Grant writing and foundation consulting for small nonprofits

Grant writing services

Funder research

Foundations, corporate giving programs and public funders that match your work, size and area, with deadlines and typical award sizes.

Proposals and letters of inquiry

Need statement, program description, outcomes and budget narrative, written to each funder's guidelines.

Budgets and attachments

A program budget that agrees with the narrative, and every attachment gathered a week before the deadline.

Editing

Your own draft, tightened and checked against the guidelines, with the questions a reviewer will ask marked in the margin.

Reports

Interim and final reports with real numbers, sent on time. They are what renewals are decided on.

Grant calendar

Every deadline, report and renewal on one calendar that survives staff turnover.

Grants for sports and youth-sports foundations

Clubs are right that funders rarely pay their operating costs. The programs around the sport are a different matter: free or reduced-fee spots for kids who couldn't otherwise play, coaching and mentoring, health and fitness, and safe places to play all fit what many funders pay for.

Community foundations fund local youth programs. Sporting goods companies and local businesses run giving programs. National sport-specific foundations, such as the U.S. Soccer Foundation, fund programs and play spaces. Program grants pay for coaching, equipment and fees. Facility grants cover fields, lights and mini-pitches, and usually want land rights, cost estimates and matching funds in place first. Knowing which one you're asking for, and who funds it, saves weeks spent on applications that were never going to fit.

I've also been on the program side

Before I wrote grants for youth-sports programs, I worked in them. I coached with Husky Sport in Hartford's North End, spent a year with AmeriCorps Coach Across America, and co-facilitated sport-based therapy groups for kids aged 5 to 18 at Doc Wayne. Funders want to know what happens at practice on a Tuesday. I can describe it because I've been on the field for it.

Operations for new foundations

A family, company or club foundation gets its tax status and then discovers how much running it takes. I set up the routines that keep it credible with donors and ready for its Form 990. At Doc Wayne and later Parents for Peace I ran donor databases, donor communications and stewardship, and built a foundation strategy with an executive director.

Board materials

Agendas, board packets with the financials and the decisions needed, and minutes kept in one place.

Donor records

Gifts recorded as they arrive, acknowledgment letters sent, and year-end receipts ready in January.

Basic policies

Conflict-of-interest and gift acceptance policies, the two funders and the 990 ask about first.

Grant-making

For foundations that give grants: a simple application, review and payment process.

How a grant project runs

1. Documents Your budget, financial statements, IRS determination letter and board list, the things nearly every funder asks for. If something's missing, we start there.
2. Funder list The funders worth applying to, ranked by fit and deadline, for you to approve.
3. Draft A full draft to your team, with the questions I couldn't answer from the documents marked for you.
4. Submit Final version and attachments checked against the guidelines, submitted, and copied to your files.
5. Report Report dates go on the grant calendar, and I write the reports when they're due.

How I charge

A flat fee per proposal or an hourly rate, agreed in writing before I start, or a monthly retainer for ongoing work. I never take a percentage of the award. The Grant Professionals Association's code of ethics rules it out, most funders won't allow it, and it rewards chasing grants that don't fit.

Related

Funders ask for job descriptions and personnel policies for the positions they pay for, and I write those on the HR side. For benefit dinners and galas, see event planning.