Over the past decade there has been an ongoing trend towards greater competition for limited grant funding and this trend accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many organizations are doing worthy work, but there simply are not enough grant dollars in the nation to provide funding for all the important work being done in the nonprofit sector.

As a professional grant writer, I’m very happy if I land 25% or more of the grants I submit.

A large part of successful grantseeking is to find foundations and funders that are interested in supporting the kind of work you do. Many foundations clearly state on their websites or via other means their areas of prioritized giving. Believe them—a foundation dedicated to cancer research, for example, will not be interested in funding college scholarships.

The people reviewing grants often are sorting through hundreds of proposals and have limited time to review proposals. Making sure that your grant proposal aligns with funder interests and that your organization meets funder eligibility demonstrates your seriousness of purpose with potential funders and reflects well on the professional nature of your nonprofit organization.

Any nonprofit developing a fundraising plan should only include grants as part of a broader strategy that includes approaches such as earned revenue (i.e. ticket sales for events, course tuition, merchandise), individual donors, corporate matches, event sponsorships, planned giving, and in-kind donations.

Nonprofits that are overly-reliant on grant funds place themselves at risk should grant funding be discontinued—grants usually require renewals on a regular basis (for example, every year is very common) and most funders will not guarantee funding year-over-year.

Funders are also able to change their areas of giving or approaches whenever they so choose and this can leave nonprofits vulnerable to the whims of institutional funders.

One of the most common issues I see with individuals and nonprofits who are new to grants is a disconnect between excitement about a good idea and the reality that even if you think you’ve got a genius idea, funders may not agree. Funders have very specific ideas on what kinds of organizations and projects they are interested in supporting.

Funders want to support organizations with executable plans (as opposed to organizations with ideas that have not yet matured)—who, what, where, why, when, and how. How much will it cost? What are the key deliverables? When will programming occur? Who will be responsible for delivering programming or services? Grant proposals require individuals or organizations to have a set of concrete plans ready as part of the grants process. If you can’t answer basic logistical questions about how you or your organization intends to carry out its plans, you are not grant-ready.

Individuals or nonprofit organizations new to grantseeking or just starting to offer programming should be realistic in the amounts they think they can raise as they are just starting up.

New organizations are far, far more likely to be competitive for smaller grants (under $25,000) from local funders than to receive larger grants from prominent national funders.

While this may seem like a constraint, smaller grants are wonderful for experimenting with developing new programs, boosting capacity, or just dipping your toe into the world of grants before fully jumping in.

Most grant cycles lag considerably between when an applicant submits a proposal for funding and when the grant is approved, funds are received and grant agreements signed, and project work can begin.

With federal grants, it’s not uncommon for organizations to have to have to think twelve-to-eighteen months ahead when applying for funds. My rule of thumb is that grants are only good for funding projects that are at least six months in the future.

Many novice grant seekers focus too much on crafting a written narrative at the expense of developing an appropriate budget.

Nonprofit grant seekers are like snowflakes in a Minnesota January: no two are alike, and there are also a hell of a lot of them. One of the best things individuals or nonprofits can do to increase their odds of catching the attention of funders is to partner with other nonprofits in your field to share resources, boost capacity, or provide specialized advice or expertise you may lack.

While many grants (such as federal ones) are available for any eligible organization to apply to, many more grants are essentially invisible. That is, there are foundations that have an invitation-only application process for grants (for example, the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation is notoriously secretive and has few programs open to the public).

Foundations and corporations may also have grants that nonprofits are only allowed to apply for based on contingent conditions such as a nonprofit having a strong and existing relationship (for example, a volunteer or board member) with an employee of a corporation or foundation.

Anyone interested in building a robust grants program needs to consider the existence of shadow grants as part of their approach and plan accordingly. This often means intentional cultivation of relationships with program officers, inviting key corporate contacts to join committees or boards, and generally building personal connections with your institutional funders.