If you read my most recent blog article, 8 Essentials You Need To Set Up Your Nonprofit for Grant Success, you are already aware of the many fundamental informational components you will need to gather for a successful grant proposal. But what if your nonprofit organization is not quite fully prepared with all 8 of these items?

This is a great time to start thinking about how you can get all your “ducks” in a row. No doubt this will take some work with your organization’s leaders and staff all working together.

Gathering the eight information essentials is just the first step. Once you have them ready, you’ll then start to pursue specific grant application opportunities. To develop those grant proposals, you will need a team of folks — at different points in the process.

How to Lead Your Grant Writing and Management Team

If you are leading the grant team, you will play a significant role.Your job is to rally the troops while staying calm, cool, and collect. You will make sure that everyone is together, going in the same direction. You lead by example and inspire others to go with you.

So … what does that look like?

1. Setting the Tone

Start out by setting a collaborative tone. It’s all about teamwork and joint ownership. You want to show that you expect everyone to ‘play well together,’ to achieve a common goal.

You will convene an initial meeting (or several one-on-one conversations) with the key players and sometimes the supporting actors — to discuss project plans and go over specifics of the grant proposal and information on the funder.

Often, you will be the only glue that binds these different “troops” together during the grant process. I have found that many times, the people I am working with are very thankful to have me take the lead. They would prefer to be a grant team member and not have the responsibility of leadership.

Everyone is an Expert

Everyone likes to be treated as an expert, so each team member will have a specialty. Sometimes that’s obvious from their job title. But if it’s not, I encourage you to confirm that people will play specific roles. Remember that a single person may take on more than one role; on the other hand, more than one person can share any given role.

Grant Team Roles

Let’s take a quick look at the different team members’ roles:

Community Needs Assessor

To get started, you’ll need a Community Needs Assessor to help establish why the program or project is so crucial in the first place. That critical piece should embrace as much community involvement as possible – after all, who would be better positioned to know the issues?

Program Specialist

You’ll also need a Program Specialist to outline the vision, objectives, and implementation of the prioritized program or project to be funded. That person will be very involved in creating and reviewing proposal drafts for content accuracy.

Researcher

While that is being done, you’ll need a Researcher to find appropriate funding opportunities for the proposed program and keep track of requirements and deadlines for those applications.

Relationship Cultivator

You’ll also need a ‘Schmoozer’ or Relationship Cultivator to initiate and maintain relationships with those funders.

Evaluator

Once the program or project is funded, you’ll need to have an Evaluator to monitor the implementation and effectiveness of the program, according to the grant proposal. When it’s time to report your progress to grantmakers, that person will provide information about the project’s status and outcomes.

Administrative Staff

Throughout the process, you’re likely to need some Administrative Staff. That often includes people in human resources, accounting, legal, technical, clerical, and other specialties.

One Other Critical Team Member: Strategic Supporter

There is actually one more role on your team that is critical, and it needs to be filled by the Executive Director and/or key Board Member. That is, the role of Strategic Supporter of your grant-seeking work. This person will provide the resources and inspiration to facilitate grant success. Without their strong support and vision, your grant team will lack direction, priorities, and motivation.

Where to Find Your Grant Team Members

Whew! That sounds like a lot of people. And it might be, depending on your organization’s size. Remember that while most team roles will be played by staff members, you may also look to board members, outside experts, or volunteers to help out. Sometimes all they need is a little support to improve their skills and confidence in this area.

You may find that some folks at your nonprofit are a little reluctant to help in grant-seeking efforts. But everyone in the nonprofit sector should know that at some point, they are very likely to be part of fundraising. It’s just the nature of the beast.

Even if someone hates the idea, you can try to make it more pleasant for them. See if you can demonstrate how much stronger your grant proposal will be with their input. After all, no one else has their expertise!

Then try to make it easy for them to help you out.

For example, consider drafting your proposal with blank spaces for them to fill in with the information that only they know. It’s much simpler to fill in the blanks than to start from scratch.

Some people would prefer that you interview them for a few minutes, and then have YOU fit their words into the format a funder is looking for. This is a good option to offer them.

I have seen both approaches work well.

Just remember to give them time to schedule the work on their calendar. That means you have to plan ahead – well in advance of the proposal deadline.

Another idea is to collaborate with a peer organization to see if together you can get to a place of readiness for grant success. Or perhaps a more developed organization is interested in doing a project that you can contribute to; in that case, you would serve as a member of THEIR team and simply contribute as a “service provider”.

If You Must be a Grant Team of One

If you find yourself traveling alone on your grant-seeking journey, wearing many different hats, don’t despair. You will just have to expect that grant success may take a bit longer to achieve, given your constraints. Remember the many resources out there to help you along, including grant training and coaching, and working with consultants from time to time.

The bottom line: Make sure your nonprofit organization has the people-power to succeed in the grant world. Grant seeking is a team sport.