Category: Finance

The Summer Is A Great Time To Make New Things Start To Happen !!

It would be a good time for a Development Program Analysis/Assessment/Audit to take a look at your current fundraising activities/programs to determine:
• What you’re not doing that you could do; and,
• What you’re doing that you could do more (cost) effectively !!

That should include an evaluation of your fundraising leadership and your leadership potential. It should incorporate an assessment of your fundraising knowledge/skills. It should determine how effectively you’re getting your message out to your (potential) donors, and how your donors/leaders/volunteers feel about how they are recognized for their support/efforts.

It would be a good time to begin Creating/Enhancing your Major Gifts Program — you could:
• Identify potential leadership;
• Identify potential major donors; and,
• Figure out how to get them to tell you what you need to do to get them to do what you
   want them to do !!

Major focus of this process is to learn what it is that would make folks want to become major donors to your organization.

It would be a good time to begin working on that Bequest Program you’ve been thinking about, so you can:
• Ensure long-term (5-, 6- & 7-figure) cash flow;
• Build a volunteer leadership that will want to help you create the program; and,
• Design a “Recognition Program” that will encourage potential “Legacy Society” members
   to want to join you.

In addition to the elements noted for the first two activities, you must determine what it would take to get people to want to name you in their wills.

And, to emphasize “the” critical factor for all of the above, the fact-finding and planning must focus on how, by supporting you, the (potential) donors will be satisfying their own needs.
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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll be pleased to answer your questions. Contact me at [email protected]

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If you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting.

Using Moves Management To Secure Foundation Gifts

Moves Management, initially developed by G.T. “Buck” Smith and David Dunlop at Cornell University, is a process of managing relationships with individual donors and moving them towards major giving.

As cited in the white paper, Moves Management: The Science of Fundraising, according to David Dunlop, “the moves concept focuses major gift fundraising on changing people’s attitudes so they want to give. To do this, we take a series of initiatives or moves to develop each prospect’s awareness of, knowledge of, interest in, involvement with, and commitment to the institution and its mission.”

Although Moves Management is typically associated with major gift fundraising, it can also be used to help cultivate grant prospects and steward existing grantors. As I wrote in my previous post, A Four-step Process for Effective Grantsmanship” — “Building a relationship with foundation trustees and/or managers takes time, but is a valuable investment to position your grant applications for success.”

A planned series of “Moves” with foundation trustees and/or managers throughout the year will help you build relationships with these people who are critical to the success of your grant program.

Moves are typically communications that don’t include an ask. The goal is to better connect the potential or existing funder with your NPO’s mission. Some examples of moves with foundation trustees and/or managers include:
• Letters with feel-good stories – I recently sent a letter written by a student describing why
   the school means so much to him and his family
• Invitations to tour your facility and meet the people you serve – I’m lucky because I work
  at a middle school and our students are almost always available to talk to a donor
• Invitations to meet with your Executive Director or Program Director
• Letters sharing fundraising successes – I sent a letter indicating that we were recently
  awarded a large state grant to trustees and managers at foundations funding the same
  program — this shows that our program is worthy of receiving a competitive government
  grant and that our organization is seeking additional funding to sustain the program
• Invitations to special non-fundraising events

It’s important to document your moves not only to track your progress, but also to help you spot any holes in your Moves Management process. Many donor databases have fields that track contacts, but I simply use a spreadsheet with the grantors in the first column and all of the moves I plan to make in a row at the top. I fill in the dates when I plan to make the moves, and this becomes the basis of my work plan for the year. I also include letters of intent, proposals, and grant reports so that my work plan encompasses all communications with every foundation.

Throughout the year, I track when I actually make each move, and also document additional communications such as phone calls or e-mails, so that I have a record of all moves and communications with every foundation. Then I can easily see at various points during the year if I’m appropriately cultivating and stewarding every foundation.

This might seem tedious, but after doing this work, I recently discovered that I was over stewarding some foundations that made small grant awards, and not doing enough to steward and cultivate some of our bigger funders and prospects. I was able to adjust where I was spending my time, and I believe this will pay off in the long run, helping to move more foundations to fund our grant proposals.

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Lynn deLearie Consulting, LLC, helps nonprofit organizations develop, enhance and expand grant programs, and helps them secure funding from foundations and corporations. Contact Lynn deLearie..

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If you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting.

This posting is based on an email exchange asking about the relationship between bequests and Naming Opportunities (NOs). I have expanded on my responses in that exchange:

With regrets, I do not have a set of generic naming policies that I can share. I would, however, be happy to suggest how you might structure such for your organization.

First, you need to have policies in place to “regulate” what your organization will do with bequests, whether all or only certain (types or percentages of) bequests will go into endowment, capital needs and/or operating expenses.

Then, you need policies for what you would be willing to name, and what you wouldn’t – and whether the naming would be permanent and/or if some/all would have terms of a specific number of years.

Once the policies are in place, and there is a list of naming opportunities approved by the board, they shouldn’t need to be involved in approving each naming.

Typically, the Development Committee of the Board, in conjunction with the Chief Development Officer, make the decisions as to who will be offered which “opportunity” … at what “price.”

One caveat, the organization should also have in place policies specifying from whom the organization will/will not accept support.

Naming Opportunities (using the term broadly) for support of operating expenses tend to be of the names-on-a-list or on-a-plaque variety. NOs for endowment, depending on the size of the gift, can be names-on-a-list, names-on-a-plaque, or the naming of a (part of a) program that the gift endows.

NOs for capital projects range from names-on-a-plaque to names on equipment to names on (parts of) buildings.

NOs based on bequests, since an NPO doesn’t receive the gift until the donor is no longer with us, must be discussed/negotiated with the donor before they die !!

Those discussions/negotiations tend to be very business-like, and focus on what’s important to the donor. After all, s/he is not going to name you in his/her will unless:
1. S/he already feels strongly about your organization (or one of it’s programs) and/or;
2. Through the process leading to naming you in his/her will, develops that strong feeling for your organization (or one of it’s programs).

If you’re going to “sell” a naming, just be sure that the price is commensurate with the value of the “opportunity.” Remember, the “price” of a “naming” is based on the market value of that naming – a price that has little-or-no relation to the cost of creating/building/purchasing whatever is being named.

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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll be pleased to answer your questions. Contact me at [email protected]
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Have you seen The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
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If you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting.

Continuing (from Tuesday) to devise/structure the process for rebuilding our relationship with our lapsed donors….

Our next step is to design our solicitation strategies based upon how “major” the lapsed donors’ gifts were … and might be again. That helps us decide whether we just send solicitation letters with return gift envelopes enclosed; if we send letters followed by phone calls; whether we just call for decisions over the phone; or, if we write or call to seek meetings to discuss their renewals in person.

We also give serious (sensitive) thought and consideration to deciding if we’ll ask that they renew their previous/last gift, or if we see potential for seeking an increased contribution.

Consider using one or more of the following statements sometime during your lapsed gift renewal contacts as you seek to convince those lapsed donors to reinstate their gifts:

• Your support has always meant so much to us. May we count on you again this year?

• We missed your participation in our campaign last year (or specify if it’s been a longer period). Please join us for another year.

• We take great pride in having your name associated with our institution. We have missed that association, and I hope we can count on your participation again this year.

• We are aware that you chose not to renew your gift to us last year (or in the year it ended). We welcome this opportunity to ask if that was because of something we did that we can now remedy, or if it is something out of our control. We will soon contact you to ask what we can try to do to win back your important support.

• I was reviewing this year’s list of important contributors, and could not help but notice that your name was missing. That’s why I wanted to contact you, to respectfully ask that you consider renewing your gift for this year’s campaign.

• There is a good chance we will establish a new record of gift support this year for our institution, but only if important contributors such as you continue to invest in our institution. Can we count on your support again this year?

And, an added note: We always looked to connect the renewal of lapsed gifts to a current matching or challenge grant program. which tends to be a compelling “selling” point. And we found, more often than not, that the “challenger” allowed us to use those renewed gifts as “new” money when that was a requirement for matching funds.

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If you have a question or comment for Tony, he can be reached at [email protected]. There is also a lot of good fundraising information on his website: Raise-Funds.com

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If you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting.

It’s an old saying in development, that your best prospects for the next time are the people who gave to you last time … or the time before that, or the time before….

Based on our best knowledge and understanding of the people who’ve given to us before, we should be making case-by-case judgments on how to bring our lapsed donors back into the fold.

Of course, care should be taken to avoid asking lapsed donors to reconsider their support if they previously made it explicitly clear that they wanted to be removed from the donor list and that they did not intend to give again. And, also of course, that depends on the quality/accuracy of our records.

If we kept good records, we would know why they did not want to be asked again.

But, through my rose-colored glasses, I always look for some hint that some of those “don’t ask me again” lapsed donors could now be thinking otherwise — especially if the reason for the halt in their giving was something which has changed in our institution, something we could fix, or that they might now be in a better financial or personal position to renew their support.

In those very special instances, we would say to the lapsed donor, “I know you said no to our request in the past, and we did take you off our regular solicitation list as you requested, but I wanted to determine that we did that because you were unhappy with something that we did or did not do at the time … or if the reason was something out of our control.”

(Since they once felt good about their relationship with our organization, they would, invariably, appreciate the call and would tell us if they had, indeed, wanted to be taken off the list because of a grievance.)

The purpose of our call was to find out if we had done something wrong and, if possible, restore our relationship with those donors. Sometimes it was something we could now fix. Sometimes, even though we never asked, they would even reconsider and make a gift.

So, our first step was to determine how far back is “lapsed.” Maybe three years with no response is a good cut off point. Some institutions go back five years.

Then we calculate a minimum donation level, based on what is practical, relative to good use of time and effort vs. potential dollars. (With an eye on those below the minimum cut off who are thought to have greater giving potential than their last gift.)

— This post continues on Thursday of this week —

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If you have a question or comment for Tony, he can be reached at [email protected]. There is also a lot of good fundraising information on his website: Raise-Funds.com

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If you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting.

Why are Executive Summaries so Important?

Some federal grant guidelines require an Executive Summary or Project Summary. Some Project Summaries have page limitations and strict rules about their content.

However, if the Executive Summary is open-ended you have an opportunity to introduce your narrative and provide a roadmap for reviewers. If your Executive Summary is not compelling and persuasive, reviewers may not pay much attention to the rest of your proposal.

A great Executive Summary should:
• Connect your project to the federal agency’s mission or goals.
• Identify the federal agency’s need.
• Connect your project directly to the federal agency’s need.
• Explain why you are superbly qualified to carry out your proposed project.
• Preview how your proposal narrative is organized.

Despite the importance of the Executive or Project Summary, they often are weak introductions to the proposal narrative.

Avoid these four common mistakes to produce a great Executive Summary.

Mistake #1: Not paying enough attention to your Executive Summary
Too many Executive Summaries invariably begin with the sentence “We are pleased to submit this proposal to xxx and look forward to your review.” They often are very general and they focus on your organization, not the federal agency. These kinds of Executive Summaries are guaranteed to put reviewers to sleep and convince them that they should not read your proposal carefully.

Pay careful attention to your Executive Summary because reviewers will pay careful attention to it too.

Mistake #2: Doing your Executive Summary at the last minute
If you write your Executive Summary at the last minute, you will not have enough time to create a good one. I do not recommend that you do your Executive Summary at the beginning of the proposal cycle, but you need time to think, polish, and refine. This cannot be done at 2 A.M. the morning the proposal is due.

Begin working on your Executive Summary once you have an almost complete first draft of the proposal narrative.

Mistake #3: Not addressing your federal agency’s needs
Too many Executive Summaries focus on your organization to the exclusion of almost everything else.

Answer two important questions in your Executive Summary: Why am I applying? What am I offering the federal agency?

Mistake #4: Not being focused and structured.
Bad Executive Summaries are not only dry and boring, but often they are unfocused and unstructured. Unfortunately, this may be a prelude to the rest of the narrative.

Your Executive Summary is a short sales pitch. Your challenge is to demonstrate in just a page or two that you have something special to offer a government agency.

Structure your Executive Summary by following the order of the evaluation criteria in the grant guidelines and be very clear and straightforward. This is a good place for bulleted and numbered lists, call-out boxes, and great visuals. Tell the reviewers what your organization has to offer and explain why you have the best solution to the need that has been identified in the grant guidelines.

The Executive Summary is too important a part of your proposal narrative to treat lightly. Use it to hook your readers and engage them in the rest of your grant proposal with a compelling story.

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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop successful proposals to government agencies. Contact Jayme Sokolow.

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If you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting.

This posting is a continuation of the email exchange begun last Tuesday.

“I am happy to step down and then go through the hiring process, I just don’t understand how it works. When, specifically, do I step down from the board? Is it when we have enough money to pay staff or as soon as we start providing services? We plan to put money into programs first, staff salaries second as we have the means to do so. So, there is a good chance we will already be entrenched in service provision before we even have the money to pay anyone.”

The best advice I can give is that you should do what you’re doing. Continue the birthing process and help the baby learn to walk. Don’t worry about formalities yet. You’ll have your initial board … a board that’s doing all the work … and you won’t need staff ’til there’s more than a couple of board members can do themselves.

When the time comes, and there is sufficient income for staff salaries, then you can (in this order) assume the E.D. mantle and resign from the board. (I know that contradicts what I said earlier, but at that stage in the life of an NPO, it doesn’t make a lot of difference.) Don’t worry about a hiring process.

Once you’re the E.D., you can hire the D.D., assuming the board has authorized a budget that includes staff salaries. Do that before resigning from the board !!

As a former D.O.D., I’m sure you know that you can’t budget an expense line until you know where the money is coming from.

“You mention we should recruit board members “later.” When is later?”

“Later” is when you have something of substance to show prospective board members, when you have something that they’d want to be part of. Recruiting board members must address their needs as well as the needs of the NPO.

“What I’m looking for is a timeline of steps: when we should add more board members above and beyond the three founders, when we should create true staff/board designations and when my role should change.”

There is no textbook timeline. Birthing and growth of each NPO is different. You must use your judgment in deciding when “it’s time.” You could also engage a consultant in organizational development to provide periodic observation/counsel.

“I would like to be the Executive Director.”

If that’s what you want, and you have the vision, there’s no reason not to go for it.

“That is my intention. Knowing I have that goal in mind, do you have any thoughts as to how I can ensure that I am keeping the best interests of the organization front and center and not letting my own interests and desires get in the way? Should I NOT look to become ED and just remain on the board (with a term limit)? Provided I do pursue that goal, and I do become staff, I don’t expect to receive any special treatment just because I founded the organization, and I understand the dangers of that situation.”

If you keep in mind and give priority to the needs of the people the NPO was created to serve, it shouldn’t be hard keeping the needs of the NPO in mind. There should not be a conflict.

In any case, since it was your vision, and the E.D. is the board’s major resource, you can keep the board focused on why they and the NPO exists.

As above (and in my “Mature Organization” piece), from birth up to puberty what is important is whether it’s a well adjusted child doing what it should. If it gets to that point without formal staff, fine. It’ll be up to you (and the other existing board members) when it’s time to “hire” staff and formalize the structure.

Until then, just do good stuff.

“So, do we just write the hiring procedures for ED into our bylaws, and then let the board handle it? Can you point me in the right direction in terms of places to look for guidance in writing up those procedures? Are there are reading materials or articles you can direct me to so I can learn more about this process? I am having trouble finding information about this specific issue in the creation of a new NPO.”

I suggest you take a look at “Starting Organizations.”

There’s a lot of stuff that will probably be of help.

“I ask all of these questions because we are going to be able to start providing services fairly quickly, so while it may be irrelevant now, it will be relevant soon and I’d rather be prepared than wait until the last minute to make decisions regarding how we will handle the process.”

You already have a pretty good idea of what’s required and what to avoid, so don’t be too concerned about a specific timeline.

Enjoy the satisfaction with the creative process and with providing service to people who need it.

BTW, Carter McNamara, the owner of the Free Management Library website, that host this blog, is a management consultant … and you couldn’t do better if you need counsel.

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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll be pleased to answer your questions. Contact me at [email protected]

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If you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting.

By now, CFC charities know the numbers and total dollar amount of the gifts pledged to them during the CFC Fall campaign.

So, if you’re in the CFC, have you asked yourself if you’re satisfied with the results of your last CFC campaign? If yes, great, if no, let me share a few tips that may help you achieve better results in this year’s campaign.

CFC Fundraising Tip:

Think Donors Not Dollars!

Relationships are key; you have supporters for whom the CFC is the most donor friendly way for them to give. Growth comes a lot easier when you think of your supporters as people, not ATMs.

Because so many Federal CFC donors choose to remain anonymous, this is somewhat challenging but you’ll find it changes your mindset when you set goals along the lines of, “What do we need to do to get 100 additional CFC donors” (or 1000, whatever’s appropriate for your non-profit) instead of how do we raise more dollars?

CFC Fundraising Tip:

Make it easy for Federal donors to support you.

In the process of making it easy for Federal donors to support you, one question that you could ask is, “How many Federal employees visit your website? While this might be an interesting question, it’s one that’s impossible to answer. So don’t worry about it !!

A much better question is this: When a Federal employee comes to our website do they see that we are in the CFC, and what our CFC code is?
If that answer is not yes, you’re leaving money on the table.

CFC Fundraising Tip:

Use the Million Dollar Free Bonus for CFC Charities

When you think of these billion dollar brands, Coca-Cola, Nike, General Electric, Apple, etc. what comes to mind? It’s their logo, because they all have an instantly recognizable logo, and for some companies it’s regardless of language. If you’ve ever watched one of the Japanese Little League World Series on television, it’s instantly apparent which sign is advertising Coca-Cola. The red and white logo is unmistakable even when the language is Japanese.

Among the more than 3.5 million Federal employees and members of the military, the CFC logo has that same type of recognition. They all know what it means, and it’s available free for any CFC charity to use as part of their communication and marketing effort.

The use of the logo is restricted to non-profits that are in the CFC, and for a logo with a 50-year history that’s instantly recognized by millions of people, including potential donors, I’ll put that as a million dollar tool available to all CFC charities.

The link for the CFC logo, which is available in both color and black and white versions, is: CFC Logo

CFC Fundraising Tip:

Educate Your CFC Charity Team

Ninety percent of the questions you will get from potential CFC donors can be answered by having your entire organization (paid staff, volunteer staff, board members, etc.) knowing the answers to these two simple questions:
     Are you in the CFC?
     What’s your CFC code number?

For questions other than those, who is the person in your non-profit designated to handle more complex CFC questions, and does everyone on the staff know who that is?

This is an abbreviated version of the CFC communications audit I perform with my nonprofit clients:
• Are the CFC logo and your ID # on your homepage?
• Does your e-mail signature include your CFC ID number?
• If someone calls the front desk, will that person know about the CFC (that you’re in it, and
   what your code # is, and if it’s more involved, who the contact person is).
• In addition to having the CFC logo and your ID# number on the home page, it is valuable
   to have more information about workplace giving and how your gifts are used at pages
   other than the home page, but having the logo and ID on the home page is key.

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During his 25-year career in the Federal sector, Bill Huddleston, The CFC Coach, served in many CFC roles. If you want to participate in the Combined Federal Campaign, maximize your nonprofit’s CFC revenues, or just ask a few questions, contact … Bill Huddleston
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If you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting.

The following is the first part of an email exchange with a reader:

“My partner and I are creating a non-profit organization, and we will serve as Executive Director (me) and Deputy Director (my partner) as well as, of course, founders.”

Executive Director and Deputy Director are titles of functioning roles. Founder is a description of a person, not a functioning role.

At this point, during the birth and first faltering steps of the new baby, titles are kind of irrelevant. It’s when you really get organized and are close to providing services that there needs to be a distinction/separation between board members and employees/staff.

“We are also founding board members, because we need three directors to incorporate (we have a third) and because we are doing all the work, obviously.”

That’s a given, and only needs to change as noted above.

“We want to build our board and have a list of potential prospects.”

•   Make sure you have a job description for board members.
•   Make sure all potential board members clearly understand what’s expected of them.
•   Make sure that all board members will give ($$$) to the best of their ability — if they
    won’t, why should anyone else?
•   Make sure they aren’t just chair warmers, that they can contribute to advancing the
    mission.

“My partner and I plan to take salaries once we have the money to do so, as we will continue to have day-to-day roles. My questions are:

“1. Should we remain board members once we take salaries or step off the board? Is there a timeline for when we should plan to make this transition? How should we do this?”

•   It would be a conflict of interest for paid staff to be board members.
•   You would, first, have to resign from the board, then be hired by the board to be
    Executive Director.
•   The Executive Director hires all other staff members.

“2. When should we start recruiting other board members?”

Start evaluating potential board members now, for recruitment later. “Later” is when board members would actually have a function. You should not recruit people just to warm chairs.

“3. How will governance of us as founders work? Will we basically be choosing board members who will immediately have authority over us as staff? I know the board normally supervises the ED, and I wholeheartedly agree with the checks and balances this puts into place. But how does this strange little transition happen? When do we stop acting as board members and start acting as ED and DD? How do we balance both while we get things going?”

Again, once you are staff, the fact that you were the founders becomes irrelevant … as relates to the governance/functioning of the organization. Once you’re staff, you are subject to the dictates of the board … no qualification/exception because you were the founders. The board “owns” the organization … period. They make the decisions as to mission (which they can change as they will) and finances, and they evaluate and (if they think it necessary) replace the Executive Director.

As to how it all happens … it’s gradual. See my posting on “What Is A Mature Organization.”

Watch for Part Two of this email exchange in next Tuesday’s post.

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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll be pleased to answer your questions. Contact me at [email protected]

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If you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting.

Neither of these questions is easy to answer, so I did a little research before writing this post. When I Googled “grant win rate,” I came up with a lot of grant writing consultants that advertized win rates of 75 – 95%. I also came up with a post by Jayme Sokolow, contributor on this blog, entitled, “Be Careful about Grant Win Rates”

Jayme cautions that, “win rates are rarely audited and impossible to verify,” and that “they should be treated with great skepticism. ” He goes on to say, “I think that the best kind of win rate is the one that calculates the total amount of revenue gained through proposal bids. From my perspective, it does not really matter how many proposals you submit but how much new revenue you gain for your organization. ”

I agree with all of Jayme’s points, and also think that as a grant consultant or grant professional employed by a non-profit, we should honestly calculate our grant win rates and share them with our employers. I endorse Jayme’s calculation method: win rate = total grant revenue / total grant ask amount in submitted proposals. After all, it’s about how much grant income is realized and less about how many grants are funded. I also think our grant win rates can be used to judge our performance… but with caveats.

These caveats include:

1. Are you maintaining the status quo with existing grantors?
2. Are you starting up a grant program at your non-profit?
3. Are you expanding your existing grant program by submitting proposals to foundations and corporations that you have not gone to before?
4. Are your board members well connected in the community?

All of these caveats will have a big impact on your grant win rate:

1. Maintaining Status Quo With Existing Grantors:
If you’re not planning to add any new foundation, corporate, or government grant income to your annual operating budget, then you should expect a very high grant win rate, but still not 100%. As I wrote in my previous post, “Your Best Foundation Funder is not your Best Funder Forever,” (Hank pls add edited tile and link), many foundations won’t fund your organization in consecutive years and many won’t continue to fund ongoing operating support.

2. Starting a Grant Program:
If you’re starting a grant program, then a 30 – 40% grant win rate is laudable. All of your proposals will be submitted to grantors that don’t have a previous relationship with your NPO, so even if you have a great program that serves a well-known need in the community, the relationships that your board members have with the foundation trustees and managers are very important… see caveat #4.

3. Expanding Your Existing Grant Program:
If you’re expanding your grant program, then you can count on a good win rate from returning funders (maybe 80%). But, you shouldn’t expect a high win rate from new funders (30 – 40% would be great). So, if you’re adding one new funder for every existing funder, a great win rate would be 58%.

4. How Well Connected Are Your Board Members:
As I’ve written in other posts, relationships are integral to grant success, and well-connected board members can make grant wins happen, even when you don’t submit a formal proposal! The connections that your board members have in the community are vitally important when you are starting or expanding your grant program. This is an important consideration as you plan your annual grant calendar; add new foundations and corporations where you have a board connection before you add those with no connection to your NPO.

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Lynn deLearie Consulting, LLC, helps nonprofit organizations develop, enhance and expand grant programs, and helps them secure funding from foundations and corporations. Contact Lynn deLearie..

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