Expert perspectives to help you meet and exceed your grants goals
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Successful Grant Seeking Starts with a Strategic Plan
In this robust but competitive grant seeking market, what will set some organizations apart? The answer lies not in the proposals themselves but in what precedes them: a thorough and thoughtful strategic plan.
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Three Tips for Getting Donations from Donor-Advised Funds
“How can we receive grants through donor-advised funds?” Savvy fund development professionals feel confident pursuing grants from traditional foundations but are less sure about maximizing funding from donor-advised funds (DAFs). The donors who give through DAFs are often high-net-worth individuals...
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Top Reasons Grant Proposals are Rejected (and How to Improve Your Odds)
Grant seeking is highly competitive. Especially when approaching a foundation or seeking support for a new program for the first time, the chances of being declined are far better than the likelihood of being funded. Following are the chief reasons...
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Restoring Trust with Grant Funders
If a grant funder has trust in an organization and its leaders, they are more likely to give a grant—and later to give again. But sometimes things happen that can shake a funder’s trust. In these situations, it’s important to...
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Abracadabra: 10 Steps to Grants Magic
Winning a big grant can almost feel like magic: a major award can capture attention, summon other support, and even transform an organization or community. What’s the trick to conjuring such success? No tricks at all—just the powerful alchemy of...
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Grant Seeking Teamwork Toward Success, Satisfaction, and Sustainability
Too often, grant seeking is assumed to be the work of a single writer laboring behind a keyboard. But there’s much more to winning a grant than the solitary work of writing the application. Succeeding in all the stages of...
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Congressional Earmarks: An Update for Nonprofits as of February 20, 2019
Are Congressional earmarks coming back? To better understand, Grants Plus hosted an informational forum featuring Lee Weingart, President of LNE Group, who gave the following advice to nonprofits who could stand to gain millions of dollars in earmarked funds for...
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Stop Writing + Start Dialing to Grow Your Grants Program
Building and maintaining relationships with funders is the most crucial role for the executive director in grant seeking. This starts by seeking a conversation with a grant maker well before submitting a grant proposal. A personal phone call is a...
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Grow Your Grants with Gratitude
Grants come as a result of growing relationships with funders not only before but after your organization wins the grant. By making the decision makers at a foundation feel appreciated for giving a grant, they may feel more likely to...
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Checklist: How to get ready for the new year
Maximize your grants success by following these best practice tips! Grant Calendar is Key: Make sure you have an up–to–date road map that will lead your way. Get Your House in Order: Refresh your grant materials for an efficient start. ...
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Donor Advised Funds and Other New Routes to Funding
If you’re relying only on a traditional methodology to get grants the chances are you might be missing out on funds for your nonprofit. Grant making is not untouched by influences that continuously transform philanthropy. Grant decision makers are becoming...
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Spotlight on Giving Circles
Q&A with Jenny Neyer Berg
To learn about the community impact of giving circles, we talked to Jenny Neyer Berg, a local and national leader in collective giving. Jenny is Chair of the national board of Catalist (formerly the Women’s Collective Giving Grant Makers Network),...
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When To Compete for National Grant Funding
“Why aren’t we getting grants from national foundations?” Nonprofit fund development directors may get this question from their executive directors or from members of their boards. It’s easy to understand why nonprofit leaders want national grant funding: grants from national...