Hi! I’m Kate Martin, the Grants Manager at Dr. Phillips Charities! Welcome to our blog “The Juicy Details”! We’ve started this blog with you in mind – and by you, I mean grant writers, nonprofit organizations seeking grant funding, or anyone who is curious about grant writing.
We’ll talk about good grant writing, share resources, and of course talk about what Dr. Phillips Charities wants to see when we receive Letters of Intent and Grant Proposals. Want to know the Juicy Details? Read below!
Once Upon A Time
Once Upon a Time a woman lived in Central Florida who believed that she could change the world to make it a better place. She could see the world changing before her very eyes – not by making global differences but by making everyday life better in the town she lived in, often one person at a time.
That woman might sound a bit like you, the people you work with, or maybe it makes you think about the people your organization serves. Why? Because we are all living the dream in the nonprofit sector. Those who work in the nonprofit sector often see lives impacted by challenges and how we can make things better… and are driven to make a difference, even if it happens one person at a time.
What does this have to do with grant writing or grant making? Everything! Writing a grant proposal is the same as telling the story of how your organization’s program makes a difference (or will make a difference if it is a new program) in the lives of people in our community. It just does not necessarily start with Once Upon a Time in Central Florida. It is your program’s hopes, dreams, and what you are going to do to make a difference… and it tells how you know it will too.
“Grant proposal” is just a technical term for a story about what is happening in your community, the problem with what is happening, why it needs fixing, how you are going to fix it, how that will make life better, and how you will know it truly has made life better. We mix in facts, figures, budgets, metrics, and measurements to tell the story too. The facts and figures are important to tell us why your organization is the right one to take this issue on… and why life will be better because you do.
Plus, it connects you to the grantor (someone like Dr. Phillips Charities) and to the drive you both share in wanting to elevate life for everyone. I like to say nonprofit organizations are in the business of doing good, the differential between them is both in the type of good being done and how effective they are at doing it. Your story is this story… it is the story of those that you serve, whether it’s people or animals or the environment, how you serve them, and how well you do it. Tell us about the change you make, and how it relates to the change we want to make too. Grantors want to make the world a better place too – in the town we live, in the best way and for the greatest number of people, often one nonprofit organization at a time.
Tell us your story! For more about storytelling, enjoy this Ted Talk: https://youtu.be/74uv0mJS0uM
Proposal Pointers
Today’s Proposal Pointer is to Dot your I’s and cross your t’s!
Once you have your Letter of Intent, Grant Proposal or Progress Report complete, pretend you know nothing about your organization, the proposal or the project/program you’re reporting on. Then, review your information to ensure that it makes sense, flows properly, the math adds up properly, etc.
Sounds like something fitting for grant proposal storytelling to me!
Now lets get started and Apply for a Grant.
