Money With Morals
What statistics and data support this mission? Why is this work so critical? First, we need contextual research to ensure the community need for this project: Whose funding priorities best align with the nonprofit's mission? What community gaps does the nonprofit fill? How can they partner to meet those needs? Then we should consider the relevance to the grantmaker: When this Relevance, we should consider the logical proof of ROI. For example, we might say, “For every dollar invested in this program, there's a five-dollar return on your investment. That’s a five-dollar impact in the community to help pay it forward.” In other words, can you quantify what they are saving by investing in prevention? Or demonstrate the impact of the education, services, or intervention you provide? thinking through
confusing. When selling a product or service, the general rule of thumb is, “The confused mind won’t buy.” In the same way with nonprofits, a confused mind won’t donate or award a grant. Let’s strive to eliminate confusion.
How can I support you this week? What's your big vision for this work? What keeps you up at night? What keeps you coming back day after day? Who can I introduce to you that would be a meaningful connection? better questions of our nonprofits? Things like: Instead of saying, “Just get a grant for that,” how can we ask meaningful questions? Then stop and listen to what they say, because that will give us valuable clues as to how we can truly help nonprofits build their ROI: the Relevance, Optimization, and Interactions that will lead to a much bigger Return On Impact. By doing that, we can truly help nonprofits impact the world.
Interact
Finally, Interactions are key. We must cultivate authentic, meaningful relationships with the people we serve, communities, volunteers, board members, staff, complementary organizations, and other service providers. There's a person on the other side of everything we do, whether a grant application, email, or phone call. Grantmakers are people, not ATMs, and we must treat them as such. Adam Witty, CEO of Forbes Books, said, “Business moves at the speed of trust.” We should be building trust through all our interactions and relationships well before the day of the race.
Teresa Huff, MSEd, is the host of the award-winning Grant Writing Simplified Podcast, a TEDx speaker, and the go-to nonprofit strategy and training expert. She’s helped nonprofits triple their funding and maximize their impact. Learn more at www.teresahuff.com
ROI for Results
Relevance, Interact. Nonprofits may have two of the three and make some progress, but something’s still missing. We need all three to build ROI. That's the secret sauce. It's not easy; nonprofit work is a long-term commitment. Like marathon training, it takes time, but it's worth it when you get the pieces together. Optimize, Accidental Creative author Todd Henry makes a bold statement, “In the end, we're more defined by the questions we avoid than the questions we ask.” That’s painful! I don't want to be defined that way. I’d rather ask better questions. I'm going to challenge all of us: How can we ask
Optimize
The next piece of the ROI Framework is Optimization. In other words, the nonprofit should run successfully without grants before we add them to the mix. Is the organization running like a business, or are things scattered? The nonprofit should have:
Solid
infrastructure
and
leadership Efficient systems Organization
Optimization is critical. A business investor won’t finance something
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