Think about it this way: You would never approve the spending of $100,000 to market your organization’s programs and services without a marketing plan. So why would you approach grantseeking and grant writing with your head in the sand? Exactly; you wouldn’t!
Planning takes time. And when you’re feeling the pressure of quickly gathering funds, taking the time to plan can feel like a time waster. But, the truth is that careful planning can help you selectively shape better grants, which will increase your chances of success in the long run. The true time waster is proceeding without planning only to crash repeatedly into dead ends.
Knowing what a successful funding
development plan looks like
Before you can begin creating a funding development plan, you have to know what you’re striving for. Here are some characteristics of an effective funding plan:
- It must be written down — just like a long-range strategic plan or a marketing plan would be.
- It’s created to be a daily guide to help your organization make decisions about what programs have funding priority and about the most logical way to fund the programs.
- It must be updated with progress notes every time you apply for grant funding and every time you know the results of your efforts. For instance, first you need to note whether you’re being funded. If so, note the amount of the funding; if not plan to research why your efforts failed.
- It should be reviewed and revised annually. Why? Funder priorities change annually. For instance, just because a lot of money is available for juvenile justice projects this year doesn’t mean that this hot funding area will still be the focus next year. Your plan must change to reflect what funders want to fund. In other words, your plan isn’t just about what your organization wants or needs; it’s about what funders want to fund within the parameters of your organization’s mission.
- It needs to provide certain bits of information, including the name of program or service in need of funding, the amount of monies needed to fund a 12-month operational cycle, and the potential source of grant funding for the program or service. After you’ve identified potential funders, you add the grant application due dates, the type of initial information that the funder wants to see, and the name of the person who’s responsible for preparing the initial information document.
Keep your funding development plan flexible! Funder’s change their priorities often, and your target population’s needs are likely to change as well. So be willing to review previous evaluation reports or results from funded programs. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. Update by removing and adding programs and services, and then incorporate these changes into your revised funding development plan.
Read More : Creating Funding Development Plans to Increase Grantseeking Success
