Grant Applications

Before you have any thoughts of grants, do you have a business plan?

Grants are used for funding major programs within a nonprofit. Many people assume grants are "free money" for any purpose but that is generally not the case. Grants are usually set aside for specific needs or specific causes. Often, the funder will expect to fund a program - a specific activity which has a start, an end and a way to measure success. This requires program definition. All of these possible requirements means you will have to research grants before applying to make sure what you are doing is something that the funder is interested in funding.

Before you start assuming that a grant will fund everything, there is preparation that is required.

We help you do your program definition.

Grants are generally program-based. A program is a defined process within your nonprofit - it has a beginning, an end and a defined set of measurements. Funders like programs because they know when they will terminate, and they know there is a way to measure success. This means there is a way to determine the return on investment.

We will help you build a core grants package.

Most grants require a core package of information. If you put the package together ahead of time, you will save time and money once you have found a grant writer.

We will do grant research for you.

After your programs are defined, you can begin to research grants. There are tools available which list potential grants. You will have to match your programs against the grant requirements to find a grant that will meet your needs. Grant research is important because applying for grants that do not meet your needs (or applying with programs that don't meet the grant's criteria) is a waste of everyone's time.

We will write grant applications.

After you have found grants that could potentially fund your programs, you actually apply for the grants. This procedure will vary based on the specific grant, but the core information is generally the same.

We can manage your grant reporting.

Grant funds that are tied to programs can only be used on those programs. Best practices would be to have a specific account for the program so the grant money is separate from your general funds. The funder will expect regular reports on how the money is being spent and on interim results.