“When are you going to write me a grant to pay for my raise?” the program staffer asks.

“Where’s my million-dollar grant?” your boss asks, only half-joking.

“My sister-in-law’s brother’s cousin knows someone at the Gates Foundation. We should apply!” your board member suggests, bubbling with enthusiasm.

A mega-grant from a mega-foundation always seems like the answer to your prayers, right? Not quite, I say—as do The Fundraising Mythbusters and a little thing called reality.

The truth is, foundation giving plays a smaller role than you probably think. In fact, in terms of the entire philanthropic pie, foundation funding accounts for a mere 16 percent. As far as dollars, that’s a lot of money, but it’s not the most money, and it’s certainly not the first place I would ever think to look when I have my fundraising cap on. And I wear my cap often.

My journey as a fundraiser began back in the ’90s, before technology dominated the landscape. I worked in programming and communications for a fairly large grant-making foundation. To this day, I still remember thinking, as I read our newly written application guidelines, “Why don’t they fund general operating expenses?” It made sense to me that the best use of a foundation’s resources would be to provide unrestricted operating expenses to worthy organizations.

“In terms of the entire philanthropic pie, foundation funding accounts for a mere 16 percent.”

But because foundations’ founders and their leadership tended to come straight from the corporate world, there was a major push in the ’80s through the ’90s for nonprofits to be accountable and goal-driven. Foundations typically directed funding toward short-term projects—ones that could deliver measurable outcomes.

But you probably know that project-based accounting often forces grantees to sacrifice long-term effectiveness. After all, if your organization is adding more programming or sites continually while your underpaid (and frequently revolving) staff is working on obsolete computers without proper overhead, where will you be five years from now?

You’ll be pleased to hear that the trend is beginning to reverse, albeit slowly. And I do mean slowly. As in, “Wow, it sure is taking its sweet time!”

In 2004, the Independent Sector’s board of directors inspired a glimmer of hope when it unanimously endorsed a statement to “opt for general operating support over project support when feasible and when the goals of the two organizations are substantially aligned.”

And just last year, Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, announced that the second-largest philanthropic foundation in the nation would double its commitment to unrestricted grants for nonprofit operating support.

Hallelujah! Are foundations finally beginning to wise up, to recognize that nonprofit organizations don’t operate in a vacuum? Only time will tell, but I’ve got hope. After all, slow change is often exactly what leads to permanent results.

Side note: If you’re in the mood for a good laugh and can take a break from the madness of it all, read Vu Le’s “The Baker’s Dilemma and the Inequity of Restricted Funding.”

Even before this slow change began, my own grants system strategy, intended for smaller nonprofit organizations with limited development staff, advocated targeting small to mid-sized foundations.

Why? I’ll put it to you this way: It makes sense to tailor two or three boilerplate proposals for general operating support from 20 to 30 smaller grant-making foundations than to spend that same amount of time dealing with the headaches of one proposal from a major funder.

And I haven’t even mentioned the hair-pulling reporting requirements of the larger foundations.

Case in point: In one year alone, the Ford Foundation received 144,000 grant applications, but only gave out 2,000 grants.

“In one year alone, the Ford Foundation received 144,000 grant applications, but only gave out 2,000 grants.”

Would you rather be a big fish in a little pond—or a little fish in a huge pond?

While you’re in the process of evaluating what you want to achieve from foundation funding and setting up your calendar for the year, the solo fundraiser needs to take into account the absolute best possible use of his or her time.

After all, where’s the money?

According to Giving USA, individual giving makes up a massive chunk of charitable giving, totaling 80 percent. Again, this is compared to foundations’ giving—a paltry 16 percent.

I’m not trying to discourage you from grant seeking, but what I am trying to do is get you to think about where you put your time in a strategic way. In a smart way.

“Individual giving makes up a massive chunk of charitable giving, totaling 80 percent.”

By developing a solid system for researching prospective foundations—and consistently devoting two to four hours per week on research alone—you’ll eventually develop a solid portfolio of foundation support from small to mid-sized foundations, which are also more open to funding general operating support.

For every community and mission, there are the standard “known” foundations, and everyone and their mothers already are knocking on their doors. Instead of going that route, take the road less traveled, and take the time to uncover the unknown. You never know what you’ll discover.

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Pamela Grow is the publisher of The Grow Report, the author of Simple Development Systems and the founder of Simple Development Systems: The Membership Program and Basics & More fundraising fundamentals e-courses. She has been helping small nonprofits raise dramatically more money for over 15 years, and was named one of the 50 Most Influential Fundraisers by Civil Society magazine, and one of the 40 Most Effective Fundraising Consultants by The Michael Chatman Giving Show.

*This article was originally posted via Nonprofit Pro*

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Have you ever been in a situation where you knew what to do—what’s more you knew the right thing to do—but your efforts were getting bogged down by the higher-ups?

• Maybe the letter you wrote for your spring appeal had all the donor love squeezed out of it by your board prez wielding her red pen…
• Or the email campaign you worked on for a week got knocked down from five emails…to one (and then they’re gonna tell you that email doesn’t work ;).
• Or your board members think the thank you calls are a waste of time…and keep pressing you to write a miracle grant proposal to the Gates Foundation
• Or, God help me, one of your board members wants to rent a billboard (can you imagine?)

We’ve all been there. Feeling unappreciated. Working for organizations where you’re the fifth development director in three years. Mired in dysfunction. It can all be a bit discouraging sometimes and believe me, I get that.

Here’s something I’ve never shared. My very first fundraising position remains, to this day, one of my all-time favorite jobs. Terrific mission, wonderful community and donors, the best co-workers you could possibly imagine. And I quit. Up and walked. All because of a brand new ED who got on my case (you can read about her here). It’s probably one of my few regrets in life that I didn’t stick it out, grow a pair and lead.

So this is my question to you: Are you following…or leading?

Maybe you don’t think of yourself as a leader. Maybe you’re even the quiet, shy type or you prefer to follow directions…

This post originally appeared on Pamela Grow’s blog. Check out the full post there >> 

The post Are You Following or Leading at Your Nonprofit? | Nonprofit Blog appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

“It does not happen all at once. There is no instant pudding.” – W. Edwards Deming

When a colleague sent me a link to a web page with the following claims and asked me if it was legitimate, I had to smile.

Hundreds of Billions Up for Grabs—Every Year!

… there are the more than 75,000 foundations that give away billions more every year — large organizations you may have heard of, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (with over $35 billion earmarked for giving — and upwards of $2 billion handed out each and every year) … all the way down to smaller, little-known family and community foundations set up to help places like local food banks and animal shelters with a few thousand dollars at a time.

In fact, according to the U.S. Government and The Foundation Center, there are over $544 billion up for grabs each and every year from thousands of sources. (To put that number into perspective, its about what the U.S. Government spends on Social Security in a year — and about $40 billion more than what’s spent on Medicare and Medicaid!)

Yet another Internet site with shades of Matthew Lesko’s *free money* scam. You remember Matthew? The guy in the goofy question mark suit who regularly shows up on late night TV proclaiming that anyone can get *free* government grant money by following his program? His pitches are so outrageous and his style so over-the-top that it seems like anyone with an ounce of common sense would know better than to believe his claims.

And yet, when it comes to winning foundation grants, many otherwise intelligent people believe that there are *secret* writing tactics to writing funded grant proposals, when, in reality, the truth about winning foundation support for your mission is simple. If you were to believe the pitch above, knowing how to write *the* perfect case statement or putting together a great budget or finding a foundation that provides an ideal fit with your mission would be all it takes for your organization to enjoy a stream of foundation grants resulting from your well-crafted proposal.

This isn’t meant to say that writing foundation grant proposals doesn’t require thought, persuasive writing skills and attention to detail. I worked for a sizable family grant-making foundation for seven years and if I had just one dollar for every grant applicant who failed to follow our guidelines, I’d be a wealthy woman today.

So, yes, you should be constantly honing your writing skills, living your mission and researching prospective foundation funders.

And following these basics will guide you in establishing a foundation grants system:

1. Study the foundation’s giving histories, preferably for the past three years. Note the range of grants – and tailor your request accordingly. Is this your first request? Come in on the low end.

2. Study the foundation’s last three 990’s you can find – most assets are declining but not all

3. Target local foundations. Send as many targeted proposals regularly as possible. (Note: I did say targeted – do your research!)

4. Clean up your website. Why? In addition to your proposal itself, your website is one of the first things a foundation will look at during the review process. Red flags? No online giving, a site that was last updated in 2005, outdated contacts …

5. Study the guidelines. If they say no to videos, do not include your organization’s latest dvd. If the guidelines say to include 3 copies of everything, include them. Pay attention.

6. It’s good to have 2-3 sets of extra eyes to proofread your work – and one writer.

7. Make weekly research a priority, and…

8. Maintain your foundation stewardship. Before you reapply to the XYZ Foundation who funded you last year, if they didn’t require a reporting, send them a gracious letter giving them an update. You didn’t miss that reporting deadline, did you?

So, what is the number one secret to winning foundation grants you ask? I’ve already given you a hint above…

The number one secret to winning foundation grants is by establishing systems for your success. When it comes to foundation funding, it’s an unfortunate but often true reality that oftentimes *third time is the charm.* Many organizations give up on grants following a few declinations. Don’t make this mistake in your organization. Seth Godin said it best: Obsessing about the last inch of follow through ensures that the important parts of what you do get just as much (if not more) commitment.

Learn how to follow through and build genuine relationships with foundation funders. It takes time but the rewards are worth it!

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This post first appeared on Pamela’s Grantwriting Blog.

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