The “Win More Grants” series
Leverage Team Strengths to Win More
If you’re asked to do more with less — if you’ve lost a team member, or are stretched even thinner with your small team — but you’re still asked to win more grants, what do you do? If you’re just one person, or a small team, how do you win more with fewer resources, less help?
You don’t have to do this alone. You have resources; you have stakeholders, people who want/need you to succeed so the organization can succeed. The idea with this strategy is to rally those others in your effort to win more grants. Your team is bigger than you think!
STRATEGY #6: Leverage team strengths
To win more grants, we’ll look at leveraging your team and their strengths. Your inter-office colleagues can be your best allies in winning more grants, and they can be most effective if they’re coached. That would be by you on what you do, how you do it, and the importance of deadlines. You need to meet internal and funder deadlines, and all those deadlines along the way as well.
ENLIST YOUR LEADERSHIP
Here’s some ways they can help. Obviously, your nonprofit’s board and executive leadership can be your biggest advocate if they understand how budget projections for grants should be forecasted and how valued their assistance is with opening doors and making connections. I have blog articles devoted to this very topic.
They (your board) need to understand why and what you’ll need their help for. So they don’t think: I don’t want to tell you all my friends’ names and numbers and email addresses. I don’t want you bugging them. Explain to them, no, no, it’s not going to work like that. So help them understand what they’re doing, what they can do to be of assistance.
HR IS A GREAT TEAM MEMBER
HR can make a great strong addition to your logic model team, can’t they? They can project hiring trends for a new program. They know about things like ad placement and lead times and retention rates and the need for background checks if that’s necessary. And when it’s time to hire more grant staff, HR can more easily craft an effective job posting then, and vet candidates, if they understand the important skills and attributes a valued new-hire for grants should have. They won’t just reject someone based on a resume or based on a phone interview necessarily, because they’ll understand the qualities that make a good grant writer.
OTHER DEPARTMENTS ARE PART OF YOUR TEAM TOO!
And also the finance and marketing teams are also key members of your logic model building team as well as HR and program. Of course, you need to verse them on the object and the importance of a strong logic model and their roles in the exercise. They’ll think it’s fascinating if they understand and they won’t do any foot dragging or no, no, something came up and I can’t make it. It’s a pretty important thing for them to be a part of and for you to get done.
YOUR WHOLE AGENCY IS ON YOUR SIDE
And then, the entire agency that you work with — including others on the development team within your nonprofit — can help you triangulate connections. They can keep you from heading down dead ends and they can help you coordinate asks, if you keep them apprised regularly of who you plan to go after and the steps you’re taking in the relationships with your funders. Make sure they’re plugged in. You don’t want to screw up something that they’re working on and shortchange what ends up being the money you get out of a potential funder. If they’re working on $500 thou, don’t go talking to that funder about $5,000.
Be a good team member, keep others in your development team plugged in to your plans, and be mindful of their plans and strategies. Involve others in your agency in the work you do, and the why’s and wherefores of it, and how they can help you. Because at the end of the day, what you do (and winning more grants) helps the whole agency run!
