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We all need a little bit more structure in our lives. It helps us quiet down the noise and focus on what’s really important.
In this week’s edition, we’ll discuss how to redirect well-meaning members of your Board of Directors, supercharge your story with impact reports, and how to do good better with a fundraising framework.
Ready to be more effective with the resources you have?
Welcome to The Impact.
Pitfalls and Pointers
Perhaps you have a well-meaning board member who wants to share the latest grant they’ve come across with you.
It’s not exactly tied to your mission, but what can it hurt?
⚠️ Pitfall: Pursuing Every Grant Opportunity That Comes Across Your Desk
When you want to increase your funding, it can be so tempting to just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks—especially when you’re feeling pressure from your board.
However, when you chase every opportunity, you run the risk of spreading yourself too thin. Not only do you not have the capacity to pursue every grant, you also dilute the impact you can have and often divert yourself from your nonprofit’s original mission.
💡 Pointer: Cultivate Healthy Board Engagement to Drive Collaboration
Board engagement can be incredibly productive…but only when it’s done the right way. After all, you all want the same thing, so learning how to redirect their attention to be more effective is critical.
So, what do you do when your board is pressuring you to pursue the wrong grants?
- Engage Them in Your Fundraising Strategy From the Start: Share with your board a list of all your strategic priorities and how your planned grants help further the work ahead in meaningful ways.
- Redirect Their Energy to Current Grants: Work with your board to see if they have connections with funders you already plan to engage with. Leverage their network to build funder and donor relationships to help open doors.
- Get to Know Your Board: While the fundraising strategy may already be set for the year, that doesn’t mean you can’t meet with your board to learn about their priorities and networks. You can always try to leverage them next year when you have more capacity!
Your board can be your biggest cheerleader when you know how to collaborate with them effectively.
👉 Learn more about how to navigate your board relationships and avoid “shiny object syndrome”!
Tech You Should Know
Impact reports are great for fundraising. They help tell your story in innovative ways, but have you ever wondered if there's a way to make them even more engaging and effective?
Let’s take a closer look at a tool that can help.
What:
Storyraise helps nonprofits create engaging web-based reports quickly and efficiently, bringing their stories to life by showcasing impact.
How Grant Writers Can Use It:
- Create your perfect impact report with a drag-and-drop interface. Its intuitive design is responsive, meaning it will look great no matter what device your readers are using.
- Use ready-made templates as a great starting point, and integrate video, audio, social media, infographics, donate buttons, and more directly within the report to help you effectively show and tell your story.
- Collaborate with your team in real time as you share feedback, ideas, and edits directly within the platform to combat version control and streamline your workflow.
Keep in Mind:
- Pricing: Storyraise is an investment, with annual subscriptions starting at $5,700.
- Capacity: Digital impact reports may utilize pre-made templates, but it still takes time to drag and drop everything in the system and put it into place.
Expert Perspectives
🏆 Patrick Kirby on How to Do Good Better: A Practical Guide to Staying Sane While Doing Good
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Patrick Kirby, Founder of Do Good Better Consulting, understands how easy it is to fall into the same routine. After all, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it!
But that’s not going to catapult your nonprofit to new heights. Instead, Kirby shared with us his fundraising framework for success.
Here’s his expert advice:
Follow a five-day fundraising framework. Spend at least 20 minutes a day doing these activities on the respective day, and increase the frequency over time for best results.
- Mondays Are for Planning: Start the week with stand-up meetings, sharing your priorities for the week with your team. Plan for what’s ahead, but also prepare for all hell to break loose. It’s going to happen!
- Tuesdays Are for Doing: Tuesday is when you make your Monday plans happen! Make the donor calls. Send the email follow-ups. Take your number one priority for the week and crush it.
- Wednesdays Are for Documenting: Chances are, you didn’t document a lot of your donor interactions, so now is your chance to write them down! It’s not the most fun day, but this is arguably the most important to make sure that you and your team are working in lock step.
- Thursdays Are for Celebrating: Nonprofits aren’t the best at celebrating their accomplishments, so take this time to tell the world you’re doing a great job—you deserve it!
- Fridays Are for Appreciating: If you do nothing else, spend time on Friday appreciating others. Write at least five thank you notes and send them. Practice gratitude.
✍️ Explore more strategies to help you do good even better!
Opportunities Spotlight
👟 Dr. Scholl Foundation Grants
Who It’s For: Nonprofits located in the United States
Next Deadline: March 1, 2025
Grant Amount: $5,000 - US $25,000
The Details:
The Dr. Scholl Foundation is dedicated to providing financial assistance to organizations committed to improving our world. Solutions to the problems of today's world still lie in the values of innovation, practicality, hard work, and compassion. The Foundation considers applications for grants in the following areas: education, social service, health care, civic and cultural, and environmental.
🌟 Mutual of America's Community Partnership Award Grant
Who It’s For: Nonprofits that foster community partnerships to help with their projects or operating expenses
Next Deadline: July 2, 2025
Grant Amount: $50,000-$100,000
The Details:
The Mutual of America Foundation Community Partnership Award recognizes outstanding nonprofit organizations in the United States that have shown exemplary leadership by facilitating partnerships with public, private, or social sector leaders. Each year, they sponsor a national competition in which hundreds of organizations demonstrate the value of their partnership to the communities they serve, their ability to be replicated by others, and their capacity to stimulate new approaches to addressing significant social issues.
🔍 Explore thousands of other grant opportunities now!
Networking Nook
The opportunities that were originally shared in this issue of The Impact have since passed. To check out more recent and upcoming live events, go here.
In Case You Missed It
📑 Article: How to Build a Grant Timeline: Never Miss Out on Funding
Explore the importance of a comprehensive grant timeline, including practical steps to help you plan grant activities and how grant management software can help you stay organized and track these essential tasks.
📑 Article: What Is the Best Funding for Nonprofit Organizations?
Explore the pros and cons of the nine different types of funding for nonprofits to help shape your financial strategy and set more informed goals in the future.
🎙️ Podcast: Effective Brand Strategies for Nonprofits
Learn practical tips from industry-expert Howard Levy on how you can stand out from the crowd, highlight the meaningful change you drive, and better position yourself for success in the short and long term.
Want to Get More Focused?
Instrumentl is your one-stop shop for all your fundraising needs, making it easy to streamline the end-to-end grant lifecycle and maintain your funder relationships.
The devil is really in the details, and Instrumentl helps capture them all. Ready to see how we can transform your workflow?
