Monthly Archives: November 2009

What Your Foundation Grant Officer Wants You to Know

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By Nick Parkevich

This morning our Chairman, Ted Grossnickle, and I had the opportunity to sit down and have a really open conversation with a local, but well-known and sizeable foundation.  The experience was refreshing and reminded me of a few things that only made sense to me well after I had left an active development role.

While you may be aware of many of these  foundation realities, the truth is that many organizations fail to maximize the opportunities they present to us.

  1. Your grant officer wants to hear from you – so call them
  2. Foundations have much more than funding to offer; just ask
  3. Funders talk to each other; sharing both the good and bad – and they do make recommendations to other funders
  4. Grant officers are usually not the decision maker, but the strength of your relationship with the grant officer does matter – you can make their job easier by liking you
  5. A “No” is not personal – don’t take it as such
  6. Not all foundations are adverse to funding operations or to providing annual gifts
  7. “No Unsolicited Proposals Accepted” usually means it
  8. Lighting strike gifts do occur – you just never know when, where, or who the benefitting organization will be
  9. Talk to current and past grant recipients to understand the funder’s processes, likes, dislikes, etc…
  10. Grantmakers are human and they have good and bad days.  Don’t base everything on that one bad experience you had with a funder – it might have just been the day they were having

Implementing strategies at your organization to take full advantage of these opportunities will help you develop stronger relationships from the start and on an ongoing basis.  Remember that your grant officer has to represent you to the trustees, so the better they know you, the greater your chance of success.  Finally, keep in mind that foundations aren’t averse to thinking big and strategically with you, they are just charged with balancing your needs/grant request with the resources available at the foundation.

The Language We Use

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By Derrick Feldmann, CEO of Achieve

When we work closely with our clients, we are often surprised by the language used to communicate their mission and program offerings. We will see words such as capacity, community, impact, empowers, collaboration, partnership, engages, challenges, ability, connects, and committed. To a donor, these words are so hard to understand – especially when multiple organizations use these words to define their unique value to the community.

Over the last six months, we have been working with several organizations to define their “case for support.” As we build an effective reason for gifting, we find ourselves challenged with using words that articulate the real reason some should support an organization and how that support will benefit the people served. Here are a several pointers we use when writing fundraising communications:
  1. Begin with a Story – Let someone you serve tell your story.  Take me through the individual’s unique scenario, the programs they participated in, and how your help changed them. The story will be much more personal and captivating than you simply describing the components of your program.
  2. Avoid Words with More than 4 syllables – This is not the time to show how many big words you can fit into a document. Use words that a donor will understand when they pick up your letter. Do you really want them to run for the dictionary?
  3. Test with Donors – Send your drafts to donors for a reaction. Avoid sending fundraising copy to your closest donors. They tend to pick up on your language and may not provide you with the feedback you need.
  4. Take Nothing for Granted – Never assume the donor understands your process. Find ways in each communication to continue the learning process. Each letter should offer a potential insight into the program not expressed in other fundraising communications.