Why You're not Getting Grants and How to Fix it Fast

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Hey, lovely listeners!

Are you ready to dive into the fascinating world of grants me? 

This episode of the Just Be Cause Podcast is a must-listen for anyone keen to navigate the intricate granting landscape. We're discussing everything from identifying the perfect grant prospects and evaluating their potential to building key relationships with funders and crafting compelling applications. 

Have you ever wondered how to make your nonprofit stand out to philanthropic and corporate grantors? 

Or maybe you're curious about the secrets to securing substantial funding for your projects? 

Whether you're a seasoned grant-seeker or just starting out, this episode is packed with insights and strategies to elevate your grant game. Don't miss the chance to unlock the secrets to successful fundraising and maximize your organization's impact. Get ready for an inspiring, informative, and fun exploration into the world of grants!

Meet your fundraising expert

Thanks for listening to Just Be Cause Podcast! I'm Katherine Lacefield the founder and head consultant of Just Be Cause Consulting.

My goal is to partner with YOU nonprofits and philanthropic organizations to help you make a positive impact in your community.

With over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, I help organizations optimize their operations with key knowledge in various domains, such as fundraising strategy, grantmaking research, communications, and development.

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Transcript

0:01

I support building relationships with funders before applying to grants just because funders are people too. Hello, lovely listeners, and welcome back to the Just Because podcast. Today, I'm mixing things up a little bit with a solo episode to cover a topic that I get tons of requests about and I hadn't covered yet on the show. Many people come to me with questions about the entire granting process, When to start, where to find them, and how to get more of them in the bank. As a special episode for my listeners, I've decided to share with you my top tips for the entire granting world and process. By the way, this is part of a paid one on one training that I offer to my clients. It's gonna be a very condensed episode. So, if you can grab a pen to take notes, it's gonna be a good one. Before we dive in, I want to signal that this training is in this episode is mostly relevant to philanthropic and corporate grants, not government grants. These are a completely different monster with very specific requirements, much more paperwork, and generally a different process. So if you're interested in government grants, this is not the episode for you. But if you're looking for corporate donations or philanthropic grants, so from family foundations or community foundations, this is the thing to listen to. So let's jump right in. Today, I'll be covering the following topics. When are you ready to apply for grants? How to find granting prospects? How to evaluate your prospects, how to build a relationship with your funder before applying for a grant, and some key tips for your application. What I will not include in this episode is the entire application process, meaning the case for support, best practices for the letter of interest, etcetera. I won't cover the management of the funds themselves, any follow-up and reporting requirements, and stewardship. Even if these are all very important aspects to take into consideration, but that's an entirely different conversation that I will keep for another episode. Okay. So the first step when you're talking about granting is, are you even ready for it? There are a few things I recommend having or knowing before you launch yourself into the grant making space. Number one is knowing yourself really well. What do I mean by this? You really need to have a clear mission and vision statements, know your values, and have a clear sense of who your target audience is and the impact you have or want to have. This would ideally include what makes you unique. Why? You really wanna be able to make funders feel like if they don't fund you, there's gonna be a gap in funding. That is a much stronger argument for them to fund you because, well, there's no one else that can fill that space. Number two is really understanding what your impact is. Most funders are gonna be looking for projects, organizations that already have a proof of concept. So if you haven't done anything yet and you're in the start up phase, it might be a bit difficult to find some funders that are willing to take the risk of funding you. That doesn't mean that it's impossible. It just means you're gonna have to look for grantors that are open to new projects, innovative projects, or start ups. So it's just about finding the right match. But if ever there's something that you can show proof of, for example, partnerships that you've done with organizations that have had success, then you might have a better chance of getting some grants. However, if you can prove that similar projects that you've done ideally or at least another organization has done has shown success and you wanna implement it in a different region, for example, you're gonna have much more chances. Funders generally avoid riskier projects, so you really wanna try to make them feel safe that you know what you're doing. There's also a few documents that will generally be asked of you when applying for grants such as financial statements, ideally be audited, but it's not necessary for all funders, annual reports, a project budget, and a letter of interest. There are some other documents that might come in handy such as a strategic plan, which demonstrates your longer term vision and how this particular project fits into that, as well as a case for support. This case for support, I'm not gonna go into too many details, but should include all of the different arguments for why this is a good project, some quotes, some key success stories, which really comes in handy when filling out your application. So to sum everything up, before you even get started with the whole granting process, you really should be able to answer these questions. What is your niche? What makes you unique? What is your impact? And what are your specific financial needs? By this, I mean that what projects or programs that you currently have need funding. If you develop a list of all of the potential areas that could be useful for funding, you'll find it much easier to match them up in the prospect prospect identification phase. Once you've got all of this down, we can dive into the research phase. But where do we start? There are many different options to start with, and this will really depend on your budget. When you're identifying prospects, you first need to know what to look for in your funders. You're gonna wanna know what their current funding priorities are, their values, their donation history, and their granting process. The point here is to really get to know them as much as possible before you apply. You're kind of building up a profile of your funders so you know how to best approach them. As with any form of fundraising, personalizing each approach is what is really gonna help you win points, and the same goes for foundations and corporate funders. So when you're trying to get to know them, where can you find this information? Well, the the first one that is the most used, I would say, is granting databases. These different databases will range in prices and functionalities with some, like Instrumentl, which I've used in the past, can be at over$2,000 a year and even more so for the more advanced features. Or there's GrantConnect in Canada, which ranges from 600 to just about under 2 k depending on your annual budget. There are other granting cert the there are other grant search databases like GrantStation and GrantWatch, for example, that I have personally tried that are more affordable but are a bit more limited in their functionalities. The price difference really comes from the search options, the capacity to build detailed lists, how many people can be on at the same time, how much information they have available, or the full granting history of a funder. For example, on Instrumentl, not only can you see their full granting history, you can actually very easily search for the funds or projects that they have funded that much specific categories of projects and know the average donation or median donation in that particular category. For example, you might find a foundation that funds environmental projects, for example. And for all of their projects, their average gift is a 50 k. But when you look at only species conservation projects, their average might be lower, maybe in the 20 k range. This information is really important for the prospect evaluation component because it'll give you really crucial information to know, well, how much should I be asking for? Because quick tip, if their average for species conservation projects is 20 k and, historically, they've never given more than, say, 40, and you're asking for 60 k, it's very easy for a funder to just say, nope. We don't have the budget for this type of project. So having that information can be really helpful in confirming that grant. Now a lot of these databases are for philanthropic grants, not necessarily corporate gifts, but they will have corporate foundations. So if we're literally looking for corporate giving, for sponsorships, or for directly from a corporation that doesn't have a foundation, many countries don't oblige them to divulge their giving publicly. This means there's no database which has this information available. So many of these databases that do include corporate donations use data mining. I use Pindsight, for example, which does mine data from the web to identify donations made by corporations, but access to that database can be quite pricey. From what I remember at the time of this recording in in February 2025, it was around 4,000 Canadian dollars for the year. So it can be a worthwhile investment if you are looking to build up a corporate giving list. But if not, you might wanna choose either granting or corporate giving or try to see if you can maybe just have it for a month or so. Okay. If granting databases are a bit out of your budget or if it's not something that you can afford at the moment or looking for, another place to look is other nonprofit's annual reports. If you have any organizations that working in the same or similar fields as you, you might wanna check out their annual reports to see their recognition section or their pass their donation section. This is a great place to find free accessible prospects that are more aligned with your projects. Many grant databases such as KindSite actually mine the same information from annual reports, often showcasing them as the source of the information. But if you have to go through each annual report yourself, it's just a much more manual and time intensive way of going about it. So sometimes it's worth investing in a database to really save that time and energy of all that individual searching. Another idea that you might wanna think about is setting up a Google alert to be notified of any announcements of grants in your particular field of work. For example, if you're a nonprofit focused on domestic violence or, say, mental health in Illinois specifically, you might set up a Google alert for mental health grants in Illinois. Every time there will be any news items that talk about grants in Illinois, then you'll get a notification. So this is a very easy, free way to be notified of prospective funders or grant programs or past donations that have been made. However, not all funders make public announcements. So this is not gonna cover all of your bases, but can be a good start. The same thing can be done on social media if you follow certain hashtags, say, mental health grants, hashtag illinois grants, whatever it may be. But once again, this is a bit of a limited strategy because not all funders use social media, first of all, and won't necessarily use those hashtags. But it is one extra thing you can do to start following some of your granting, prospects. So once you have a list of foundation names, then comes the time to scour the websites and social media for more information. I'm gonna make a little caveat about granting databases because I have often found some of the information that is out of date or no longer valid. So I would suggest strongly to always double check contact information, updated team information, priority information on their websites because you never know how fast it changes. And sometimes these granting databases will not update it as they go live, but only six months or even a year later. So I can already hear a lot of you thinking, how am I gonna organize all this information and place it in a way that makes sense? Don't worry. I got you. I've been dealing with this for a long time, and I've been building grant pipelines for many years now. So I've developed a grant pipeline template that is super easy to use with the most advanced tech out there, which is, of course, a spreadsheet. Yep. Keeping it simple because really, you you don't need more than that. You can find the link in the show notes to access it directly along with other free goodies that I'll explain to you when you sign up later on. I'll also make another little hint here that prospecting process is one of my expertises. After working in the largest grant making research network in Canada, I've really built up an enormous knowledge of the grant making sector, how they work, who the main players are, and how to find information. If you're low on time or capacity, do not hesitate to reach out to explore how I can support you in building up your grant pipeline so you can just focus on applying to the grants. Okay. Moving on. You have your list of prospects, you've identified their funding priorities, their contact information, their granting process, and past grantees. Now what? The next step is really all about evaluating their relevance. Why? Say you identify 20 to 30 grant prospects. How do you know which ones to prioritize and which one to do which to prioritize? How do you know which ones to prioritize, which ones to do first? And if you can't do them all, you're gonna have to select some more than others. This is where the evaluation bit comes in. I personally really enjoy point point systems. I find it makes things much more easier to rank. So for the different evaluation criteria I use, I make a three point system with three points being the best ones and one point being less interesting. Here are my three evaluation criteria for funders that I generally use. Of course, these can always be personalized based on your needs. Number one is the amount of the gift. Of course, it matters. You will definitely prioritize larger grants over small ones because there's just more bang for your buck. If you're gonna be going through an entire granting application for a measly$2,000, you should probably prioritize a slightly more complex application that's gonna have the potential of 50 k. Another priority is the granting process. So you're gonna be wanting to aim for grants with a simple straightforward application process. What I mean by this are grants where the first round includes a simple fillable form, say, on their website or just submitting a letter of interest. Then, if they're interested in in learning more, then they will invite you to go through the full evaluation process. This makes it so that you're not wasting your time re re re requiring hours filling up an application process without any knowledge if you're gonna be selected or not. So what we're gonna try to be avoiding, so what would get the one point or even zero points, for example, are grants with endless forms to fill, multiple documents to provide, especially if they you have to follow their templates. You can even recycle past grant applications, an internal waiting time, and even some unclear expectations. The third criteria that you're gonna wanna evaluate is their alignment with your own mission and your cause. There's gonna be funders that are super spot on funding exactly what you do, and there'll be others that your particular type of type of work is more of a secondary priority either of theirs or of yours. For instance, if you're an environmental education group focusing on outdoor activities for primary school children in a particular state or province, you might encounter a funder whose focus fits your geographical location or your more specific target audience of primary school children or environmental education, but not necessarily all three. So you're gonna have to rate how aligned is your mission with theirs, or how can we make a project that is more aligned. Now I am not saying you should invent new projects to fit with funder alignment because that is just gonna create more problems within your organization. But this is definitely a criteria that you should look into because maybe even if it's like, yeah, we can maybe swing it. It's just much less likely to get funded. So it should get a lower rating. Once you've rated each prospect on one to three for each of these three criteria, you can add up the totals so you have an overall rating. In this case, say, on nine, which will then allow you to organize and rank your prospects in order of priority from those with the most points to those the least. You might also want to organize your prospects in chrono chronological order based on when their applications are due. This will allow you to have a granting calendar that is very easy to follow and allows you to just apply to as many as possible before the deadlines are due. That's for the evaluation component. Next, in my opinion, is one of the most important ones and most neglected processes of granting is the relationship building. Because, yes, just like any other form of fundraisers of fundraising, grantors are people. Well, repeat that. Because, yes, just like any other form of fundraising, grantors have people behind their logos and big names who actually make the decisions. You want those people to know you and recognize your name when you show up on their application table. A first step is to see if you have any existing connections with them. This can be members of your board, members of your team, and even some key major donors that have been supporting you for years can potentially introduce you to key players at the foundation or corporation and open doors. I'll give you an example of one of my colleague, Sarah, who was look working in as an ED for a nonprofit and looking to confirm some donations from a big box store. Funny enough, her dad actually had gone to elementary school, if I'm not mistaken, with one of the lawyers at the at the company. He was pretty high up there as a lawyer. So what did she do? She reached out to him on LinkedIn, send him a personalized message. Hey. I'm such and such's daughter. You went to elementary school with him. He told me to reach out to you because I'm looking to, confirm a donation from x box big box store, and I would love to know who's the best person to reach out to. Because of the warm connection and wanted to do a little favor for his old, like, elementary school friend, he ended up introducing her and opening the doors and putting her application in front of the right person's eyes, which would have been maybe much more difficult had she not had that in. By the way, she ended up getting a 6 figure donation from this big box store, so it was worth the investment in building up that relationship. One way of doing it is sitting everyone down with your list of prospects and going through potential LinkedIn connections. Oh, I actually know this person. Who knows this person? Ideally, you're gonna be wanting to go through first person connections, but second can also work if you know the other person really well. You might even go as far as trying to see if you have any ex any existing connections at past grantee organizations. Who knows? They might be able to open doors to for you if they're super open minded, partner with you on an application, or even simply give you the dirty deets on their granting process. Maybe in the end, you're not gonna wanna apply for funds for them because their requirement processes are way too complicated. So here are a few action items I recommend doing before you send in your grant application. And, of course, these are all in a best case scenario. Do as much as you can. Number one is get in contact with the foundation. This can be by email or by phone. I'll give you a little example from one of my clients where they had two potential prospect sorry. They had two potential projects looking for funding. And according to the funder's priorities, both of them were valid, but they asked for only applying for one project at a time. So we decided to use this as an opportunity to get into contact with them before we have send in our application. We thought that the one that was based on for children education was gonna be a priority. So we send them the email saying, we have these two projects. We would like to know which one seems more aligned to your current priorities. Would you be able to give us any clarity on this? Surprisingly enough, it was actually the second project, which was focused on climate change mitigation behavior for families that was actually the one that they encourage us strongly to apply for because fewer applications were received for that granting stream. This is a perfect example of how getting in contact with the foundation before applying for a grant can really be beneficial and give you more chances of getting the grant. Remember, many funders can receive hundreds of applications, and very few grantees actually reach out to the foundations to understand what are their priorities and to introduce themselves. So at the end of the day, you have to remember that these are charities as well for the most part. They have their own philanthropic goals. They have their own impact that they want to have. So getting to know them and building that relationship of trust can really give you some extra points. If they don't have a clear application process, before filling out their entire application, you might wanna send a little email or even a printed letter just keeping it really brief to explain, hey. This is what we're doing. We'd really like to have a conversation and either add a link or a phone number that they can reach you at so that they can have a conversation with you. You. You might wanna also follow them on social media, both as an ED or development director, but also as the organization itself. Put on that little bell that will give you notifications so you can get updated on any new requirements that they're doing, any new funding streams, and also just start engaging with them on social media. You never know who's doing the social media for a foundation, especially smaller family foundations. Maybe it's themselves. Maybe it's the people doing the grants and who will be deciding on that are gonna start seeing your name pop up. At the end of the day, the most important thing with all of this is to start a dialogue with your funder before you start applying. You really wanna show interest and a desire to connect with them before sending in your request for money. That's kinda like dating. You really wanna show interest before you ask them on a date. Right? So once you've started building a relationship with them, you're much more likely to know what it what exactly it is that they're looking for, what they're not looking for, and if you're a good fit or not. It might be a very great way of not wasting your time on grants that they will tell you, we are not interested in this particular type of project at the moment. Saving tons of time and time is money. When you're doing this entire process, keep track of all of these exchanges, these emails, and ideally integrate any of this knowledge into your application process to really make sure that you're getting all the points across. Okay. The final thing when it comes to actually doing and completing an application, I'm gonna give you some of my top tips without going into too much details because you're also here all night. Number one is make sure someone not in your that is not in your specific field will be able to understand what you're seeing in your application. Many funders and those deciding and reading your applications are not necessarily subject matter experts. I know that that's a whole other can of worms that that shouldn't be the case necessarily, but this is the reality. So you wanna make sure that most people could understand what you're talking about. Have someone else reread your application, someone ideally that's not in your organization to make sure that it is clear. Number two is you should really be trying to show how by partnering and funding you, you are helping them, the funder, reach their philanthropic mission and impact goals. Yes. Of course, you're gonna share your own stories of impact and how amazing you are, but make sure to include them in that vision and make connections to what their priorities and their values are. Number three is including all of the documents they ask for because this is simple, but it's a very silly thing to be disqualified for. Another thing in the same type of idea is to respect word count limits and deadlines. It is so easy for funders to use these small details as an easy way of filtering out applicants and lessening the pool that they have to read completely to make the decision. Finally, the most important thing I would say is, of course, be authentic and realistic in your application, especially regarding your project goals and the impact that you believe you'd be able to see. Don't sell them the moon unless you can deliver because if not, you're gonna lose a potential funder down the line if you're not able to fulfill what it is you said you were gonna do. A final recommendation I would share is to confirm one funder in advance ideally that you can then use as leverage for other funders. On many applications that I've seen, they will ask who else is funding this project, who else is who has already confirmed, or who else are you applying to. No one wants to be the first one at the table. You can always have a funder make a promise of a gift on the condition that you find the rest of the funding needed elsewhere. This can help build confidence in your project, help confirm other funders while being slightly less risky for that original pioneer, let's say, funder of your project. Alright. I know this was a lot to take in, but these are my entire top tips for anyone really looking to start or improve their granting process in their organizations. I'm including a few little freebies for my podcast listeners only. One is the ground prospect pipeline that I mentioned earlier, which will help you organize and rate your prospects easily. This makes it so simple and removes one barrier from this entire process, hopefully, getting you to start earlier on. I did say earlier on that there were other freebies included. Well, there is a free thirty minute grant consultation that's included for anyone who signs up for the grant pipeline this year, so in 2025. This is exclusive to you, my podcast listeners, I as as I am no longer offering free consultation calls as of March of this year. As an added bonus, for those looking for some support on building up a pipeline, I'm offering a 20% discount on my grant on my grant prospect development services. This means I can develop a full grant prospect list for you for under a thousand dollars if you sign up for a call before. Either way, I hope this was helpful and gave you some direction in your granting processes and in how you can apply and get more grants to have more impact. Don't hesitate to connect with me on LinkedIn if you have any questions or to tell me what topics you think I should share on our next solo episode. Stay tuned for the next few episodes, which will focus on wildlife and conservation on profit work from around the world and their funding tips and strategies. Thank you again for being here. It means the world, and I would love to hear your feedback. Bye for now.