Fundraising & Grant Writing

Grant writing is usually a necessary part of raising funds for a nonprofit.

Most nonprofits raise funds from a variety of sources to do their work. Fund raising for a nonprofit includes activities like developing relationships with donors, managing donation campaigns and organizing fund-raising galas. Grant writing is a part of fund raising.

Fund-Raising Strategy

According to Carter McNamara, consultant and developer of ManagementHelp.org, a nonprofit's board and leadership develop a strategy for raising funds and identify sources money may come from, such as government and foundation grants.

Skills

A grant writer may be employed full-time by an organization or contracted as needed. A grant writer has to have good writing and communications skills, a clear understanding of the nonprofit's projects, strong research abilities for finding appropriate grant makers and organizational skills for keeping records and filing reports.

Proposal Basics

The project budget is a very important part of any grant application.

Each grant application will have specific guidelines grant writers must follow, but applications usually require certain basic elements. According to the Minnesota Council on Foundations, applications require a proposal summary, organization information, a description of the problem the project is attempting to solve, a work plan, the impact the project will have, what other funding the project has, how the project will be evaluated and its budget.

Finding Grant Sources

Information about government and foundation grants may be found through sources such as Grants.gov and the Foundation Center. An online search on an issue (such as homelessness) though a search engine like Google, can also be helpful.

Professionalism

The Foundation Center's "Guide to Proposal Writing," advises grantees to say thanks when they get a grant, know what the grant obligates them to do and fulfill all reporting requirements on time. If the proposal you wrote is rejected, don't argue or take it personally. You can ask the grant maker if there is some way for you to make your proposal stronger or if you can resubmit it at a later date.

References

• ManagementHelp.org: Overview of Nonprofit Fundraising Sources and Approaches
• Minnesota Council on Foundations: Writing a Successful Grant Proposal
• Foundation Center; "Guide to Proposal Writing," 4th ed.; 2004

Resources

• Non-Profit Guides: Grant-Writing Tools for Non-Profit Organizations
• The Grantsmanship Center
• The Foundation Center