Guest: Beth Briggs, Creative Philanthropy
Host: Sean Bailey, Philanthropy-Journal

Sean: Welcome to the fourth edition of Nonprofit Web Talk. This month I'm pleased to introduce Beth Briggs, president of Creative Philanthropy. Beth has a wealth of experience in the fundraising world and her answers to our questions should go a long way in helping to understand the sometimes mysterious machinations of the foundation world and how best to approach foundations for funding.

Before I start with my questions, let me give you a little background about Beth. She has been working in the nonprofit sector for 22 years. In the 1970s, she worked with the Public Welfare Foundation, an international foundation located in Washington, D.C. Beth also has experience in the community foundation world, having worked for the Asheville Community Foundation in Western North Carolina (now the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina).

In the 1980s, Beth was development director for the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research and the U.S. Olympic Festival-87. She also has been president of the nonprofit division of the fundraising counsel Capital Consortium and president of the North Carolina Public Television Foundation. In 1995, Beth started her own firm, Creative Philanthropy, and now advises corporations and foundations on how to become more strategic with their philanthropic giving.

And not only does Beth have a breadth and depth of experience in this field, she has recently begun to explore the Internet and the potential this technology has for nonprofits. So we're very glad to have her as a guest this month.

Welcome, Beth. Let's just jump right in with some questions. When we finish here today, I'll signal our readers that this forum is open for questions.

What are the first things a nonprofit needs to consider when it begins seeking grant funding from a foundation?

Beth: An organization seeking foundation funding must be a 50l(c)(3) tax exempt organization with a strong board of directors, a solid budget and a clearly articulated strategic plan of action. Foundations are inundated with requests from so many strong programs seeking funds that the competition is fierce. Foundations are seeking programs that fit their guidelines and areas of interest and can make an impact upon a specific problem or need. Begin the process with good research. There are so many wonderful resources available to the nonprofit to identify potential funding sources. I recommend starting at The Foundation Center. This is a national service organization established by foundations to provide an authoritative sources on information on foundations and corporate giving. They have Cooperating Collections in libraries, community foundations and other nonprofit organizations. They publish a comprehensive directory of national foundations and these along with other comprehensive directories are available for research at these collections throughout the country. To find the location nearest you call l-800-424-9836. Review the indices in the directories to identify donors who give within your program area. Then read about the foundation to determine focus areas, geographical restrictions, the size grants that they normally make, any guidelines or restrictions, deadlines, and governing bodies. This will help you start to narrow down the list of potential foundations as prospects.

Sean: What are the most common mistakes or misperceptions relating to the process of obtaining grant funding from a foundation?

Beth: One of the greatest misconceptions about foundations is that just because you have a project that you really think is important, that a foundation will be equally impressed with what it is that you are trying to accomplish. Foundations are defined by the Council on Foundations are "nongovernmental, nonprofit organizations with its own funds (usually from a single source, either an individual, family or corporation) and program managed by its own trustees and directors, which was established to maintain or aid educational, social, charitable, religious, or other activities serving the common welfare primarily by making grants to other nonprofit organizations." There are over 35,000 grant-making foundations in the United States established by families, individuals, corporations and communities for many different reasons. The largest and probably best know is the international Ford Foundation with over $7 billion in assets. There are over 100 foundations with assets of $225,000,000 and yet there are thousands of foundations with very little money for distribution.

Beth These large foundations make very significant grant distributions. They have guidelines and grant policies and defined focus areas. They have large professional staffs and can fund organizations that can make a real impact or test out new concepts that can be duplicated in other areas. Often, a small nonprofit approaches the Ford Foundation requesting a grant. It is highly unlikely that these giants will make a grant to a small start-up organization. I read several years ago that the Ford Foundation received 2000 requests per week and they only funded l500 programs that year. Obviously these funds are incredibly competitive. The vast majority of foundations in this country are not staffed. They are run by a volunteer board of directors or a trust officer at a bank. Many of these foundations do not have guidelines or even a set process for reviewing grant request. Often the foundations are used as a way for families or individuals to make their personal contributions. They are not interested nor do they have the time to review unsolicited requests. If you submit your proposal to one of these foundations, often no one even reads your request. You have just wasted your time and postage.

Beth: It is also important to realized that the individuals sitting on these volunteer boards are often very busy people who must do the work of the foundation in their spare time. They review the proposals not totally unlike the way that you or I look at the unending stream of direct mail that comes to our mail box. Either you are interested or it goes in the trash can. There must be some connection that will catch their eye or peak their interest to find out more about the request. Foundations however are required by law to distribute 5% of their investment income annually. Therefore, they are looking for projects that strike a cord with them personally. Charity begins at home. Identify funding sources that give funds to your specific geographical area.

Sean Let's face it. Completing a grant application is a major, time-consuming task made all the worse by the fact that few foundations adhere to a uniform standard of applications. Still, once an organization has put a lot of hours into writing a grant, it tends to look for other places where it can send the same or slightly modified proposal. Is there a problem with this?

Beth: The New York Council of Grantmakers has recently adopted a uniform application form and is looking to develop a uniform evaluations form as well. This is a great boost for the nonprofit sector in that it will save a great deal of time and energy in submitting proposals to multiple funding sources. There are numerous books available on how to write a good grant proposal and what should be included. It is very basic. Your proposal should be clear, concise and fully describe the qualifications of your organization, a definition of the problem or need that you wish to address with the grant. The proposal should describe your goals and measurable objectives, how you intend to spend the funds that you are requesting, methodology for carrying out your plan, staff qualifications, a budget and how you plan to evaluate the effectiveness of your program. These are standard and most foundations will ask for this information so many forms. If they don't specify length, keep your proposal brief to possibly three pages. Be considerate of those who must review the request. Once you have a strong proposal that fully describes your organization, program and plan, there is nothing wrong with submitting it to several funders. Just make sure that you carefully review their guidelines and answer all the questions they ask. Try and personalize it as much as possible. This is a relatively easy task in today's world of computers.

Sean: What is the first thing a nonprofit should do once it believes that a foundation's funding priorities reflect the work of the nonprofit? How should a nonprofit make contact with a foundation?

Beth: Request a copy of their guidelines and find out as much as you can about the foundation. If you feel that their funding does in fact match your program then call to see if a staff member will speak to you about your program. Foundations are all different. Some are delighted to meet with you personally or speak with you on the phone. Others will ask for a brief letter describing your program. If the foundation does not have a staff, see if you or a member of your board know a member of the foundation board and initiate a conversation about funding. Find our a much information as you can and take your lead from them about how to proceed. If no guidelines are available, submit a standard request and then follow-up with a phone call.

Sean: After I send off the proposal, what should I do next? If I receive a letter from a foundation indicating that I've made a first round of cuts, what next?

Beth: If you can make contact with someone at the foundation make sure that they received the proposal. Often there is a significant amount of time between a foundation deadline and the date that the board meets. Send updates about the progress of your program. Have you received additional funding? Have there been developments in the program since the proposal was submitted? Update the request if appropriate. One of the keys to fund raising is building relationships with the donors and funding sources. This relationship building is an ongoing process. Try and get your request in long before the deadline. If the foundation has questions or there are omissions in your request, they can then notify you to send additional information. Remember, there is tremendous competition and the foundations are going to give first consideration to those requests that are complete. If you are lacking appropriate budget information or forgot to attach a list of your board and the foundation must contact you for further information, consideration of your request may be delayed or deferred. Sometimes those deferred piles for incomplete proposals get pretty deep and a busy volunteer or staff person may not get back to it before the board meets to discuss the requests. It is your responsibility to provide them with the information and if you don't do it on a timely manner, your request may not be reviewed.

Beth: Letters of support can be very useful. These should come from someone whom the foundation knows and respects their opinion. If members of your board are known by the foundation's board members, have them send a letter endorsing the program. If there is additional appropriate information that may not have been included in the initial request, submit it. Remember the competition for limited grant dollars. You must convince the funding source that your program is worthy, can make a difference and will be carried out in an effective and efficient manner.

Sean: Should I make a personal visit? If the foundation is located out-of-state, what is the best way to handle follow-up once I've sent the application off?

Beth: Personal visits are wonderful. That allows the foundation to meet the individuals who will be carrying out the program and possibly board members who will oversee the program. Each foundation is different and has different procedures. Some of the best foundations make site visits. They will come and meet your staff, board and clients and observe the operation first hand. This is the ideal situation but of course not very practical when you consider how many hundreds of request are received. Invite them to come and visit your facility, encourage it, however don't be disappointed if they can't come. The rule of thumb in fund raising is that the best contact with a prospective funder is face to face in your facility, the second best method is face to face in their office, third is a phone contact and finally, simply communicating by correspondence.

Sean: Isn't grantwriting a big gamble? Considering the chance of getting funded (l in 10 these days, I think, perhaps even higher) why should I even bother, unless I have a signal from someone at the foundation that they'd look favorably at a proposal.?

Beth: Fundraising is a difficult but necessary part of any nonprofit organizations future. It is important to incorporate all avenues into a strategic and well thought out development program. Nationally, about 6% of all giving comes from foundations, 5% comes from corporations and 89% comes from individuals. Figure those percentages into your development plan. This is the average and I know of universities that get as much as 50% of their funding from corporations and other organizations that get a significantly higher percentage from foundations. The purpose of a foundation is to provide financial support to nonprofit organizations. They provide the wind beneath the wings of many outstanding programs and serve as catalyst to help bring about change. Foundations need nonprofits in order for them to be successful. The nonprofits' success is their success. This unique partnership between foundations and nonprofits can have a tremendous impact upon the success of your organization. Therefore, foundations are one part of the funding puzzle. Do your homework. Research the foundations to make sure that there is some indication that they may in fact have an interest in funding your program and if there is reason to believe that your request might fall within their areas of funding, go for it.

Sean: It seems like there are two gatekeepers between the nonprofit and the grant, the foundation board's staff and the board. I've heard that many boards, after receiving a pile of recommendations from the staff, will spend literally just minutes with a proposal before giving the thumbs up or thumbs down. Knowing this is the case, what does it suggest about the best way to position and shepherd a worthy proposal to approval?

Beth: My experience has been that most foundations have extremely competent and professionals staffs that care a great deal about providing the most accurate information to their boards. The boards on the other hand, hire good people and rely heavily upon their ability to screen and research proposals for them. Many staff members have the authority to reject inappropriate requests before they ever go to the boards for consideration. Remember, most foundations receive three to five times the number of proposals that they can even consider. The board usually has limited time at board meetings to review the requests before them and so it is up to the staff to provide summaries of the proposal so that the board does not have to read mounds of paper. Assume that a board is considering 50 proposals at a meeting and each proposal contains five pages of information. That is 250 pages they must review. The staff must read through each request and analyze the program. Therefore the most important thing you can do is to write a very clear, concise, well-thought-out proposal with reasonable goals and measurable objectives. Your first paragraph must be perfect. It should clearly describe the project for which you are seeking funds, give credibility to the organization that will carry out the program, and ask for a specific amount of money.

Beth: So often the summary that goes to the board comes directly from your first sentence. It is your responsibility to clearly articulate your need and give the staff or the volunteers a precise understanding of what you are requesting money for. Again, letters of support are useful in giving your request a step up over the hundreds of others which they must consider. Make sure that you can document the need and then demonstrate how your organization can impact that need. Another important fact to remember is that the foundation wants to help. They are not interested in helping support your organization as much as they are interested in helping serve your clients, the people that will benefit as a result of their gift.

Sean: There are many, many small foundations in the US where there is no staff and the board is comprised mostly of family members. If the foundation doesn't accept unsolicited proposals, but you know they have funded projects similar to yours in the past, what should you do?

Beth: Many families and corporations use their foundations to fund their personal giving. They state in their guidelines that they do not consider unsolicited proposals. The reason for this is obvious. They simply do not want organizations to send them hundreds of unwanted requests that they will not act upon. Unless you have a personal contact with someone at that foundation, don't submit an unsolicited request.

Beth: The directories that report on the actions of foundations receive the data from the 990 tax returns. These 990s are public information and provide a listing of the members of the board, staff, expenditures and grants. Often when a directory indicates that a foundation has an interest in a funding area, it is based upon what that foundation has given to in the past. Perhaps the directory will state that a foundation funds private schools. This usually simply reflects that they made a grant to a private school which more than likely is where either the principals of the foundations or their children attend. There is usually no reason to believe that they will fund another private school without a personal relationship. Similarly, just because they fund an arts center in their local community does not necessarily translate into a general interest in funding the arts. There has usually been a cultivation process and the development of a relationship between the two organizations. Part of your research process should be to determine geographical restrictions that may indicate whether or not there will be any interest in funding a project in your locale.

Sean: Some organizations seem very adept at grantwriting even though their programs seem vague or weak from the perspective of other nonprofits in the same field. Beyond the obvious that some organization have fine grantwriters, what else does this suggest about the grant funding process?

Beth: Unfortunately the reality of fundraising is that those who can afford a good grants writer has a real advantage over those without. Colleges and universities receive the lions share of foundation grants because they have teams of really good fundraisers. Just because someone can articulate a program well does not mean that they can carry out the program. Therefore it becomes more dependent upon the foundation staff person to do their work, make site visits and make sure that the grantee is in fact who they say they are and can do what they claim. The board adds credibility as well as the organization's reputation in the community. It is up to the grantee to make a strong case for support. Proposals are usually the first contact that a nonprofit has with a foundation therefore, it better be good. There are classes available in just about every community so try and take a course if you need the help. Go to conferences for nonprofits where they talk about grants writing. Go to your local community foundation or local college or university and ask for technical support. Professionals are often more than happy to review your request to make suggestions on how to improve your case for support.

Sean: How has the grantwriting process changed over the years?

Beth: My first experience with grantwriting was about twenty two years ago when I went to work for an international foundation in Washington, DC. Since that time the field has become so much more professional. Grantswriting has evolved and there has been much written in the field. One of the most striking changes has been the tremendous amount of information now available through the publication of directories and the Foundation Centers. Directories publicize the names of foundations and anyone can learn about foundations throughout the country. The Council on Foundations and various regional foundation councils have helped to professionalize those who work for foundations. The field has grown so quickly and the number of nonprofits have grown exponentially. The competition is greater and there is a greater demands for well written grants. The field has grown up and much more is expected of the players in order to be competitive.

Beth: Also there has been a shift in the past ten years in that foundations are much more interested in the evaluation process. They want to see measurable results and they are asking the grantees to document and describe the impact of the grants. Foundation boards are spending more time discussing outcomes than they did in the past. They want to learn the lessons of their grants and share that information. They expect the grantee to provide them with the information or in many cases they pay professional evaluators to follow-up on their grants.

Sean: There is a clear shift in recent years from "submit proposals" to "submit letter." How has this changed the process?

Beth One can spend a tremendous amount of time in preparing proposals. Submitting a letter describing your program saves both the grantee and the foundation valuable time. If there is no interest, then little time is lost. It also can provide an opportunity for the foundation to help an organization flesh out a request. They may be able to work together to fine tune a proposal that fits both of their needs. This is another reflection of the professionalism that is coming to play in foundations. It says time and energy for everyone involved. However, again the responsibility falls upon the nonprofit to clearly and concisely explain their program and articulate both the need and solution in a letter. I think that we will see more and more of this instead of requesting a full-blown proposal as the first point of contact.

Part Two