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PREPARING EFFECTIVE GRANT PROPOSALS FOR
FOUNDATIONS AND CORPORATIONS
By: Berwyn J. Kemp

Many large organizations prepare custom proposals for each program or
project they market to foundations and corporations. While this is
great if you have the time and staff to do this, but if your
organization is small or mid-sized this can be very time consuming and
draining.

If your organization smaller it’s far better to create one good
standard development proposal for your capital, program, and operating
needs. Then target each one with a carefully prepared cover letter to
each specific grantor you’re applying to. And, even if your
organization is large most of you still spend far too much time on
proposal preparation and this would be a good idea for you too.

Even in those cases where a custom proposal is needed, as with
government grant solicitation, where each proposals has to be targeted
to each grantor. You’ll still find that much of what you’ve already
prepared for foundation and corporation proposals can be incorporated
into such custom proposals making them easier to prepare.

In addition, in preparing and submitting proposals for foundations and
corporations keep in mind the fact that the easiest kinds of grants to
get are those for capital and program or project needs. And the
hardest kinds of grants to get are for operating needs, so focus your
efforts on securing funds for your capital and program needs primarily
from these kinds of grantors, and use private donations to secure most
of your operating needs, if applicable.

Here are some steps you can take to help you prepare effective
foundation and corporation proposals:

1. Get and use a good grant proposal outline, while proposal outlines
are fairly basic, and its success depends on how well your proposal is
prepared, here is one that I prefer:

a) The Problem Statement
b) History Of Your Organization
c) Successes Of Your Organization
d) Ongoing Projects And Programs
e) Past Supporters Of Your Organization
f) The People Of Your Organization
g) Your Fundraising Objectives
h) A Line Item Budget
i) Appendices

In using this, or any, proposal outline remember that you can change
any of these section headings to some other applicable description, to
add more of an element excitement and drama to your proposal.

2. Prepare a file folder for each section of your proposal outline,
then gather all the data and other information you need for each
section and put it in it’s respective folder. Having this data and
information on file and keeping it updated will help make preparing
future grant proposals a snap.

3. Draft a brief narrative summary for each section of your proposal
in about 250 to 300 words. And be sure to give extra attention to the
budget section of your proposal because it’s the first thing grantors
study, and it get studied longer than any other section of your
proposal.

4. Expand upon your narrative summaries, using the data and
information you’ve gathered and stored in your various folders to
prepare the first draft of your grant proposal. Also, while other
people can help you gather data and write certain sections of your
proposal, the final proposal should be, of course, written by one
person so that it’s prepared in one prose style only.

5. Prepare your finished proposal by editing and rewriting any
sections or parts of your proposal that you’re not satisfied with and
polish it. As you do this keep in mind that grantors prefer brevity,
so if at all possible keep your proposals to between 8 to 12 pages.
Because anything much longer than that very seldom gets read, and if
grantors want more information they can always request that specific
information.

Good development proposals do make a difference, without which your
grant solicitation efforts will yield you a lot less grant dollars
that you could have had. As many thousands of dollars in grant funds
slip right past your fingers. Yet, with some very careful research,
planning, and preparation you can prepare effective development
proposals for foundations and corporations. That will get funded much
more often giving your nonprofit organization more revenue to do the
good work you do.

Berwyn J. Kemp is a fundraising consultant who helps nonprofit
organizations obtain funding. For full details on his funding
products, or to read more of his re-printable articles you can visit:
http://www.berwynkemp55.tripod.com

THE RIGHT MENTAL ATTITUDE WILL HELP YOU RAISE
MORE FUNDS FOR YOUR NONPROFIT
By: Berwyn J. Kemp

There is a certain mental you need to be effective at raising funds
for your nonprofit organization. Because without the right mental
attitude there’s no way you can be as effective as you could and
should be in obtaining funds for your organization. The right mental
attitude for raising funds is composed of the following mindsets:

* A Strong Determination
* Persistence In Action
* Dealing With Rejection Right

A Strong Determination

You must have a strong determination to win in the great game of
raising funds. Because you’ll be competing with many other nonprofits
for funds, so you surely must have this determination to win. Where
does this determination come from? It comes from your own mental
commitment to be so determined, and the realization that those you
serve will be the real losers if you are not so determined.

So when your determination weakens, you are human after all, you must
keep all those people who need what you offer in mind. And any
weakening of your determination you must view as an act of selfishness
on your part. Then get outside yourself and focus on them not you.
Then muster the wherewithal to keep moving forward towards your goals
for them.

Persistence In Action

Related, of course, to determination is persistence in action.
Persistence in action is your ability to not take "no" for an answer.
If you’ve done your homework that is you’re approaching the right
funding sources or individuals with the right message. Why then you
must forever persist in your efforts to obtain funding from them.

Don’t expect your first approaches to any kind of funding source to be
a success, while this does happen. More often than not it doesn’t, you
must always seek to build and develop a relationship with all
prospective funders and be persistent in your actions. Which is one
of the main reasons fundraising today is called "development."

Your persistence in action must not flag and must be strong and
ongoing. Such persistence is developed by doing the little things that
must be done each day related to raising funds. After a while this
becomes a strong ingrained habit that will carry you through on all
those days when things don’t go according to plan. So what every you
do always persist in your efforts to raise the funds you seek and
never give up.

Dealing With Rejection Right

In doing any kind fundraising you will get turned down, this is quite
simply a fact of life. But you must never ever let this fact stop you
or cause you to weaken your efforts in a vain attempt to get more
acceptance from this world than this world is willing to give.

For many in the nonprofit sector fear of rejection when it comes to
raising funds is their greatest fear, and this fear keeps many from
reaching their full fundraising potential. If you can’t or won’t learn
to deal with this rejection you will never be as successful at raising
funds for your organization as you could be. Here are a few ideas to
help you deal with rejection the right way:

* Never take rejection as personal because it isn’t, just because
someone rejects your offer in no way impacts your value as a human
being, it’s just business.

* Keep your eye on the prize, that is the funds you can get by being
able to comfortably deal with the rejection that stops so many others.

* Look at each rejection as merely that chance to practice your
techniques and perfect your presentation.

* Develop your sense of humor and learn to laugh at rejections, we’ve
all quite simply blown it at one time or another. So learn to use
humor to ease the sting of rejection and you’ll be very soon be the
life of the party.

Yes, very few people really enjoy asking others for money, since for
the most part money is considered a rather private matter in our
culture. So such feeling are quite understandable. Yet, asking for
money is just what you must do if your organization is to continue its
work. Moreover, you should view asking for money as an act of
compassion, humanity, as well as good citizenship. Because after all
where would this world of ours be without nonprofit organizations to
act as advocates for all those millions of people who might be
otherwise voiceless.

A MASTER PLAN HELPS YOUR NONPROFIT GET MORE
FUNDS AND BETTER OPERATE
By: Berwyn J. Kemp

An "institutional master plan" for nonprofit organizations is much
similar to a for-profit’s business plan. Such a master plan will help
you to make important fundraising and management decisions. It will
also help you to do both short term and long term planning, and keep
you from focusing only on short-term survival thinking. Your master
plan is composed of the following sections:

* A Mission Statement
* A Vision Statement
* A Financial Plan
* A Capital Needs Plan

A Mission Statement

Your organization must have a simple, clearly defined mission
statement in order to fully focus your efforts on what it is you do
best. Since no organization can solve every problem under the sun, and
if you attempt this impossible feat you may very well spread your net
to wide, and end up being far too little to your real constituents.

Moreover your mission statement must be something that your nonprofit
can fully commit to and that will spur that missionary zeal for your
cause from all levels of your organization. Including from your board,
staff, volunteers and your community at large.

A Vision Statement

Your vision statement is the tool you need to effectively deal with
change, which is assured will come as it always does. Nothing stays
the same, social and economic patterns will change, as will the wants
and needs of those you serve.

Your vision statement should answer the following kinds of questions:
What are your competitors doing? What can you do better, faster or
cheaper? What are the current trends in your industry? Will these
trends continue for the near future (3-5 years)? If not, how will
these changes affect you and your services? What can you do to stay
ahead of these changes? Is the community needs for your services
strong? If not, how can you strengthen the community need for your
services?

A Financial Plan

Your financial plan is your very careful study of your various revenue
sources, and the use of those revenues. Your financial plan should
include your current operating budget; Income statement; Balance
sheet; Cash flow statement, and any other statements as required by
your accounting set up.

Your financial plan should also address the various fundraising
methods you’ll use to obtain the revenues you need to operate your
organization. Which should also includes the budgets required to use
each fundraising method. In short, your financial plan must be based
on reality, and deal with fundraising issues and the most effective
use of your revenue sources.

A Capital Needs Plan

In the capital needs section of your master plan you’ll need to come
up with clear answers to all those important questions related to your
various capital needs. Such as: Should you build a new facility? If
so, how do you know you should and where will the money come from?
Should you renovate your current facility? If so, how do you know you
should and where will the money come from? When will your current
capital equipment need to be replaced? Should you buy, lease, or
refurbish your current equipment? Where will the money come from to
buy, lease or refurbish your equipment?

These are the kinds of questions you should ask about all your capital
needs items. Which will help you to look down the road and clearly see
what you need, when you’ll need it, what happens if you don’t get it,
as well as how you plan to get it.

Your master plans value as a management and fundraising tool is
priceless. Because it will help you to make important decision related
to running and funding your organization that are based on an overall
system, rather than simply short term survival thinking. Allowing your
organization to present a consistent unified theme to your
constituents and community. Making it much easier for you to gain the
full support of both.

PREPARING EFFECTIVE GRANT PROPOSALS TO GET
FEDERAL FUNDING FOR YOUR NONPROFIT
By: Berwyn J. Kemp

The federal government provides billions of dollars in grant funds
each year, through hundreds of programs. There are a number of places
you can find sources of these federal grants and contacts. Such as:
The Federal Register, the Commerce Business Daily, and the Catalog of
Federal and Domestic Assistance.

By law all federal grants and contract opportunities must be
publicized. These three federal publications will provide you with a
wealth of basic information on current federal funding opportunities,
and the names of the officers who oversee these programs. But if your
organization is interested in securing some of these funds, why you
must prepare effective and convincing proposals.

Federal grant proposals are made up of two basic components, which
are:

* The Problem Statement
* The Technical Section

Your problem statement should very clearly detail the full scope of
the problem that you solve. Such as, who has this problem, why solving
this problem is important, how those with this problem will benefit
from your solution to their problem, and etc. You should, of course,
already have this information on file, since this information is
essential too not only preparing federal proposals, but in preparing
both foundation and corporate proposals as well.

The technical section of your proposal is composed of several
subsections, that should clearly detail how you plan to do what you
say you’re going to do. And demonstrate your know-how and expertise in
being able to do what you say you can do. These subsections should
cover:

* The management structure of your organization.
* The qualifications of your personnel.
* Your corporate capabilities or successes.
* And, how program success will be evaluated.

Each of these subsections of your technical section are key to showing
federal funders that you can do what you say you can do. Or at the
very least that there is a very reasonable likelihood of your
nonprofit organization being able to do so.

Here are some guidelines to help and assist you in the actual
preparation of your federal funding proposals:

1. Develop a good proposal outline, which of course, will be based on
the information package you receive from each federal funder. This
package will include such information as program specifics, standard
application forms, application instructions, and other similar data.

2. Be sure that you have the clerical or secretarial assistance that
you need, because you will need a number of writes and rewrites, in
preparing your proposals for federal agencies.

3. Designate a proposal writer but have the various proposal
components’ first draft prepared by the people in your organization
with the most expertise in that particular area. Then have your
designated proposal writer do the final edit and rewrite so that your
finished proposal is in one unified writing style.

4. If you have any questions about your proposal and it’s preparation
you can always contact the person whose name was provided in the
information package each funder sent you. It is their job to help you
as well as answer any question you might have concerning your funding
request.

There really isn’t anything magical or mystical about preparing
convincing funding proposals for various government agencies. The key
is quite simply to have good projects or programs, then being able to
express the soundness of your ideas effective in your proposals.

By doing this you can get your share of those billions of federal
dollars out there for the good work of your organization. Now use the
information in this article to help you get some of those federal
funds for your organization. To help you do what it is you do to make
this old world of ours better in some way, shape or form.

EIGHT MISTAKES TO AVOID TO SUCCESSFULLY RAISE FUNDS
FOR YOUR NONPROFIT
By: Berwyn J. Kemp

If your nonprofit organization isn’t having the fund raising success
you need to effectively serve the people your organization is in
business to serve, then you need to look very carefully at the eight
biggest mistakes most organizations make in their search for funding.
To see if one or more of these mistakes is what is keeping you from
obtaining the money you seek. And if so, then you need to do
everything in your power stop making them and you will see an increase
in the amount of funding you’re raising. These eight mistakes are:

1. Not fully involving your board in the planning process is the first
major mistake. If your executive director is the one who selects what
items get funded, and your board merely approves that decision. Then
your board is not fully involved in the planning process, and this
lack of ownership of the funding needs of your organization very often
creates a situation where board members won’t work effectively
together to help raise those funds.

2. A lack of financial commitment by your board in the full
fundraising process. Your board members must not only take the lead in
the planning process, but they must also take the lead in making
financial contributions to your organization. And as members of your
various fundraising committees to help persuade others to give as
well. If you board members fail to support your organization
financially themselves, how can you really expect other to do so.

3. A lack of full commitment by your executive director will cause
your fundraising efforts to fail. No fundraising effort can succeed
without the full enthusiastic commitment of your executive director.
If your executive director is not so enthusiastic and committed it is
your board’s job to persuade your executive director to get on with
the matters at hand, or make the changes that are needed to succeed.

4. Setting unrealistic funding goals that you can’t achieve is another
mistake often made. It is always much better to set a fundraising goal
that is too low and that can be achieved and exceeded. Rather than
setting your goal too high and failing, which will cause you public
embarrassment and lower the moral and fundraising zeal of your
organization overall, making other fundraising efforts much harder.

5. Not having a coordinated fundraising effort is another real
problem. Because fundraising takes a lot of time and needs a
coordinated effort to be truly successful. This effort should be
overseen by a Central Coordinating Committee that will provide the
kind of critical support which raising funds requires. Since no one
person can effectively oversee any successful fundraising efforts, nor
should they be expected to.

6. Not involving enough people in your fundraising efforts can doom
your efforts to failure. Because raising funds is a very people
intensive activity which needed scores of committed volunteers. To try
to raise the funds you need without enough people will cause
resentment, and frustration among the people you do have, by asking
them to do more than they can really do, and do effectively.

7. Not properly saying thank you to your donors once their gift is
received is a fatal mistake made much too often. If you fail to
properly thank your donors, your donors will have strong reservations
about making their gift in the first place. Moreover, gifts that are
not rightly acknowledged very often are gifts that will never come
again. So thank each and every one from a simple thank you letter, and
phone call if the size of the gift warrants. To other kinds of donor
recognition that reflect the size of the gift made.

8. Not being persistent in your fundraising efforts is another real
problem, because raising funds is a very slow moving process. It takes
time to properly plan your efforts, to cultivate your donors and
prospects, to prepare your documents, and do your needed research.
Thus, your success in the long haul depends on you being persistent
and refusing to take "no" for an answer, if you are not so persistent
you’re probably in the wrong line of work.

While there can be numerous reasons as to why you’re may not be
raising the funding your nonprofit organization needs to effectively
operate and serve those who you serve. Make sure that you avoid these
major fundraising mistakes, and all of your fundraising efforts will
produce more funding for the needs of your organization.

HOW TO TURN NO DECISIONS INTO YES IN GETTING
GRANTS FOR YOUR NONPROFIT
By: Berwyn J. Kemp

You have submitted a well-prepared grant proposal to a foundation or
corporation for the kind of funding that they provide. You have asked
for the right amount of funding that is in the range of what the
funding source gives. And you have provided the funding source with
all the additional information that they have requested about your
organization. But your grant proposal was still rejected by the
funding source.

What’s more the rejection you received has come in a very short,
direct letter that gives you not the slightest clue as to why they
turned down your grant proposal. Now what can you do? Well, part of
your success in raising funding for your nonprofit organization
demands that you turn as many of these "no" decisions into "yes"
decisions as possible. Here are some steps to help you do this
effectively:

1. Control your anger and frustration, sure no one likes to have a
proposal turned down but this rejection is all part of the funding
process. One of the key differences between those who are successful
at raising funds for their organizations and those who are not
successful is being able to handle this rejection in a professional
way, that you can turn to your advantage.

2. Call the grantor within 48 hours after you receive the turn down
letter, and of course, have your anger under control. So what ever you
do don’t criticize the grantor or put them on the defensive. Rather
put them at ease by telling them something along the lines of: " I see
you are not able to fund our organization at this time, and I’m
calling to find out how we might be able to work together in the near
future."

3. Ask the grantor a number of questions as to why your proposal was
turn down, such as: What do they feel would have made your proposal
stronger? How did their board feel about the proposal you submitted?
What you are basically doing is not only finding out why your proposal
was turned down but also looking for an opening that you can develop
into an on going relationship. So be sure at the end of your
conversation you inform them that you would like to keep them updated
on the work of your organization.

4. After you get off the phone with the grantor write them a letter,
and start this letter by thanking them for taking the time to discuss
your proposal with you, and that you appreciated their candor and
help. Also indicate in your letter just what you plan on doing
to make your proposal stronger in relationship to what they’ve told
you. In short, that you have listened very carefully to what they said
and that you plan to follow their advice.

5. Resubmit your proposal to the funding source when its time to
submit another formal proposal. And be sure to indicate in your
proposal cover letter that you have a previous relationship with them.
Too indicate very clearly that you have taken into very careful
consideration what they previously discussed with you, and that you
have followed their directions.

By following these steps you have greatly increased the possibility
that your proposal will get funded this time. Why? Well, it’s because
most of the proposals now being reviewed by this funding source are
new proposal submissions, coming from organizations that this funder
knows nothing about. Since many of the organizations you where
competing against last time have dropped out of the race. Yet this
funding source does know a great deal about your and your organization
now. Thus, you’re in a great position to obtain the funding you seek
this time.