Grant Seekers Appealing to Grant Makers
Meg Sheridan
Grant seekers are continually walking a fine line, trying to engage grant makers with a compelling proposal while adhering to the foundation’s guidelines and trying to keep the proposal at a reasonable length. This makes it all the more difficult to include the tug-at-the-heart-strings human interest story and accompanying photographs that have so often been used to make an emotional connection between the nonprofit organization and the grant-making organization.
“It’s essential to tell the human side of the story,” said Cynthia Zachary of Vantage Consulting Group. “You have to translate the outcomes of your programs into something more than statistics to get that emotional connection.” But with the increased use of electronic submissions and grant making organizations stressing brevity, the challenge for the nonprofit becomes precisely when to use the human interest story to its strategic advantage without annoying the grant maker.
Nina Mogilnik, senior program officer of the Altman Foundation, said that what can be of value is a brief profile on a small group receiving services, a profile which allows the funder to draw an evidence-based conclusion of the strength of the program. She gave an example of a museum which profiled about a dozen students in an intern program. The profiles and photographs showed diversity, evidence that the museum had met its goal of introducing a broader range of students to the field of arts management.
The problem social service organizations may have is the anecdote can be of limited value to the funder. “The plural of anecdotes is not evidence,” said Mogilnik. She said the funder wants to know if the anecdote is illustrative of all other cases or an isolated success story. “If you demonstrate that one child’s life has changed, what conclusion do you want the funder to draw? Is this example typical of the outcomes of children in the program, or an exception?”
Further, if the anecdote is a pure play to the emotions, it can be of limited value, although its impact will depend on the circumstance and the claims the non-profit is making about the program. “The funder is really looking to draw a rational evidence-based conclusion from the anecdote” said Mogilnik.
“The tug at the heartstring story can be powerful in a letter of inquiry,” said Yvonne Moore, Executive Director of the Daphne Foundation, but only if the grant writer has done his research and the program fits the foundation’s mission. “Otherwise it’s just frustrating,” said Moore, and its one of the reasons why Daphne requests an organizational profile rather than a letter of inquiry.
If an applicant is invited to submit a full proposal, the Daphne Foundation wants to learn about the organizations’ programs and goals rather than individual anecdotes demonstrating success. “We’re looking for the nitty gritty—mission, goals, staffing, outcomes—we’re not looking for tug at the heartstrings at that point.”
The same goes for grantees who are looking for renewal funding: the Daphne Foundation wants to know about successes and challenges in meeting the objectives that were set out at the beginning of the funding period. “We don’t need to hear the anecdotes,” said Moore. “We are with you. You have already sold us.”
But development staffs should hang on to those stories and photos which demonstrate success. You never know when you will need them. A funder may request a photo for its annual report; a partner organization may request that one of your clients attend a reception or event. That success story can become part of your elevator speech if it succinctly depicts how your program changes lives.
And there’s always the site visit. “Go for the jugular then,” said David Walters of Disney Worldwide Publishing. “The program officer is there to help you, and needs to become impassioned by your organization so he can go back and persuade his committee to fund you.”
Meg Sheridan is the principal of Crossroads, which provides research, grant writing, and strategic planning services to nonprofit organizations. |
