FIFTH EDITION
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Introduction
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Step 7
Step 8
Step 9
Step 10
Step 11
THE FIRST EDITION of this workbook was created and written in 1995 by Mim Carlson, leadership transition coach and former executive director of several nonprofits in northern California. Her strategic, tried-and-true approach to the first Winning Grants workbook created the template upon which each of the following editions has been built.
The approach taken for this edition was that “three veteran fundraising practitioners are better than one.” Accordingly, two creative and highly successful fundraising consultants (Lynn English and Lynn Kanter) joined forces with Tori O'Neal-McElrath as co-authors.
This workbook is a coming together of all aspects of the winning grants process: prospect research, program planning, grantwriting, proposal submission and follow up, as well as relationship building and stewardship. In this fifth edition, Winning Grants Step by Step will continue to augment the many workshops and clinics, as well as the various other forms of consultation available on grantseeking and grantwriting.
Readers will also find new information not available in any of the previous Winning Grants editions relative to public funding and navigating the online proposal submission process.
Special thank yous to our families, friends, and colleagues who supported us along our journey of creating Winning Grants, Step by Step, Fifth Edition.
TORI O'NEAL-MCELRATH has nearly three decades of executive-level experience in external affairs and organizational development with a broad range of nonprofit organizations and foundations. Since 2015, Tori has served as the vice president of external affairs at Demos, a national think-and-do tank that produces cutting-edge policy research, inspiring litigation and deep relationships with grassroots organizations, for the purpose of championing solutions that will create a democracy and economy rooted in racial equity. Prior to Demos, she served for seven years as the director of institutional advancement at Community Change. Tori was also the founding principal of O'Neal Consulting, an organizational development practice that specialized in fundraising, strategic planning, multi-funder collaborations, board development, and interim executive leadership. She was a contributing author to Nonprofit 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals, as well as the author of the third and fourth of editions of Winning Grants, Step by Step.
Lynn English is a development consultant who has served as a fundraising executive and consultant for dozens of nonprofit organizations across the country and internationally. She has over two decades of experience in proposal writing for foundations, corporations, and local, state and federal agencies – representing everything from small start-up programs to multimillion-dollar national initiatives. She also provides trainings, workshops, and coaching on the proposal writing process. Lynn holds a BA in English from Georgetown University and an MA in English literature from the University of Maryland at College Park.
Lynn Kanter has worked as a writer and fundraiser for nonprofit organizations for more than 25 years. Serving primarily as a grant proposal writer, she has helped raise over $100 million for nonprofits in the social justice field. As the writing director for Community Change, a national nonprofit focused on building power in low-income communities of color, she handled complex, multimillion-dollar proposals, and trained and led a team of proposal writers. Since 2016, she has worked as a consultant, writing for national nonprofit organizations. Lynn is the author of three published novels.
WINNING GRANTS STEP BY STEP, Fifth Edition, takes the grantseeker on a practical, step-by-step journey through the grantwriting process, illustrating the importance of research on the front end, following the directions provided by each prospective funder, building relationships, and conducting solid program planning as the keys – the steps – to winning grants. Implementing the strategies as outlined, grantseekers will significantly increase their ability to present their organization's programs and general operating needs in compelling proposals worthy of funder consideration. This workbook is the blueprint to creating winning grants.
This is a hands-on, user-friendly guide that helps grantseekers through every important step of proposal development that will enable organizations to take an idea or concept from its inception to a fully fleshed-out proposal:
Something brand new in this edition, Winning Grants Step by Step, Fifth Edition, incorporates strategies and guidance specific to public funding.
This workbook has a companion website, www.wiley.com/go/winninggrants5e, that contains all the worksheets found at the end of chapters, as well as live links to the references provided in Resource C (Resources for Grantseekers). Readers are encouraged to refer to the companion website to use the worksheets in conjunction with developing proposals and letters of inquiry to meet the requirements of funding institutions of various types – community, corporate, family, operating, and private. The password is: stepbystep
Winning Grants Step by Step, Fifth Edition is crafted with four kinds of individuals in mind:
Grantwriting basics are applicable to all types of grant processes; however, this workbook's primary focus is on foundation grants, with some limited focus on corporate grants, as well as some new, focused guidance on public funding.
Winning Grants Step by Step, Fifth Edition is direct in its focus: a grant proposal (of any kind) must articulate a well-thought-out, well-crafted program that both inspires confidence in the nonprofit's ability to achieve the stated goals, and fits within the stated interests of the grantmakers who will review it for funding consideration. Funders seek strategic charitable investments with their limited grant resources, and they want to see a direct connection between the organization and its ability to meet community needs. Additionally, they need to understand how organizations plan to track, measure, and report out on their success.
Most organizations addressing community needs have good ideas. The key to winning grants is to match those good ideas, along with a thoughtful programmatic plan complete with goals and objectives, with funders interested in the same ideas, communities, goals, and outcomes.
Step One of this workbook walks grantseekers through developing a proposal idea.
Step Two provides guidance on introducing an organization to possible funders, as well as some helpful ideas on ways to develop relationships with funders, a critical component in winning grants.
Steps Three through Ten focus on the proposal components that will take ideas from concept to winning grant.
Step Eleven walks grantseekers through the final step in the process, which is submitting the proposal.
Step Twelve focuses on how to sustain relationships with funders – whether the proposal was funded or not.
Finally, the Resources section covers prospect research and provides links to directories, guides, tutorials, portals, foundation websites, and other websites that could be helpful to the users of this workbook.
One of the key features of Winning Grants Step by Step, Fifth Edition is the sample proposal, with excerpts from the sample incorporated into each chapter to highlight the purpose of each step. The sample proposal focuses on the work of the Alyson Eats organization, whose mission is to reduce hunger in the city of Alyson. The city is fictitious and so is the organization, which is loosely based on a similar program targeting food insecurity.
It is important to emphasize that the most effective way to use Winning Grants Step by Step, Fifth Edition is to go through it step by step, crafting a grant proposal along the way and using the worksheets as a guide. This workbook is unique in that it is structured to follow a process typically used when preparing a grant proposal.
There is no secret or shortcut to navigating the grantseeking process and winning grants. It is all about implementing a process that has solid planning, clear writing, strong research, and an approach that is tailored to the funder with whom you have developed a good relationship.
In this edition of Winning Grants, we have added information about pursuing public funding – grants from federal, state, and local agencies and entities, and other governmental or quasi-governmental organizations. The information provided herein is primarily intended to help new grantseekers understand the differences and similarities between public funding applications and those prepared for foundation and corporate funders, and to provide resources where grantseekers can find more information on this distinct area of grantwriting. We have provided a list of good resources for developing public-funding proposals in the Resource section.