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Mastering the Grant Writing Process with DeaRonda Harrison | Nonprofit411 Podcast · Nonprofit411 Podcast

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Welcome to the Nonprofit 411 podcast, the podcast where we speak with nonprofit professionals and experts to uncover strategies, share insights, and tackle the challenges you face in fundraising and sustainability.
I'm Sarah Barton, your fundraising growth partner and the founder of Nonprofit 411.
My mission is to help you develop tailored strategies and support you as you implement them, ensuring your nonprofit thrives.
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Let's dive into today's episode and learn from the experiences and expertise of those who have been in your shoes.
Hello, welcome to this week's nonprofit 411.
I'm Sarah, your host, and I am so excited to be with you today.
Today we are joined by DeaRonda Harrison, president and founder of June 1st Firm.
Welcome.
Hi, welcome.
Thanks for having me.
Yes, I'm very excited to have this conversation.
There are some similarities in our background that I hope we can explore.
So I always start my podcast with my favorite question, which is what is your favorite hobby? I always struggle to answer this question because I'm like, I feel like I work too much, but I do have things that I enjoy doing.
I love going to concerts, shows, I like small venues.
So, I do like going to see, I'm an R& B girlie, and then I also love to travel, of course, anywhere tropical, anywhere warm, especially right now.
I do love to try to get away at least a couple times a year.
Oh, that's good.
That's good.
Yeah.
I I used to work.
I definitely am a recovering workaholic, so I can understand that being the primary hobby.
And sometimes I fall into that habit again, but I think it's really important to have a good work health.
Work life balance.
So I do try to wrap up my day and then not open the computer again after saying it.
Yeah.
So, and I'm all about the warmth where, where are you located at Atlanta, Georgia.
Oh, and you, so you guys are in an unusual state of cold right now.
We're recording in January, right? Yes.
Unusually cold.
Yes.
Very cold.
I'm in West Virginia.
So we have typically a winter, but you know, not like some, I saw a picture today.
It's January 23rd is when we're recording this.
And I saw a picture of Florida with snow on the beaches.
So yeah, they're like, they don't even know what's going on.
I always think of the children and like.
That first time you see snow, it's so amazing.
And, you know, so every once in a while, every lifetime needs to have an unexpected snow storm.
Exactly.
It's fun when it's unexpected.
Yeah.
So, well, so tell me a little bit about June 1st Firm and about your you know, your background and kind of how you got into the work that you're currently doing.
Yeah, June 1st Firm started, well, we're in the beginning of 2025, so pretty much 10 years ago, 2014, and I started volunteering like a volunteer grant writer working at helping them.
Education nonprofit in my community.
They were actually applying for a big federal grant and I was working closely with the, the grant writer.
She was just kind of like giving me the rope, showing me how to, how this whole thing goes and what to do.
I was very green.
I didn't know, and I was just helping them out.
And then of course I just continued to support them ongoing for additional grants.
They applied to a number of like public funding sources.
So I always say I got started.
On that 1st, big, complex federal grant, and I continue to stay in there for some odd reason.
They didn't scare me away and just continue to work with nonprofits and capacities specifically around grants.
And I know fundraising is so broad, but my specialty.
My service is specifically June 1st for we offer grant writing services and a lot of my clients come to me for the federal grants.
But we do everything we do private foundation corporate and your federal grants as well.
So I kind of always say I kind of fail into grant writing have people that asked me about it and.
if I could help them get some grants for their organization.
So I just started to look into it, research it, and then I saw the opportunity with the local non profit in my community, and that's how I pretty much got started.
Yeah.
So I think everyone falls into fundraising.
I don't think any of us are groomed from, from youth to be a fundraiser.
That's what I've found as I've interviewed fundraisers.
And I find it really interesting that you've kind of landed With an expertise in the federal area.
It's definitely the area where a lot of people do shy away from.
But in my grant writing experience, I was hired at a university to do grant writing.
I didn't know much about grant writing.
And I think I was probably a couple years in when I got my first federal grant.
They don't scare me, but they are a lot of work.
Yeah, they are.
I would say you just.
It's like putting together a puzzle and you just gotta have a plan.
I actually prefer them but it is a process to completing a federal grant application.
Yeah.
I think the, the beauty about the federal grants is that you have the opportunity to really invest in your organization in big ways, right? A lot of those grants are bigger.
Yes.
And.
Go ahead.
I don't know.
I was gonna say it really helps them talk through their programming in a lot on a larger scale and how they're evaluating their outcomes and things like that, which is something they may not have gone into.
D on other applications, or even if it's just their 1st grant, but definitely helps them talk about their program in a bigger picture.
And really, can you utilize that information moving forward? It's it's I always say it's very beneficial either.
Unfortunately, you know, if you don't get the grant.
But you can definitely utilize that information moving forward.
Yeah.
Do you have any agencies that you specialize in? Yeah.
I do a number of HRSA grants, which is like health resources.
Yes.
They're my favorite.
Yeah.
I don't know why I'm like, I like HRSA grants.
And then HSS, HUD I've done a ton of Department of Education, DOE grants as well.
So, but lately I've done some DOJ, a lot of like OVW, Office of Violence Against Women.
I've been enjoying doing some of those because that work is so critical, but.
I don't have a specialty per se, but I do have like some favorites.
Yeah, HRSA is one of my favorites because I think that they support their grantees really well.
So in the follow up on the other side, I've also done department of ed and worked on some DOJ ones.
I think that.
For our listeners, what they might not realize is that each of those departments are unique in that it's not like you apply for a federal grant, and it goes into the big pot and then is split out.
It's actually that you find the the department, and then see what that department has available.
You can search by keywords and stuff, you know, on You know, but that each department is actually different and they actually have different requirements and grant processes.
I mean, it's like a whole nother, it's completely different from department to department.
So you, yeah, just knowing that is.
The first step.
That's exactly right.
Yeah.
Not all are created equal.
Not at all.
So tell me what are some of the favorite projects that you've gotten funded? Oh, that's a good question.
I've noticed recently, like, I type these word trend, but noticing funders, especially your federal public funding, they like When organizations come in as a collaborative or a coalition, I know you always mention in your applications who you partner with and things like that, but this is actually like we are a Multiple organizations coming in as 1 group, so to speak, and we have multiple staff members from our organization in the budget.
So, 1 grant was recently funded.
Well, it's been about a year now for the grand idea for organization based out of Maryland.
They're a housing agency.
They partner with 2 health agencies.
It was a social determinative health grant.
Out of the state and because they went in as that coalition, they were awarded a multi million dollar grant.
So that was one that I was proud of because it was, it was a sometimes it can be challenging to get organizations to kind of work like that.
They'll understand like, yes, we partner with them, but to actually Put them in the budget, knowing some of these funds are going to be distributed to them.
It can be a little scary for them, I guess, maybe.
So I, I'm proud of that and just really helping other organizations understand, like, it's okay to work together, even though they say they know that and they understand that sometimes when it actually comes down to it, it can be a bit challenging for them.
So that was one that, and it was nice to see the state understand that, you know.
There are all these different reasons people aren't in housing or they're experiencing homelessness because of their health or because of not having a job, like all of these different reasons, not having access to food is hindering them from housing and then not having housing affects their health.
So I'm just, it was just nice to know that government supported that, understood that and actually funded that work.
I see the same thing.
And I, I am, that's another reason I love HRSA is because I've gotten to attend several of their conferences and they are such promoters of organizations working together well.
And I think that the average person may not realize how much effort the federal government does put into trying to get organizations to Maximize their impact by working together.
And I love what you just said about making sure organizations are funded together.
Right.
And it is hard.
Someone has to be willing to take a little bit of a risk, but it's so beautiful when it happens because The outcomes for the individuals receiving the services really are neat.
It pays off in the end.
And I always tell people to think about them, the client, because a lot of times people are like, well, we partner with them, but we don't, you know, really know them like that, or, you know, not.
Don't we haven't done any work together.
And I'm like, let this be that project.
You know, let's give it a try.
I always say doesn't hurt to try.
And of course, if it doesn't work out, you just won't work with them again.
But a lot of a lot of times you definitely have to be innovative and forward thinking to go into applications like that.
And this organization was they had, you know, they have great leadership.
And it paid off in the end.
Yeah, that leadership piece is such, such a key part, you know, because, because someone does have to take a risk to say, I'm going to, I'm willing to manage this money for all of these organizations.
But it doesn't have to be really scary.
I can say in my work, it's Much easier for several smaller organizations to come together than to have some of the like large conglomerate organizations because the large conglomerate organizations have so many departments that you have to work with, where if you're just working with like somebody smaller it's much more flexible, right? Exactly.
That's actually a very good point.
I'm glad you said that.
The smaller nonprofits coming together, especially when you, you know, you're smaller and you may not be ready for that big federal grant, definitely partnering with other going in as a coalition with other nonprofits can definitely increase your chances of success.
So that's a very good point too.
Yeah.
So what other, what other observations do you have about organizations and grant writing that you would like to share with our listeners? I find that a lot of times they struggle with not only talking about their work, but the point, I always say, so what, like you're doing this great thing, you're serving children or you're helping seniors or you're helping women that have been victims of sexual assault.
You're like, well, duh, common sense.
You want to help these people, but you're always having to prove the reason why you're doing it, really showing the statistics in your region, in your area how they're, you know, really.
I hate to say bad, but they have a, you know, very bad statistics or very poor reflection on people that you're serving and their lack of access to resources.
So really highlighting that in every grant has a area where you can talk about your need that what I call the need statement of a problem statement really talking that up to show that there is a problem a true problem.
Just making sure that that's being communicated, because you may know that, but a lot of times it may just may not be communicated, and I'm just saying, once you get that data, just repeating it over and over again, and I'm in your grant application, and then also how you're evaluating your program.
I see a lot of nonprofits don't even talk about that at all in their, in their grant application.
So how you're, Evaluating your programming, how you know that it's making a difference.
What feedback are you collecting from clients? If it's like human services, what items are you collecting? What tools are you utilizing? So I see those are some areas a lot of nonprofits struggle with.
So when we talk about your need.
And the impact and also like your evaluation, your evaluation of your programmatic services.
Yeah.
And I think that grant opportunities are such a great opportunity for organizations to bring in outside consultants, like bring in people to help you because you don't have all the skills or even if you do, and this is the thing, even if you do have the skills or you could figure it out.
It can be really, really meaningful to have someone from the outside lay fresh eyes on your organization.
And so, yeah.
So these big grants allow us to, to do that.
And I think it is helpful for organizations to be really thoughtful about about doing that because Yeah, and sharing.
How about sharing the information out? Do you build into your your projects like ways to share the information out to other organizations and and to the community? I know a lot of times they have their annual reports or impact reports, they call them.
That's a lot of ways that they share that information out and I've noticed.
Some things that we've written that we partnered together collaborated on to come up with some data, some outcomes.
They have definitely put that on their website.
They've added that to like their annual report.
So that's definitely information they share out with their donors, their stakeholders at their organization.
So, that's something, even though it's not intentionally the, the purpose, it is outcome of benefit for getting those outside fresh set of eyes.
And I always say that if sometimes, even if you like.
You just know you may not can afford a grant, right? Or I always say hire them for like a project period of time to apply for three or four grants or do a big grant for you and I'm taking that information and just utilizing and moving forward, but isn't someone that you have to pay for several months, but just to get that outside fresh set of eyes.
And just have somebody come in.
And honestly, because I do this all the time.
It's something that I could do much quicker than someone else that, you know, just doesn't just do this on a regular basis.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you start to build your process and have your checklist and, you know, yeah.
And you have examples of like other options.
That's what I think is fun about grant writing is that you get to see how other organizations do it well.
And some of the challenges too, that they experience and you can help others avoid it.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And it's just giving them even some feedback on ways to evaluate their program or services that they may have not even thought about.
That's typically.
Not anything too complex or cumbersome or something that they may be implementing, they just may not be collecting it so just really helping them with their process improvement altogether.
So I have something I've experienced and I just want to see if you have had similar experiences because I think it's really an interesting conversation piece.
In my experience, I have, I advise my My clients, you know, don't ever write the job description for a specific person because there's a good possibility that personal change before the grant is over.
Have you, have you ever seen that or experienced it? Yeah, that's a good point.
I, ask them to write the job description based on what actually needs to be done in a reasonable manner.
So, I've seen terrible grant writing, grant descriptions, or grant writing job descriptions.
And then I've seen some that are really good.
And that's another thing I also share.
A lot of times I'll come in as the organization.
I may work with them for maybe six or nine months.
As a consultant, and then they'll take the level of grants that we completed, and they may bring they want to bring someone in house.
So that's one of the benefits I share with anyone who works with me, a sample job description, because again, I've seen some that aren't written very well and the bad ones can actually repel good talent.
So that's why it's so important that you have a well written job description.
And I always say for grant writing, but for anything.
So.
We definitely, to your point, Sarah, don't want to tailor it for that one person because I mean, it can go away.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've seen, so particularly in higher education, I've seen grants that are really specific to a person.
So they might say like this job requires somebody with a PhD and 15 years of experience in this.
So they make that part of their qualifications and they have a person on staff that they anticipate moving into that.
position.
And maybe that person does move into the position, but something happens maybe one or two years into the grant.
And they have this really unrealistic job description that they're now like, they can't fill it easily.
And particularly with, like I said, higher ed, I find that But I've actually experienced it in other grants to don't be surprised if on a federal grant that's four years long, you have some transition of employment during the grant.
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely possible.
And being open to even degree, what the degree is in, I've seen where they want you to have a degree in like journalism and the grant writer or something like that.
So I mean, I don't.
Every grant writer, I know that everybody's background is different.
And some are still very great quality grant writers.
They're just being open.
I always wanted to say, I just wanted to say that as well.
Don't be stuck to like, they have to have a degree and it has to be in this.
I'm even, I mean, they'll say preferred.
And then I've also seen like, they want you to have a degree in this specific area.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think preferred is definitely language to consider.
I think another area when it comes to federal grants, and I don't know how much you work with recipients after they've received the grant, so you, you can tell me, but.
Reporting, management.
So another area I've seen in grants is that people are really afraid to ask for budget changes.
And sometimes budget changes are necessary.
And what is your experience when you have, when you actually need a budget change from the funders perspective? How does the funder feel about doing budget changes? Yeah, the bunch, I mean, they're actually, I've had that happen a number of times.
And once you just communicated to the funder, you tell them what you want, the reasoning, they've never come back and said no.
So I always say.
It's okay.
They, they're people.
They want you to communicate with them.
They want you to share challenges.
There's been a number of, back to your point, federal grants where we had staff who were supposed to be on the grant by this date.
And we've been in the grant a year and a half, and we still don't have anyone on that grant.
But if we are communicating to our program officer, even though they look different, Or sounds bad.
They're actually okay with that, especially if it's a difficult job or difficult job to hire for just sharing them what's going on.
These are our plans.
We have some people on the docket that we're going to interview.
They should be getting started around this time.
Just communicating all those different things.
Budget changes.
I've never had anyone just completely say absolutely no.
But once we communicated and share what we would like to update the budget to, they always approve it.
Yeah, I, I think that's so helpful for our listeners to hear because I agree.
I actually find that the funders are very appreciative that you're not spending the money on something you don't really need and you're actually reallocating it to something you need more or, or differently, right? Because sometimes these grants take a long time to be funded.
That's another thing.
Sometimes the grants take a long time to be funded and change.
You're, you're commu, you know, you're, yeah.
Things change, right? Mm-hmm Mm-hmm Mm-hmm Mm-hmm Yeah, so I'm glad that you have had that experience too, because I do find that grantees should not be afraid of communicating with funders about changes at their organization.
In fact, grant grantors or funders really want to hear that stuff, and they, they value that.
Tell me, what your experience is like, how much do funders like to hear about the grant project? Do you, you know, is it like once in the lifetime of the grant or how do they prefer to be communicated with? Yeah, they prefer communication.
Of course, they don't want you, you know, contacting them every day, but just updates especially if it's a federal grant and it's multi year, once a quarter you'd be surprised, a quarter rolls around pretty quickly, but just giving them updates on that, and even with some of those federal grants, they require quarterly reporting, so that is your way to update them.
Going back to your point with, like, changing budget, we may even Being like we wanted to hire like a coordinator, but our team has been coming together, essentially doing the job of a coordinator just different staff people we all know nonprofits, a lot of times are wearing multiple half hats of staff people.
So the funder may even say it's okay to redirect those funds to I know in the grant budget you have incentives for clients that come out to like some of the training sessions or any types of program if you want to use some of those funds for additional incentives for clients we we notice that that's been a benefit for them based on the report that you share so sometimes funders will even give you an idea or suggestion that what you can do with the money I know what COVID happened.
As soon as that happened, a lot of funders are redirect these funds.
However you see fit, you don't have to use it for this specific reason or this specific project that we initially discussed because of this global pandemic that has happened for, you know, the first time in a lot of our lifetime, you are able to redirect these funds accordingly.
So just letting them know, like keeping them updated as much as possible, but not it.
Bugging them, so to speak.
Yeah, yeah, but I think you're right.
I think the reports are, they're not looking for opportunities to say I gotcha, they're looking for opportunities to brag on you, right? Exactly, yeah.
It's your chance, it's your opportunity to share and again, I stress like Challenges as well, telling them the things that are, you know, you're challenged with and whether that's hiring staff, whether that's not feeling like you would meet the goals or objectives that you just tell them that and the reason why it's okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And what I've learned.
So one of the reasons I love HRSA is because I've gone to DC several times to, you know, attend some of their conferences, which is amazing.
And there's so much innovation around the country, but what I've learned is.
How much those departments love to brag on you, right, grant recipient, so they're looking for opportunities to brag on you, just like we look for opportunities to brag on our clients.
Absolutely, that's a good point.
We have a team on those HRSA conferences, but yeah, that's awesome that they, and they want to do that.
So.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They do brag on their people.
It's so, it's so awesome.
And last year when I went, I went to an ARCOR conference, it was really neat because they actually brought in like the different departments and talked about like how they all.
Like how they were separate and how they shared information across it because we think that it's very direct we, you know, in our heads, they all are linked together but in reality they actually work in, you know, different buildings in different towns.
Exactly.
In different offices.
And so They're looking for and they do they take like they take our pictures and they take our stories and they take the data that we send and they present it before Congress and I'm like, wow, that's cool.
So it is really neat to see, you know, just that this is the way that they invest in the people, you know, people.
Exactly.
Yes.
So it's really awesome.
Well, so can you tell us Deronda, like, where people can reach you or how they can get a hold of you if they'd like to interact with you? Yes, you can definitely connect with me on LinkedIn.
I'm pretty active on there.
Deronda Harrison, D E A R O N D A, or you can visit my website, junefirstfirm.
com, J U N E F I R S T F I R E M.
And check out services that we offer.
We work with a lot of clients on monthly retainers so that they don't have to worry about grants.
And they just know that that's been taken care of, but happy to connect with your LinkedIn, feel free to send me a message and let me know that you heard me on nonprofit for one.
Thank you.
And do you have any last pieces of advice that you'd give anyone about grant writing or about other services, you know, related to what you do? Yes.
I always like to tell people that grants are not your first.
Way of bringing in funds for your organization.
I know a lot of people are like, I got my 501c3.
So let's start applying for grants.
Just understanding that is a process.
They want to see that your organization has impact and financials and your, you know, have financial stability and that you have multiple streams of revenue coming in for your organization.
That's another question on when an application is like, how are you going to sustain this program? Once these grant funds go away, your answer should be apply for more grants.
So definitely think about other ways to bring in funds for your organization and then utilize those streams, leverage that to apply for grants.
Grants should not be your first revenue stream for your organization.
Now, of course, there may be some a funder that may want to support your work that you're doing.
Of course, absolutely, you want to take advantage of that, but don't let that be your first line of defense and just like, oh, we're ready to apply for grants.
So just understand that it is a process and grants take time.
Personally, I think they took seven months to respond.
The Department of Education grant we were waiting on took about six or seven months.
So it's not a quick, A quick win or any to even know that you want.
So they it definitely is a process.
So just just something to think about.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
All of that.
That's why nonprofit 411 exists because grants are part of a larger strategy.
So we help organizations develop that larger strategy and make sure they're taking advantage of all the funding streams available to nonprofits.
So thank you for reiterating that for Our listeners and thank you so much for being on the show today.
I've really enjoyed it.
Absolutely.
It was great talking about grants.
I could talk about it all day.
Yeah, me too, probably.
So, well, thank you so much.
And to our listeners, we hope you join again next week.
Have a great day.
Bye.
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