Category Archives: Copywriting

Grant-Proposal

How to Assess Return on Investment for Grant Writing and Management

Leave a reply

As someone involved in the grant writing and management process at your organization, you need to know how to best spend your time and money so that you get the greatest “return” on your investment. You don’t want to waste your limited resources on activities that are not likely to be successful. But you also want to avoid being so shortsighted that you miss the bigger picture.

You may be tempted to think that the return on your grant writing investment is simply the amount of money a specific grant application brings in. You might wonder if the time and money you spent to procure that particular grant was worth it. Right? Not so fast …

We need to look at the return on your investment in both the short term and the long term. Yes, the easiest way to assess success is the “check in the mail.” But what else should we consider?

Find Value in the Writing Process

The good news is that the grant writing process itself can be extremely valuable to your organization — and to your own understanding of your organization’s work. For starters, collecting all of the information you need to prepare a strong application can be a great strategic planning exercise. You will have to think through many needs, assumptions, activities, and intended outcomes of your program — including why you think it will work. In a related process, you will need to create a program budget that may shine a light on expenses you might not have otherwise tallied up.

If you are writing a general operations proposal to keep your entire organization running, you may start to see more clearly how the many pieces fit together well and could support each other even more. On the other hand, you may discover some weak, extraneous, or even contradictory parts that previously had gone overlooked.

I have seen many organizations — and staff — benefit in these ways from the grant writing process for nonprofits. And that happens regardless of whether or not they win a specific grant.

Build Once and Tweak Many Times

Another piece of good news: Once you have invested the time and effort in creating a solid, comprehensive grant writing proposal template, subsequent versions take a lot less time. You will have created a document that can be tweaked and updated for months, even years, to come. You’re about to get a lot of traction out of it!

Customization tweaks (additions, deletions, and other modifications) are usually pretty minor. In fact, some funders specifically encourage you to submit applications you have developed for other funders and just customize the cover letter.

Your proposals will also contain valuable gems that can be excerpted and repurposed for many other fundraising or marketing materials. For example, the success stories you collect for your grant proposal can also go on your website or social media. The program information you hash out might also inform a promotional video or show up as talking points for meetings with individual donors.

Learn Lessons from Funders

Sometimes things happen at funding institutions that we can’t control and may not even be aware of. While we do our best to create the most compelling grant proposal packages, sometimes we just have to accept that we can’t win ’em all. (Yup, I know, this is frustrating.)

Funders consider many factors, and (I dare say) the quality of your proposal is only one of them. The organization’s reputation or history in the community, changing funder priorities or staff, limitations on funds, and a perceived mismatch with a proposal’s programmatic emphasis are just a few. Sometimes the sheer amount of competition simply crowds out your proposal!

But an initially declined proposal can actually be a blessing in disguise. Sure, you may just need to try again — especially if the funder gives you an indication of future interest. However, frequent rejection of a proposal often means you’re doing something wrong. It could be a sign that you need to learn more, get better advice, do more research, ask more questions. It might also be a sign that your project just isn’t very fundable right now (for whatever reason). All of this information is very valuable to you (i.e., a good return on your investment).

For instance:

  • Maybe your organization or proposal has some weaknesses that you couldn’t see but the funder could?
  • Maybe you just need a few more years under your belt to get a little better known in your field.
  • Perhaps you’re showing potential, and the funder is able to share nonmonetary resources that are actually more beneficial to you right now?
  • And sometimes funders can connect you to collaborators that will make your proposal more attractive next time.

These are just a few examples of the many lessons you may learn that can lead to long-term grant writing success.

Know Thy Funders

Remember that not every funding opportunity is a good or appropriate one for your organization. I strongly believe that it is NOT a good idea to apply to any and all foundations, corporate grantmakers, government agencies, and other funders you can think of. That “shotgun” approach is a total waste of time, money, and energy — otherwise known as a bad investment.

Instead, you need to look carefully for a strategic role that your organization can play in each funder’s world. If you find it, great! If you don’t, move on to the next one. Make sure that you are doing solid funder research, strategizing, and planning. You are looking for funders whose current priorities and strategies align best with your organization’s work. Identifying them and developing appropriate cultivation strategies will ultimately lead to the grant success you are seeking.

So, while a simplistic (but welcome!) return on your investment in grant writing and management is a grant award right now, don’t discount the long-term value of this work. Both your organization and your ongoing fundraising work will continue to reap the strategic benefits.

TechSoup – Grant Writing and Management Course

This article is a part of a three-part series, including What Do Funders Look for in a Grant Proposal? and 5 Key Priorities to Include in a Grant Proposal.

Climate Change Messages: What’s Most Effective?

1 Reply

[Editor’s Note: This post is by guest blogger Mandira Srivastava, a freelance writer specializing in business and marketing communication.]

Events like the global climate marches give people the plausible hope that something can be done. What messages do we need to send?

Almost all scientists and people around the world agree that climate change presents dire new risks and vulnerabilities for urban and rural dwellers alike. Clearly, we need to frame messages that can inspire and persuade in the right direction.

To demand and implement urgent action on climate change and increase pressure on. The Global Climate Action Summit (being held Sept 12-14 in San Francisco), activists and demonstrators across the globe poured into the streets on Sept. 8. According to organizers, over 900 marches, concerts, teach-ins, rallies, voter registration drives, town halls, and the world’s largest street mural brought out more than 30,000 people in San Francisco — alongside at least 250,000 around the world.

In the US, the marches were dubbed “Rise for Climate, Jobs, and Justice”, convened by The People’s Climate Movement. (PCM). Their focus? Push government authorities to create new policies to prevent or cope with the worse effects of climate change.

Hmmm…. another protest, another climate conference – is it really something different this time? How will these marches change our behaviors and inspire us to conduct “greener” lives and businesses? How can we promote a non-partisan attitude with slogans we carry at these marches? Continue reading →

The 7 Banned Words – Um, Remember Freedom of Speech?

Leave a reply

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services made it clear last month that to ensure their funding stream, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is best advised to avoid 7 words in their vocabulary: “fetus,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based.”

Really? Come on now, folks. There is simply no excuse for asking anyone to “tone down” their documents by erasing parts of the English language. Some call this a “ban”, while others term it a “recommendation”. Either way, it’s simply “very problematic.”

Of course, none of us can tolerate censorship of our work. And those of us dealing with critical social issues — such as healthcare or human rights or the environmental crisis or poverty — need every word at our disposal to help us make the world a better place.  Even in business writing, which is often thought of as dry and painful, we writers have the right to express ourselves fully (creatively, even).

I was heartened to read about The Human Rights Campaign’s response to the Trump Administration’s dictate; the organization projected all 7 words onto the entrance to the Trump International Hotel in Washington, along with the words “we will not be erased.”

As writers, let’s instead use our erasers (or delete buttons) to make sure our words are clear, concise, and meaningful: to say whatever needs to be said, no matter what.

The Green Scene: Reframing “Climate Change” Messages

Leave a reply

In recent months and years, climate change has been making an increasingly deeper impact on every one of our lives — across the country and around the world. But the term “climate change” doesn’t seem sufficient to describe the enormous challenges we are facing today: historic fires, droughts, hurricanes, and the sinking of some coastal cities.

As we already know, using the right language can mean a huge difference in successfully winning a grant, engaging a website visitor, or accomplishing a myriad of other essential tasks in our organizations. Just as important, the language we use to define our environmental problems can influence how others see the situation and take action (or not).

How can the right language help? Perhaps renaming “climate change” is a start. “Climate change” doesn’t identify the depth of the challenge, describe why things are happening as they are, or inspire us to address the situation. Susan Strong, Founder and Executive Director of The Metaphor Project (and a former editing client of mine for her book, Move Our Message: How to Get America’s Ear), mentions three steps we can take to use our language more decisively.

Read about her three steps in her blog article, Reframe “climate change,” in 3 Steps!.

 

 

Positive Words Make All the Difference

1 Reply

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the power of positive words to make a real, enduring difference in our lives. No matter what challenges we face in our personal or professional lives, maintaining a positive attitude and voicing that perspective often means the difference between success and failure. It’s that simple.

I came across this brief but extremely powerful online video that I just had to share. It’s about the power of words in the life of Thomas Edison, one of the greatest inventors in U.S. history.(Okay, there may be some controversy about all of his patents, but still…)

I believe this inspirational clip deserves its more than 81 million views and 3 million shares on Youtube. I would love to hear your thoughts on its message.

This is a great reminder to always frame your messages in the positive. Stress what something IS rather than what it IS NOT. Emphasize what you CAN and WILL DO rather than what you CANNOT. Orient your messages toward problem-solving.

They will travel a lot farther that way!