Grants: Get Ready To Share Your Story

Grants are a unique way for organizations (normally nonprofits) to share their story and hope for impact to funders in exchange for funds to sustain, expand, or start up new programs. There are a variety of different kinds of grants available for organizations to apply for and each having their own purpose, but really what grants boil down to is telling your story, impact, and aligning with the funders priority.

Over my years I have worked on, applied for, overseen, and/or supported numerous grants at all levels- local, state, federal, and private foundation. Even though there are nuances and specifications for each, there are some similarities as well. Funders want to fund programs and organizations that align with their priorities, give an opportunity for them to give back to a promising program/organization, and collect data/impact to share about what has been done. Grants are a wonderful way to share your story, successes, and hopes with funders that you want to fund the work you do as well as give you a great opportunity to practice that story telling component. It is hard sometimes to remember that other people are not ingrained in the work like we are and may not know the ins and outs of what we do and why.

Even if you are a for profit business, there are ways you can apply for grants and/partner with nonprofits to be written into grants, offer grant services, or better serve the community. Here are a few of my top tips for grants:

• Be clear, concise, and avoid using industry jargon as much as possible

• Share your story- impact, data, stories

• Only apply for grants that you can meet all criteria for and can adequately put into place the activities of

• Set into place a way to track required data if you do not already have it

• Partner with other organizations to show community engagement and collaboration

• Only ask for money that you know you can spend

• Practice, it is a skill that takes time to develop

• Get help from someone like me who can help with quality assurance, project management, or even strategy

Speaking of the world of grants, we are doing a free masterclass in February twice and also give anyone who registers access to the recording! Anyone who attends live will be entered into win a free grant workbook! You don’t want to miss it! Attached is the flyer.

Times are 2/18 at 11 AM EST or 2/19 3:30 PM EST or access the recording through month end by registering here! You won’t regret coming and learning all the things about grants. Please let me know if you have any questions!