Barbara Floersch's blog

Four More Tips for Collaborative Grant Proposals

Collaborative efforts can offer more comprehensive responses to community challenges than any one organization alone can deliver. When the muscle and know-how of multi-talented teams focus on a mutual concern, there’s a real opportunity for impact. Laying out a coordinated approach in a collaborative grant proposal is powerful and highly competitive.

Understanding Capacity Building Grant Proposals

A capacity-building grant is a specific type of award meant to strengthen an organization’s systems and thereby increase its effectiveness. The term is a little confusing, so it’s not uncommon for grantseekers to think the purpose of these grants is to increase service capacity and expand programming. While strengthening internal systems can eventually result in expanded service capacity, that’s not the immediate focus here.

Submarine Nonprofit Survival Tactics

Administrators and board members must make extremely difficult and unpopular decisions as they work to sustain the organization through to the other side of the storm. They have to think in terms of triage, bottom-lines, core mission, and doing the least harm.

Beyond Policy Change – Assessing Social Justice Programs

Identifying the specific social-change outcomes you hope to achieve is challenging, but it’s critical that the outcomes you propose accurately reflect your organization’s values and views along with an understanding of how social change works

Get Ready to Reboot

This forced hiatus from the office is an anxiety-filled nightmare of handwringing and handwashing. The worries are real, but we can’t get frozen in place, we’ve got to discipline ourselves to be productive and prepare to rebound.

Working From Home? Prepare Now to Rebuild

By: Barbara Floersch

Community Engagement Boosts Grant Success

Some nonprofits always seem to be in the right place at the right time, standing shoulder to shoulder with other community organizations and reeling in grant awards one after another. What’s the story? Why are these nonprofits the darlings of every get-things-done project of every local school, community group, and municipal agency? When you see a nonprofit partnering intensely and successfully, you’re looking at an organization that values and cultivates community engagement.

Dealing with Closed-Door Foundations

When first diving into a high-quality funder research database, you’ll probably feel giddy with relief. With only a few clicks you can find “go” and “no-go” indicators to flush out those grantmakers most likely to support your work. But relief will soon morph into disappointment as one synopsis after another warns that the funder does not accept unsolicited proposals.

Grantmakers Need to Trust Your Organization

After submitting hundreds of grant proposals, it’s easy to get lackadaisical when completing yet another description of your nonprofit. But don’t do it! Pump yourself up and snap to, because the funder’s belief in the integrity and credibility of your organization will tip the scale for or against an award.

The Board’s Role in Securing Grants

Your organization’s board of directors may be affable, effective, challenging, or down-right difficult. But love it or not, the board has a role to play in grants administration. The board’s responsibility to oversee the financial and legal operations of your nonprofit place it at the epicenter of post-award management, but the board also has a role on the pre-award side. Here are some typical ways that boards participate in securing grants.

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