FREE WEBINAR!
Please join BDI and Grants Plus on July 8 at noon (PST) for this special webinar where you’ll have an opportunity to learn more about our partnership with Grants Plus and ask all your questions about their work with nonprofit organizations. And… find out about an incredible opportunity through Grants Plus that’s just for BDI clients. Don’t miss this! Sign up now >>
Brewer Academy – led by Shellie Speer – offers personalized guidance, training and mentorship on issues like development and key messaging.
And that help is just an email away! Email Shellie now.
According to Giving USA, $427 billion was given to charitable causes in 2018. That’s right – billion!
Over $75 billion of that amount was awarded through foundations and corporate grants. Those grants allocate money for all types of special projects, capital campaigns, operational costs, endowment funding and more.
But many nonprofits haven’t started to saturate the potential funding available to them or even come close to receiving 25% of their funding from grants.
Grant experts recommend that only 20-25% of a nonprofit’s funding be from grants – any more than that could put your organization at risk by an over-reliance on money that can’t be guaranteed annually.
While grants come from institutions, decisions to partner are made on the basis of trust between the grant maker and the organization. In fact, grant seeking is as much about a relationship as any other type of fundraising!
Recently, Brewer Direct developed a connection with an amazing team of grant experts devoted to helping nonprofits with grant seeking. Since 2007, Grants Plus has partnered with nonprofit organizations across the country to secure more than $155 million in grant funding.
BDI President and CEO Michael Tomlinson and Grants Plus President Lauren Steiner currently serve together as board members for The Giving Institute. And through this connection, his admiration for Grants Plus has grown: “I’m so impressed with Grants Plus and its results. They’re providing incredible value to vital cause-driven nonprofits, especially now when foundation funding is becoming an even bigger and more important part of the philanthropic ecosystem.”
So what’s the most important thing for nonprofits to know about grant seeking during the COVID-19 crisis? Keep going! Don’t put your grant-seeking efforts on hold. History shows that foundations step their giving up, not back, during financial crises. Therefore, pursuing grants should be a high fundraising priority right now.
Hundreds of foundations across the country have launched “rapid response funds” to allow funding into communities as quickly as possible.
Here are 2 links from our friends at Grants Plus that I hope you’ll find helpful right now:
- Grant Seeking During COVID-19: https://grantsplus.com/grant-seeking-during-the-covid-19-crisis/
- Emergency Federal Grants Resource Center: https://grantsplus.com/emergency-grant-funding-for-nonprofits/
The world feels a little bit upside down right now… but ultimately, it will come right-side up again! And when it does, the competition for grants will probably be greater than ever before.
In short: Be proactive! Be deliberate! Right now!
Want more? For this month’s “Need to Read” from MT and special guest writer Randy Brewer, click here.
