Capacity Building Resources
A detailed explanation of what defines a Corporate Foundation.
A detailed explanation of what defines a Community Foundation.
A detailed explaination of what defines a Private Foundation.
The grant calendar will help individuals take a quick glance at what grant opportunities are coming up in the next couple of weeks/months and throughout the year. By utilizing a grant calendar, this can save time because it can reduce duplication of visiting the funder’s website in a short period of time. Ideally, the grant calendar is separated by month of application due date and rolling opportunities, enabling an individual to “look ahead.”
Often, funders have a wide scope of funding areas and geographical locations, in which they provide grants. Therefore, funders do not always know the severity of a specific problem that an applicant’s organization would address. For this reason, a majority of grant applications have a statement of needs, problem statement, needs assessment, target population, etc. that specifically addresses why the purposed grant program would be beneficial to the community.
Imagine having only a few precious minutes – or even one minute – with a funder you have been trying to meet. How do you make a connection with that funder? What do you say? The ability to deliver a strong elevator pitch can be a gamechanger. It’s an opportunity to share your organization’s story in a compelling way. Share your passion. Write a script. An elevator pitch can be used for so many occasions– a letter of interest to a funder, grant applications, fundraising campaigns, phone calls, meetings, impromptu conversations at events, etc.
A grants submission checklist is a tool that grant writers use to help keep track of all the components of an application that need to be submitted to a funder. The submission checklist also helps bring clarity to the assignment by delegating the work to specific individuals, assuring all components of the application are accounted for by a team member. In short, a checklist can help organize the grant application process.
Building relationships with foundations, when possible, is key to fundraisingsuccess. The initial approach of making a call to someone you haven’t met before (aka “cold calling”) can be intimidating as you want to make a great first impression. To help organizations stay on message during that first call, a sample phone script can be used. Please see below. We recommend role playing and practicing this script with a colleague. The script is a guidepost; adapting to individualized messaging is a necessity.
A Prospect List is a list of funders and/or funding opportunities, in which an organization is a good fit and eligible to apply. The purpose of a prospect list is to provide an organization with a readymade list of funding opportunities that they
could apply for immediately or in the future.
A letter of interest or inquiry (commonly called an LOI) is designed to give a funder preliminary information about a project/program to determine alignment with the funder’s mission. This can save you (the potential applicant) and the funder time, as funders use this information to gauge if a project/program is a good fit before asking you to submit a lengthy application/proposal. A well-written letter of inquiry
can be an important component to securing funding for your project.
A list of tried and true methods to help during the proposal writing process.
