Latest / The Nonprofit Podcast / Grow Your Grant Potential with Gauri Manglik (Summer Repeat)

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Grow Your Grant Potential with Gauri Manglik (Summer Repeat) · The Nonprofit Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: The Nonprofit Podcast, powered by DonorBox.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Kara, fundraising coach at DonorBox.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: We are here each week with practical actions you can use today to raise more money and take your nonprofit to the next level tomorrow.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We receive so many questions about grants at DonorBox.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Grants are instrumental to any organization's overall fundraising strategy, but they're complex to navigate and they can be a lot of work.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: The Nonprofit Podcast is joined by Gari Monglik today.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: She and her team founded the innovative grants software platform called Instrumental with the goal to take the guesswork out of grants.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Gari shares how fundraisers can make the best use of their valuable time and energy when it comes to grants.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Gari, I'm so glad you're here.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for spending time with the nonprofit podcast today.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Carol.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: We all want to be more effective and efficient at finding the right grants for our nonprofits.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, Gari, there are so many grant opportunities out there.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: What makes a grantor or a funder a good fit for my organization?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, great question.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: So the first is that you want to see that there is a clear mission alignment with that funder.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so you'll want to make sure that the what the funder says they care about, like from their website, or if they don't have a website, what you can glean that they care about from who they have funded in the past matches the type of work that you're doing.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: And when you look at the those organizations kind of past grantees and you read about their website and you hear about what they're interested in funding, you want to get excited and you want to feel like that's not a huge stretch.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: So that's one thing.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I would say the other thing is uh, you know, is is important.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: You also want to make sure that you're kind of meeting their eligibility and ineligibility requirements.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes grants can be like very specific, very nitty-gritty.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: They might have some you know details about what you can use this grant for, what you can't use that grant for.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: You want to make sure that that's also you keep that into account.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: The other thing to look at is like how competitive is this grant and and and or this funder, and how should that play into my fundraising strategy?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so again, when you're just starting out, you know that winning your first couple of grants is going to be harder.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: So if you have the opportunity to focus on funders or opportunities that are a little bit less competitive, uh, then that could be a good place to start and work your way up to the more competitive grants.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so one way you can do that is like on Instrumental, we have a section that's called openness to new grantees.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: And so that gives you a sense of like how open is this funder to new grantees versus repeat grantees.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because sometimes funders will, and hopefully you'll get there with you know, with the funder, sometimes funders will really have a set of grantees that they really love working with, and it's not they're not that open to new grantees.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: But other times you'll see funders that almost work with, you know, might be 50-50.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that could be, that could change how you prioritize them.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: And then one other thing I'll say in terms of measuring competitiveness is that again, if you're just getting started, um, you'll want to see if you can focus on the more local funders first, where there might be some additional reasons for that funder to care, maybe even hurt about your organization, more of a connection to your local community, as opposed to going to those kind of broader national, more competitive funders right away.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So your organization, Instrumental, helps nonprofits find those right fit grants that you just mentioned.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me a little bit more about what you do and how that can apply for nonprofits of any size.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so Instrumental helps nonprofits both find and manage their grants process.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll help connect you to good fit active opportunities as well as invite only funders.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then you can organize your research so you're not re-researching the same grant or funder.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: That's something that tends to happen.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh you can build out your grant calendar on instrumental so that you can map out the year.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: If you do, if you are lucky enough to have people helping you out, like maybe somebody else on your team or potentially like a grant writing contractor, you can invite them into your account and kind of collaborate together using things like tasks.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you can also easily create reports for your board, for instance.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so you can do that all in one place.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: So when I've done that work, I've found some potential grant opportunities.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've confirmed that I'm I'm really happy with this list of matches that's been generated for me.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: What do I do next?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: How do I get my foot in the door with these grantors or these funders when they know nothing about me or my organization?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: So you found a list of grant opportunities and you and you believe they're a good fit.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I like that you said, you know, how do I get my foot in the door with these grantors?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think that's a good question, as opposed to a lot of people will think, you know, we'll hope maybe that because there's an RFP or a way to apply online, that they can just kind of skip the relationship building process.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that, you know, there's still people on the other side, they're getting a lot of applications.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: So we almost, you know, we'll always recommend to see if there's a way for you to actually build that connection.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Best case scenario, you build a warm introduction.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's always the best case scenario, right?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Which would come from hopefully your board or maybe friends, a network, communities that you're a part of.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: Other option would be to reach out uh based on the what information the funder provides on their website or their 990 information.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: Here, I would say it's like worth reviewing some blogs or some webinars on how to write great cold emails or great cold messages.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, these obviously these funders are also gonna be getting a lot of other kind of messages cold, and you want to, and all you're trying to do in that uh initial message is just get some initial validation that it's worth it for you to apply.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so if you're reaching out cold, you may not want to go all the way to like, you know, try to get a meeting with that funder or something like that, right?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: You're taking up their time, they're like scrolling through LinkedIn.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: Can can you can you structure a message where the where you can make it really easy for the funder to say yes or no, like you're in line with what we're currently uh prioritizing, and like I actually think it's worth it for you to take the time to apply.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's your whole goal with with those cold e uh messages.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: The other thing, one other tip on that is um if you can't find email information online or on their 990 is to check out LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's a potential option to be able to send them a LinkedIn in mail that I think you get like 50 or 100 per month, and that's also something to consider.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then one other type of way to potentially get your foot in the door that I don't hear people talking about too often is to consider trying to build a connection through a grantee of that funder, which you can also generally see either on their website or on their 990 data.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: And here you want to be sensitive.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: I think here it's also great to like research best practices on writing a cold email.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: But I would say first, when you first approach them, you don't want to go directly for an introduction by any means, and that might not even be the outcome.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: But you just want to try to get to know them and see what their process was for applying to that funder.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: They need an intro to make that grant happen.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe they didn't, and that would be a good piece of intel for you.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: And then if if you know you build a good relationship on that grantee, maybe at some point it'll kind of be the natural outcome where they'll be open to providing that intro.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: We know that relationships are critical in every element of fundraising and development.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for sharing that with us.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And as fundraisers, we have to be relationship builders.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard a lot of similarities between the grantor, grantee relationship and the donor relationship with the organization.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So when I compare my fundraising strategy for individual donors to my fundraising strategy for grants, you've shared a few commonalities there.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: What are some other similarities?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: So there's there's a number of similarities, as you mentioned.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's a lot, there's a heavy component on relationships.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you can kind of think of them similar to how you would think your of your major donors.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: Stories are important, impact is important.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: You want them to be repeat donors, repeat givers.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: You want to focus on that stewardship component, that relationship building component.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: I would say that the difference with individuals and grants is that, okay, there's there's a couple.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um one is with grants, there tends to be like just like a longer feedback cycle of being able to get your process to a place that you feel confident that you're, that you're on the right track, especially when you're just getting started.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you, you know, some of your process is gonna be dependent on when the deadlines are and things like that, or how how quickly you can find those good fit funders.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: But once you apply, like it could be a couple months before you hear back.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: And like that over time, it just means that you're gonna have it's gonna take a longer time for you to incorporate the feedback that you're hearing in response to those grants, whether it's both positive or negative, into your just overall strategy and learning.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I would say the other thing that's kind of related is that it takes, I've seen that it takes, it can take more upfront time before that that whole fundraising channel will become ROI positive.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because of that longer feedback cycle, I when people are just starting out with grants, I'll typically recommend giving it like two years because you need that time to incorporate that feedback.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when you just start out, um, it's gonna be harder to win those first couple of grants because you're because it's like that chicken and egg problem where the more grants you win, the easier it is to win grants.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, funders will feel like you're kind of validated by other funders.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: You've then received those grants and done great things with them, you'll be able to show that more.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so that your first couple of grants will be harder to win.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: And if you give up in that during that point, um, you can really miss out on the kind of future kind of ROI positive uh aspect of it that will come later.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: But again, you'll have to make sure that you have the capacity in your team and the ability to prioritize it amongst other fundraising channels to really do that.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, for that reason, like I said before, it might not make sense to have that be your first uh fundraising kind of strategy.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you might want to make sure you've kind of fundraised from the the most kind of the fastest feedback cycle kind of channel you can, so that you can think of that as a way for you to get kind of the minimum viable program uh for you to demonstrate some sort of impact and then build that kind of cycle so that you can then eventually pursue institutional funders.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Many of our organizations right now are navigating year-end fundraising.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: What's the best way to navigate grants when they already have a lot going on?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Taking on grants can be a big responsibility.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: Typically recommend mapping out like a kind of a grant calendar.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you'd want to, if you were really ready to kind of start applying for grants, you'd want to kind of invest some time up front, uh, making sure you have the right grant strategy, making sure that you hopefully take some grant writing classes, watch some webinars online, um, and then find a comprehensive source of funders and opportunities to consider, prioritize that list.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then, like I said, build out that grant calendar.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're um a fundraising person or an executive director and you're kind of juggling multiple things, and then what you'll want to do when you build out that grant calendar is keep in mind your other initiatives and efforts.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so if you know you're gonna be busy at a certain time, that might be a time to actually not write any grants because you kind of will be writing those grants at other parts of the year when you're actually gonna have that time.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it's tricky, you know, deadlines aren't always gonna be aligned to your schedule.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Usually I find that, you know, when people are just getting started, they might be tempted to kind of apply to things as they come across their desk.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that can often be a very stressful way to apply for grants because then you feel like you need to do that on top of other things that you've that you're that you're doing and you're already busy.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so you might get lucky and have some wins that way, but usually we find that um kind of takes some proactive intentional, intentional strategy uh to really be successful with grants in the longer term.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: So carving out that time to work on the grants outside of the time when you're crafting appeals and and trying to get mailers in the mail, that might be the best approach.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's what I would say.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: First thing I would do, like is like I said, build out that grant calendar.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: One thing that you can do is space out your rolling grants because they don't have hard deadlines and to kind of drip those in as you have gaps between other hard deadlines.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna move to a technical question here.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: In your opinion, what are some must-have components to a really good grant proposal?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: I would say in terms of must-have components of a good grant proposal, there's probably three things that I would focus on.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: The first is in the kind of history of organization section, what you want to be able to prove out there is why are you the organization to take this on?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: What have your past successes looked like?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so if you think of this funder as taking a you know bet on you, giving you a hundred thousand dollar grant, why should it be a no-brainer for them to give it to you over another organization based on what you've done in the past, right?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's like the easiest way for a funder to feel confident in you is based on kind of your track record, pulling that on that thread a little bit.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: That because of that, that could be a reason for you to not necessarily start with grants as like your first form of fundraising, right?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: Because funders, institutional funders will be more risk-averse than individual donors.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: They want that, they want that track record.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: They want to have seen some sort of indication that you can be a good recipient of$100,000, for example.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: You don't need to have received$100,000 from another grant in the past, but you just need to have some sort of demonstration that they can feel confident that it makes sense for them to give that to you.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: I would say the other piece that's really kind of a must-have component would be basically like what you're needing this funds for, like your statement of need, and then also your goals and objectives.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: So here, here you want to really make sure that it's it again feels like a no-brainer for this funder uh to feel like there is a strong need uh based on your insights and like and the work that you've done in the past in the community or in the in the program area that you're working.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: And here you also want to connect that to the funder's mission.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so this is where having that really strong match is is important.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and you can't really, there's only a limit to how much you can stretch it, right?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: It has to, you want, I like to say you you want it to feel like really on the nose.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that when you look at that funder, when you look at who that funder has funded in the past, when you look at that funder's mission, there's like a very strong alignment with what you're doing and what your the problem is that you're trying to solve.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'd say the other thing to consider is um is an evaluation plan.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's something that I think funders like to see is that you're being, you have a critical eye to making sure that um this this particular program is going to have an impact and like how you're going to be measuring that and and hopefully following up with a funder on those successes.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: That is excellent advice.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: So if someone wants to know more about instrumental or grants in general, where should they go to learn?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: They can for both of those, they can you can check out instrumental.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: So it's uh www.instrumental.com.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: So it's called instrument and then the letter L dot com.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: And if you go to instrumental's homepage, you'll see that you can sign up for a 14-day free trial.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: You can check it out, you know, totally for free.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: So at the very least, you'll come away with some, you know, some hopefully great opportunities for you to pursue.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: And if you decide that you'd like to move forward with a subscription after, you can certainly do that.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: But even if you're like not ready to kind of actually choose a platform, you're not ready to like go full into grants because you have other things that you're prioritizing and you want to concentrate your efforts there, which can be totally the right decision to make, you can check out our blog, instrumental.com forward slash blog.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: And there's tons of free resources there, just in terms of like, how do I know that I'm grant ready?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: What are the kind of tips for a grant proposal?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: That we have uh webinars with experts almost every week at this point, and uh it's totally free content.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so you can just start to consume and just start to plant those seeds so that once you when it when it becomes a better time for you to apply for grants, you kind of have some of the knowledge in place.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: So start learning, build it into your overall fundraising strategy, and then you'll be ready to knock it out of the park when you get all these fabulous matches from Instrumental.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then the dollars will just start rolling in.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: This was fun.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: For many organizations, grants are truly instrumental to raising significant money if your organization is ready.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Before jumping in to apply for grants, take the time to find those that are really good fits for your organization and start building relationships with these grantors.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: As with any good fundraising program, relationships are key.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Gari shared some great resources at instrumental.com.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can find those in today's show notes.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And while you're there, don't forget to download and review the podcast today, or give it a thumbs up if you're listening to the Nonprofit Podcast on YouTube.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for choosing to spend time with the Nonprofit Podcast today.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you've left with confidence to take a small step today that will make a big difference tomorrow.
• 16:37
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• 16:40
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• 16:43
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• 16:48
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• 16:51
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• 16:55
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• 16:59
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