Your Grant Authority

Let me clarify this point from the beginning: I am not down on special event fund raising! Being a development manager for many years for various charitable institutions, I have done my fair share of special event coordination and for the most part actually enjoyed it. It’s exciting to have months of planning and cultivation of attendees culminate in a memorable event that is hopefully enjoyed by all. That being said, I can also make a fair assessment that when someone tells me “I just don’t have time to write grants,” I can politely disagree for I have been on both sides of the fence and think that it’s most unfair to make this assessment without actually trying both to compare the effort in time.

In today’s economy, it is important now more than ever to stretch yourself in your fund raising endeavors. I think it’s a responsible nonprofit that tries all avenues of fund raising including direct mail appeals, annual giving campaigns, major gift solicitation and, yes, special events. However, honestly ask yourself if you have you fallen into the special event trap and gotten comfortable there. You tirelessly toil involving your whole staff in walk-a-thon’s, bowl-a-thon’s, rock-a-thon’s and every other “a-thon” you can imagine. Some of them bring in the cash you need, others don’t quite make the mark.

I recently came across a National Kidney Foundation’s manual for their “Kidney Walk.” The planning began 12 months in advance! Does this action plan sound familiar? Step One – Find an event chairman, Step Two – Convene your committee, Step Three – Secure your location…Step 675 – Order port-a-potties. This manual was 12 pages long in its instructions on putting together the perfect Walk, involved a minimum of 150 volunteers and needed a minimum of 1,000 walkers to reach their goal of $75,000. How much time and effort are YOU putting in to your special events not to mention your ENTIRE staff?

Now, picture this scenario. You, finding potential funders for the program you wish to fund. You, getting in touch with the potential funder and acquiring their guidelines for application. You, writing the application which simply includes your reason for existence, your explanation for why you need the money and a budget which helps illustrate your funding needs. Yes, I might have oversimplified the process for every funder’s guidelines are different, but the point is this: it takes a lot less time and effort on behalf of your staff to submit a grant application than it does to plan a special event. It actually just takes one dedicated staff member to pull off an application while the rest of the staff’s energy can be devoted to getting their actual jobs done.

I’m not asking you to tackle a federal grant application your first time out of the chute. Those mostly ARE taxing and mind-numbing. Just be aware that there are thousands of private family and corporate foundations that accept applications and, knowing your frustrations, have for the most part made the process simple and pain-free.

Don’t know where to start? Consider purchasing my GRANTstarter guide to pursuing private family and corporate foundation grants (found on the Products page) . It tells you step-by-step how to find funders, simple instructions for compiling an application and how to catch the interest of funders in giving you big grant funding.