A continuación, te explicamos cómo puedes dominar la redacción de subvenciones en la recaudación de fondos.

Relationships are key. Period. Do your research, and involve your board in terms of their relationships. Who knows who? Schedule a call/meeting. Learn more about the heart of the funder/donor. Honor their vision for their funds. Learn how your non-profit and a potential donor's dreams align. Nurture the relationship, whether you receive funding or not. Communicate clearly regarding reporting, include pictures if possible. Write hand written thank you notes, a lost art.

Know which databases(s) will be most useful for your organization. Here are a few examples: Open, internaional calls for proposals? --> FundsforNGOs. US foundations, including small family foundations? --> Candid Foundation Directory. The inside scoop on big foundations? --> Inside Philanthropy.

Also include looking at past awardees to your list when researching. When you are starting your grant writing journey, there is no need to spend time on a grant that looks good on paper, but in "spirit" is not the right fit for your organization. If you feel like your organization type should be awarded this grant, talk to the program manager about it!

My favorite research strategy to figure out if a funder is right for you: Look at the funder's past and current grantees (you can find this information on their website, in the case of US funders you can look at their public 990 form, and/or you can use a paid database like Candid or Inside Philanthropy). Do you see more than 1 grantee that looks like you or more than 1 funded project that looks like yours? --> If you do, and the other basics align (geography, topic, grant size, etc.), then the funder is probably a good fit for your organization! --> If you do not, even if the other basics align, that funder is probably not a good fit for your organization. (Exception is if the funder just changed its funding strategy/focuses.)

This cannot be overstated. The funding you're seeking must align with the priorities of the funder. Beyond mission, look for other limitations, such as geography. I know a foundation that only funds in the state of Oklahoma. You'll waste a lot of time if your grant applications don't perfectly align with funders' priorities.

Do you have a strong Who You Are message? Today, funders want to know why the work you are doing is uniquely yours to do. You can answer this by talking about your founding story, your organizational values or your connection to the communities you work with. If you are a local organization, that will also be very attractive to funders today.

I love the NOSE acronym from Kevin Brown, to make sure you have the key components of a strong story: 1. What is the Need? 2. What is the Outcome you can achieve? 3. What is the Solution you are proposing/offering to make that outcome a reality? 4. What is the Evidence that your organization is the right one to do this and that the solution will work?

"Use descriptive language to paint a vivid picture . . . " is not the advice I would give. Rather than describing it, document it. I say "use statistics, research findings, recent news articles, or quotes from people affected by or involved in the issue or problem your proposal addresses." Tell a story, yes, but base it on compelling facts. Take a global or national issue--lack of affordable housing, for example--and find a statistic about the national scope or the status of the problem in the state. Then zoom in on the local scene, document the problem there, and explain what your program or project will do about it.

Yes, the story is important but not as much as the project design. We work with our clients to move beyond making a proposal sound good to ensuring the project is sound. Our Mission Impact Value score considers 4 key aspects: 1) Logical plan to leverage funding, execute service delivery, and achieve outcomes (Mission Impact Model aka logic model) 2) Tools and timelines to assess program effectiveness and participant engagement (evaluation plan) 3) A well thought out budget that demonstrates understanding of program costs, cost per participant, and cost per success with allocations across funders (braided funding revenue model) 4) A fundraising strategy that reflects funding for operations and programs (sustainability plan)

Many organizations lack "program-level" budgets, relying solely on organizational and grant-specific budgets. A comprehensive program budget should reflect the total cost of delivery, independent of funding sources. This approach allows for: * Allocating each funder's fair share * Identifying uncovered expenses as fundraising goals * Improving financial planning * Providing clarity for the development team * Creating specific, well-supported funding requests By starting with a complete program budget, organizations can better manage finances, set realistic fundraising targets, and develop strong narratives for potential funders.

Always include an Overhead/Admin costs line in your proposal budgets. This should be 15%-20% of the total proposal budget. This is critical to be a strong, effective nonprofit, including being able to invest in the tools and build the capacity your organization needs. Of course, if a funder caps overhead at, say, 7%, you will have to respect that. But really make sure you are correctly classifying things (if your Exec Dir spends 10% of their time on the project, that should be budgeted under project personnel time, not overhead.) And if the funder flat out refuses to cover any overhead, consider only accepting their funding as an add-on to an existing project you have where the overhead is already funded.

You do NOT have to share your entire detailed budget with your funders. In fact, you should not. It is distracting and opens your organization up to being micromanaged by the funder. Instead: Have a detailed budget for your own planning and monitoring purposes. And have a summarized budget you share with funders. Great budget lines for this summarized budget are: Travel expenses Training materials Supplies Equipment and software Project salaries & fees Monitoring & evaluation Administrative expenses

Really simple and really powerful tip: Put a box at the top of the document with the key information about the funder and the call for proposals (ex. mention the funder's priorities, maximum length for the proposal). That way, each external person who helps you edit and refine will be "rowing in the same direction" rather than unintentionally take you off course.

As you edit and refine, you must adhere to all the instructions the funder provides. Things like length and font size may seem trivial to you, but not following the funders' rules will disqualify you instantly, without your applications getting read. Timing, too, is critical. If you're a day late, or an hour late, don't bother submitting. You're disqualified. Plus, you've hurt your future chances.

Have AI help with the editing! You can go to chatgpt and put in the following prompt: "Please review my nonprofit grant proposal to ensure it is clear, impactful, and fully aligned with the funder's guidelines. Specifically, I need you to: - Identify and address any misalignment with the call for proposals. - Ensure compliance with the application guidelines. - Enhance the proposal's content for clarity and persuasiveness. - Improve the flow and structure for better readability. - Correct any grammatical errors and refine the language. Please provide suggestions for revisions where necessary."

Follow up is the name of the game for grants submitted outside of formal calls for proposals. Did you get confirmation that the funder received your proposal? (Sometimes the funder´s website instructs you to submit the proposal to an email box that no one is actually checking). If they don´t confirm receipt, follow up via email. If still no answer, follow up via phone (you can often find a phone number on US foundation 990s, if they don´t publish it on their website). This may be what gets your proposal read, then approved!

In Chapter 1 of my most recent Amazon publication, "Fit For The Future: A Guidebook For Nonprofits To Thrive In A Changing World", I emphasise on capture planning. It is simply the process of understanding your funders and building meaningful relationships way before asking for financial assistance. Many organisations chose to forgo this process because it seems time-consuming. Funders yearn for meaningful partnerships. I urge you to do the ground work. Build relationships. It pays off big time.

Grants funding is too often seen as transactional fundraising. You apply, they decide. That's outdated thinking. Create relationships with funders before you apply. Connect with your target funders in the social channels. Send them your annual report. Open a dialogue, if they allow it. If you don't open relationships before you apply, at least open them concurrent with your applications. Institutional funding should be relationship based. Not merely transactional.

When you move from transactions to relationships, you stop feeling like a mouse running after cheese in a maze and end up creating opportunities that only fit you…

Use technology to your advantage! 1. Be the first to know Set a Google alert to notify you anytime a prospect or current partner publishes something. What you find will help you build new relationships and strengthen current relationships. 2. Get creative with AI People shy away from AI especially when it comes to writing. I’m not saying to have Chat GPT write your entire grant application. Here’s one thing I do. Copy and paste your past grant applications into an ai analytics software or Chat GPT and do a deep dive into your writing. Find similarities and differences between your narratives, the funders, grants won vs grants lost, etc. Improve your writing based on the insights.

At least once a year, pause and look at what you have sent out so far: - What program(s) have you gotten the most proposals approved for? - What program(s) have you gotten the most rejections on? - Why type of funder have you gotten the most proposals approved by? - Why type of funder have you gotten the most proposals rejected by? What can you learn from these trends? Where should you focus your proposals and how can you improve your proposals?