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.