The fastest road to burnout is overloading your staff. Boards, elected officials, executive directors, and other leaders must understand the capacity of time and resources necessary to develop and manage grant proposals. It is not a solo sport. So before chasing the...
HayDay Services is bringing you a series of “how-to” articles related to successful grant development. Part 3: Needs Statement Whether you are writing a one-page Letter of Intent (LOI) or a 150-page federal proposal, every grant funder wants to know the need/problem...
It’s a bonus episode! In January 2024, Kimberly and Amanda (your Fundraising HayDay cohosts) attended Courageous Leadership training led by Julie Boll. Over 8 weeks we each built and refined our calls to courage, affirmed our skills, and learned what courageous...
Raise your hand if you’ve ever: • Been asked your organization’s overhead cost by a donor. • Had to share your organization’s overhead percentage on a grant application. • Felt inclined to define your agency’s overhead costs. • Realized that your position was an...
What two things are necessary for a sustainable nonprofit? Fundraising and administration. What two things are nonprofits often judged for spending money on? Fundraising and administration. Programs serve people, but you cannot have programs without funding and staff....
Logic models: you either love them or hope you never have to create one. But the truth is, you should not be intimated by one. Simply put, it is a flowchart that highlights the important elements of your planned work and intended results related to a grant funding...
HayDay Services is bringing you a series of “how-to” articles related to successful grant development. Part 1: Grant Readiness School started yesterday in my community, and over the past two weeks my daughter and I have been making preparations for a successful year....
As a grant professional, who you report to and where you sit in the org chart matters. When I worked in local government, my position (Grants Administrator) was nestled in the Administration Department and reported directly to the City Manager/Administrator. I had no...
In 2023, today’s guest (Laura Chynoweth) penned the blog post “Disrupting the Development Hierarchy” in which she spells out why grant writing so often is found at the bottom. Laura, founder and CEO of Grant Fundraising Consultants, joined us to share those reasons...
Each year, the Giving USA Foundation and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IU Indianapolis releases the annual Giving USA Report. Their goal is to “advance philanthropy through research and education.” The results from the data collected...
Raise your hand if you’ve ever been frustrated because a funder website: Sent you round and round but never gave you information on their grant funding process Shared who they awarded grants to, but never gave information on their grant application process Told you...
We often spend more time at work than anywhere else. But that doesn’t mean we are closest to our bosses and colleagues. So how does that work when you have things in your life that affect your work performance? Today we are joined by Melanie Palmer, GPC, CFRE and...
Have you been awarded a federal grant with travel expenses included within the approved budget? I have, and even if it’s the smallest part of your overall grant budget, it can cause the biggest heartache if not given proper care and attention. Ask me how I know… The...
Grant funding can be used for travel, if the funder allows it. Your needs for travel expenses will vary from airline and hotel costs to reach a conference event to local mileage for traveling nurses to visit seniors in their homes. If federal funding is involved,...
Pursuing a career as a grant consultant can be an incredibly rewarding path, allowing you to leverage your skills in writing, research, and project management to secure vital funding for non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and other worthy causes....
Have you started your own business? Are you thinking about it? Whether you plan to be a grant consultant, start a fundraising empire, or want to freelance here and there, it is important to think about your plans for maintaining or growing your business. We are joined...
In the grant world, so many people focus on the award. There is a lot of emphasis on writing a successful proposal and winning the money, but the truth is, the award is just the beginning. The only way to keep the grant award, and find success in future applications,...
Grant management is a vital part of the grant life cycle. If you cannot keep the funding awarded to your agency, you are lessening the chance of future funding. Today we’re walking you through the five main components of post-award work. Whether you are new to the...
It was the best of responses; it was the worst of responses… A grant professional’s workload often centers around application deadlines. I have been tracking a funding opportunity for a client for over a month now. The 2023 application was released in early-April, and...
From small family foundations to large corporation foundations, many funders ask potential grantees to submit an LOI. Do they mean a Letter of Intent or Letter of Interest? Do they want one page or three? What topics do they expect you to cover? The simple answer: it...
I don’t know how you handle conflict, be it personal or professional, but my go-to modus operandi is avoidance. I’ve always been a peacemaker, and when things get uncomfortable for myself or anyone else, I will happily change the subject, crack a joke, or simply sweep...
Sure, your title may have “writer” in it, but we are more than grant writers. Grant professionals build capacity, develop programs, conduct research, work with clients, build budgets, and so much more. We also have a voice in philanthropy, because without nonprofits...
Grant funding is out there. In 2022, foundations gave $105.2 BILLION and corporations $29.5 BILLION. In Fiscal Year 2023, the federal government awarded $1.7 TRILLION in federal discretionary resources. So how do you wade through all those funding opportunities to...
Last week Kimberly and I led a workshop for area police chiefs and other command staff. We spent time talking about what grants can and cannot do and how to build a grants team without a grant professional on staff. We spent a lot of time explaining that competitive...