so let's talk about how do I get a grant my name is Dan Kimball I'm a product
specialist here at Aplos software
you know I've been doing fundraising for along time and I was thinking about
the first time I actually wrote a grant was a long time ago and I was kind of early in my
fundraising career and back in those days you actually had to submit binders and make photocopies of grant
submissions and it was a lot of work well fast forward a number of years the
great thing about grants is that they're pretty accessible most of the online
applications now are are all online literally online and so there's a lot
less work but that being said we want to kind of get into a little bit what are
some things you want to be looking for in writing writing for that grant one
thing that nonprofits sometimes make a mistake in doing is that they just think
it's free money just kind of out there but you actually have to work a little
bit for those grants I mean the most important thing I think more than
anything is making sure that your mission aligns with the funder and what
they're trying to accomplish in other words if you're a if you're an agency
that works with say homeless people or you're a food distribution center and
there's an education grant out there you don't want to change your mission just
to kind of what we call follow the money so really the at the very core you want
to look at what that funder is is trying to accomplish in their goals and use a
non-profit and if they align if it's a good match and then after that it's
really just making sure you're reading through the requirements because grants
can be very technical they can be very simple some corporate grants are just a
simple online application where you fill in maybe your tax ID number your board
members your budget things like that a technical grant can be you know pages
and pages of very specific goals and objectives and and who's going to do
what as part of that grant so it's really important that you assess you
read through and you really learn what is all involved you don't just kind of
jump right to that before you get married will you you court or you date
well it's the same thing with a foundation or a funder you want to get
to know them so so in a lot of cases it's appropriate for you to call and say
hey I'm I'm a non-profit here and you know and middle in Texas and I'm I'd
like to get to know you a little bit how would I go about doing that
the smaller foundations may say well you know we don't take unsolicited proposals
that's okay but the idea is that you're getting to know that relationship and
you're building a relationship with a donor you want to build a relationship
with those funders and a lot of people don't think especially the big
government grants oh I could never call them well you can actually you can't
because the people behind there there are people too so you're kind of in a
sense you're kind of dating getting to know that relationship and seeing if
there's a good match there I think you know one thing that a lot of
organizations at the if the very core have to ask is should I or should I not
go after our graph I mean we've talked about some technical things about how to
go about doing it and I think it's important that you know
before you you know even begin to write your first crack just you know evaluate
that does that fit into your into your annual plan how much money are we
talking about that you're it is such trying trying to raise again there's a
lot of organizations have success with grants but at the same time I think you
use a leader a director a fundraiser anybody who's watching a board member if
you're watching this video just ask yourself you know is this good for our
organization when talking about the question or addressing the question how
do I get a grant it's much like how do you get donors it's it's creating a
prospect list so do some research that's going to be involved in terms of who's
in your area in your community or nationally or regionally who is
distributing grants who's funding programs that are like yours so start to
begin by creating that prospect list people that you want to know get to know
oh and then the other thing is is talk to your board members and volunteers
many times you'll find that those volunteers might know if somebody or
they themselves might sit on a board of a foundation or a bank or somebody
that's a part of that process as a fundraiser one of the things that I kind
of became a joke but it would often have a board member or volunteers say hey why
don't we apply for money from the Gates Foundation and I would joke back and say
the kids do they have a foundation no kidding I should look into that and it
was kind of my way of saying or encouraging people that you know there
it's very competitive and and I think more anything is that you know it's not
like these large grants are just you know giving money away left and right I
mean they they have a process in place and even some of them are even trying to
get improve their own practices to be a little more accessible so I think if I
can encourage you it's it's don't you know don't not do grants but also make
sure you're you're being realistic about your expectations so we gave you a lot
to think about it to consider when you think about well how do I go about
getting a grant so in our next video we're gonna actually talk about how do I
actually write that grant