What You Need to Know About Grants

Before we launch into the details of where to look for funding, we want to cover four points about the funding environment. If you understand these four things—even if you do nothing else—you'll improve your grant strategy.

#1: Getting Grant Funding is Not Easy

Before you start looking for grants to apply to, or even commit to grant funding as a revenue source, you need to know one very important thing: The likelihood that you will receive a grant from responding to any funding opportunity announcement is low. We don't say this to be discouraging. It's just the reality, and it applies equally to organizations of all kinds, even well-established organizations in the United States. The fact is, the vast majority of grant proposals an organization submits in a given year will not result in an award.

While grants are hard to get, no matter what kind of organization you work for or where it is based, another unfortunate truth is that securing grant funding is even harder if your organization is based in a developing country.

Does this mean you shouldn't seek grant funding? No, it does not mean you should give up pursuing grant funding.

However, it does mean you cannot afford to approach grantseeking haphazardly. If you want any chance of success, you have to be organized and relentless in your pursuit of funding. You also need a system to research potential funders to ensure that you are applying to the right opportunities. Additionally, you must have strong organizational management systems in place to assure potential funders that your proposed projects will receive proper oversight. 

#2: Grantmakers Are Looking for Reasons Not to Fund You

This next point also applies to all grantseekers, regardless of where they are located or what kinds of grant opportunities they pursue: Grantmakers look for reasons to eliminate applicants. They don't do this out of malice but rather out of sheer necessity. 

Foundations and government agencies frequently receive hundreds of applications in response to a single funding opportunity announcement. To help narrow the list of applications, program staff evaluate grant applications with the goal of eliminating as many as possible from further consideration. They look at everything, from whether the applicant has met the proposal deadline and followed the page limit instructions to the quality of the proposal narrative and the reasonableness of the budget. If you submit your grant proposal after the deadline, that would be an obvious reason for the funder to eliminate it from consideration. However, submitting a poorly written or mismatched proposal for the opportunity posting will also likely result in rejection.

To be successful at securing grant money, nothing can be left to chance. 

To improve the odds of being one of the roughly 12% of organizations located outside the US that receive a grant each year from a US foundation,* you must do everything right by meeting the following standards:

• Timely: Your grant application, with all required pieces, must be submitted by the deadline.

• Clear: Your grant application must be written clearly, with a logical structure and few grammatical errors.

• Responsive: Your proposal addresses the funder's interests.

• Compliant: Your proposal should conform to the funder's requirements, including meeting page limit requirements, font style and size guidelines, and word counts.

• Reasonable: You have demonstrated that your organization has the qualifications and capacity to do the proposed work.

#3 Grantmakers Are Moving Increasingly Toward an Invitation-Only Model

Another aspect of grantmaking that you need to factor in is that foundations are increasingly moving toward a less open grantmaking process. It used to be the norm that foundations would announce grant opportunities to the public at large, accepting applications from any organization that met their eligibility requirements. 

Today, open solicitations are becoming less common. Instead of posting funding opportunities, foundations are increasingly inviting pre-selected organizations to submit grant applications. To identify potential grantees, foundations research organizations on their own or rely on recommendations of colleagues or board members.

That foundations have chosen a different, more selective approach to grantmaking is understandable. Foundations want to reduce their administrative burdens and increase their programs' impact. In fact, it makes so much sense from the foundation perspective to have a closed application process that it is a trend that we predict will continue to grow.

If a foundation invites your organization to apply for a grant, the odds that you'll receive a grant are higher than with an open solicitation. This is not only because you have been pre-selected to apply but also because you're facing a smaller pool of competitors. The challenge is getting the invitation to apply, an obstacle that is more difficult for lesser-known organizations to overcome.

In a world where there may be fewer opportunities to apply to, your best defense is to become well known for excellent work. If you are known for doing good work, funders will want to work with you and be more likely to contact you and invite you to apply for funding.

#4 Grantmakers' Funding Interests Change (Sometimes Abruptly!)

Funder interests can change, sometimes overnight. For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many funders immediately changed their funding priorities to address community needs related to the pandemic. In some cases, foundations decided to cancel pending or previously announced grant opportunities in favor of providing additional funding to current grantees. In other cases, the foundations put a hold on their usual funding activities to focus on releasing grant opportunities related to COVID-19. And in still other cases—because of volatility in the financial markets—some foundations decided to put a hold on all grantmaking.

While the pandemic is an extreme and unprecedented example of global disruption, foundations can change their funding priorities at any time, and no one is immune. Even if you've been receiving grants from a particular foundation for many years, you could suddenly find yourself no longer eligible for funding as a result of the grantmaker's shift in priorities.

The moral of the story is, even if you are already successful at securing grant money, you cannot become complacent. You always need to be looking for grant opportunities and should never count on grant money from any single source. 

What You Can Do to Improve Your Chances of Securing Grant Funding

There are several things you can do to improve the likelihood that your grant applications will be successful. Three suggestions are below. We'll cover these topics and others in this course:

• Be discriminating. Apply for grant opportunities that are a good fit for your organization.

• Be engaged. Network with funders, with nonprofit organizations in your immediate geographic area, and with organizations that offer similar programs to your own (regardless of their location).

• Be knowledgeable. Learn how to organize and write grant applications that are clear and persuasive and easy for funders to understand.

*According to a recent report by the Foundation Center and the Council on Foundations, only 12% of the foundation funding for international development is awarded to local organizations in developing countries.

Lesson Summary