OCTOBER 06, 2017
In the social justice lexicon, inclusion is defined as “authentically bringing traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into processes, activities, and decision/policy making in a way that shares power” (H. Thomas and A. Hirsch, The Progressive’s Style Guide).
As grant writers and nonprofit professionals, we understand that language is a powerful tool when advocating for positive social change. In pursuit of this goal, it is critical that we understand the role of word choice in conveying a broad range of identities and perspectives. Various terminologies can be packed with assumptions— economic, social, cultural, and educational. It is essential when writing for social justice causes to be aware of these assumptions, which in turn helps us to embrace writing that combats discriminatory language and conveys an authentic sense of inclusivity.
Writing in a style that is inclusive and ethical is a skill. Like any skill, gaining facility and comfort with using inclusive terminology requires thoughtful, consistent practice. Though there are many approaches and schools of thought when it comes to inclusive writing, two core principles include:
1. People-First language
People- first language aims to make personhood the essential characteristic of every person. People- first language views other descriptive social identities that people may hold as secondary and non-essential. Though adhering to people-first language can lead to awkward sentence constructions, it is critical to center people rather than their circumstances as the heart of your storytelling.
Examples:
- “Children from low-income backgrounds” vs. “low-income children”
- “Formerly incarcerated person” vs. “ex-offender”
2, Self-Identification
Inclusive writing, as much as possible, should strive to include language that respects peoples’ choice and style in how they talk about themselves. By using language that reflects how people self-identify, you respect aspects of their culture, agency, and spirit and lend power to their voices. If you are unsure of preferred terminology, research the most current discourse on the topic using such resources as the Disability Style Guide and An Ally’s Guide to Terminology.
Examples:
- “Individual with a physical disability” vs. “handicapped”
- “People of color” vs. “minorities”
- “Transgender person” vs. “transgendered”
Understanding and committing to these principles is the first step in working towards writing in a style that consistently incorporates inclusive language. Of course, language evolves and appropriate terminology is shaped by the continued larger conversation around social justice, intersectionality, and what authentic inclusivity entails in practice. As much as using the “right” terms or words is something we all work towards, it is equally important to foster a climate of open communication and demonstrate a willingness to learn.
As you work towards developing a writing style that features inclusivity, remember to keep an open mind, keep resources close at hand, and – most of all – keep learning!
Suggested Resources
The Progressive’s Style Guide
Racial Equity Resource Guide Glossary
An Ally’s Guide to Terminology
The Disability Style Guide
The Social Justice Phrase Guide
JUNE 13, 2017
In the grant writer’s world of deadlines and word counts, it can be easy to forget that fundraising is about building relationships. And just like any relationship, the grantee-grantor relationship takes work.
When advising clients about strategies to cultivate and steward prospective or current donors, I like to encourage them to be “pleasantly persistent” in communicating with their point of contact. It is a fine balance: you want to come across as personable, credible, and eager to collaborate without being obnoxious. It’s a lot like dating, really.
Sometimes after an introductory meeting with a foundation there is a mutual desire to keep in touch, but no clear opportunity to submit a funding request at the current point in time. Or perhaps you have an existing donor from which you hope to secure a renewal grant next year. In both cases, it is important to stay on their radar.
Here are five suggestions for ways to be “pleasantly persistent” and keep your point of contact interested in your organization’s work to secure that invitation to apply or upgraded renewal grant next year.
1. Keep them engaged, and add a personal touch.
Invite your point of contact to your organization’s annual conference or any other relevant events you have throughout the year. Send a personal invitation – not just the standard email everyone receives – and always offer to comp the registration fee. For conferences with multiple sessions to choose from, offer a personalized itinerary with suggestions for which sessions she may be most interested in attending (be sure those sessions are likely to have the best speakers and most relevant content!) When at the event, remember to be a good host. Be sure that your contact is engaged and having a good time. If you are too busy coordinating the event, assign a staff member to thank her for attending.
2. Share relevant news.
When you come across an article that involves your shared professional interests, or if you or your organization are featured in an article, send your point of contact a link via email. Include a short personal note indicating you thought he might be interested in the item. Perhaps new research has just been released on a topic of mutual interest, or you’ve just read a magazine article that is relevant to a previous conversation you’ve had. Don’t overuse this tactic, and be sure the article or link is both recent and truly likely to be of interest to the recipient before hitting “send”.
3. Make sure they’re receiving key collateral (if they’re interested).
Share your organization’s newsletters or press releases – but only if they are truly newsworthy and include information that is relevant to the funder’s interests. It is always a good idea to include a personal note indicating why you thought she may be interested in seeing the item.
4. Send personal updates as they happen.
Did you just snap a great photo of your program in action or hear a compelling new anecdote from a constituent? While you should absolutely include these in an annual grant report, you don’t have to wait for the report to let your funder know about the great work you are doing. Send a short email with a fun and interesting program update to keep your point of contact in the loop. If you are still in the cultivation phase and the funder has not yet contributed to your organization, this can be a great way to keep them informed of your good work in the community.
5. Ask for their insight.
In many cases, foundation program officers are experts in the field in which they are making philanthropic contributions, and they are almost always well connected within the philanthropic community through affinity groups and grantmaker associations. Don’t be afraid to ask for their advice. They may have good insight about potential collaborators in the field, new programmatic models, or professional development opportunities for you or your staff. People love being asked for their advice; this is a great way to get to know the person, demonstrate your desire to improve your program, and learn from their expertise.
Are you “pleasantly persistent” in cultivating and stewarding donors? What other strategies do you use to develop relationships with funders? We’d love to hear your ideas! Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.
JUNE 1, 2017
Managing an annual grants calendar takes time, planning and thoughtfulness.
The calendar is an essential tool to keeping your grants program organized and strategic. But rather than expending all your resources and applying to every RFP under the sun, it’s important to be mindful of your short and long-term fundraising goals while remaining realistic and honest about your organization’s capacity to respond to RFPs throughout the fiscal year.
Below are six best practices to keep in mind that will help make your crazy year of deadlines feel more manageable and strategic!
1. Create a calendar
Sure, it sounds pretty obvious, but creating a calendar is the first step to keeping your grant program focused and manageable. Choose a format and management tool that makes sense for your organization and those who will be using the calendar on a regular basis. Spreadsheets are great and super customizable, or maybe your donor database software allows you export the data you need to build a funding calendar. If you want to capture greater detail over several fiscal years, perhaps consider investing in a more robust project management tool.
At Elevate, our teams use Salesforce to manage our clients’ calendars. Regardless of what type of platform you decide to go with, your calendar should include an overview of each month in your fiscal year that details deadlines, request information/amounts, strategic notes, application requirements and timeline/process, contact information, and tasks associated with the application. Using a well-integrated system to keep track of your daily tasks in conjunction with your grants calendar is a great way of ensuring you stay on top of deadlines!
2. Review past grants
Set aside some time towards the end of each fiscal year to review the grants you applied to that year, and to update your strategy. Consider how much time and effort went into each application and whether reapplying makes sense for your organization in the coming year. This step will also involve researching the foundations’ funding priorities for that year, to make sure the alignment with your programs is still strong. This is a great time to review your grants strategy to guarantee your time will be used to pursue opportunities that are well aligned with your work and meet your fundraising needs. If you’ve decided to not pursue an opportunity again, make sure to note the reason why. This will be extremely helpful in times of transition to prevent new staff from trying to figure out why you didn’t reapply to a grant you’ve been applying to for several years!
3. Start filling in hard grant and reporting deadlines
The easiest step in creating your calendar is starting off by adding the hard deadlines. These deadlines are the least likely to shift, so it provides a great starting point and allows you to see where there are gaps and chances to add rolling deadlines to your calendar. Speaking of rolling deadlines, be sure to include one or two in each month to allow yourself the space to respond to new RFPs that may be released throughout the year.
4. Research new funding opportunities
As you’re creating your new calendar, you might come across some funding gaps that you need to fill. Throughout the year, you should be researching new funding opportunities that are well aligned to these needs, as well as your larger mission and programs. Include the carefully vetted opportunities in your calendar, but be mindful of the staff time needed to apply to the grant and the chances of your organization receiving funding. You might find that these new prospects require an invitation to apply, but that shouldn’t hinder you from building in time into your calendar to cultivate a relationship with the funder.
5. Be realistic
Staff time and resources are incredibly valuable, so it doesn’t make sense to go for grants that you know your organization has no chance of winning. It will always be better and more strategic to write 10 extremely compelling proposals that you will win than to spend time writing 20 average proposals. This also means that it is critical to remain honest and realistic about your organization’s capacity to take on new grants. Of course, new and additional funds are great, but putting your organization in a situation where you can’t deliver on your promises is never ideal. When building your calendar, always keep in mind your mission, funding needs, and capacity.
6. Review and update your calendar throughout the year
The grant calendar is not a static document. Reevaluating and updating it throughout your fiscal year is important in making sure that it aligns with your organization’s evolving needs. Be sure to build in time into your schedule at least once a month to review upcoming deadlines, and which opportunities will require time and attention from you and other staff. Review your cultivation tasks to ensure you’re on top of everything so that your calendar doesn’t become unwieldy and you aren’t missing out on great opportunities!
Whether your organization has a robust existing grants calendar, or you’re just starting your foray into the institutional fundraising space, these best practices will help you implement a thorough and strategic system for staying on top of your existing grant deadlines, identifying new opportunities for funding, and maximizing your organization’s time and resources along the way.
May 9, 2017
Fact: we are living in the social media era.
Whether the question is how to engage with your supporters, raise the visibility of your programs, market your event, or bring in new donors, more and more data seems to suggest that platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are at least a piece of the solution. But what does the role of social media look like for your grants program?
While we at Elevate love our long, detailed how-to posts, the topic of social media and its role in the grant writing process requires much less space. The short answer – which we want to be unequivocal about – is that social media outreach is not a part of your grants program. It is not a part of your cultivation strategy. It is not part of your grant writer’s job description.
Let’s dig into this a bit further.
To be clear, here are a few things we are not saying:
1. We aren’t saying social media is a waste of time.
And for that matter, we’re not saying that social media shouldn’t be part of your broader development program. Targeted engagement on the right social platforms could be very effective strategies for engaging with individual donors or volunteers, or simply communicating with the general public. But while those efforts are certainly related to development, we do not want to suggest that they deserve a place in your grant strategy.
2. We aren’t saying that you can’t have a development associate who does your grant writing and your social media.
However, keep in mind that if you are hiring a grant writer and you want to really maximize that person’s time spent on your grants program, any dedicated time spent away from grant writing and instead on social media is likely diluting the strength of your grants program.
3. We aren’t saying there’s no value in engaging with funders on social media.
Connecting with the right people and organizations online can actually be a great source of information about prospective funders, their deadlines, their giving priorities, etc. Moreover, if you’ve found success through tweeting at program officers, we’re not about to stop or discourage you. (We’ve seen crazier things work!) But again, this should not be where you’re focusing the bulk – or even a significant portion – of your attention.
As you can see, we’re not about to deny the potential benefits of leveraging social media as a means of communicating with the public, gathering information, or even engaging with stakeholders. However, if you’re routinely spending time, energy, and/or money trying to fold social media into your grants strategy – to that we say, no. Stop. Because not only will it fail to result in more grant funding, but your resources are also better spent elsewhere.
Rather than inadvertently wasting valuable time and energy on a social media strategy that will likely have limited ROI for your grants program, we strongly believe that you’d be better off investing that same time and energy in the kinds of activities and programmatic enhancements that are proven to compel funders and ultimately win you money – things like program design, strong outcomes, and meaningful cultivation.
In other words, social media should be, at most, a strategic supplement to a substantial grant strategy, to the extent that is feasible for your organization without compromising the quality of your grants.
A few ideas of social media tactics that are worthwhile:
- Tweet and/or post on Facebook about your work, to highlight your programmatic successes.
- Share photos of your staff and programs in action.
- Publicly thank funders whenever you have an opportunity.
- Follow funders and engage with any relevant content, including though the use of likes and retweets.
- Participate in any Q&As, Twitter chats, etc. your funders host on social platforms.
Throughout Elevate’s blog, we like to hammer home the key idea that funders care about substance – and the role of social media in your grants program is no exception. It’s our position that the substance of your proposals and your programs are paramount, and more deserving of your time and energy when it comes to your grant strategy. If you still feel strongly about spending time and energy on social media, treat your engagement on social platforms as strategic supplements to a substantive grants program – your bread and butter – and allocate staff time on those platforms accordingly.
March 10, 2017
This week, individuals and organizations nationwide have been celebrating AmeriCorps Week, recognizing the service contributions of over 80,000 members and 1 million AmeriCorps alumni in their communities across America.
AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps VISTA members add critical capacity to the nonprofit sector by volunteering their time, skills, and energy to creating change and, as their tagline emphasizes, getting things done.
Elevate works closely with a range of nonprofit clients who benefit from AmeriCorps members’ service and dedication, including: Food Recovery Network, Teens Run, The Literacy Lab, Edu-Futuro, Critical Exposure, See Forever Foundation, Capital Partners for Education, and Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King County. Through our work with nonprofit organizations like these in the DC region and across the country, we see firsthand the impact that AmeriCorps members have in their communities, as their work helps move the needle in a variety of high-need areas, and ensure that organizations of all kinds can continue making meaningful change.
In addition to adding capacity to organizations in the nonprofit sector and beyond, AmeriCorps also opens doors for its volunteers by providing pathways to employment. At Elevate, several members of our staff came to us from after serving with AmeriCorps. These fundraising professionals are now leveraging the skills and experience they gained through their AmeriCorps experience to help nonprofit organizations in DC and beyond creating meaningful, lasting social change.
Below, Elevate staff share in their own words about their experience with AmeriCorps, and its impact on their personal and professional trajectories.
EMILE DAWISHA
“The hardest part about shifting career paths is simply finding that first springboard opportunity. In 2009, I was a former English major with a journalism-heavy background, looking to shift gears into the nonprofit sector. AmeriCorps VISTA turned out to be the perfect opportunity for me. At the time, I wasn’t qualified for a full-time salaried position; and I didn’t want to take an internship or part-time gig. Through VISTA, I accepted a grant writing position at Sarah’s Circle, a women’s daytime shelter. Like most VISTA experiences, I took on a lot of responsibility and learned a lot of foundational skills in the process. Looking back, I was a bit over my head. But it was a heck of an education; and it ultimately sprung my grant writing career, which is now nine years and counting.”
Annelise Osterberg
“After moving to DC, I took a position as an AmeriCorps member at Manna, a local nonprofit that has been building affordable housing in the community since the 1980s. During my year as an AmeriCorps, I not only had the opportunity to see the inside-workings of an effective community development organization, but also gained valuable grant writing experience that prepared me to succeed in my role as Senior Grant Writer at Elevate.”
JONATHAN AYALA
“When I was an AmeriCorps volunteer – first as a City Year corps member, then as a member of the Washington AIDS Partnership – I quickly had to learn that effecting change would not be simple. In many cases, it would not even be probable. At least, not in the immediate sense I had been hoping for when I first signed up for my years of community service. AmeriCorps helped me rethink metrics of success. Did I close the achievement gap for middle school students in Washington, D.C.? No, not likely. But I did provide hundreds of hours of literacy tutoring for students across the academic spectrum. Is the rate of new HIV infections still stubbornly high in our city? Certainly. But, I did facilitate many workshops and testing sessions aimed at increasing young people’s awareness of how to prevent transmission.
At Elevate, we like to say that progress is possible. It’s an important thing for folks working toward justice to remember. We know that not every single grant we submit is going to be funded, nor are our clients going to become as efficient or effective as they would like overnight. Yet, we still celebrate successes when they occur, no matter how small, and continue to keep faith that the hard work we do on a daily basis will pay off.”
January 12, 2017
THIS POST IS PART OF A SERIES.
YOU CAN READ PART 2 HERE.
If you’re the leader of an organization, one of your key responsibilities is to predict the future—and prepare your organization to respond.
While this probably feels semi-impossible on many days, you’ve certainly been asked to predict—and prepare for—your revenue and expenses during annual budget season. And if you’ve ever been in a cash crunch, you might have wished you’d planned a little more rigorously earlier in the year.
Therefore, we want to share some tips and tools to make this process easier for you. Below is Elevate’s Guide to Creating Forecasting Charts, which we produce annually for our clients.
Forecasting v. Cash Flow
Before we dig in, we want to remind you that a forecasting chart is not the same as a cash flow chart, which is also a tool nonprofit executives need. Essentially, a forecasting document helps predict what funding you will receive, and a cash flow document records when you expect to receive your funding (as well as when that money you will need to spend throughout the year). You should plan to do your forecast document first and cash flow second.
What are revenue projections?
It’s all about probability! Simply put, a revenue projection is the probability that you will receive a certain amount of money during your fiscal year (or some other timeframe). To get a reasonable projection, we estimate the likelihood we will win a grant and then we multiply that probability by the amount of money requested.
For example, if we submitted a renewal request that we believe we are likely to win again, we might say that we have a 90% probability. If we submitted a cold proposal to a funder who has never given to us before, we might think we only have a 5% or 10% probability.
Here’s the math:
$ ask amount x % probability of winning = $ expected revenue
For example:
$100,000 request x 50% probability = $50,000 expected revenue
We add each anticipated proposal’s expected revenue together to create a forecast and get the total expected revenue from grant funding for our organization, and then update this throughout the year.
Why should you forecast?
The best expense budgets are based on reasonable projections of revenue; therefore, there is a high burden on you to ensure that your projections are reasonable, if not conservative. If you create an expense budget and then hope you can raise that amount of money, you are going to be absorbing a lot more risk than if you create your projections first and then create your expense budget based on what you can raise.
How often should you forecast?
Most organizations forecast annually and revisit their forecast before Board meetings. You should be regularly updating these as you win and lose grants, and tracking your progress to ensure you are going to meet your revenue goals. Just make sure there is a balance between the difficulty to project and the value you get from your projections.
How do you create a forecast or projections chart?
STEP 1:
Define set percentages based on the type, tier, and history of the funder. There are a few pretty standard percentages. For example, a nonprofit with a consistent strategy and leadership can assume that most private foundations that give annually will be renewed at least 90%. However, in general, these percentages will depend on your sector, funders, context, and leadership. For example:
If your executive director has recently changed, you might not renew all of your past funders.
If the broader context of your issue-area is changing, or public priorities are shifting, the funding landscape might be changing too—with public agencies making less funding available or harder to secure.
If your executive director is skilled at cultivating relationships with funders, you might win a higher percentage of cold proposals than an organization whose executive director does not cultivate or is new to it.
STEP 2:
Modify as few percentages as possible based on your knowledge of the funder. For example, if something has changed that makes you want to be more conservative or ambitious. We encourage you to stick to a set methodology though, both because it is easier, and also because you are least likely to insert your own bias (or unreasonable hopes!) into the process.
STEP 3:
Stay in the middle. No projections should be 100% unless the funding has already been awarded and no funding should be 0% unless you will not submit a request that will be awarded during the time period.
STEP 4:
Input your actual best estimate of the ask amount, ideally based on research.
STEP 5:
Set up your projection chart to calculate expected revenue from each funder and then the total (sum) of all opportunities. If you’d like to, you can create a lower-risk forecast and a higher-risk forecast. We generally think this is a good practice and does not require much more work.
We understand if you are skeptical. After all, when you put a 90% probability on a $100,000 grant, and then win it, your projections are off by a full $10,000! Even worse: when you put a 10% probability on a $50,000 grant and win it, the difference is a full $45,000. So, what’s the point?
Your goal is not to get everything about every funder right. Instead: it is to play the averages and get your total projections as close as possible to reality.
All grants, by the end of the fiscal year, will be either 0% or 100% — so when you project a 10% probability, you are not estimating that only 10% of your ask amount will be granted. (Most likely, you will win most of what you request.) Instead, your goal is to win ONE out of every TEN funding sources that have a 10% probability in your projections. The same is true with renewals: if you plan to renew all the money you won last year at 100%, you are taking on too much risk – if a single foundation chooses to change priorities, and not fund you again, having a 90% projection will allow you to absorb that loss much more easily.
THIS POST IS PART OF A SERIES!
You can read part 2 of this series here, and make sure to download our free forecasting template below!
December 1, 2016
Elevate routinely writes grant proposals and reports for clients, and increasingly often, we encounter questions that ask organizations about their weaknesses or challenges. Our clients often ask us: how transparent should we be about our challenges? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.
We cannot say that you should always be fully open with your funders at all times. What is too much information for one person or funder might be expected information for another. Sometimes funders do not want the messy details, they simply prefer to know their money is making a difference. Knowing your funders well and having a strong cultivation and stewardship program can help you understand their interests and expectations better.
Nevertheless, there are some general guidelines and some universal red flags, which we’ve detailed below.
General Guidelines
First, establish real relationships with your funders, and classify them into three basic categories:
All the Details:
These funders want all the details, good and bad. They approach their relationship with you as a partner. They will support you during the hard times and might even be concerned if they do not know what is going on inside your nonprofit.
Enough Details:
These funders want enough details to feel invested and ‘in the loop’ but they might get antsy if you shared all your ongoing problems. Remember: not all funders have been fully exposed to the ups-and-downs of running a nonprofit. Sometimes, these funders simply trust you, and know that you will handle the inevitable challenges you face. They do not think it is the best use of their time to know everything you are working on, even the challenges.
Stick to the Successes:
Some funders really enjoy reading about your successes and your stories of transformation. These funders do not value reading about all the problems you face. Alternatively, they might not be used to reading about nonprofits’ challenges. Sharing your problems when they are not welcome or when the funders are not getting the same transparency from their other grantees is unnecessarily risky.
Elevate does not have a preference or opinion on which of the above is better. Everyone gives for their own reasons, and wants to run their giving programs in the way that makes sense to them. We have noticed trends, however.
Trends & GuidePosts
In general, smaller, unstaffed private family foundations prefer to hear your successes, with a light touch, at most, about your challenges. Stick to your successes with them.
The less close your relationship with your funder, the more you should stay in the second lane – just sharing enough to be credible and framing your challenges well. This is particularly important with funders who have broad, rather than deep, interests and and where a flailing organization or program will raise concerns.
Finally, the more closely you work with a funder or program officer, the more important it is that you be fully transparent about your challenges and response. Relatedly, the more sophisticated your issue area, and the more knowledgeable a program officer is about the issue, the more transparent you are going to have to be to gain their trust and appear credible. Sometimes, program officers will even want regular meetings with you if they have fully invested in your work.
A final note: the relationship you can have with your funder depends a lot on who the ultimate decision maker is, and the role other people have in influencing their opinions. For example, at public agencies, the decision makers might be a selected group of experts and the program officers are helping you to prepare your application for review by those experts. You can be more transparent with them and even ask for advice about what they recommend.
What to Share
Always share:
You should always share the following with your funders:
- Key leadership transitions, like when your executive director is leaving;
- Key program changes, expansions, or contractions, for the programs they are funding; and
- Potentially negative news, that is going to become public anyway – like a lawsuit.
Important Note
It goes without saying, that you must always be 100% honest about the activities you have completed and your achievements or lack thereof. Your job is to frame it honestly and effectively, but never incorrectly.
Sometimes Share:
Depending on your relationship with the funder, discussed above, you should sometimes share the following (and frame them well):
- Disappointing or concerning outcomes;
- Decreased participation or key partnerships that are ending; and
- Major financial challenges. You are not going to hide these anyway, as your finances will be public, so be sure to provide context.
Be Thoughtful About:
- External factors limiting your success, such as challenges with the local government; and
- Partners who did not fulfill their commitments; and
- Any similar negative discussion of other organizations.
not necessary:
- General staff transitions that are not at a high level, like a program director or executive director;
- An office move, unless you need funding for it or it opens new opportunities;
- Small program innovations that did not work well: in general, you are not being more transparent by focusing on your failures rather than successes. And more importantly, you are distracting from big picture. Small details, for good or bad, are usually not worth including.
