December 14, 2021
In our blog posts and other materials, we share our experiences related to researching potential funders, writing grant proposals, and managing the process. Based on feedback we’ve received on our blog posts and courses, we’ve found that some of the information we’ve shared has been viewed as discouraging or overly complicated. In this post, we’re going to cover three areas that seem to stir up the most debate.
The three areas are as follows:
Competitiveness and likelihood of winning grant funding
Necessity of researching funders and funding opportunities
Need for a funding strategy and an organized proposal process
In the sections that follow, we go over each of these areas and provide our perspective.
Competitiveness and Likelihood of Winning Grant Funding
What we’ve said: Securing grant funding is a competitive process, and the odds of winning any single grant are generally low.
Feedback: So, you’re telling me it’s impossible to get a grant?
Much of our advice centers on navigating the competitive nature of grant funding and increasing the odds of being funded. We don’t focus on the competitiveness of the grant process to be discouraging, and we are not saying you can’t secure grant funding for your project. We strongly believe that organizations can consistently win grants with the right approach, which is why we created Peak Proposals. We want to help organizations write stronger proposals and win more grant money. We believe that grant funding is worth pursuing. However, we don’t want to mischaracterize the accessibility of grant funding. While there are many avenues for grant funding, such as private foundations, corporations, and government agencies, the limitation is that most funders support only a narrow range of organizations and projects.
A prime example is that almost all funders have geographic restrictions, with the vast majority funding only organizations and projects located where they are based or have strong ties. While burdensome to many organizations, geographic restrictions are unlikely to go away. This is why we emphasize researching potential funders to ensure your organization meets each funder’s eligibility guidelines.
Another theme in our blog that has stirred debate relates to when (or if) an organization should apply for grant funding. We don’t advocate grant funding for every organization. For example, many of the organizations that email us seek grant money to cover general operating costs. Grants are typically not a good option to cover general expenses. The majority of grants are designed to cover project expenses, not overhead costs.
And there are other grant limitations we’ve highlighted over the years that many organizations find discouraging. One limitation is that foundations tend to focus their resources on select topics of interest. If only a few funders are active in a specific programmatic area, competition for grants can be quite intense among eligible organizations. Additionally, many private foundations have switched to an invitation-only model, abandoning open calls for proposals. Under the invitation model, the foundation selects the organizations eligible to apply for a grant, meaning that unless your organization receives an invitation, the foundation will not consider your proposal. For small or newly launched organizations that are not well known, the invitation-only model can be a significant barrier.
It’s not all bad news, though. If your organization works on an issue with many active funders, that definitely helps. And if your organization is based in a major city, that helps as well, as does being located in a region with a strong philanthropic community and a stable government.
Apply for grants, but first, do your research to identify the right opportunities! That’s the basic message.
What we’ve said: You need a system for identifying and vetting potential grant funding sources.
Feedback: Why can’t you (or someone else) tell me what funding opportunities I should apply to?
Most of the emails we receive are requests for money or for the names of funders and funding opportunities the organization should apply for.
In almost all cases, we can’t provide specific recommendations. This is because there are several factors to consider—such as the organization’s history, funding needs, programmatic successes, geographic location, and leadership.
While there are occasional exceptions, for the most part, you will not find a grant opportunity that will award you money to do precisely what you want to do. Instead, you have to look for funders that have interests that match or complement yours and figure out how you can combine what you want to do with what the funder wants.
Since we do not know the resources and capabilities of the organizations that contact us, it’s difficult for us to recommend specific funders. While we can create general funding lists based on, say, country eligibility, we cannot tell an organization which funders from our lists will be the best prospects for them. For that, an organization must conduct its own research, assessing potential funders based on its capabilities and needs.
Does funder research take time? Yes, it can take a lot of time, especially initially, when you are unfamiliar with the foundations active in your programmatic area.
Of course, you can avoid doing the hands-on research by paying someone else to do it. However, even if you hire someone, you’ll still need to be engaged in the process to some extent because whoever you hire will require background information to evaluate potential funding sources.
We know it can be frustrating to hear that there’s not a simple answer to the question, “Where should I apply for grant funding?”. When you ask people—even people who specialize in grant writing—to tell you where you should apply for funding, they may sincerely not know the answer. Although it may not be what you want to hear, there’s no shortcut to finding relevant funders. It takes research and usually investment in tools like a funder database.
What we’ve said: You need a funding strategy and an organized proposal process to achieve long-term success in securing grant funding.
Feedback: Why does it have to be this complicated? My strategy is to apply for as many grants as possible.
“You do you” is a popular line these days. It’s meant to empower people to do what feels best to them. In terms of finding grant funding, you can absolutely do your own thing. It’s not an ironclad rule that you need a formal grant strategy or a systematic proposal process to apply for grant funding. We suggest developing a strategy and an organized proposal development system to increase your odds of receiving a grant, but you can choose a different path.
If you are interested in developing a grant strategy, we would encourage you to consider the following questions:
What projects or programs do you want to fund through grants?
How many potential funders/funding opportunities exist that might be a good fit for your organization?
How much money do you need for your project?
Do you have staff members who can write the grant proposals, or money to hire consultants to do so?
Do you have a system for vetting grant opportunities to determine if they are right for you?
Do you have a plan for covering your expenses until (or if) grant money comes in?
If you don’t know why you need the money, you won’t be able to articulate your need to the funder. And if you don’t know how much you need, you won’t know which opportunities will be the best match for your organization. This is why we encourage giving some thought to questions like this before you submit a bunch of grant proposals.
Securing grant funding can take time. However, increasing the number of proposals you submit will not necessarily lead to an influx of grant funding unless you are applying to the right opportunities. If you don’t feel you have the time or skills to develop a formal grant strategy, you can still win grants by pursuing opportunities as they come up. If you choose this approach, the important thing is to evaluate every opportunity to ensure your organization is eligible and qualified to apply, and that you have the resources to prepare a quality application.