A 5-Part Series – Installment #3/5
As an agency’s Grants person, the Program staff are your pipeline to information for many of your grant proposals. But there is sometimes a disconnect between Program staff and the Grants team in a nonprofit. They speak different languages, and so communication issues arise. This series identifies some of those points of detachment between Program and Grants to see if we can find a fix.
We’ve already talked about the Need Statement that often causes confusion for Program, and we’ve talked about Program Budgets and all that can run afoul with those. Now let’s deal with a few issues that can be addressed when we’re not on deadline (hopefully) — getting ahead of project planning, and getting organized so you can explain how great your program leads are!
PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE:
Upcoming Projects or Needs
If your Program staff is planning to launch a new initiative, or make some shift or change or expansion to a current program, they may not understand that you need to know about that — yesterday! The time it takes to find and cultivate a strong funder match, understand a program well enough to write a strong proposal for it, line that up with the funder deadlines and their notification calendar and their grant cycle beginning and end, can be months and months.
Coordinating grants with the anticipated launch of a program is impossible, if time is too tight. If Program has to delay the start of a planned program for a year or more in order for Grants to raise the money it needs, what would that mean for the program? If Program is planning out a year, or two, or three even, that give Grants a better chance to find funders aligned with the proposed target audience for the proposed program, and the proposed need it is trying to fill.
Better to include your Grants person in the discussions of future plans. Grants staff needs a head up if plans are in the wind so they can keep new initiatives in mind when they are in prospect research mode. Program needs to keep us abreast of any and all plans so we can be agile and prepared to submit.
Be sure and explain that to your Program staff, and maybe schedule regular check-in meetings to chat about what’s in the wind. Taking regular monthly or quarterly meetings for Grants to catch up with Program, learn the challenges their participants are facing, their terminology, chat about their plans for upcoming program changes or additions, can make a huge difference in Grants’ ability to find and leverage available funding.
PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE:
Staff Bios and Qualifications
As long as you’re getting prepared for the future, also have the conversation with the Program staff about their qualifications. This is a topic that funders raise a lot in their grant applications. They want to know that the staff at the helm of a proposed program is qualified, certified, capable, and able to make the program happen.
If you have long-tenured staff working in Program, it’s likely they have not dusted off their resume in eons. If you have younger, less-experienced staff in Program, they may have a fairly slim resume or bio. In either case, work is needed.
EXPERIENCED? Make sure your experienced staffer knows that you need an updated resume with relevant information. Show education and degrees attained. Show roles and promotions within agencies. Show a chronology. If there’s a gap, try closing it up by only mentioning years (and not months). Trim down to whatever the funder in question requires (i.e., no more than two pages), or maybe make a couple of versions so when the occasion arises, you can pull the one that best fits the bill from your files. You (Grants) can craft a brief bio from the info they provide you. Including a professional headshot would be helpful there too (emphasis on professional, not a pic you took on your phone).
NOVICE? For your less-experienced program person, work with them to target their resume and be specific about their relevant experience. Limit what you include from college or intern jobs, unless it relates directly to their current job. DO include education, degrees, certifications, professional memberships, and any professional development activities. These will help flesh out a lean resume.
In either case, spend some time with those key Program people to help them recall and revisit any relevant data they may have on their professional experience, and couch it to shore up their qualifications for the role. This work may help you get ahead when funders ask for required attachments, or the relevant qualifications of your program staff.
This installment of my Program + Grants blog series is meant to make your job in Grants easier, less stressful, and more productive. Waiting for staff to get you the info you need for an application deadline that’s coming up can be a white-knuckle situation that can make for added stress when you don’t need it. Tension between your two departments can be mitigated, if you get ahead in your info-gathering. Getting information from staff is an ongoing job, and that relationship is so important.
So far in this series, we’ve attacked Need Statement, Program Budgets, and now ways to get ahead and prepare for the future — all in service to getting grants to serve your agency’s mission, while making your job easier. Next up: some snaggy bits about the program you’re writing about that Program staff can help with! Stay tuned for it!
For those of you frustrated by your relationship and communication with the Program staff at your agency, I promise you, you’re not alone. One way to untangle that “communication complication” is to ask the Program staff to read this blog series. Another way is to have them take the Unlock-Grants course! There they will learn, from beginning to end, what the Grants staff needs for their grant applications.
Find out more about the Unlock-Grants course here.
