8 PARTS GRANTSMANSHIP

In our quest to promote the common good, moving a foundation or corporation from a prospective donor to a giver involves homework and hard work. Fashion a plan with a carefully designed series of sprints:

Prospect identification: Your most significant prospects are those that have already given to your organization. Have a keen awareness of the philanthropic community. Look for matches between your needs and the areas of interest of the grantor. Determine linkages from within your leadership.

Research and evaluation: Use key databases and directories, including Foundation Center information, to create your prospect list. Review giving guidelines and donation history. Formulate effective and efficient strategies for your research process . Whenever practicable, place a telephone call or make an appointment with the prospect as you do research. Develop a tailor-made approach to funders by designing a competitive proposal. Bear in mind that there are multiple sources for corporate research information.

Planning: Tailor a step-by-step action plan for each foundation’s grant program. Be imaginative in your thinking of how to solve problems and build partnerships, efforts many foundations are looking for. Realize that the grantsmanship process is often lengthy. If the plan involves insiders, let them know their role.

Cultivation: Get to know foundation staff members and corporate giving officers; personal contact with a funder increases the likelihood of success. Send regular updates with meaningful, relevant information about your organization. Find out specifically if a Letter Of Intent is required. Be ready with questions based on your careful review of submission guidelines, your proposed budget line items, and the details of your project implementation plan. This discussion with foundation staff can lead to excellent feedback on such points as timelines, evaluation expectations, and allowed expenditures. Call the prospect before submitting the proposal to alert them that it is coming.

Solicitation: Follow application guidelines precisely. Be specific about what you want funded. Check and re-check budget figures. Make the request realistic. Know what happens to your application once it arrives. Extend an invitation to visit your organization.

Acknowledgement: Before you pop open the champagne on good news, thank the donor. And, if the application is not funded, mail a thank you note and try to learn something from it.

Stewardship: See whether a meeting or telephone conference with the Foundation’s Executive Director or Program Officer is encouraged or discouraged. Foundation reporting requires more than a minimal report at the end of a funding cycle. Send regular information updates about the project’s accomplishments. Adopt a method to guarantee that proper gift acceptance procedures and reporting are followed to the letter.

Evaluation: Remember, you can’t improve what you don’t measure or evaluate.

GREAT BOSSES

David Axelrod, President Obama’s senior advisor and longtime political strategist, came home to hail the Chicago premiere of the HBO documentary By The People. Directors Amy Rice and Alicia Sams had the exclusive access and, thus, exclusive footage – shooting Obama from May 2006 to June 2009 – indispensable for an historic film. Among those at the screening was Lynn Sweet, who covered the campaign for the Chicago Sun-Times and is featured in the documentary. She said "the most important stuff in this movie is the stuff that shows Obama talking about Obama. That is why this is an important movie.”

In his introductory remarks Axelrod shared three basic premises Obama enumerated from the start of his campaign that are good rules for nonprofit leaders to live by:

* This was going to be a grassroots campaign. Everything was to percolate up. Issues, messages, organization start from the ground up.

* Have fun. The campaign was going to be long, hard work, so “we might as well have some fun while we’re doing it.”

* No finger pointing. There will be mistakes; things will go wrong, but no blaming others.

For those of us in nonprofit organizations, that means listening to and responding to our clients, donors, directors. Having fun is very good advice in this economic climate. Outlawing the blame game is a key factor in being able to build a successful, respectful team.

I gleam some of the same managerial wisdom from Phil Jackson’s Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior. One of the most successful coaches in NBA history, Jackson, who has dealt with some of the biggest egos in the universe, espouses selfless team play and compassion. Tall order from a tall man, however, it would behoove nonprofit managers to tap the potential of the human spirit in their midst and not to work in isolation or their own version of corporate silos. Good relationships are vital to success in work, as well as in one’s personal life. Stressing fun along with self-discipline can motivate and stimulate teamwork among disparate followers. If it’s good enough for the Commander in Chief….
Photo credit: Kuni Takahashi