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Searching Service Clubs and Organizations for Grant Funds

Service clubs and organizations are among the most reliable sources of funding for local projects. Many of these organizations are part of a national organization which may fund specific types of activities consistent with their philosophy, orientation, and interests. These clubs may be service-oriented or fraternal organizations or both. The following entities may be able to provide a list of the service clubs in your area:

• local libraries
• chambers of Commerce
• municipal or county government
• news media

Service clubs vary widely in the source of their revenue and the amount that they have available to give. In several counties in my area, fraternal and service organizations are permitted by the state to have slot machines. However, this comes with the caveat that a certain percentage of the revenues realized through the slots will be donated to charity.

Most of these clubs appoint a committee to oversee the grant process and review requests periodically. It would therefore behoove the grant seeker to determine who the chairman of the grant committee is and make their approach to that person. I have seen a number of instances where a letter requesting funds is sent to the organization as a whole but not to the attention of any particular person. These requests generally are either lost or sit on someone’s desk for a long time. It helps a great deal if someone on the grant committee is already familiar with your organization and knows your work. It is rare that a service club will request more than a simple letter. Most groups try to keep the process as uncomplicated as possible.

Once again, I would recommend that the grant seeker contact as many service clubs as possible in order to maximize the chances of receiving funding. The same letter could be sent to all the organizations with only minor modifications.

Jan 28, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post

Be Specific and Give Concrete Examples in Grant Applications

Following are two examples of how to describe the same project- a mentoring program for victims of domestic violence. The first example is the “fuzzy” one:

“The Newland Shelter for Victims of Domestic Violence needs money for its programs. We help victims of domestic violence and their children. The shelter fills a big need in the community. Our clients are very grateful for the help that they receive from us.”

This type of non-descriptive paragraph raises more questions than answers. The following items are missing from this description: amount of funding being applied for, exactly how the funds will be used, description of the full range of services given at the shelter, estimated number of potential clients, and the number of persons on the waiting list.

The following is a vastly improved project description:

“The Newland Shelter for Victims of Domestic Violence is applying for $30,000 in order to hire a counselor who will work twenty-five hours per week to train our clients in job-seeking skills. The shelter provides housing and meals for a two-year period for victims of domestic violence and their children. While our clients are resident here, they must take classes in child care, financial management, housekeeping, and other life skills. In addition, we provide a comprehensive counseling program which helps them to overcome emotional problems associated with the abuse they have endured. This grant will enable the new counselor to train all fifty of our clients in job seeking skills. Due to limited funding, we are unable to serve the sixty-five persons on our waiting list.”

It is patently obvious that the funding agencies will be much more likely to approve an application which contains the second example. It would be next to impossible to get funding based on the description given in the first paragraph. Grant makers want to know the exact picture and do not like vague writing.

Dec 31, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

Developing a Grant Seeking Strategy

Once you have decided which funding sources will be included on your list, it is necessary to develop a plan of action, or strategy. Obviously, it is necessary to sort the due dates in order to address those which must be submitted first. However, a good strategy is more than that. It is a specific outline of what steps should be taken and in what order. In essence, it is a work plan for requesting funds from all of the sources which made the cut in the evaluation process as discussed above. The following rules should be followed in developing and carrying out your strategy:

• Develop a two-page letter of inquiry which needs to be modified only slightly for most of the private foundations on the list.
• Plan to send the letter of inquiry to all of those private foundations for which that is the first method of contact and for which no specific due date is given.
• Set up a calendar which shows the due dates for letters of inquiry to those foundations with deadlines for the receipt of those letters and send them as they come due.
• Plan to personally contact those foundations which require proposals rather than letters of inquiry in order to determine your chances of getting funding. Once these conversations have been held, decide whether it is worth committing your resources to an application.
• Determine which governmental sources represent the best chance of funding. For those which accept applications on a continuous basis, begin with the best fit and work your way down. For those applications which have specific due dates, plan to have the resources committed at that time so that those submissions can be made.
• For those sources which are open for applications only once a year, plan to keep checking every two weeks or so to see if the solicitation announcement has been made. Quite often, these yearly submissions are not tied to an exact date. Some try to invite applications at approximately the same time every year. More often, however, administrative and fiscal matters can cause the solicitation to be made earlier or, more commonly, later, than twelve months after the last solicitation. Some of these programs can actually skip a year or it may be as much as eighteen months between solicitations. I have even seen grant solicitations withdrawn after being published.
• If you find yourself in the position of having a number of sources with applications coming due at the same time, figure out a way to commit staff resources so that all applications can be submitted. Make the decision that the job will be done and that you will find a way to do it. You will regret it if you let a good chance slip away. The application that you decide you do not have time to do may very well be the one which would have provided the funding. Remember, this is just for a short period, and you will get through it. If you really feel that you could not do this yourself, try to farm it out to other staff or consultants.

Dec 27, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
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