Hi, I’m Alex Dunn, the Millionaire Grant Lady. I have 15 years of grant writing experience and over $103 million in awards under my belt. I offer advice, tips, tricks and opportunities to the DFW501c.news audience each week.
Part of the work of winning grants begins well before you ever start working on your first application.
Though it would be impossible to anticipate every question or every potential additional attachment funders may require of your organization, there are some practical steps you can take that will make you ready to provide foundations with the information they need to know.
- Keep your budgets up-to-date: Funders often expect you to submit a budget for the year you are requesting funds. This means for a funding request sent in January 2025, you will need a 2025 budget. This may also mean that if you apply in December of 2024, they will still want a 2025 budget. The sooner you can get a board approved budget for a fiscal year, the better. Approving budgets as close to the start of your fiscal year as you can is good grant-seeking practice.
- File your taxes early: Most foundations don’t expect your 990 to be available as soon as we turn into the new year, but the 990 is required every year. By providing foundations with 990s and audits from the most recent fiscal year, you can demonstrate to them that the organization is fiscally responsible.
- Track your service numbers: Foundations don’t need up-to-the-minute data, but they do like to have an idea of how many people their gift will impact. You will streamline your own process if you keep track of things on the front end. When you track this data, it is good to also track items like age, race/ethnicity, and gender (if tracking this does not impede your work). We recommend tracking this all year and then compiling it at the completion of every year to use it as your standard data.
- Collect meaningful stories: Your finances and numbers are only part of your organization’s story. When you come across a story within your organization that moves your soul, remember, it will move funders’ souls as well. We want your application to be the one they stay up at night thinking about because of the power of your organization’s work. Collect these stories, photos, and consent to share the story/photo as you go, so that when the opportunity comes around, you are ready with a powerful client story that moves funders’ hearts.
- Run your organization and programs well: The most important thing you can do for yourself as a grantseeker is to have good programs and be organized. Well-run organizations that demonstrate a measurable impact on the community are already a step ahead of the competition.
