Posted by Dahna Goldstein on Thu, May 10, 2012 @ 10:36 AM
PhilanTech and GrantStation are pleased to announce the release of the State of Grantseeking Spring 2012 Report.
Ongoing declines in government and other funding and the resulting decreases in fundraising staff and resources continue to challenge grantseekers. The 812 survey respondents indicated that the size and number of grants awarded are not keeping pace with the increased demands for their services.
Other findings from the survey included:
- Most organizations applied for the same number or more grants, and increased efforts resulted in more grants for 31% of respondents, an improvement of 5% since the last survey.
- The average size of grants increased from the same period last year.
- Larger organizations struggled more with economic conditions, whereas smaller organizations continue to struggle more with the mechanics of grantseeking.
- Despite ongoing reductions in government grants and increased competition for all types of grants, 78% of respondents felt optimistic that their grant funding would increase or continue at the same level for the next six months. This represents a slight decrease in optimistic responses since the Fall 2011 survey.
The survey was open in February and March 2012. While nonprofit organizations of all sizes responded to the survey, the majority could be considered small to mid-sized organizations:
- 43% had one to five staff members.
- Over half (63%) had budgets under $1,000,000.
The next State of Grantseeking survey will be conducted starting in August 2012.
Download the full State of Grantseeking Report.
Posted by Dahna Goldstein on Tue, Apr 17, 2012 @ 09:55 PM
There was a pretty amazing sight in the skies above Washington, DC this morning: the space shuttle Discovery, piggybacking on a 747, making its final flight to its retirement home at the very cool Udvar-Hazy Center. (As a side note, if you live in DC - or ever visit DC - and haven't been to the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center, out near Dulles, you really should. Particularly if you have kids.)
The historic retirement of the space shuttle and its transport for its final flight provide four grantwriting lessons:
- If you want attention, do something noteworthy. This event was seriously hyped. The whole city knew that the shuttle would be visible between 10:00 and 11:00, and people were prepared to look for it, take pictures, etc. It was promoted as the final flight of the space shuttle discovery. In other words, it drew attention to itself. Everyone who saw it will be talking about it for a while. It was memorable. While not every grant proposal will be of historic magnitude, there are things you can do to make your proposal stand out from the pack. Make it noteworthy. Make it something readers and reviewers will remember.
- All good things must end. As went the space shuttle program, so go grants. Funders will frequently fund the same organization or program for up to 3 years, but no longer than that. Plan for that. Know how long a given funder is willing to support your organization, and start searching for funds, if needed, to cover any gap that will be left in your funding plan when a given funder's support ends. Ensure there's enough diversity in your funding portfolio that your organization won't be seriously hurt if one good funding source comes to an end.
- You can't always go it alone. While the space shuttle may be an image of exploration, freedom, pushing boundaries, it needed help to get to its final destination, in the form of a 747. This plays out in two ways in grantwriting: your program may benefit from collaborating with another organization when presenting your work to potential funders. Or you may need help polishing your proposal, researching new funders, or managing the whole grantwriting process. In that case, a grantwriting consultant can be your 747 - helping you get where you need to go.
- You need the right tools. Grantwriting is part art, part science. The right tools can help get you where you need to be, whether they're tools to research new funders, or tools like PhilanTrack to help you write proposals. Use the wrong tools, and you'll have a harder time reaching your goals.
Ur doin it wrong photo from https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s320x320/405065_386063504760103_108079355891854_1160267_441966176_n.jpg
Posted by Dahna Goldstein on Wed, Apr 11, 2012 @ 08:45 AM
This is just too cool not to share.
Last week was NTC, the nonprofit technology conference, hosted by NTEN. It's a gathering of 1,750 nonprofit technology professionals and accidental techies for three days of learning, sharing, and a good deal of general geekiness.
I had the pleasure of presenting with Marc Baizman of My Computer Guy Nonprofit Technology Consulting and Rose de Fremery of American Jewish World Service, two awesome co-presenters. Our session, on the first morning of the conference, was entitled, "Dr. Changelove, or: How My Org Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Technology."
We talked about change management for successful technology iniatives: how to frame your project in the context of your organizational dynamics and your position in the organization, how some technology initiatives are instigated by the people leading them, and others are dictated by senior management, and how to handle each type of initiative.
But rather than telling you more about the session, I can show you, thanks to Rob Cottingham of Noise to Signal. Rob live-blogged NTC in the form of cartoons, and Marc, Rose and I were lucky enough to have Rob attend our session.
So here is Dr. Changelove, in cartoon form:
Noise to Signal Cartoon
Posted by Dahna Goldstein on Thu, Mar 29, 2012 @ 09:27 AM
Driving from San Antonio to Austin after the Grants Managers Network (GMN) conference last week, I saw a sign on the highway that read, "Travel time to LP 1604, 16-18 minutes."
Without contect, that piece of information is meaningless. How far away is LP 1604? How long should it take to get to LP 1604? (And what is LP 1604? I figured that one out... LP 1604 is a highway loop (the LP stands for loop) that circles San Antonio.)
The problem of presenting information without context brought to mind Cole Nussbaumer's session at GMN entitled "Storytelling with Data: Visualizing Philanthropy." Cole is the People Analytics Manager at Google and the data guru who writes about analytics at Storytelling with Data. She addressed how grants managers can better use visuals to present information about grants, programs, outcomes, etc.
Cole provided compelling before and after images to demonstrate how some basic design principles can make grant information both more accessible and more meaningful:
Before:
After:
Note how much easier it is to understand the story being told in the "after" image.
Here are 3 tips for presenting grant information:
- Simplify. If a specific piece of information isn't necessary to tell the story you want to tell, remove if from the chart or graph.
- Focus attention where you want it. You have many tools in your toolbelt to help focus attention - color, contrast, size, even text. In the "after" example above, the use of color and bold text makes it very clear where the viewer's attention should be focused.
- Help your viewers draw the conclusions you want them to draw. Don't assume all viewers will interpret the information the same way you do, or the way you intend them to. If you want to highlight a conclusion that is supported by the data you're presenting, use text to make that conclusion clear, and support it with the visuals.
For more tips about creating compelling visual representations of data, visit Cole's blog.
What are your favorite tips for presenting grant information?
Images from Cole Nussbaumer's blog at http://www.storytellingwithdata.com/2012/03/lessons-from-gmn.html
Posted by Dahna Goldstein on Wed, Mar 21, 2012 @ 02:17 PM
Health Care organizations that responded to the State of Grantseeking survey receive more grants from private and community foundations than from any other grant source.
The average larges grant for health care organizations was over twice as large as the average largest grant across all organization types - $760,400 versus $312,000 for all organizations, which may be attributable in part to the size of the organizations. 26% of health care respondent organizations had over 200 employees.
Other key statistics about health organizations from the State of Grantseeking:
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Over half of health care focused organizations submitted between 3 and 10 requests and over 50% also received between 3 and 10 awards;
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65% of health care organizations received the same number or more grants that they had in the first six months of 2010
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Health care organizations cited increased competition for grant dollars and difficulty finding funders who are a good fit as their top grantseeking challenges
Download the Health Care Organizations State of Grantseeking Fact Sheet to read the rest of the results.
Posted by Dahna Goldstein on Sun, Mar 18, 2012 @ 02:08 PM
Education nonprofit organizations in the Fall 2011 State of Grantseeking report received more grant funding from private foundations than other sources of grant funding (69%) and were less likely to receive grants from Federal (30% vs. 45%) and State governments (42% vs. 50%). Educational institutions, conversely, were more likely to receive State and Federal grant awards (see the State of Grantseeking in Educational Institutions fact sheet. Note: educational institutions include colleges and universities, where education nonprofit organizations are nonprofits that are focused on education. There is also a State of Grantseeking in All Educational Organizations fact sheet that summarizes aggregate information for both types of education organizations, but the differences are significant enough to warrant separate fact sheets as well).
The average largest grant for education nonprofit organizations was $195,291, lower than the $312,000 average largest grant across all organization types.
Other key statistics about education organizations from the State of Grantseeking survey:
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43% submitted only 1 or 2 grant requests in the first six months of 2011
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62% received the same number, or more, grants than in the same period in 2010
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Education organizations' greatest grantseeking challenges were the decline in available funding opportunities and increased competition. Education organizations also cited increased reporting requirements as a challenge.
Download the Education Nonprofit Organizations State of Grantseeking Fact Sheet to read the rest of the results.
Posted by Dahna Goldstein on Fri, Mar 16, 2012 @ 09:26 AM
Like most organizations in the Fall 2011 State of Grantseeking survey, education organizations received more grant funding from private foundations than other sources of grant funding. Fifty percent also received Federal government grants (vs. 45% of all organizations in the survey) and 56% received state government grants (compared to 50% across all organizations).
Note: educational institutions include colleges and universities, where education nonprofit organizations are nonprofits that are focused on education. Please see the State of Grantseeking in Educational Institutions and State of Grantseeking in Education Nonprofits fact sheets for details about each type of organization's grantseeking activities.
The average largest grant for all education organizations was $398,144, higher than the $312,000 average largest grant across all organization types.
Other key statistics about education organizations from the State of Grantseeking survey:
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44% submitted 3 to 10 grant requests in the first six months of 2011
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35% received 1 or 2 grant awards
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Education organizations' greatest grantseeking challenges were the reductions in State and Federal funding and the corresponding reduction in resources
Download the Education Organizations State of Grantseeking Fact Sheet to read the rest of the results.
Posted by Dahna Goldstein on Thu, Mar 15, 2012 @ 10:41 AM
Youth development organizations in the Fall 2011 State of Grantseeking report received more grant funding from community and corporate foundations and were less likely to receive Federal or State government grants than other organization types.
The average largest grant for youth development organizations was $191,560, lower than the $312,000 average largest grant across all organization types.
Other key statistics about youth development organizations from the State of Grantseeking survey:
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66% submitted six or more grant requests (compared to 53% across all organizations)
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52% were awarded 3 or more grants
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Youth development organizations' greatest grantseeking challenges were reductions in staff time due to budget cuts and the reduction in grant award amounts
Download the Youth Development Organizations State of Grantseeking Fact Sheet to read the rest of the results.
Posted by Dahna Goldstein on Tue, Mar 13, 2012 @ 09:23 AM
Compared to other organizations, human services organizations received more grants from all grant sources, according to the Fall 2011 State of Grantseeking survey. Human services organizations are likely to fall into the category of "safety net" organizations. Several other organization types cited the redirection of grant funds to safety net organizations as one of the greatest challenges in their own grantseeking activities.
Some key statistics about human services organizations from the Fall 2011 State of Grantseeking survey:
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Human services organizations were more likely to request 6 or more grants (69% vs. 53%) and receive 3 to 10 grant awards (53% vs. 37%)
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70% of human services organizations received the same number or more grants as they had in the same period the previous year
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Human services organizations cited declines in State and Federal government grant funds and the corresponding reduction in resources as the greatest challenges to their grantseeking activities
Download the Human Services Organizations State of Grantseeking Fact Sheet to read the rest of the results.
Posted by Dahna Goldstein on Thu, Mar 08, 2012 @ 09:19 AM
While private foundations were the largest source of grants for educational institutions, as they were across the board, educational institutions were more likely than other types of organizations to receive Federal and State government grants (76% vs. 54% on average for Federal government grants and 76% vs. 50% for State government grants). The average largest grant to educational institutions was $575,130 compared to the average of $312,000 across all organizations.
Other key statistics about educational institutions from the State of Grantseeking:
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The average educational institution was more likely to apply for 6 to 20 grants (53% vs. 39%) than the average across all organizations types
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30% of educational institutions received 6 to 10 grant awards
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Educational institutions cited declines in Federal funding for education as one of their key grant seeking challenges.
Download the Educational Institutions State of Grantseeking Fact Sheet to read the rest of the results.