Fundraising

Coins in the Can

In a proposal writing workshop one of the participants (call her Roxanne) despaired of anyone wanting to help her raise the money she needed. “All we need is a van to carry some equipment,” she worried, “but it’s not glamorous and we don’t have any way to get started.”

Preview: Model Purchasing Policies & Procedures Preface

This is a preview from our latest Grant Management series article, Model Purchasing Policies and Procedures: A Guide for Nonprofits, Governments, and Tribal Organizations, available for purchase here.

 

Preface

I. Introduction

Welcome to Model Purchasing Policies and Procedures: A Guide for Nonprofits, Governments, and Tribal Organizations. It has been more than 30 years since any organization has issued something substantially new concerning procurement for use by governments and nonprofit organizations. The question is why now? There are four reasons.

 

Sustainability After the Money Runs Out

 
Because grants are social investments meant to produce ongoing change, both funders and grantseekers are concerned about what happens after the grant ends.
 

Most people define sustainability as “obtaining funding to keep the program running.” That’s not quite right. It’s primarily about perpetuating the results that are being achieved. Sometimes sustaining outcomes requires that you continue the program or some part of it — but not always.

 

A Logical Call to Action: Grants as Advocacy, Not Just Asking

 

We all know what a grant proposal is. It’s a document we write and submit to private or government funders requesting money to support our organization’s work. Right? While grant proposals do indeed request funding, I think this standard definition falls short and points us in the wrong direction. Grant funding is a tool for making something better, and since the real goal is impact instead of money, I propose an expanded definition.

 

What's a Social Entrepreneur?

Since reading a 2010 paper by Howard Husock published by the Philanthropy Roundtable, I’ve had this question on my mind. Ruth McCambridge of the Nonprofit Quarterly raised it again not too long ago in a LinkedIn group (Readers of the Nonprofit Quarterly), and I was compelled to peck out a quick reply on my iPhone while waiting for a 6 am flight home from McAllen, TX, where I’d been teaching (yes, there were typos).

 

Junk Money?

Junk Money

In the field of fund development, grants aren’t all that well respected. Once, after I was well known for bringing in millions of grant dollars, a local fund development director recognized me as “the woman who raises all the junk money.” Junk money?

 

Fund development professionals focus on individual giving because it’s the largest piece of the philanthropic pie. Individual giving represented about 73% of all giving in 2011, and 81% if you throw in bequests–the dollars total about $242.20 billion. Fund development professionals also focus here because the dollars are generally flexible, renewable, and growable. Individual giving done right can be the beanstalk to the golden eggs that just keep coming. I get that.

 

Evolution

                                                                                                                                                                              

Our vision for this blog is simple—to present the best thinking in the field of grant developmentwhat we call grantsmanship.

 

First I want to establish The Grantsmanship Center’s footing because, historically, we’ve got a lot to live up to. Norton Kiritz established The Grantsmanship Center because he was deeply concerned that nonprofits making valuable social contributions had trouble getting grants. Norton began teaching proposal writing when no one else was doing it. In 1972, he founded The Grantsmanship Center because it needed to be done and no one else was leading the way.

 

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