by Clearwater Marine Aquarium and a recent small nonprofit, Eye Heart World, I just spoke with today whose online sales of high end bags is helping to fight sex trafficking. For more information on social enterprise check out the Social Enterprise Alliance.
Planned giving:
Opportunities for planned giving have expanded significantly over the last decade. New products have been developed to help individuals give in increasingly meaningful ways. While developing a planned giving program is not typically within reach of very small nonprofits, mid to large organizations can often afford giving programs in partnership with organizations such as Give Back Nation mentioned above. A good source for this information across the country is Give Back Nation.
Fundraising Events:
Nonprofit events have taken on a life of their own! Virtually every weekend you can find a fun nonprofit event to attend. While banquets, galas and golf tournaments remain favorites, nonprofits are continually inventing new experiences. Recently I attended a gala with The One Roof Initiative in which I had the opportunity to participate in a drum circle, paint with a new friend and dance a waltz to the theme from The Titanic with a new friend in a wheelchair. This was not your run-of-the-mill gala! It is critical to analyze your fundraising events beyond simple gross and net revenues. To analyze for “true” ROI, you must also consider potential negative impact of the event on your staff and your volunteers along with determining the new friends you attracted. Events are very hard work for already pressed nonprofit staff members. As a rule of thumb, two bigger fundraising events per year are plenty for a nonprofit. (If you’d like to learn more about how to evaluate for true ROI, send me an email at jule@pathwaystogrowth.us ).

Question: What are some of the ways your nonprofit is working to diversify its income streams?

What is Grant Readiness?

Wed, 01 Jun 2016 22:43:00 GMT

Prior to applying for grants it is critical for nonprofits to assess themselves in numerous areas to be sure they can be competitive in the grant seeking arena.

Regardless of the size or age of your nonprofit or the fact that you have won a few grants previously, the last thing you want is to be ready to apply for a grant and then discover you are not able to meet their requirements. Assessment and preparation are keys to grant success.

When I first hung out my shingle as a grant writing consultant with Pathways to Growth almost 10 years ago I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I had written many grants for a variety of nonprofits prior to that. However, I wasn’t fully prepared for the number of clients who approached me for help, but who were not grant ready. If I didn’t have integrity, I could have written grant proposals for whoever asked for my help, but I knew I needed to find a solution instead. It was at that point that I began to develop an Agency Assessment for Grant Readiness. This tool drew upon my then twenty years of grant writing experience to identify the wide variety of information that funders typically request and use that information to help nonprofits prepare ahead of time for the rigors of grant seeking. One of the most shocking things for me is the number of times that I have found even large organizations missing vital components to grant readiness.

To reach perfection in the realm of grant readiness can seem like an ever-moving target as funders change requirements and foci over the years. The good news is that an organization doesn’t need to be 100% grant ready prior to applying for and winning grants. Of course, the closer to perfection, the greater your options. Grant funders differ in some of their requirements, which can allow your organization to apply for some grants with no problems. For example, while atypical, some grant funders will not require an organization to yet have its 501(c)(3) status to win a grant.

I continue to be surprised after thirty years in the field to see new questions and requirements from funders I have not yet encountered. The components needed to be 100% grant ready are vast and can sometimes be quite specific to the particular funder. The following are the three top categories of the most common keys to grant readiness.

Financial Records:
Funders often ask for your past two years of financial statements, an agency budget, a program and/or project budget, and your organization’s most recent 990. They may also ask about your written financial policies and procedures. They will want to know the name of your board treasurer. And, if you meet income thresholds, they will ask if you have an annual audit. They may even ask for a copy of your most recent audit.
History of Successes:
This success takes a variety of forms. Funders are interested in your overall agency success. You should have a written history of your organization’s timeline with major successes/milestones. They are interested in success stories. And, perhaps most importantly, they are interested in learning about your organization’s impact upon the community and your particular target population. You must be able to describe your impact, otherwise known as measurable outcomes, both quantifiably and qualitatively.
Board Involvement:
Funders are interested in knowing who your board members are as legal and fiduciary officers of your nonprofit. At a minimum, they require a board list. Often, the board list will also ask about the qualifications of each board member. Over the past seven years or so most funders are now asking what percentage of your board members personally financially donates to your nonprofit. They sometimes even ask what percentage of your budget is given by your board.

Question: What are your biggest challenges as a nonprofit to becoming more grant-ready?

Why You Need Non-Profit Directors & Officers Insurance

Mon, 23 May 2016 08:00:00 GMT

Today’s nonprofit board members are tasked with many responsibilities from daily operations in a startup nonprofit, to fundraising, marketing and overall fiduciary and legal responsibilities regardless of the organization’s size. Just as these responsibilities are to be taken seriously, financial protection for board members is critical. Every nonprofit, regardless of size and budget needs to read this article to be sure they have strong Directors & Officers Liability Insurance.

Seven Benefits to Outsourcing Your Grant Writing Initiatives

Tue, 02 Feb 2016 03:50:00 GMT

While grant funds should not be the only revenue stream for a non-profit, they continue to be an effective way to raise dollars and should be a significant portion of a non-profit’s budget. If your agency is actively seeking grant dollars, you may choose to hire an in-house grant writer or you may choose to hire an outside consultant. While there are pros and cons to both options, below are some of the advantages to outsourcing that you may want to consider.

Industry Knowledge. A good grant writing consultant will have their finger on the pulse of local giving. They work with a variety of agencies, which gives them insight into which local funders are funding other agencies. This also gives them the ability to identify whether or not your agency is a good fit with certain funders.
Objectivity. An outside consultant will have a more objective view of your agencyyou’re your program strengths and weaknesses. They will have the freedom to tell your agency’s leadership how they can improve in order to be more competitive without fear of problems on the job.
Federal Grant Experience. If you are seeking federal grants, many consultants will have considerable experience in this area and will have served as grant reviewers for the federal government. Applying for federal grants will generally be much more complex than private grants, and consultants can bring valuable insight into this process providing a higher chance at success.
Networking Opportunities. Grant consultants are often intimately involved with numerous non-profits and can help your agency to see potential collaborations and partnerships. They may even be able to help bring your agency together with another agency through an introductory process.
Cost Savings. While consultants typically charge $60-$75/hour, you will not be paying them for a 40 hour week. You will also not need to pay them benefits or incur payroll taxes, which can be a considerable savings for your agency.
Fresh Approach. Consultants write for many different types of agencies, rather than writing about the same topic on an ongoing basis. This variety allows them to bring a fresh approach and enthusiasm to each new proposal, as writing about the same thing day after day can sometimes be a tedious undertaking for a staff member.
Management Experience. Grant writing consultants typically have a strong background in several key areas of non-profit management. They are knowledgeable about programs and best practices, have insight into creating well developed budgets, and have experience designing meaningful and measureable outcomes. They often have worked closely with non-profit boards, and many will have served as leaders of non-profit organizations. All of these are key areas of knowledge needed for successful grant writing.

Before you consider hiring an in-house grant writer, take some time and interview grant writing consultants in your area. You will most likely be pleasantly surprised at the wealth of knowledge they can bring to your agency at a very cost-effective price.

A Vital Link: Board Giving and Grant Success

Sat, 16 Jan 2016 02:57:00 GMT

Thirty years ago I wrote and won my first grant for a small nonprofit. It was a federal grant for $90,000 for a rural runaway youth shelter. I was hooked! I realized the power of my writing and my attention to detail could make a big impact in the world. Of course, this was in the day when we still received the Federal Register in the mail. There was no internet. If we wanted to research a foundation, we made our way to the nearest library with a foundation section. We spent hours going through gigantic books and making copies of prospect information.

As you can imagine, I have witnessed much change in the grant-writing world over the past 30 years. Funders ask many different questions now than they did then. They require a lot more documentation. Their funding processes are often vastly different also.

One of the key changes I have seen over the past several years is a growing number of funders who want to know what percentage of your board members give financially to the organization. Some take it a step further and ask what percentage of your entire agency budget is donated by your board members. For those boards that do not have a 100% giving rate, this can be very problematic. In truth, the organization may not be awarded a grant because of poor board giving records. At the very least, they will lose points in the scoring process for this issue.

The bottom line here is that funders are social investors. They are looking for social ROI on their investment. They are looking for organizations and boards who are passionate enough about what they do and the impact they are having that they are personally making financial sacrifices to support the organization. It is already a very competitive grant world out there, be sure your board is not hindering your success with their lack of financial commitment.

Standards for Charitable Accountability

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 03:37:00 GMT

At GrantPathways we often tell our clients that they need to think of themselves as a business with a mission. Other times we say they are a business with a big heart. We recently heard another non-profit expert refer to it as a mission-driven business. Regardless of how it is stated, the point we are trying to make is that non-profits must operate with both a business and mission perspective.

Most non-profits excel at addressing the mission components of their non-profit business. (We will reserve space in a future Grantpathways newsletter to address some pertinent mission-related issues.) However, the business side, especially for new and smaller agencies, can be a much bigger challenge. In an effort to help our clients reach their business goals, we point them to one of the cornerstones for business- The Better Business Bureau. The BBB has developed a very strong set of standards to help non-profits evaluate their performance as a non-profit business. listed below is an abbreviated listing of their top 20 standards and excerpts from their website. If your non-profit can meet these standards you can then apply to participate in the BBB’s charitable seal program. Find the full standards at www.bbb.org/us/Charity-Standards/

“The overarching principle of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance Standards for Charity Accountability is full disclosure to donors and potential donors at the time of solicitation and thereafter. However, where indicated, the standards recommend ethical practices beyond the act of disclosure in order to ensure public confidence and encourage giving. As voluntary standards, they also go beyond the requirements of local, state and federal laws and regulations.”

Standards for Charitable Accountability

A board of directors that provides adequate oversight of the charity’s operations and its staff.
A board of directors with a minimum of five voting members.
A minimum of three evenly spaced meetings per year of the full governing body with a majority in attendance, with face-to-face participation.
Not more than one or 10% (whichever is greater) directly or indirectly compensated person(s) serving as voting member(s) of the board. Compensated members shall not serve as the board’s chair or treasurer.
No transaction(s) in which any board or staff members have material conflicting interests with the charity resulting from any relationship or business affiliation.
Have a board policy of assessing, no less than every two years, the organization’s performance and effectiveness and of determining future actions required to achieve its mission.
Submit to the organization’s governing body, for its approval, a written report that outlines the results of the aforementioned performance and effectiveness assessment and recommendations for future actions.
Spend at least 65% of its total expenses on program activities.
Spend no more than 35% of related contributions on fund raising.
Avoid accumulating funds that could be used for current program activities. To meet this standard, the charity’s unrestricted net assets available for use should not be more than three times the size of the past year’s expenses or three times the size of the current year’s budget, whichever is higher.
Make available to all, on request, complete annual financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Include in the financial statements a breakdown of expenses (e.g., salaries, travel, postage, etc.) that shows what portion of these expenses was allocated to program, fund raising, and administrative activities.
Accurately report the charity’s expenses, including any joint cost allocations, in its financial statements.
Have a board-approved annual budget for its current fiscal year, outlining projected expenses for major program activities, fund raising, and administration.
Have solicitations and informational materials, distributed by any means, that are accurate, truthful and not misleading, both in whole and in part.
Have an annual report available to all, on request, that includes:
the organization’s mission statement,
a summary of the past year’s program service accomplishments,
a roster of the officers and members of the board of directors,
financial information that includes (i) total income in the past fiscal year, (ii) expenses in the same program, fund raising and administrative categories as in the financial statements, and (iii) ending net assets.
Include on any charity websites that solicit contributions, the same information that is recommended for annual reports, as well as the mailing address of the charity and electronic access to its most recent IRS Form 990.
Address privacy concerns of donors by
providing in written appeals, at least annually, a means (e.g., such as a check off box) for both new and continuing donors to inform the charity if they do not want their name and address shared outside the organization, and
providing a clear, prominent and easily accessible privacy policy on any of its websites that tells visitors (i) what information, if any, is being collected about them by the charity and how this information will be used, (ii) how to contact the charity to review personal information collected and request corrections, (iii) how to inform the charity (e.g., a check off box) that the visitor does not wish his/her personal information to be shared outside the organization, and (iv) what security measures the charity has in place to protect personal information.
Clearly disclose how the charity benefits from the sale of products or services (i.e., cause-related marketing) that state or imply that a charity will benefit from a consumer sale or transaction. Such promotions should disclose, at the point of solicitation:
the actual or anticipated portion of the purchase price that will benefit the charity (e.g., 5 cents will be contributed to abc charity for every xyz company product sold),
the duration of the campaign (e.g., the month of October),
any maximum or guaranteed minimum contribution amount (e.g., up to a maximum of $200,000).
Respond promptly to and act on complaints brought to its attention by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance and/or local BBBs about fund raising practices, privacy policy violations and/or other issues.

Strategy for Nonprofits

Thu, 15 Oct 2015 03:41:00 GMT

As leaders of non-profit agencies you may often ask yourself if it is really necessary for your organization to spend valuable resources to develop a strategic plan? It certainly is! Keep reading to find out why your nonprofit should revise (or develop) – and use – a written strategic plan.*

Competitive advantage in grant seeking. Donors are interested in how their support will be used to advance the organization’s mission and its future plans. A clearly articulated strategic plan gives your non-profit agency the edge over other organizations competing for grant funds.
Ensuring continuity – A clear vision and mission statement encompassed in the agency’s written strategic plan helps to keep the organization on course. This document is the framework which sets the agency’s priorities and serves as a guide for succession planning.
Guiding key decisions – Time pressed executives and board members are better able to evaluate opportunities and make decisions in the context of the fit with the long term strategy for the agency.
Identifying potential problems – The development or revision of the agency’s strategic plan entails a critical assessment of the current situation, historical trends and forecasted changes. The process itself, therefore, provides the opportunity to identify issues previously unrecognized by the leadership and plan accordingly.
Defining competitive strengths & evaluating opportunities for collaboration- The strategic plan identifies the agency’s niche(s) and competitive strengths, as well as potential cost saving opportunities through cooperation, such as merging back office operations. Potential partnerships may be identified and evaluated.

In addition to securing the future of your organization, the strategic planning process offers the shorter term benefit of developing mission-centered action plans designed to ensure efficient use of resources.

*Source: The Importance Of Strategy For Nonprofits (by Rosemary Bayer and Lee Gorman)

PROFIT is NOT a Four Letter Word

Sun, 20 Sep 2015 03:45:00 GMT

Using For-Profit Strategies in the Non-Profit World

1 prof·it: noun, often attributive \?prä-f?t\ Definition of PROFIT 1: a valuable return : gain 2: the excess of returns over expenditure in a transaction or series of transactions; especially : the excess of the selling price of goods over their cost

Although there is no mention of money in Merriam-Webster’s definition of ‘profit’, the word is most often interpreted in financial terms. An organization that reaps monetary gain for the benefit of individuals is considered a ‘For Profit’ business, and an organization that puts all financial gains back into the business to continue providing for the greater good of society is considered a ‘Non Profit’.

Although there are reasons for making a distinction between the two, the reality is that the building blocks for a successful business are pretty much the same. Just as a for-profit business will fail without key items in place, the same holds true for a non-profit. In fact, the best way for a non-profit’s leadership to think of their agency is as a business, but a business with heart, whose goal is to help others.

Following are some of the key components of a successful business which non-profit leaders should model after their for-profit counterparts:

Have a Written Business Plan.
In the non-profit world, this is most often referred to as a Strategic Plan. Just as a for-profit business would have difficulty getting their business off the ground without a written plan, non-profits must take the time to put their vision and plans into writing. This is crucial for several reasons. First, when developed with your board, staff/volunteers and community stakeholders, the strategic plan will serve to engage and motivate those around you to help achieve your vision. Second, it provides a written document to communicate your goals to potential funders and donors, and shows them you are organized and have a well thought out plan. Third, it provides a work plan for your board, staff and volunteers to follow to carry out their duties. Finally, the plan will help determine financial needs for the upcoming years. By outlining specific activities and objectives, you can then assign the financial goals needed to accomplish each activity on the plan. This important document allows your agency to Plan your Work and Work your Plan !
Get Assistance from Experts.
Take time up front to gather people of influence and knowledge around you. Just as a for-profit business owner needs experts to help them grow their business, non-profits need board members and other advisors to help them grow and maintain their agency. Your board members need to network with people who will bring influence and money to your agency. They need to be excited about your vision and willing to donate financially to the cause. Just as investors would not be as likely to support businesses when the owner and partners do not have “skin in the game”, you will have difficulty attracting donors if your board members are not giving significantly to the organization.
Employ a Leader with Strong Business Sense .
A successful business owner knows that they must not just work “in” their business but, more importantly, they must work “on” their business. This is a huge factor in determining business success. Likewise, non-profit leaders must spend a majority of their time focusing on building the non-profit through various fundraising efforts, networking, marketing, and long term planning. It is critical that a non-profit’s principal leader is not spending too much of their time working within the agency’s programs, serving the people.
Report Measurable Results .
For-profit business owners must develop strong products and services to sell to their customers in order to stay in business, as well as find ways to differentiate themselves from their competition. Your non-profit must not only provide strong services, but must be able to show measurable, meaningful outcomes and results. This not only ensures your clients receive good services, but gives you the opportunity to set your agency above the competition when trying to attract donor and grant dollars in today’s fiercely competitive economy.
Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Basket.
For-profit businesses use the term ‘ancillary’ to describe those products and services that bring in revenue, but are not their primary source of income. These ancillary services and products are often necessary to keep a solid cash flow. In the non-profit world, compare this concept to your agency’s need for a diverse funding base. Successful non-profits look at a variety of ways to bring in revenue including grant funds, individual donations, corporate donations, fundraising events, fees for service, and unrelated business income.

Smart non-profit leaders will take lessons from successful for-profit businesses. While your passion may be to help others through your work, strong business practices must be in place to fulfill that vision for years to come. If your organizational leaders take this direction in their long term planning, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish!

Building a Mission Statement

Sat, 15 Aug 2015 03:35:00 GMT

You don’t have to talk to our staff at GrantPathways for too long before you hear us talking about the importance of building your business foundation. You are a business with a great big heart! This is a great article about how to devise your mission statement with your business model in mind. We think this is a great way to improve your communication with funders, donors and the general public. We would love to hear your feedback!

Act Out of Knowledge

Sat, 20 Jun 2015 03:25:00 GMT

While enjoying a celebration lunch with a client recently, I heard some heartbreaking news. My client recently attended a workshop hosted by a secular organization in which she was one of the only representatives from the faith-based sector. During the workshop the presenter referred to the lack of professionalism and follow-through of faith-based organizations she had worked with in the past. She even went as far as to say the specific names of the ministries and recommended that attendees not work with these ministries. This weighed heavy on my heart and the heart of my client! What a tragedy it is to hear secular organizations speak so negatively about their faith-based counterparts. Even more tragic is the fact that her comments were likely well-founded.

My client, whose ministry recently completed capacity-building services with GrantPathways, continued to express her concern about how faith-based organizations are often not taken seriously in the community by stakeholders, donors and funders due to a lack of non-profit business development and professionalism. While their hearts and souls are devoted to their work, without this business foundation, many will fail to meet their goals. This not only affects the reputation of their ministry, but the reputation of other ministries, the Body of Christ and the church as a whole. While we continued to discuss the causes and solutions of this issue and many other political issues, some basic insights came to light:

The Scripture tells us that we should “act out of knowledge” (Proverbs 13:16); gain wisdom and understanding (Proverbs 2:2); and plan and estimate the cost of building something so that people will not ridicule us if we are unable to finish what we started (Luke 14:28-32). Leaders who are starting faith-based ministries should take time to seriously learn and plan before they start to build.
As Christians, we should endeavor to operate ministries and businesses with excellence. The eyes of the world are upon us. Faith-based ministries should endeavor to be shining examples of non-profit business excellence and outstanding, high-impact services.
With all of the current political turmoil and funding cuts for social services, this could be the church’s finest hour! Faith-based ministries who are able to combine strong business practices with services centered around strong Biblical principles will have amazing opportunities to transform individual lives and entire communities.
Leaders of faith-based organizations should be sure to spend time and money to develop their organizational capacity. At a minimum, they should read and study all they can find about such topics as organizational capacity building, best practices and organizational sustainability. A simple Google search of these terms will lead to a plethora of websites that can help. If at all possible, they should seek funders, donors and consultants to help them build their capacity.
Donors and funders of faith-based organizations should be giving towards capacity-building activities for faith-based organizations. These small, but dedicated organizations are filled with some of the most passionate and determined people in the “social service” field. With a little professional coaching and instruction, these people have the ability to create outstanding programs with powerful life-changing outcomes.

GrantPathways’ staff strives to provide faith-based organizations with valuable knowledge to help them grow and sustain well into the future. We would love nothing more than to hear community leaders always speak of faith-based agencies as models of excellence! What a great day it will be to hear people in secular settings and workshops recommending attendees to work with faith-based organizations!

Nonprofit Board Responsibility

Sat, 02 May 2015 03:23:00 GMT

A strong and effective board is critical to the on-going success of an organization. This article does a good job of helping board members to understand their roles and responsibilities.

Are You the Problem?

Fri, 02 Jan 2015 02:52:00 GMT

If you are a nonprofit leader and are struggling to attract and keep good board and staff members, the first question to ask yourself is “Am I the problem?”. The answer is probably, “Yes!”, even if only in part. Of course there may be many reasons for this struggle, but you must first examine your level of leadership.

One of the laws of leadership in John Maxwell’s book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is the Law of Magnetism. The law simply states that who we are is who we attract. In other words, who you attract is not determined by who you want to attract – it’s determined by who you are. To go even further with this principle, if your leadership ability is at a level 7, you will attract people with a level 5 or 6 in leadership. Those you naturally attract will be similar to you in not only leadership abilities, but also in life experience, values, background, generation, and attitude. You will most likely find that the people drawn to follow you have more similarities than differences. Of course, it is possible for you to go out and find people unlike yourself, but those are not the people you naturally attract. The bottom line, dear leader, is if you think the people you attract could be better, it’s time to work first on improving yourself.

So, how do you overcome the Law of Magnetism? You work at becoming a better leader. You work on lifting your leadership lid. You study leadership. You model leadership. And you then work to mentor leaders. As you work on your leadership you build on your strengths and find others who are strong where you are weak. Bottom line, dear leader, is if you think the people you attract could be better, it’s time to work on improving yourself first. The time you put into developing yourself as a leader will be well worth the investment!

Becoming a Person of Influence Mastermind Group

Thu, 13 Nov 2014 14:30:00 GMT

Take your influence and leadership to the next level with a Virtual Mastermind Group on Becoming a Person of Influence with 8-10 select leaders. Masterminds are being used by leaders across the globe as a way to use the power of a small group of minds to help individuals achieve greater personal growth and impact. Here are just a few comments from others who have participated in a Mastermind group with Julé:

“This mastermind group is an excellent way for you to exponentially improve your results, whether in a business or nonprofit environment. You will be equipped and motivated to make changes that will positively impact those around you.”(Lesley Bateman, Business Owner)

“I gained growth in both my personal life and career through this group. I just never knew all that I need to know to be a strong leader. You are a teacher that can challenge people to be all they can be!” (Angi Magoulis, Faith-Based Ministry Leader)

“This Mastermind group experience has given me the confidence I need to be a good leader. I have gained knowledge and insight that is valuable and that I will continue to use as I continue my journey as a leader.” (Juanita McClinton Lee, Nonprofit Program Director)

This group will be held via conference call from 3:00-4:30 pm on November 19, December 3, 10 and 17. Go to Becoming a Person of Influence for more information and registration!

Who is Going to Stop You?

Thu, 23 Oct 2014 13:49:00 GMT

I just read a very interesting article about how women lead differently. It made me smile, gave me hope and I knew in my gut it was true.

I spend a great deal of my time working with women leaders of all types, whether working to lead their homes, volunteering as leaders or leading companies and nonprofits. One of the main things I have learned is we women lead differently than men. I think we are as a gender just learning how to describe those differences and grow them for both our benefit and all those we lead.

According to Sydney Finkelstein in Why More Women Will Become CEOs , “At the risk of stereotyping 50 percent of the population – and this is backed up by some research – there are some central tendencies in the management styles of women versus men. Women tend to be more collaborative. They tend to work better in teams, and they tend to be better at communication.” As women continue to take on more leadership roles, our culture is bound to become more collaborative. This collaboration will help leaders gain a greater sense of self-awareness as they learn to work within diverse teams.

As you work to develop your leadership skills through your natural collaborative female style, here are a few key points to keep in mind:

If you are feeling lonely at the top, you probably are not collaborating at peak performance. Strong collaboration will more often than not find you surrounded by like-minded people who are working towards your similar goals.
As you collaborate, expect to make some sacrifices. When it comes to pints of style, be willing to go with the flow. When it comes to character and principles, stand firm.
Focus on winning as a collaborative effort, regardless of who gets the credit. When you become respected for collaboration of this style, your name will naturally rise to the top.
As you choose whom to collaborate with, remember to go outside of those you naturally attract. Look to bring people to your collaboration that share your same values, but have different skills and styles.
As a leader, always look for ways to make a collaborative team win. Celebrate your victories.
Use your natural gift of communication to connect with team members at a heart level. Remember, strong leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand. True communication at this level must be intentionally developed. Find ways to study to grow your communication skills.
Look for ways not just to bring people to your collaboration, but to join others collaboratively in their work. This will grow your network and influence powerfully.

Start putting some of your natural feminine gifts of collaboration together and you will find yourself unstoppable!

6 Powerful Reasons to Join a Mastermind Group

Thu, 11 Sep 2014 20:26:00 GMT

You are probably living under a proverbial rock if you have not heard of mastermind groups by now. These powerful and effective groups are popping up everywhere in the business and nonprofit world. While the style and focus of a mastermind group varies greatly depending upon the person leading the group, the overall goal is to use the power of a small group of minds to help individuals achieve greater personal growth and impact.

There is a reason these groups are growing in popularity – they work! Often the group will study a certain book or curriculum and then participate in “group think” to help individual group members find new inroads in business, overcome obstacles or find solutions to problems in their professional lives.

If you have not yet participated in one, here are 6 reasons to join one ASAP:

It is just plain common sense and evidenced by studies that we humans are more likely to achieve our goals when we are accountable to others. Mastermind groups will help you to set goals and supercharge your results.
Networking with like-minded individuals who are in the group to grow and achieve just like you, is powerful. This is an after-hours or service-based networking group on steroids. You have the opportunity to really get to know other people and share your work and goals at a much deeper level than at a typical networking group.
In an effective mastermind group, you will spend a great deal of time sharing insights and success principles that you simply cannot get on your own. Regardless of how smart and successful you are, learning new ideas and perspectives from others will greatly expand your knowledge. If you are like most people who attend a mastermind group, your cup will overflow with new ideas through this process.
Leaders of mastermind groups are experts in personal growth and business success. At each meeting, they will bring the freshest ideas in personal growth, business and life success to the group.
The time you spend at a mastermind group meeting allows you to get away from the craziness of your work day to truly think, reflect, learn and plan. If you do not purposefully set aside time for this type of growth, your daily tasks will almost always take precedence. The result – slower progress on your long-term or big-picture goals.
Mastermind groups cause you to get outside of yourself to help others. Your input, knowledge and ideas are very valuable to others in the group. You can bring new insights to them that will help them move to their next level. It is synergistic and very rewarding!

To find out how you can join a mastermind group in the greater Tampa Bay area, email Julé Colvin at jule@grantpathways.com.

Blaze Your Trail!

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 20:23:00 GMT

If you are looking to increase your leadership and success in life, here are some inspiring words excerpted from Early to Rise this morning:

“The answer is simple. You must put yourself in situations where you have to play up a level. You must surround yourself with positive people that push you to your peak performance. You must volunteer when the boss offers up a terrifyingly difficult opportunity. You must raise your hand when the committee asks for volunteers to lead a group through a monumental task. You must book your plane ticket, register for the conference, and put yourself out there at the seminar and in the post-event networking opportunities.

You must, you must, you must play up a level any chance you get.
Surround yourself with the best. Build a better network of people that you spend the most time with. Increase your average. Find opportunities that challenge you, terrify you, and bring out the best in you.