A 5-Part Series – Installment #4/5
The Program/Grants relationship is symbiotic and intertwined. Those of us in Grants need to be in tune with Program’s plans, and they in turn need to understand what Grants needs to support them. This series identifies some of the points of disconnect between Program and Grants to see if we can find a fix.
We’ve covered several topics that cause consternation and confusion between Program and Grants: the Need Statement, the Program Budget, program or project planning, and bios and resumes (so we can explain how qualified our staff is!). Now let’s turn to a few questions we can work on with Program to forestall any need a proposal may throw at us: program challenges, program sustainability, and program partners.
PROGRAM CHALLENGES, PROGRAM SUSTAINABILITY, AND PROGRAM PARTNERS
A program’s shortcomings
Nothing is perfect, and sometimes funders will realize that and ask about it in their proposals. They’ll include a question something like “What challenges do you anticipate in fulfilling your program’s goals?” You as the Grants person need to be prepared with an answer, and Program can help. So explain to your Program staff that this question by no means has to spell trouble for your application, or weaken your explanation of your plans, if you explain it right.
If asked about what challenges you may face implementing your program — or a question along those lines — my advice is to be transparent and not evade the question. You should identify a weakness, a potential downfall, that would cause your program to not meet its goal, and acknowledge it. But you can answer it in such a way that actually makes you look stronger. Preparing for this kind of question actually makes you appear realistic and thoughtful.
Once you identify the potential problem in implementing your program, think how you can head it off. If there might be staffing issues due to a labor shortage or a small candidate pool in your geographic area, tell the funder how you’d pivot to:
- hire contractors, or
- split the full-time job(s) up into part-time, or
- make the job(s) hybrid, or
- make the job(s) remote to attract more candidates, or
- use a temporary staffing company to fill positions.
Work with your Program people to identify an Achilles heel in your program’s plans, and think it through. Come up with a workaround, and brainstorm a way to make a negative into a positive! Don’t just lay the issue at your funder’s feet and NOT include a solve! Think proactively about what you’d do to counteract the problem or fix the issue! Then the funder will see that you are not easily swayed, you can think through a snag in your plans, and get around an obstacle.
Sustainable?
These days, funders all ask about the sustainability of a program after the grant runs out. Or they may put it like this:
- What is your plan for this project in the future?
- Briefly describe rationale for ongoing funding, expansion, replication or termination.
- If this will be an ongoing program/project, describe plans and specific sources for future/long-term funding.
- How will the project be sustained once grantmaker support is completed?
What’s their motivation for this question? It’s really because they just don’t want to send their money down a bottomless pit. If their $10,000 is all that stands between your program’s success or failure, if your program would poop out if not for their grant, they aren’t going to trust that program as a sound investment. Funders are also not keen to be the only investor.
So work within your Program to devise a way (if it’s not already obvious) to continue the program after any one grant goes bye-bye.
PRO TIP
Funders DO NOT want your answer to be “we will seek other grants.”
Ideas for program sustainability that could bubble up in your conversation with Program may include:
- Do you have a fundraising event, performance, tour, exhibition, or other public event that showcases talents or abilities that you can sell tickets to? If this kind of activity supports your program’s mission, then it could be a viable sustainability plan.
- Can you produce a catalog, book, publication, or other type of merchandise for sale that can be an income stream? I love how the program that helped people with intellectual and developmental disabilities ended up “sustaining” itself by selling greeting cards decorated with the program participants’ artwork.
- Can your program turn into a social enterprise? Meaning, can helping the people you want to serve turn into a money-making venture? I admire the nonprofit that serves victims of human trafficking. They opened a café and catering operation, gave the women they serve job skills and experience, and made their organization self-sustaining.
These are just a few ideas to get the juices flowing on what may work for your nonprofit and its program. Brainstorm with your Program people about the assets your nonprofit has, or makes. The best ideas come out of those sessions, and you as the Grants person can’t dream these ideas up in a vacuum!
Partners Or Collaborators & Their Contributions/Roles/Responsibilities
There’s extra funder points for the agency that is working with community partners. Funders know that a program idea or concept can be improved by more minds thinking on it, built up by more ideas, and fortified through shared responsibilities that leverage each other’s strengths.
Work with your Program staff to identify aligned partners, make sure responsibilities are delineated, and that financial arrangements (if there are any) are spelled out and agreed upon. Then, make sure those roles and arrangements are written down and all parties sign on the dotted line. It’s called an MOU, or Memorandum of Understanding, and funders ask for a copy, so get ahead of it.
Then, work with your Program staff so that you understand what makes their chosen program partners valuable to the project. Your Program staff can also help you establish a line of communication between the partners and yourself, so you can get specifics from them when needed.
This installment of the Program + Grants series has been a catch-all of seemingly minor things that need to be addressed, eventually. You won’t have to look far to find the Sustainability question, the question asking for details about your partners, and the funder that asks about challenges to meet goal. Better to be aware, and work to get your answers together sooner rather than later. And in the case of Partners, waiting for an outside agency to sign on the bottom line can be nerve-racking — they’re just not as invested in you meeting your deadline.
The final installment of the Program + Grant series is a doozy. We’ll talk about Program Description, and of course you want Program and Grants staff to be thinking along the same lines! Stay tuned, and don’t miss 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.
