Over more than 25 years of researching, prioritizing, writing, developing objectives, creating evaluation plans, and tangling with logic models, I never spent much time measuring a crucial aspect of work that affects all those tasks…
Posts Published byFundraising HayDay
Don’t Let “Perfect” Be the Enemy Of Good Grant Writing
Once upon a time, in a cubicle far, far away, I saw an announcement for a senior grant writing position at a national organization. At first glance, it seemed like a dream job. Then, I…
Educating Up to Streamline the Grant Writing Process
Most people fall into grant writing almost by chance. Maybe someone recognized your writing skills and voila! You were “voluntold.” Perhaps you were coordinating a community program or project for a nonprofit or local government…
Re-“View”ing How to Win BIL Grants
My Fundraising HayDay podcast co-host and dear friend Amanda Day experienced a new way of looking at things during a recent vacation. While the new ice cream flavors and beautiful seascapes she discovered along the…
The Right Time to Apply for a Grant
The check-in meeting had already run an hour over. Together, we navigated the choppy seas of registration through login.gov, sam.gov, and grants.gov for the executive director (ED) and the chief development officer. I was discussing…
Need Is Not Enough To Win Grants
I’m a sucker for a quiz. From dubious quizzes about your soul mate in 1980s women’s magazines to Buzzfeed’s endless supply of “decorate your dream house, and we’ll guess your eye color,” I’m always game…
Winning More Grants: Asking for a Friend
We all get the joke by now. “Asking for a Friend” is now a much easier way of saying, “I am afraid or a little ashamed by what I don’t know or don’t want to…
3 Essentials For Nonprofit Sustainability You May Have Missed
Which do you like first, the good news or the bad news? But before you answer, what if I told you that the good news is also the bad news? How you or your…
An Introvert’s Top 3 Tips for Approaching Grant-making Foundations
Many people become grant writers because they’re better with words than people. And by many, I mean me. You too, maybe? Seriously though, in my 25+ years in nonprofit fundraising, I have met many more…
Three Tips for Better Grants Through Storytelling AND Data
Once upon a time in the kingdom of Grantlandia lived a lonely grant scribe who yearned to convince King Thomas the Tightfisted and Queen Attachmentia Excessiva to release their treasure to the people so that…