Grant Readiness by Time Block

A grant writer’s success is directly tied to the grant readiness of their nonprofit. And grant readiness is more than having a folder full of forms or knowing where your IRS letter is! Grant readiness is more about the structure and underpinning of your organization’s foundation. And then it’s about communicating that strength and substance to your funders.

Submitting proposals for an unprepared agency is like putting the cart before the horse. Grant funders can spot a lack of readiness, and will deny requests from organizations that aren’t prepared to win or manage a grant award. This wastes both your time and the agency’s resources.

Grant readiness must exist in several categories. From your board and leadership, to your past successes, the strength of your staff, and the power of your programs to meet their goals, they all line up to equal grant readiness.

Think about the categories I’ve outlined below and how they apply to your nonprofit. Weigh what you’re able to deliver to a potential funder in terms of your grant readiness, and see how you can help make your organization seem like a better investment to them.

Many of the items on this list cannot be accomplished in a hurry, or in a vacuum. They take the entire organization — top down! — working together, over time. The idea is not to BE at 100%, but to STRIVE to be at 100%, always improving and showing progress.

I have broken down the items on my checklist into “chewable bits,” so that you can see there’s some categories that can be pulled together quickly (you likely already have most of the items), some may take some effort to collect, and others need to be accomplished at the executive or board level, over time. But they’re all important to giving your funders a clear idea that you are THE BEST investment they could make.

ALMOST IMMEDIATE
The Categories of Grant Readiness that you should have at the ready, in a folder on your desktop, are:

• Org Documents:
  • 501c3 IRS determination letter
  • EIN number
  • Annual report
  • Current grants calendar
  • Calendar of events, brochures, marketing collateral
  • Strategic Plan
  • Current fund development plan
  • Org flow chart
  • List of management staff and contact info
  • List of accomplishments/awards
  • Letters of agreement/MOUs detailing partnership roles/responsibilities
• Financial documents:
  • Annual organization budgets for the past 3 years
  • Current FY (budgeted) and previous FY (actual) revenue and expense
  • 990s (past 3 years if available)
  • Annual revenue breakdown (by source, amount) – government, grants, individuals, etc.
  • Top 5 individual gifts/private grants/corporate grants from 3 past years

MAY TAKE WEEKS
The Grant Readiness items that may take some time/work/teamwork to gather are:

• Organization information:
  • Mission, vision, values statements
  • Case statement (with your history, goals, and services) and organization fact sheet
  • Demographics of Employees, Executives, volunteers, and population(s) served
  • Complete and updated website and Guidestar profile
• Board of Director info:
  • Their names, contact info, affiliations, demographics
  • % of board members contributing to the organization (should be 100%!!)
• Written policies:
  • Does your organization have these policies in place?
    • Ethical principles for marketing and fundraising?
    • Donor rights?
    • DEI?
    • Grants management, reporting outcomes, results?
    • External communications?
    • Gift solicitation, acceptance, management?
  • Program info (for each program):
    • Program description, baseline data, evaluation, outcomes, KPIs
    • Logic Model
    • SMART objectives
    • Budget
    • Infrastructure, space, staff (with bios), job descriptions

MAY TAKE MONTHS
The Grant Readiness items that may need to happen above your pay grade are:

• Culture and infrastructure:
  • Does your organization have continuous vision, with leadership to match?
  • Is the support of your board solid? Are their roles and responsibilities clear?
  • Are there clear lines of decision-making within your organization?
  • Does your organization have a solid reputation within your community?
• Track record:
  • Is your organization able to cite any major accomplishments?
  • Are the credentials of your key players (board, staff, consultants, partners) strong?
  • Does your organization focus on long-term change instead of short-term fixes?
• Ongoing communications – formal and informal:
  • Does your organization have a continual dialogue, both internally and externally?
• Partnerships and collaborations:
  • Does your organization value collaboration over competition?
  • Do you have existing networks of potential partners, and active collaboration projects?
  • Is there a methodology to approach potential partners?

 

Seems like a lot, but I hope I’ve broken it down into manageable bits. It’s how you eat an elephant: one bite at a time!

But even once you’ve gotten through every single item on this checklist, you’re not done! Grant readiness is not a “one and done” project! It takes continual attention, both from the agency and from you as the grant professional. Constant monitoring and updating are key to getting — and staying — grant ready!

Grant readiness: I could go on and on … and I have! Because there’s so much to grant readiness — the Why’s and Wherefore’s — I’ve written a comprehensive blog on the topic, which you can check out here. I also present quarterly grant readiness sessions at my local library, and I include a free grant readiness checklist on my website that you can download and use to score your nonprofit. Depending on your score, I make a custom Next Steps video available to you, to help you get closer to grant readiness. All because I want to make any and all nonprofits stronger and able to win and manage grants!

Your success as a grant professional hinges on your nonprofit’s Grant Readiness, the strength of its programs, and the viability of funder matches. Unlock-Grants can help you overcome all these potential stumbling blocks!

If you’re writing for a nonprofit that isn’t grant-ready, take a step back, address the deficiencies, and start over. Here are three strategies to help:

1. Assess the Nonprofit: The key to winning grants is gauging your nonprofit’s Grant Readiness throughout its lifetime. Have you:
   • Taken the free Grant Readiness Assessment from Unlock-Grants?
   • Viewed the accompanying free video designed to “level up” your Readiness?
2. Assess the Program: A program with weaknesses can hurt your grant win rate. The Unlock-Grants course guides you through, with tools that help identify and fix a program’s weak spots:
   • Using Program Fundability Scorecards
   • Creating a Logic Model
3. Assess the Funder: Even with a grant-ready agency and a strong program, pitching to a misaligned funder wastes time. The Unlock-Grants course offers:
   • Guidance on conducting prospect research
   • A Prospect Funder Scorecard to evaluate potential funders