Grants are one of the foundational pillars of the nonprofit industry. Whether from government agencies, private foundations, or corporate social responsibility arms, grant funding is estimated to make up an average of 35-45% of nonprofit revenues. Behind these numbers lie hours of research, strategy, cultivation, planning, program implementation, persistence, and patience.

When you begin submitting requests to foundations, you should have the organizational infrastructure in place to not only prepare competitive applications that articulate the change your organization creates, but also to demonstrate that you are in a position to effectively steward the grant funds and maximize the impact of the award. 

So how do you know if it’s time to begin investing into a grants program? The Elevate team has identified key benchmarks of organizational readiness that we consider to be essential to establish before investing in a grants program. 

1. A Theory of Change

While it is not typically required to have a formally documented Theory of Change, your organization should be able to succinctly explain

 the who, what, how, and why of your work. Make sure that your Theory of Change is aligned with the mission and capacity of the organization. With this framing, you’ll be positioned to have meaningful conversations with grantmakers and develop the detailed narratives, workplans, timelines, and budgets that may be required as part of the grant application.

2. Core Funding 

While grants may ultimately make up a significant portion of an organization’s revenue, they are not generally the first funding sources for new nonprofits. This can be attributed to a variety of factors, including the long timeline to receive funds and grantmakers’ interest in investing in organizations with a track record of successful outcomes and predictable results. Grant work requires an up-front investment, meaning that in most cases, organizations will need to have other revenue streams support their work until the grants start coming in. In fact, most organizations do not see grant dollars in the door sooner than 9-18 months after they begin the process of researching and pursuing new grant opportunities.

3. Financial Infrastructure

Relatedly, grant applications typically require you to submit organizational and program budgets, accounting records, and audited financial statements. Before approaching a funder, be sure your organization has the proper financial infrastructure to track, administer, and report on the use of funds. Failing to do so can mean the end of a relationship with a funder.

4. Established (and Effective!) Programs 

Similar to your Theory of Change, you should have an established program or programs with clearly defined activities, outputs, and outcomes, as well as a plan for how you will use funding. These programs should have clearly defined metrics for impact and success that you can track and report out on. In most industries, this doesn’t need to be a professional third-party evaluation, but you should be able to outline the specifics of your activities and how you know if they have been successful. 

5. A Clear Understanding of the Landscape

Before investing time and resources into a grant program, research your organization’s funding landscape, including which grantmakers are supporting peer organizations (an indication that they may be interested in your work) and what type of grant funding is available (such as program-restricted funding, general operating grants, or capacity building). This knowledge enables you to develop plans for your grant program that are grounded in the reality of available funding opportunities. However, grants are not the right funding stream for every organization. An analysis of your landscape can help you to understand whether it makes sense to invest in a grants program, and if so, how to focus your efforts. 

Elevate can help organizations with this through a Peer Landscape Analysis Project! Reach out to us to learn more about how to get started. 

6. Capacity for Researching and Writing Grants 

As I’ve hopefully conveyed, establishing a successful and sustainable grants program requires dedicated capacity and strategy. While it may be feasible for executive or program staff to write an application here and there, if your goal is to develop a robust grants pipeline, it will require significant research, cultivation, proposal writing, reporting, and stewardship. Organizations with limited resources should be creative about how to create and maintain this capacity. Consider dedicating a portion of staff time to these responsibilities, and encourage your board to contribute their time to these efforts. For organizations that need a capacity boost for a few proposals a year, Elevate’s Writing Capacity Projects might be the right fit. 

We hope that this list provides a helpful starting point for organizations that are launching a grants program. If you need assistance in tackling one or more of these benchmarks, Elevate’s Grants Accelerator Project Suite can help! We offer a variety of short-term projects focused on these building blocks for a new grants program. Contact us today if you are interested in learning more!

Executive Order on “Increasing Oversight of Federal Grant Making”

What Nonprofits Need to Know Now

Since the new administration took office earlier this year, Elevate’s nonprofit clients continue to be impacted by a wide range of Executive Orders. A recent Executive Order issued August 7, 2025 makes substantial changes to the development, decision-making, and disbursement of discretionary grants at the federal level.  This article summarizes some of the most salient details for nonprofit organizations.

What Happened & Immediate Ramifications

On August 7th, President Trump’s White House published an Executive Order designed to  “improve the process of Federal grantmaking while ending offensive waste of tax dollars.”

Short-term, the most significant impacts of this Executive Order are that 

1. All federal agencies must pause any new funding until they designate a senior appointee to oversee all discretionary grant processes according to the new requirements in the Executive Order.

A senior appointee is intended to be a political appointee, not a career civil service staff member. 

2. Within 30 days (so by September 7th), each agency head will review the agency’s standard grant terms and conditions for compliance with the new Executive Order and submit a report to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

What this means for nonprofits right now:

• If you were anticipating a new NOFA or RFP in the next few months for a federal discretionary grant, it will likely be delayed.
• If you currently have a discretionary grant from any federal agency, you may be required to agree to updated terms and conditions allowing the government to, for example, terminate the grant at any time or require additional documentation to draw down funds (more on this below!).

What Does this Executive Order Mean For My Organization?

Beyond the short-term ramifications, there are a variety of new requirements for federal agencies that focus on increased oversight of all aspects of discretionary grant funding, from the development of initial RFPs and NOFAs to disbursing funds and canceling grants. 

Here are five changes to federal discretionary grantmaking all nonprofits should know:

1. The Executive Order is limited to discretionary funding, sometimes referred to as competitive grants. It does not include programs where legislation establishes an entitlement to the funds on the part of the recipient, such as block grants; those awarded based on a statutory formula; or disaster recovery grants. Many nonprofits Elevate works with receive federal funding primarily as pass-through funds from their local government. In many cases, this Executive Order will not affect those funds.

Key Action Step: Make sure you know the original funding source of any pass-through grants. Block grants, such as Child Development Block Grants or Community Development Block Grants, are not directly affected by this Executive Order. If your local government has applied for and secured competitive federal funding and then re-granted to you, those funds may be at-risk.

2. Organizations that are currently funded via a discretionary federal grant or that are planning to apply for a discretionary grant in the future should be aware that they may be required to agree to new terms, particularly the government’s right to cancel the grant at any time (“termination for convenience”), including when the award no longer advances agency priorities or the national interest.

It is worth noting that there are several active lawsuits challenging the government’s cancellation of environmental and climate justice grants via the Environmental Protection Agency, public safety grants via the Department of Justice, and agricultural and food insecurity grants from the US Department of Agriculture. All three lawsuits argue to some degree that the cancellation of this funding was unlawful because grantees were implementing programs and services aligned to the original intent of the grants and that the Executive Branch cannot cancel existing grant programs due to changing political priorities or agency goals. Notably, federal judges have ruled in several of these cases that the federal government needs to restore funding to all canceled grants while the lawsuits are ongoing, one as recently as August 14th. 

However, with the implementation of this Executive Order and the nuance of the legal argument – that the initial cancellations were not well-justified or lawful under current government policies and regulations on grant awards – there is a real possibility that future federal grants will be more easily terminated, even if these lawsuits successfully establish that recent cancellations were unlawful.

Key Action Step: Factor the potential cancellation of current or future federal grants into your contingency planning. If discretionary grants can be terminated based on policy changes at the federal level, they will represent greater operational risk to nonprofits.

3. Organizations receiving federal grants in the future will be required to provide justifications for each draw down of funds, including documentation. While this is, to some extent, already required for many federal grants, experts generally believe it will introduce additional administrative burden for organizations seeking to actually spend awarded funds.

Key Action Step: Plan ahead for future disbursement requests. Check-in with finance and program staff to ensure that their recordkeeping is effective and will support detailed justifications for the future draw-down of funds.

4. The eligibility and review criteria for federal proposals is shifting. Organizations seeking federal funds should be aware that the new political appointees for each agency will be looking for the following criteria when approving discretionary grants:

a. Funds advance the President’s priorities;

b. Funds cannot be used to fund, promote, encourage, subsidize or facilitate:

i. Racial preferences, including activities for which race or intentional proxies for race are used to determine employment or program participation,

ii. Denial by the grant recipient of the sex binary,

iii. Illegal immigration, 

iv. Any other initiatives that compromise public safety or promote “anti-American” values; 

c. Grants should be given to a broad range of organizations; 

d. Grants should be given to organizations with lower indirect cost rates, if all other considerations are equal.

It is worth noting that the language here – “promote, encourage, subsidize, facilitate” – encourages government agencies to decline grant awards for organizations that do not align with their philosophies, even if the specific requested grant funds are aligned. Moreover, the mandate that funds cannot be used for anything that the government deems as a threat to safety or American values is sufficiently broad to be used in a wide variety of contexts by current and future administrations to limit, cancel, or refuse disbursement of grant funds.

Key Action Step: While Elevate has successfully helped many organizations thoughtfully assess whether their work does or does not align with the President’s priorities and identified a path to maintain existing funding or secure new funding in many cases, these criteria will likely exclude many nonprofits from all federal funding for the foreseeable future. This may mean that organizations need to transition to a contingency plan that does not include federal funds, which will require reducing expenses in the short-term. Long-term, this shift in federal funding policy and philosophy does incentivize nonprofits to look into other funding streams, including private philanthropy, individual donors, and earned revenue.

Additional Resources

We have summarized the most important points for our client organizations and others like them – U.S. based nonprofit organizations in all sectors with budgets between $1 million and $135 million that rely on private and public grant funding. We work less often with institutions of higher education or research institutions, both of which are heavily impacted by this Executive Order, and we recommend these organizations reference more comprehensive guidance provided by the following excellent resources:

• National Council on Nonprofits Chart of Executive Orders
• Executive Branch Oversight of Federal Grantmaking: A New Era?

Finally, earlier this year Elevate hosted a 3-part virtual conversation series on Navigating Uncertainty in the Funding Landscape. Key takeaways and resources from these sessions are summarized in three separate articles on this blog: 

• But what about private grants? Fundraising Strategy Under the New Administration
• 5 Big Questions Nonprofit Leaders Are Asking (And What to Do About Them)
• Leading Through Uncertainty: 3 Candid Lessons from Nonprofit Leaders

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Whether you’re a recent graduate or exploring a career change, grant writing might be on your radar. If you’re passionate about the work of nonprofits and have strong writing skills, this path can offer meaningful, impactful work. But how do you break into the field?

Here are four ways to get started:

1. Understand what a grant writer’s day-to-day looks like

The responsibilities of a grant writer can vary depending on the setting.

If you work in-house at a nonprofit, you’ll likely focus exclusively on that organization’s fundraising strategy—often managing everything from prospect research to proposal writing to reporting. You may be the go-to person for all things foundation funding.

If you work at a consulting firm, like Elevate, you might juggle a portfolio of nonprofit clients across different issue areas. Your day could include writing proposals, meeting with clients to discuss grant opportunities and collect info, collaborating with colleagues, and adapting your voice and strategy to fit each client.

If you are a freelance grant writer, you may spend time “selling” your services – identifying organizations in need of writing support, and building relationships with them so they come back to you for multiple projects. You’ll work largely independently to prepare and submit grants for your clients. 

Want to get a clearer picture of what these roles entail? Check out job postings on:

• Grant Professionals Association Career Center
• Association of Fundraising Professionals Career Center
• Elevate’s “Work With Us” page

2. Build your technical grant writing skills

Grant writing is its own distinct form of writing—different from creative writing, academic work, or journalism.  To be successful, you’ll need to learn how to make a clear, compelling case for funding within the structure and constraints of a foundation’s guidelines.

There are a number of free and low-cost resources to help you learn:

• Candid offers live and on-demand training on everything from proposal basics to advanced topics like collaboration and funder relationships.
• Elevate’s free webinars, led by our team of experts, walk you through key grant writing principles and offer practical tools to strengthen your fundraising.
• You might also check out Elevate’s blog post on our favorite grant writing books. 

3. Get hands-on experience

Once you’ve learned the basics, put your skills to work.

Volunteering is a great way to get practical experience and build your portfolio. Many nonprofits—especially smaller ones—need support with grant writing and may be open to volunteer help. Try searching platforms like VolunteerMatch for virtual or local opportunities.

If you already work for a nonprofit, but not in a grant writing capacity, express your interest in learning about grants. Ask the development team if you might help with grant preparation, in order to build your skills while writing about a topic and organization you’re already familiar with. Many Elevate staff made their way into grantwriting through other nonprofit roles! 

4. Stay connected to the field

The nonprofit landscape is always evolving, and staying plugged in will help you grow.

Subscribe to newsletters or join your local chapter of:

• The Grant Professionals Association (GPA)
• The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)
• Your state nonprofit association—such as PANO in Pennsylvania or the Center for Nonprofits in New Jersey

These organizations offer professional development, networking, and a sense of community with others in the field.

Takeaways from Elevate’s Conversation Series: “Leadership in Challenging Times”

In a time of shifting funding priorities and operational stress, nonprofit leaders across the country are being asked to do more—with less certainty, fewer resources, and often, a heavier emotional load.

As part of Elevate’s 2025 Conversation Series on navigating funding uncertainty, our third and final session—Leadership in Challenging Times—brought together a powerful panel of nonprofit leaders who are living this reality every day. On March 27, 2025, we were joined by three leaders who shed light on what we can learn from challenges in the past and move forward strategically. Our panelists included Melanie Lockwood Herman, Executive Director of the Nonprofit Risk Management Center; Laura Rodgers, Chief Impact Officer for JFS in Atlantic & Cape May Counties in New Jersey; and Rebecca Parlakian, Senior Director of Programs at Zero to Three. 

From managing burnout to staying mission-focused during cutbacks, these leaders shared real-world lessons that go beyond theory and into practice.

Here are three key insights we took away from the discussion:

1. Be Transparent—Even When the Answers Aren’t Clear

One of the biggest themes to emerge throughout our discussion was the importance of clear, consistent communication with staff and stakeholders—even when outcomes are uncertain.

Laura Rodgers described how her team shifted internal communication norms during COVID-19 and has continued that practice through today’s challenges. Weekly email updates became a staple—keeping staff informed, aligned, and valued.

Meanwhile, Rebecca Parlakian noted how frequent communication builds trust with funders and helps to manage expectations during shifting program needs.

“It’s okay to say, ‘I don’t know yet’ — just keep people in the loop.”

In other words, transparency in communication doesn’t require having all the answers. It does require being honest about what’s known, what’s evolving, and what’s still to be figured out.

2. Prioritize Staff Well-Being Like It’s Mission-Critical—Because It Is

In the nonprofit world, burnout isn’t just a buzzword. It’s an organizational risk.

Melanie Herman reminded attendees that people are any organization’s most valuable asset—and also its most vulnerable.

Panelists discussed how they are:

• Offering flexible scheduling and time-off policies,
  
• Creating space for rest without guilt, and
  
• Setting clearer boundaries around workload and urgency.

Rodgers even described intentionally slowing the pace of meetings and internal decision-making, signaling to staff that it’s okay not to be in constant “crisis mode.”

“We can’t serve our community  if we’re not supporting ourselves first.”

For more on how nonprofits can take action during turbulent times, check out our related blog post: 4 Things Nonprofits Can Do Now, to Better Adapt to Uncertainty

3. Shift the Frame from ‘Loss’ to ‘Learning’

As funding fluctuates and programs change, it’s easy to fall into a scarcity mindset. But all three panelists emphasized reframing as a leadership tool.

Instead of focusing on what’s being lost – whether that’s funding, programs, or metrics – leaders are helping their teams ask:

• What have we learned from this transition?
• What do we want to carry forward?
• How can we build back better—not just bigger?

Parlakian shared how her team used program changes as an opportunity to realign work more closely with community needs. In other words: constraint became a catalyst for innovation.

“This is a moment for mission clarity—not mission creep.”

Final Thought: There’s No Playbook, But There Are Peers

If there’s one thing that came through clearly during this conversation, it’s that no nonprofit leader is alone in feeling the weight of this moment.

Whether you’re making tough calls about the future of your organization or its programs, supporting exhausted staff, or navigating uncertainty with your board, there’s strength in shared experience. There’s wisdom in the field.

And there’s value in creating space—for listening, for adjusting, and for leading with care.

Additional Resources

Explore other resources and insights from the Navigating Uncertainty series:

• Session 1: But what about private grants? Fundraising Strategy Under the New Administration
• Session 2: Doing Less with Less: 5 Big Questions Nonprofit Leaders Are Asking—And What to Do About Them

Raquel Braemer

Associate Vice President of Continuous Improvement

Website Bio

In the nonprofit sector, uncertainty is nothing new. But the current funding landscape—with declining federal support and growing pressure on private philanthropy—has pushed many organizations to the edge of their comfort zone.

That’s why Elevate’s second session in our 2025 Conversation Series struck a chord. Titled Doing Less with Less, the virtual event on March 6, 2025 brought together leaders from across the country to face today’s biggest challenges head-on. We were joined by Elevate’s Founder and CEO, Alayna Buckner, as well as the Co-Founder and CEO of 20 Degrees, Sara Gibson. Alayna and Sara provided thoughtful and practical advice for nonprofit leaders at this moment of uncertainty.

Here are the five questions nonprofit professionals are asking most—and the practical steps you can take right now.

1. What should I be doing right now?

Let’s face it: being a nonprofit leader today means holding uncertainty in one hand and responsibility in the other.

Here’s what to focus on:

• Do an exposure assessment: Evaluate your programs and funding sources. Which initiatives or budget line items are most at risk if grants or federal dollars are cut?
• Plan for multiple futures: Think worst-case, best-case, and everything in between. Give each scenario a name (yes, really—it helps make the process easier to manage).
• Strengthen your relationships: Talk to your board, funders, elected officials, and peer orgs. Communicate early, clearly, and often.

These early steps align with the mindset we explored in this previous blog post on adapting to uncertainty, which offers additional ways to stay grounded and proactive before making major decisions.

2. How do I make decisions when the future is uncertain?

No one has a crystal ball. But that doesn’t mean you can’t plan.

Smart moves to make now:

• Clarify your criteria: Get grounded in your mission, values, community needs, and financial picture.
• Differentiate major vs. routine decisions: Don’t freeze. Some choices—like whether to backfill a role—can buy you time while you wait for more clarity on the larger, strategic decisions you’ll need to make.
• Explore your option set: Cutting costs, shifting resources, pausing programs, or pursuing mergers are all on the table.

Bonus tip: Download 20 Degrees’ Resilience Roadmap for a hands-on framework to help guide your planning process.

3. What should I do if there’s just not enough funding?

It’s a hard truth: sometimes the numbers just don’t work.

What to do when you’re facing shortfalls:

• Get clear on your tipping point: Know the exact conditions that would lead you to pause or end a program.
• Create a closure checklist: Have a plan for winding down responsibly, including how you’ll communicate with stakeholders, other organizations where you can refer clients, and the methods in which you’ll document learnings.
• Plan for a comeback: If funding comes back down the line, you’ll want to be ready to relaunch.

Remember: your mission is bigger than any single program. That mindset shift can make these decisions a little less painful—and a lot more strategic.

4. How do I make time for planning when I’m already swamped?

You’re juggling more than ever, and now you’re supposed to plan on top of that?

Try this:

• Honor your energy: Schedule planning time when you’re most focused—even if it’s just 20 minutes a week.
• Share the load: Involve your senior team and your finance folks. This doesn’t have to be a solo project.
• Make a “stop doing” list: What can you pause for the next 4–6 weeks to free up space for the work that matters most?

Planning doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to start.

5. How do I get my Board more engaged right now?

When funding shifts, your board’s role becomes even more critical—but also more complex.

Tips for stronger board engagement:

• Communicate early and clearly: Avoid surprises. Consider holding a special meeting with a single-issue agenda.
• Balance realism with possibility: Share challenges, but also offer a path forward. Help them stay hopeful and informed.
• Clarify expectations: Your board probably won’t fill budget gaps—but they can help advocate, fundraise, and spread the word.

And remember: business-minded board members may need extra guidance to understand the social sector’s priorities and constraints.

Final Thoughts

You don’t need to have all the answers. But you do need a plan—and the willingness to adapt it.

Whether you’re evaluating programs, weighing funding scenarios, or just trying to protect your team’s energy, one thing is clear: the work you’re doing matters. And you don’t have to do it alone.

Additional Resources

12 Urgent Financial Action Steps – Nonprofit Financial Commons
Strategy Triage Tool – Center for Community Investment
Checklist for Winding Down a Program – Nonprofit Risk Management Center
4 Things Nonprofits Can Do Now, to Better Adapt to Uncertainty – Elevate Blog
Resilience Roadmap – 20 Degrees

Explore other resources and insights from the Navigating Uncertainty series:

• Session 1: But what about private grants? Fundraising Strategy Under the New Administration
• Session 3: Leading Through Uncertainty: 3 Candid Lessons from Nonprofit Leaders

April 11, 2018

When asking donors to give their money, volunteers or staff to give their time, and even constituents to participate in your programs – it is particularly important to know why they should volunteer, give, and engage with your organization as opposed to another similar nonprofit.

Therefore, you must know the other organizations in your space, and clearly understand and communicate how you are performing different activities, or performing similar activities in different ways.

One of your most important roles as a nonprofit leader is to see the broader context and communicate it both internally and externally.  Here is an example: Elevate once worked with a charter school who was seeking to raise national funding for its work. When we were brainstorming why the funders should support their work, a school leader explained with enthusiasm about all the learning that was happening in their classroom every single day.

But students learning could not be their differentiating factor, we explained: that is why the local school district funds their work in the first place. That is the bare minimum; it is what they have in common with (most) other schools, not what makes them different or better amid a crowded field.

So how can your organization set itself apart from others doing similar work in your field?

Your Unique Approach

Your unique approach is something you have probably thought about. A lot. But your position is also something that is dynamic, and shifting as the ecosystem around it does and as you learn more about what works and what does not. When building new programs or approaching new stakeholders, it will be critical that your organizational strategy is in step with the broader context of what’s happening around you.

Differentiation must be your strategy!

Not only does this benefit the most people and prevent duplication of efforts, but it improves your sustainability by ensuring donors and grantmakers do not believe there is a good substitute for your work, and stay loyal to you!

How might your organization or program be different? Factors to consider:

Geography

Are you the only service provider in a certain region? Do you have a nation-wide reach compared to organizations with just a local footprint?  Elevate works with many different Jewish social service agencies – but the one in Seattle is not competing with the one in Philadelphia or Miami.

Size or Reach

Are you the largest service provider of a particular demographic – like middle school students? Or do you reach all the senior centers in a certain county?

Theory of Change

Does your theory of change (which we will discuss more at length!) distinguish your work? One of Elevate’s former clients developed their own inquiry-based method of teacher professional development. Do you have a similar method for change that you’ve refined over time?

Program Design

Do you use best practices in delivering your programs, or a promising new model that makes your program different in exciting ways? Are there features of your programs that others do not offer?

Impact

Does your program have a track record that is proven and deep? Does the change because of your program highlight a more effective program?

Stakeholder Engagement

Does your organization bring unique stakeholder perspectives to the table or ‘uncommon bedfellows’ to work on a common issue. For example, a former Elevate client was committed to bringing evangelical Christians into the progressive movement by highlighting common areas of interest – like care for creation and peace.  Another brings military leaders to advice on progressive foreign policy issues.

Comprehensive or Linked Services

Do you offer a broader array of services than others or a more holistic or comprehensive experience for participants? Are you a one-stop-shop for a variety of needs?

Partnerships

Do you have long-standing or particularly deep partnerships that make your program more effective or legitimate in the community?

Broader Contribution to the Field

Are you helping to organize other actors in your space? Do you provide some other mechanism for thought leadership?  Do others look to you to galvanize a collective response? For example, one of Elevate’s clients is the national leader in the creative aging space and presents at conferences on their work.

Funding Mix

Do you have earned revenue or government support, when it is not common in your space? Do you have support from the most prominent foundations or donors, who have invested in your interventions and programs?

Leadership and Authenticity

Is your Board of Directors, leadership, or staff led by former or current program participants? Does it have people who have first-hand experience with your issue?  For example, an Elevate client is the only national organization against torture led by torture survivors.

Momentum or Growth

Has your organization been the fastest growing, or entered new schools, regions, or cities in the past year?

Timeliness or Relevance

Are there external factors that make your issue particularly pressing? A change in conversation or a world event that makes your work particularly distinctive? For example, Elevate works with a client who is the leading organization working on climate change from a Catholic perspective, and the Pope’s landmark Encyclical letter, Laudato Si’ in 2014, about the care for our common home helped to differentiate their work from other climate organizations at that time.

Agenda Setting

Are you addressing an issue that others have not tackled before? For example, Elevate worked with a client raising awareness and developing responses to street harassment, which was largely an untapped issue area.

Download Elevate’s free Differentiation worksheets!

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This Matters the most for Nonprofits

Because there are always limited resources, it is important that you legitimately do not spend your time and money duplicating efforts that are already working elsewhere.  This is more important in the social and nonprofit sector than in the business and for-profit space. If individual investors want to try to compete with an existing enterprise, it is the investors who lose if it does not work out.

However, if your nonprofit wants to duplicate efforts that are already being done, the opportunity cost of other interventions that could be benefiting society in some other way are a public loss, not just a private one.

As an added bonus: clear and meaningful differentiation is essential to a strong fundraising program, and will ensure you raise more funding than if you are competing with similar organizations.

March 22, 2018

Having a thoughtful grants strategy is essential to achieving results efficiently. While you might think the term ‘strategy’ is jargony and overused – and we won’t disagree! – it has an actual, limited meaning, and an interesting history.

A strategy is a high-level plan to achieve your goals under conditions of uncertainty. The term ‘strategy’ comes from Greek and initially referred to a ‘generalship’ or the art of commanding troops in war. When it entered the Western languages in the 1700s, its meaning was broadened to incorporate any way people used to pursue their goals, especially their political goals.

One of the key confusions today is that nonprofits often engage in some version of strategic planning, which can take a lot of different forms or final products. For example:

A Strategic Plan

is a plan that outlines your overall organizational goals for a certain time period (generally one to five years) and outlines how your organization will achieve those goals. Your strategic plan will incorporate the full organization – not only programs, outcomes, and new initiatives, but also operations, infrastructure, and staffing.

A Strategic Planning Process

is the process by which the staff and Board of Directors create this plan. It usually includes conducting external research, analyzing and committing to measurable goals, and approving priorities.

While these examples of strategy play an important role in any nonprofits’ success, your grants program needs also needs its own basic, high-level strategy that has a distinct meaning and goal separate from the above.

Defining your GRANTS STRATEGY

Your grants strategy should include your fundraising goals and priorities, the strategic thinking you have done about how to achieve those goals, and your recommendations or plan about what to actually do throughout the year.

As a nonprofit, with limited resources, you do not want to spend your time and energy moving in the wrong direction. Creating a brief grants strategy plan and memo can help you clarify what to do and what to not do.

While you might think that your grants strategy is “to find everything that possibly aligns and pursue it” – and it just might be – there are a few questions we want you to also think about first! They include:

Strategy for your Case Statement & Putting it all together

Once you can answer the questions above, you will be able to pull together a brief high-level strategy for the year. But you also need to do some strategic thinking about how to present your organization to funders. When it comes time to actually apply, you should also be able to answer the following:

• Briefly, what are the top 2-5 reasons funders should support your organization or program? What are its strengths and how is it different?
• What new language do you need to develop? Is there anything you are doing now that you can re-package for a different audience?

• What are your greatest weaknesses or key programs’ weaknesses? How will you message or frame these?

• Why should funders give now? What is the broader context? What trends do you see that are relevant for a context?
• What is the future vision or strategy for your organization? Is it clear how you will get there? Do you need more details from the organization?

When you put all these pieces together, you should have all the components of a focused grants strategy for your organization that reflects your priorities, gives you a focused sense of direction, and ultimately delivers results.

March 1, 2018

I didn’t always like logic models: I thought they were just another attachment-hoop funders wanted us to jump through on our way to Grantland.  But I’ve become a true believer and hope that by the end of this post, you’ll be one too!

Logic models help nonprofit leaders run better programs – and over the lifetime of an organization, well-designed programs are needed to win grants (Plus, logic models help grant writers understand new programs before they start writing… saving us all some valuable time and effort!)

So let’s start off with what a logic model is, why your organization needs one for every program, and how you can create one.

What is a Logic model?

Logic models are tools that help you understand how effective programs are designed.

The Kellogg Foundation defines a logic model as, “a systematic and visual way to present and share your understanding of the relationships among the resources you have to operate your program, the activities you plan, and the changes or results you hope to achieve.”

At Elevate, we typically incorporate a theory of change in our logic models, to show how Activities and Changes directly relate to each other. We’ll talk more about what that means a little later in this post.

some USES FOR LOGIC MODELS 

• You’ll want to use your logic model during program planning to clarify strategy, identify appropriate outcome targets, set priorities for your resources, and to identify necessary partnerships to achieve your goals.
• You can use it when fundraising to justify why the program will work and explain how investments will be used.
• You can use it during stakeholder orientation to show how different organizations will work together.
• You can use it during evaluation to document your accomplishments and identify differences between the ideal program and its implementation.

To help you get started, you can download Elevate’s Logic Model template below:

CREATING YOUR OWN LOGIC MODEL

When putting together your own logic model, you can use either forward logic or reverse logic.

With forward logic:

• You begin with the activities on the left side. 
• This approach is driven by But Why? questions or If-Then logic, which will help you move forward from left to right.
• This approach explores the rationale for activities that are proposed or currently under way.

With reverse logic:

• You begin with the outcomes you hope to achieve on the right side. 
• By asking a series of But How? questions, you’ll start with a clearly identified change that you and your colleagues would definitely like to see occur on the right side, and move backwards.
• This approach begins with the end in mind.

THE COMPONENTS OF A LOGIC MODEL

inputs

These are your resources; what you have. Examples might include: time, money, reputation, board, expertise. These are resources you will always have, regardless of the specifics of your programs.

activities

These are the key elements of your program, what you do and how you do it.  So, for a mentoring program this might be that students meet with their mentor once a week, talk with their mentor twice a week and come to an entire org event once a month.  It is what defines your program, the things you do!

outputs

This is the quantitative evidence of your program and the activities you implement.  So, for a mentoring program this might be that the organization has 20 mentees, 25 mentors and 5 whole organization activities. These are quantitative and detail what are actually doing.

Theory of Change

The theory of change is not necessarily part of your logic model – though we think incorporating the ideas behind a theory of change can help strengthen the content of your logic model.

Put simply, a theory of change is a researched-based, tested explanation for how your inputs lead to your outputs.  How your program design will lead to the change you want. An effective theory of change relies on tested assumptions and an effective strategy.

The reason we added theory of change in our logic model is because it gives you a clear representation of where theory of change happens.  Specifically, it occurs right on that line that divides Outputs from Outcomes; here, you’re illustrating your belief that your activities and outputs will lead to the outcomes (change) you want to see.

As explained by the Catholic relief services, “When theories of change are well captured in logical or results frameworks, program managers can use them to articulate what programs are trying to achieve and what they think needs to happen to get there.” Laying your logic model out using this framework this really explains how your program is designed to work. It also makes it very easy to change if something isn’t working.  If you don’t achieve the outcomes you want, you need to understand if your theory of change is flawed or if you lack fidelity to your model.

Ideally, your theory of change is based on evidence that your activities will lead to the results you want.  For example, if mentoring a student, you could have the mentor meet with the student once a month or once a week. To decide you would have to research the best practices to achieve the greatest results. This of course comes from a lot of research! You need to stay up to date about your issue area and the best practices in the field.

outcomes

Finally, this section illustrates the change that comes about because of your work.  It is what you achieve.  It is really important that these are measurable.  If they aren’t, there is no way to prove your impact.

Outcomes are split into three different levels.

First are short-term outcomes that are changes in knowledge, attitude or skills.  For a mentoring organization an example of this would be 75% of students increase their reading scores by 2 points (as measured by the reading scores provided by the school).

Second are mid-term outcomes, which are changes in behavior or actions.  For a mentoring organization an example of this would be 75% of students showing increased promotion and graduation rates relative to peers; improved self-efficacy (as measured by General Self-Efficacy Inventory).

Third and finally are long-term outcomes, which are changes in quality of life.  For a mentoring organization an example of this would be 50% college enrollment or post-graduate training.

Now that we’ve reviewed all the parts of a logic model, you can use a logic model as a tool to improve and fine-tune your program design, and highlight these changes in your grant proposals!

SOME FINAL TIPS

• More than any other components of a logic model, you have the most control over your activities. They’re what you choose to do!  Therefore, the best programs are based on a deep understanding of what works and has worked in the past to bring about the change they want to see.
• Research, research, research to ensure that both your theory of change and specific program design elements rely on best practices.
• Select strong evaluation tools and instruments to make your logic model as compelling and clear as possible.

Download your free Logic Model template!

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GET THE TEMPLATE

February 8, 2018

The sustainability section of a grant proposal is always somewhat tricky, if not slightly ironic. You must make the case that your organization or program will be fine if you do not win the grant, but that you do still need the funding.

In general, this section should be an explanation of where other funding will come from to support your work as an organization. Foundations will rarely be your sole funding source; you will need to demonstrate money is coming from other sources and that your program can sustain itself over the long term.

To paint a full and accurate picture of your organization or program’s sustainability, you should provide details about your strategic plan, fundraising plan, fundraising streams, and program expansion and changes. And because it can be difficult to know exactly where to start or what to include, we’ve listed some key phrases and concepts below that can help you tackle this tricky section of your proposal with confidence.

Diversified Funding

Your organization supports its work through some combination of earned income, individual contributions, government contracts, and philanthropic support. In some cases, this is even a consistent ratio. The strongest case for diversified funding provides some specific percentages and comments on the stability of each funding stream.

Multi-Year Funding

Multi-year funding is a nonprofit holy grail. If you have it, be sure to tell your funders that at least a portion of your revenue is committed for multiple years!

Renewed Funding

Does your organization renew a significant proportion of its funding every year? If so, you will want to provide those stats.

For example:

“The organization has received renewed funding from 15 long-time organizational supporters for each of the last three years.”

Annual/Strategic Planning

If you’ve already established that your organization has strong planning processes in the Leadership section of the grant, then mentioning that a particular program or initiative is included in the annual or strategic plan is an indicator of sustainability.

For example:

“Doubling the number of children served through our program is a key goal in our 2012-2016 strategic plan and therefore a focus of our fundraising.”

Development Capacity

For those organizations who rely heavily on institutional fundraising or individual giving (i.e. they do not have government contracts or earned income streams), it is important to emphasize their capacity for fundraising. This is particularly important for organizations proposing a programmatic expansion or another change that will increase the fundraising burden.

With organizations who are working with Elevate, we emphasize that they have dedicated development staff that research and apply to new funding sources. If your organization has had a lot of success identifying new funding, provide that information; for example, development staff have successfully applied to 10 new funders in the last year.

November 17, 2017

THIS POST IS PART OF A SERIES.
YOU CAN READ PART 1 HERE.

Hopefully, we have already convinced you to create a forecasting document. Now it is time to go into more detail about how not to create one. We also provide some tips and tricks to make your forecast more accurate and useful.

Tip 1: Use a template so you don’t reinvent the wheel!

In the previous post, we talked about creating probabilities based on the type, tier, and history of the funder. But we do not want you to reinvent the wheel when doing this work. A template can make this process a lot easier, and we’ve provided one that you can download at the end of this post.

Type of Funder

You should classify your funders as either public, corporate, or foundation. Depending on your circumstances, it might also make sense to have a category for family foundation, major donor, or local v. national foundation. In general, public agencies are going to have a lower funding probability than corporate foundations and both will be lower than private foundations. National foundations are going to be much lower than local or regional funders.

Tier or Alignment

Tier should be used to classify funders by how well aligned you are. Obviously, you are more likely to be funded by organizations with which you closely align. Some nonprofits also benefit by classifying funders by which program they support. They know that one of their programs is able to win new funders 10% of the time, while another might only win funding 5% of the time.

History or Relationship

Your probability should obviously be MUCH higher among existing funders. In fact, if you are not renewing over 90% of your existing funders, at least among those who fund annually, you need to examine your stewardship efforts. History can also help you classify funders by your cultivation efforts and how long you have been building a real relationship with them.

Tip 2: All your funders must be named. Prospects AND ‘TBD’ ARE not funderS!

A major problem we see with forecasts is that many people want their projections to yield more money than they do. They frequently add a line for prospects that are not yet identified. Whether you call this TBD or ‘unidentified funders’ or ‘prospects’ — it does not belong on your forecasting chart, and you need to immediately delete that row.

Of course, there is an exception to this rule and it depends on timing. If you’re creating a projections chart for next year just a few months into your current fiscal year, you can have a line for unidentified prospects. If you have included this, you or your development team should ensure your team is actively bringing a lot of prospects to you every few weeks.

However, if you are approving an official projections chart for the upcoming year, there is a small probability that you are going to find new prospects, cultivate them, apply to them, and win first-time funding during that same year.

Tip 3: Expand your list or increase your renewal amounts (NOT your percentages)

If you have elected to set a fundraising goal before looking at your revenue projections, we recommend that you revise your goal after seeing what is possible from your projections.

In particular, please do not arbitrarily fiddle with your projections, percentages, or ask amount to get to your desired fundraising goal. Instead, create a low and high version of your projections, with riskier percentages. (To see a real example of how we did this, make sure to download the free template at the end of this post!)

If your projections still do not reach your goals—again—please do not adjust your projections arbitrarily. Instead, this is your opportunity to see what is missing from your projections and if you need to expand “the top of the funnel” by adding more prospects. You can also look at your renewals and increase the ask amount in order to upgrade them to larger amounts.

Finally, if your projections still are not where you need them to be, you need to adjust your goal downward. It is MUCH better to do the difficult work of limiting expenses now, before you have spent the money, than it is to be mid-way through the year looking at an expense budget that surpasses your revenue projections. You will have less time to cut those expenses, and so the shortfall will actually feel more significant if you wait for six months.

Tip 4: Examine your assumptions and learn as you go!

The goal of your forecast is to predict reality given all the uncertainty there is – so even if you raise a LOT more than you thought you would, your forecast was not as helpful as it should have been.

Much worse, and more common, is if you have projected that you will raise much more than you did. You are likely stressed already and will have to cut major planned expenses.

If you’re new to forecasting, and this has happened, you have to fully examine your assumptions:

• Are you better or worse at cultivating than thought? You can determine this by noticing if what you projected as very unlikely—5% or 10% possibilities—turned out to be funded closer to 20% of the time.
• Were there external things you did not predict but could have – i.e. new government opportunities that became available or former funding streams that were shut down? To predict these better, you can make sure you’re on the right listservs, attending the right coalition or association meetings, and networking with your colleagues to stay in the loop about local and federal funding opportunities.

forecasting isn’t an exact science, but it is a necessary practice.

Estimate on the conservative side, be realistic about your probabilities, and adjust your assumptions as you become more comfortable with your organization’s probabilities for success.