grant talk
grant writing talk and news, written and edited by laura lundahl, principal of iden advancement, a group of grant writing consultants.Archive for March, 2008
Library grant research tools: The Nonprofit Resource Center at the King County Public Library
As many Seattleites and those from surrounding suburbs know, our library systems are certainly something to write home about. We have a rock-star architect Rem Koolhaas designed downtown Central Seattle Public Library, complete with wind-tunnel delivered books and historically low hold times. There are also 25 other libraries in Seattle system scattered in neighborhoods throughout the city.
A completely different system, the King County Public Library, spreads across cities, suburbs, lakes and the Puget Sound with a total of 43 libraries in the system- more on this system momentarily.
Of course, we also have the university libraries of the UW (a state of the art research library), Seattle University, and Seattle Pacific University. Each university library has a slightly different focus, and all have resources on nonprofit sector.
Libraries, of course, relate to nonprofit fundraising in more than one way. First, the hard facts related to the need (or problem statement) of a particular nonprofit can be researched in depth. Compelling statements of need on homelessness, overtly, domestic violence, etc, can be composed from the statistical facts at your fingertips- either remotely through the internet, or in person at one of the many local libraries.
Secondly and perhaps more uniquely, we are fortunate to be fundraisers in a city where expensive grant research tools are available for free at a local library. The King County Public Library System provides a comprehensive resource in its Nonprofit Resource Center (NRC), located at the Redmond Library. The NRC is focused on proving resources related to philanthropy, charity giving, and nonprofit sector fundraising. The NRC provides online tools are available for access from anywhere, such as the calendar of workshops and courses in nonprofit management at http://www.kcls.org/forms/nfpcal/nfpcal3_Result.cfm/.
The King County Library System is part of the network of “Cooperating Collections” of the Foundation Center, meaning that they make information on private charitable giving readily available to the public. Moreover, a research tool that many organizations pay thousands of dollars per year for, The Foundation Center’s Foundation Directory Online Professional- for free! This database is updated weekly, and includes over 250,000 IRS 990’s (foundation financial reports) and over 80,000 foundation giving programs. To funnel you through this towering amount of information, the Foundation Directory online is fully searchable, and can generate very specific results and foundation information.
Take a seat at the computers housing this information at the Redmond location, and save your searches to your own data storage devices such as a zip drive, iPod or USB device. Walk away from your visit with a wealth of information, at only the cost of your time.
Books and articles related to the nonprofit works and fiscal sponsorship are also available at the NRC. The librarian in charge of the NRC and spearheading the relationship with the Foundation Center is named Jeanette Privat. Her knowledge about the industry is up to date and relevant. Jeanette is serious about helping nonprofit employees navigate the plethora of information available, and is great at what she does.
With over 2.4 million items in the King County Public Library System, and a whole section at one of it’s main libraries (Redmond) dedicated to nonprofit and philanthropy resources, I could go on all morning about planning your next trip to Redmond, meeting Jeanette, and fulfilling your research needs. Rather, I’ll leave it to you to explore at http://www.kcls.org/philanthropy/. The Nonprofit Resource Center is a great example of public dollars serving public interests in a sustainable way.
The “Stranger Pile”- Relationship Building Part I
Many fund development professionals look back on seasoned careers and think of those first grant requests they ever sent out, where a little more talk and finesse and a little less nervous approach would have been useful in relationship building with prospective donors.
It’s a fault that everyone in nonprofit development has likely experienced at one time. The over-eager submitter; the strapped for cash startup that sends the same boilerplate proposal out to seven foundations, none of whom they have ever spoken to before; the 20 year-old seasoned nonprofit who calls a funder with a question regarding the proposal and hangs up the phone without ever introducing themselves to the person on the other end of the line.
Soliciting much needed grant funding understandably brings out the eager beaver in all of us. That’s just the problem though- it brings it out in all of us. For every unsolicited “stranger proposal” your organization sends in to a foundation, be sure that they have received 100 more unknowns and categorized them as such. Likewise, for every pile of unknown grant applications in a funder’s inbox, there is a pool of proposals with familiar names.
Familiar names may never have met the funder in person, or treated the funder to lunch. But, many have called the foundation and developed a working relationship with the front-line staff as they wrote their proposal. They’ve taken this front line relationship to the next level by requesting the email or direct phone number of the executive director, program officer or president of the board of the foundation. The bottom line- the name of your organization and your tag-line should have been seen and spoken about at that foundation office, (ideally by the executive director) before your proposal arrives.
Yes, the first step in moving out of the stranger pile is about getting your name spoken. The rest (such as long lunches and site visits) shall follow suit. Getting yourself talked about brings “relationship building” down to a simple first step. This is great, since relationship building with foundations can sometimes feels a bit more like pyramid building. The idea is to move from an “unknown” to a “known” before submitting proposal- not to introduce your organization to the funder with your proposal.
Will taking the first steps in relationship building guarantee your funding? Of course not! It can’t be said enough though, how important it is to get out of that unknown category before submitting. This will prevent the wasting of valuable time and money at proposal attempts that make their way to the bottom of the stranger pile and shortly after, to the recycle bin. Further, some foundations limit the number of attempts you can make per-annum. This means if you are tossed out, you’ll be forced into a waiting pattern of a year or sometimes longer before you can attempt another proposal. Thus, call ten times, speak five, apply once. Repeat as needed.
This approach to relationship building means that I spend more time with most clients convincing them not to apply and coaching them on relationship building than actually sending proposals in. This is part of my anti-spray & pray method of grant writing. What’s the spray & pray method? An organization sprays out as many proposals as possible, and prays for dear life that one of them is funded. This analogy is courtesy of Susan Chandler, a national Grantsmanship Center trainer and friend.
Many colleagues and clients have worked with me to develop concrete plans to steer clear of the spray & pray method and exactly why it is bad for an organization. I’ll detail this in Part II of Relationship Building, next entry.
