7 Grant Strategy Tips for Nonprofits During Uncertain Times
What a year it has been so far. The nonprofit world is more than a little shaken by the changes being proposed and enacted under the new federal administration. Some organizations have already felt the direct effects, while others are bracing for direct and indirect consequences, wondering:
- Will donors and businesses hesitate to give in this environment?
- Will the foundations that fund my organization lose their own funding or change their focuses?
- Will funders deny a request for my DEI-focused programming?
The answer to all of these questions is: Maybe. It depends on your unique donors, funders, programming, etc. It is probably worth your while to evaluate where your organization stands today and how it might be affected in the coming months and years, given different scenarios.
Your grant strategy is an important consideration. Here, we’ll share our advice for evaluating and managing a grant strategy in the face of uncertainty.
1. Don't Panic
…and know you’re not alone. Many nonprofit leaders are asking the same questions you are. We’ve seen this first-hand working with over thirty clients from various sectors of the industry. It’s important that you don’t make any sudden moves that could jeopardize your organization. The legality of some proposed actions is in question, and even if they’re set in motion there’s a chance they will be deemed illegal or unconstitutional.
Instead of reacting, take a deep breath and ask yourself: Have I been in a similar situation before? For many, COVID-19 immediately comes to mind. Nonprofit leaders faced numerous and varied challenges during the pandemic. While today’s challenges look a little different, there’s still a lot to learn from this and other experiences you might have had with disruption: How did you pivot? What worked, and what didn’t? This applies not just to your grant strategy, but also to the bigger picture of your organization.
To-Read
Resiliency Strategies for Nonprofits in Times of Political and Financial Instability
“Florida’s 2022 and 2023 legislative sessions were a pilot site for the kinds of drastic administrative maneuvers, decimation of rights, and attacks on the nonprofit sector that are now unfolding.”
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Nonprofit Quarterly
2. Get the Lay of the Land
To know where you may need to take your grant strategy, you must first gain a thorough understanding of what it looks like right now and what you’re working with.
Evaluate your revenue mix: What percentage of your income typically comes from donors, events, grants, corporations and the government? What does your cash reserve look like, and how long can you operate without new funds? Getting a realistic picture of your financial situation will help you make decisions from an accurately-informed perspective. It will also help in your communications with the philanthropic community and your donors, should you face a gap or deficit in your expected funding.
For instance, if you rely heavily on federal funding sources, you can make a plan to inform your community of your numbers so they can be aware of what’s at stake should that funding fall through, while highlighting how beneficial and critical the funded work is.
Get clear about your programming: Dedicate time to document and clarify all relevant details about your program(s), and consider creating one-pagers about each. Hammering out the details of each program – on paper – will give you a clearer picture of how your programs fit into your overall operations, how they serve your constituents, how much funding each requires, what types of outcomes you get from each, and more. With this, you’ll be able to make grant strategy decisions, perform focused funder research for each program, and then relay critical details about your programming to funders.
Know your funders – and check in: How well do you know your funders? Do you have a strong relationship with them and communicate with them regularly (via phone, in-person tours, email, newsletter, social media, etc.)? These are important partnerships, and your funders may be experiencing disruption of their own. Communicate directly with them and be transparent about your own experience and concerns. This goes for individuals, foundations, corporations, and yes even your federal grant program officers. Consider being transparent on social media through the very specific lens of how this chaos is impacting your organization, then sharing or tagging the prominent funders in this space.
“In a 2023 survey, 70% of donors reported that transparency was a key factor in their giving decisions.”
3. Ask Yourself: What If?
Now that you have a realistic idea of where you stand, it’s time to evaluate what’s at risk, what might happen in the near future, how different scenarios might affect your organization and what steps you’ll take in each scenario. Knowing what could happen to your organization as a whole will help inform any grant strategy changes you’ll need to make.
To guide your scenario planning, we recommend reading The Bridgespan Group’s comprehensive article, Making Sense of Uncertainty: Nonprofit Scenario Planning. This article contains a free scenario planning toolkit and a very informative on-demand webinar. As Bridgespan outlines, you’ll want to look at best-, moderate- and worst-case scenarios and how they’ll impact programs, operations and funding.
We recently attended a webinar from the Colorado Springs Health Foundation and La Piana Consulting (hosted by Lara Jakubowski) on nonprofit scenario planning, and our favorite takeaway was to consider your “Must Do’s,” “Might Do’s” and “Won’t Do’s.”
- “Must Do’s” are the constants you won’t waiver from.
- “Might Do’s” are the range of options your organization could take, and the choices that need to be made.
- “Won’t Do’s” are your red lines. The webinar poses the question: “How will you live your values in the face of a catastrophic situation?”
The Nonprofit Finance Fund also has a free budget-specific scenario planning tool for nonprofits.
If you’re already facing the worst-case scenario of losing a federal grant or contract, the Council of Nonprofits has a checklist for what to do next.
4. Make Strategic Adjustments
Slow and steady wins the race. Once you have an idea of what you’re working with, you can make relevant, strategic adjustments to your grant strategy. Prepare to get creative, but make sure not to lose sight of your mission as you adapt to change.
Here are a few key examples of adjustments you might make:
- Look for NEW opportunities and donors that would support your mission.
- Strengthen existing relationships with funders and donors.
- Further diversify your revenue mix to reduce your dependence on any one source.
- If the funder is open to more unrestricted funding options, adjust your requests to general operating, capacity-building and/or stability where it makes sense.
- Consider collaborating with other organizations on programs and the associated grant requests, to make the grant dollars go further and combine your efforts.
- Prepare to reduce your focus on lower-value programming and focus grant requests on the highest-value programming.
- Strategize to strengthen and highlight critical programming that may otherwise be perceived as low-value.
Have You Tried…
Prepare to fundraise in new ways that are proving effective in the nonprofit sector. It’s easy to get stuck doing the same old thing. Take this opportunity to explore outside of your fundraising box. Explore what your network is doing differently, and ask your peers what’s working for them.
For example, “peer-to-peer” fundraising campaigns resulted in a 24% rise in average donation size for nonprofits during the pandemic.
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5. Remember: Follow All Grant Instructions to a T
…after all, they may have changed. Any time you’re submitting a grant, it’s critical to follow the instructions. At times like this, it would be even more of a disappointment to miss out on a grant opportunity due to a simple error like a missing document, failure to directly answer a grant question, or submitting through the wrong channel. Even if you’ve been familiar with a grant for several years, be sure to read the instructions for the current grant cycle. Following the instructions remains the most critical aspect of grant writing which is why we do not recommend making broad stroke edits to remove any “banned and trigger” words. Some funders regularly change their approach, priorities and deadlines; others may make changes to fit within potential new guidelines from the new administration.
Check Your Work
When the time comes to submit, take a moment to review common grant writing mistakes. Chances are, you’ll spot at least one thing that can be improved!
6. Strengthen Your Narrative
It’s more important now than ever to submit clear, descriptive and inspiring narratives to funders. Many are seeing dramatic increases in submissions as your fellow nonprofits seek to diversify their own funding sources. Review your narrative for the following elements:
Mission, Purpose and Activities: Do you clearly state what your organization’s mission is, why you exist, what you do and who you serve?
Goals and Past Results: Do you state your goals and provide evidence of your track record meeting your goals? Do you demonstrate how the funder’s support would impact your goals?
Relevant Scholarly Research: Do you have recent data and findings to demonstrate the need for your organization and the effectiveness of your approach? Do you connect the dots in your narrative between that research, your work and the funder’s mission? How are you connecting our current climate to your organizational needs?
Success Stories and Testimonials: Do you share real stories (anonymous or otherwise) and feedback from those you serve to demonstrate the effectiveness of your organization’s activities?
Connecting Thread: Does your entire narrative connect together in a cohesive way that demonstrates why your organization is approaching this specific funder and requesting funds for this specific initiative?
7. Keep Up with Change (In Doses) and Create Meaningful Connections
As we noted in the beginning: right now, the answer to most of your questions is “Maybe.” Try to stay up-to-date with changes as they occur, from the administration level down to the donor level. At the same time, be sure to give yourself meaningful breaks. Being on high alert at all times isn’t healthy for you or your organization as a whole. To stay informed, attend webinars from reputable companies, organizations and consultants. Try to avoid clickbait and triggering news articles.
When you’re ready, take action through connection. Our collective voice is far more powerful than one voice. Consider reaching out to your elected officials, urging them to advocate, as well as philanthropic leaders, who can advocate on behalf of the broader community and request that foundations and Donor Advised Funds give more than the minimum. Some suggestions include: community leaders, your local community foundations (they typically hold DAFs), United Way, community roundtables, Center for Nonprofit Excellence, the National Council of Nonprofits. Better yet, you can collaborate with several of those within your industry and write a joint letter (e.g. a letter from all arts/humanities organizations, a letter from all food insecurity organizations, etc.).
Here are a few great resources to keep on your radar:
- The National Council of Nonprofits is continually updating this resource with Executive Orders that may affect nonprofits: Executive Orders Affecting Charitable Nonprofits
- The National Council of Nonprofits also released this incredible resource on the myths v. reality of Executive Orders relevant to nonprofits: Myth v. Reality: Executive Branch Lacks the Authority to Target Nonprofit Organizations
- The Association of Fundraising Professionals is continually updating this page with resources and information about policies that impact fundraising.
- Arts Midwest held a helpful webinar in March that’s available on-demand: Unpacking the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders on DEI
As always, my team and I remain dedicated to you and your work. Feel free to share this blog with others in your professional network who may find it helpful, sign up for our newsletter to get quarterly grant-related updates, and please reach out to me with any other questions or concerns you might have.
