Are you even grant ready?

You need a Grant Writing Plan

I often get calls from small, well-intended organizations needing grant-writing support.  They have a great mission and are very passionate about what they do.  

They often think a federal grant will solve all their problems.  And they frequently lack any sort of plan – no strategic plan, development strategy or even a simple program plan.

Here are just a few tips and suggestions to get your grant-writing program off the ground:

1.     Grant-writing needs to start with a plan.  Go back to the basics – what is your vision and mission? What is your charity trying to achieve? Does your charity even have a strategic plan in place?  You can’t write grants if you do not have your end-goal(s) in mind!

2.     Do you even have the infrastructure needed? Time and time again, I have been asked to write grants for start-up charities. My first question is, are you a registered charity? It is essential that you are! While it is possible to obtain some grants while partnering with another organization, this is not a long-term solution.

3.    Do you have any staff or volunteers? It is very challenging to carry out a program without staff or volunteers already in place.  Too many times to count, charities have went forth with a grant award only to fail because they lacked the human resources.

These are just a few tips to get you thinking about adding grant-writing to your fundraising portfolio.  Have more questions, just drop me an email – or call!