How to Find the Best Grants for Your Nonprofit
Researching and Vetting
You’ve decided your organization is ready to pursue grants, hooray! Perhaps you’ve asked yourself, “How do I find the best grants for my nonprofit?” but you’re not sure where to begin. Don’t worry, we can help.
The first step is researching what grants are available to you and evaluating whether those grants fit your organization’s funding needs. At Capacita, we have a tried-and-true process for both researching, evaluating, and vetting grants, and we want to share some of our best practices with you.
Why is it necessary to evaluate the fit of a grant to my organization?
Thoroughly determining whether a grant is the right fit for your organization is crucial before expending effort on applying. This assessment ensures that your organization's resources, goals, and capacity align with the objectives and requirements of the grant. Taking the time to evaluate the suitability of a grant can save you valuable time, effort, and resources in the long run.
By conducting thorough research and considering factors such as mission alignment, eligibility criteria, past giving, and the application process, you can identify grants that offer the greatest potential for success and impact. This strategic approach helps you avoid wasting valuable resources on pursuing grants that are not well-suited to your needs or capacities and instead focus your energy on securing grants that provide the right support to drive your goals forward effectively.
What is mission alignment?
Aligning a potential grant with your organization's mission and strategic goals is vital. Grants that directly support your core mission and values are more likely to yield meaningful outcomes and impact. By assessing the alignment between the grantmaker's objectives and your organization's purpose, you can ensure that your efforts are focused on initiatives that contribute to your long-term vision. Grantmakers are looking for grantee partners who are making an impact in the issue areas they prioritize and see as most important in their community and/or areas of focus. Identifying the overlap between your organization and the grantmakers will give you a better chance of winning grants when you know the work you do is also work the grantmaker is passionate about supporting.
why do i need to look at eligibility criteria?
Grantmakers always have a set of requirements for who can apply for their grants, and some will be more specific than others. Some will even have different requirements for different opportunities. This allows the funder to focus on who they aim to support. Here are some factors grantmakers may set parameters around:
Type of organization (e.g. size, tax designation, e.g. are you a tax-exempt 501(c)(3))
Location of your services or headquarters
Types of funding uses (e.g. they may specify that they will or will nor fund: general operating expenses, fundraising and capital campaigns, etc.)
Leadership diversity
Focus or issue areas
Target populations
Evaluating eligibility criteria is essential to determine if your organization meets the grantmaker's requirements. If you don’t meet the requirements, you should not apply! By understanding these criteria, you can avoid spending time on applications for which you are not eligible. It allows you to concentrate your efforts on grants where you have a realistic chance of success.
What does information on a grantmaker’s past giving tell me about grant fit?
By examining a foundation or other grantmaker's past giving patterns, your organization can gain valuable insights into the types of projects and initiatives the grantmaker typically supports. Understanding past history allows you to gauge the funder's level of interest and commitment to certain issue areas. It provides an opportunity to identify any trends, preferences, or strategic focus areas that can help tailor your grant proposal to align more closely with the grantmaker's interests. When evaluating fit, information that can be found on the locations of past grantees and gift amounts will also be valuable.
You can also look into a grantmaker's openness to giving to new grantees. Understanding a grantmaker's history of giving to new grantees is valuable as it indicates the funder's interest in supporting innovative and emerging organizations. Grants that prioritize funding new grantees demonstrate a willingness to invest in fresh ideas, diverse perspectives, and the growth of promising initiatives. Some grantmakers prefer to fund organizations with which they have a current relationship and a history of known success and impact, and so they may only look for a new partner if they have to drop a current organization and have an opening available in their portfolio.
By taking into account a foundation or other grantmaker's past giving history, you can make informed decisions, enhance your chances of securing funding, and build stronger partnerships based on shared goals and priorities.
What does “invite only” mean for my grant research?
Grantmakers will either have open grant applications or Letters of Intent/Inquiry (LOIs) where anyone can apply, or they will have an “invite only” process. You may also see the phrase “we do not accept unsolicited applications,” which also means that their process is invite-only. In this instance, funders are either already funding all of the organizations that they want to support OR they are reaching out to specific organizations that they see doing the work they are interested in, and asking them to apply.
If a grant is invite-only, the first step would be to see if you or anyone else at your organization has a connection with the funder and reaching out via that connection to begin building a relationship and understanding what the funder looks for in a partner. Some funders will offer the opportunity to send an email introducing your organization so that they can keep track of your work and impact and potentially reach out to you in the future. Others discourage any type of contact and you should respect that request and continue doing good work in your community that will eventually get the attention of those funders!
The Bottom line
Determining the fit between a grant and your organization before applying is essential for making informed decisions. By assessing mission alignment, eligibility criteria, giving history, and the application process, you can identify grants and grantmakers that align with your organization’s goals and capabilities. This evaluation process helps you invest your time and effort strategically, improving your chances of securing the right grants that can contribute to your long-term success and impact.
All of this information may seem like a lot and you may be thinking, “this is all great information, but who has the time?” The answer is: we do!
Capacita has a proven and successful process of systematically researching grant opportunities and evaluating fit for our client organizations. Get in touch with us today for a free consultation about how we can help you create a prioritized list and an application calendar that will set you up for twelve months of grant opportunities.