Right Fit: Matching a Grant Opportunity to Your Organization’s Needs

Sometimes organizations choose the wrong funding source for a project because they simply don’t know any better.  Rule #1 in diagnosing this problem:  If an organization is still handwriting its proposals, it’s probably not ready for prime time for most funding sources.  Don’t laugh.  I had a city official (not Milwaukee) say to me just last week that she was working with several community-based organizations and faith-based groups that were scratching out their funding requests with pen and paper.  Ok, so that group needs pre-funding remedial classes.

What about the organizations that should know better?

Some organizations – we used to call them bottom feeders – go after every bit of scrunge in the water.  No matter if it fits with mission, program capacity, or strategic plan.  Got money? Got proposal.  Just like people who throw $5 worth of dimes in the little fishbowls at the carnival, eventually you will win a goldfish — a 39 cent fish that you spent 13 times that much trying to land.  If you are working in an organization with this trolling philosophy, it’s almost impossible to change it.  You see, even one win reinforces the strategy.  Yay for the 39 cent goldfish!

In more discerning organizations, there is usually some analysis that precedes the decision to apply for funding from a particular source.  Smart organizations seem to do these things:

• Know about funding opportunities way before everyone else.  They don’t wait for the published RFA (Request for Applications).  These organizations are so tuned in they know what’s coming down the pike and they’re ready.
• Communicate up and down the food chain.  I am always worried about organizations where the grant go-ahead decision rests with only one or two people.  A much better situation is when a group of people – and the group might change depending on the proposal – conduct some serious ‘vetting’.  Would this funding help us achieve our goals?  Do we have the resources to a) win the grant; and b) successfully administer it? Is this some other organization’s money, e.g. has another organization in town consistently received this funding and done an ok job with it?   This kind of discussion serves two purposes – helps you decide whether to move forward and reinforces a sense of team and mission around the grantseeking effort.
• Correctly assess their own grantwriting capabilities.  I’ll just say it here:  a newbie grantwriter who’s done two foundation grants cannot write a successful SAMHSA grant (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) with 50 moving parts, complex research and evaluation requirements, and tons of other hoops that only a small and very skilled army can manage.  In other words, your resources have to be adequate to the challenge.
• Listen to the funding source’s explanation of its priorities.  If a major national foundation or federal department has published its grantmaking priorities and guidelines, it is not your place to try to change their mind.  Countless times, I’ve listened to organizations, so determined to press on in the face of screaming red lights, strategize about how to convince the funding source that its thinking is off and their thinking is right.   Ignorance and arrogance — always a winning combination.  If you’re so convinced that your idea should be considered, have a conversation with the funding source.  Start a dialogue.  You never know what will happen down the road.
• Build.  Successful grantseeking organizations connect the dots.  One funding source leads to another.  Performance, communication, networking, new opportunity.  Steady, purposeful effort aimed at building capacity. 
• Walk away.  This is so hard to do if you’re an organization that is on a growth trajectory and is very competitive.  But it’s essential to the notion of right fit.  Sometimes, you really have to walk away.

I was trained in an organization that applied for everything that walked and tried to make sense of it later.  As a consequence, I’ve written some of the most outlandish proposals you will ever read – don’t even get me started.  But that was a while ago and I’m a lot smarter now – my little goldfish plaques notwithstanding.