Grant writing is not easy; it’s not *just* about finding a grant, writing, submitting, and then repeating.

Rather, the grants profession is very competitive.

While there are many funders supporting a wide variety of fields of interest; they often care about certain geographic areas (i.e. – one city, one state), and often only provide certain types of funding (i.e. – capital, programmatic).

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What is GuideStar?

GuideStar is the premier hub for information on nonprofit organizations. GuideStar’s mission is “to revolutionize philanthropy by providing information that advances transparency, enables users to make better decisions, and encourages charitable giving.” GuideStar gathers and disseminates information to grantmakers, donors, and potential supporters so they can easily use the information learn more about your nonprofit and make better decisions. GuideStar wants to help nonprofits share their whole story through program, finance, and impact information.

Why should I update my nonprofit’s GuideStar profile?

If you have heard it once, you have heard it a million times: transparency. Transparency helps build and maintain trust with those who support your nonprofit, including potential new grantmakers. Updating your GuideStar profile is an easy way you can share information about your nonprofit.

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Every established nonprofit was once a fledgling organization, founded by an eager individual with a 501c3 determination letter in hand and a passion to serve their community or change the world. Does this sound like you? First, thank you – we are grateful to people who are willing to roll up their sleeves to tackle problems, and who create and innovate to improve quality of life and, well, to just make cool things happen. The less exciting part – except for grant professionals – is that implementing these great ideas costs money, and, if you are a brand new organization, you may not have much of that.

So what is a new nonprofit with big ideas, a shiny new 501c3 letter, and little money to do? Of course – apply for grants! Big grants! And who better to help apply for big grants but an awesome grant consultant?

We love writing grants of all sizes, and we’d love to help. But you may not need us – yet. A grant consultant can help you understand the connection between organizational development and grant seeking and help you assess and improve your grant readiness, and can help you understand the kinds of grants that you will be most competitive for initially (Pro Tip: if you’re a new nonprofit that has gotten few or no grants, you should start local and start small: a $1,000 grant from your bank’s charitable giving program is a reasonable target; a $500,000 grant from your state government is probably not). But before we even get to that point, ask yourself two questions…

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It is a day for celebration, you have completed the 30 Day Grant Readiness Challenge!!

Time for a rest day…time to relax, reflect and recharge!

You’ve done a great job with the fifth and final week of your Grant Readiness Challenge!

Here is a summary of what you have tackled this past week:

Now that your 30 Day Grant Readiness Challenge has come to a close…

What was the hardest challenge for you to tackle?

What was the easiest challenge for you to work on?

We’d love to hear! Email use your thoughts about participating in the Grant Readiness Challenge for the chance to get some personalized feedback from the DH Leonard Consulting team.

And don’t forget, grant readiness is always shifting in all organizations. You can come back and restart the grant readiness challenge over whenever you think that your organization needs to refocus on its grant readiness (and ultimately competitiveness in the grant application process).

Don’t forget to share your journey on the 30 Day Grant Readiness Challenge by using the hashtag #grantreadiness on your posts and updates on social media.

Are you hopping into the 30 Day Grant Readiness Challenge mid month? It isn’t too late for you to start! It’s free to participate in, and you can sign up at any point and it will start you back on Day 1!

You’ve nearly done it! You’ve completed daily challenges aimed at improving your organization’s grant readiness.

Your final step, and it can be now on Day 29, or in a month or two if you need some time to finish all of the challenges, is to retake the GRASP Tool so you can see how your Grant Readiness Score has improved.

How do you think you’ve done? Anxious? Excited?

Go ahead and retake the GRASP Tool.

As you should recall from Day 1, completing the GRASP Tool takes approximately 10 minutes. Your information is confidential and will not be shared publically or with any other organizations. You will receive your custom GRASP report within 72 hours of submitting your confidential assessment. You will receive a Grant Readiness Score from 0 – 120 and a visualization of your areas of grant seeking strength and areas for improvement.

Don’t forget to share your journey on the 30 Day Grant Readiness Challenge by using the hashtag #grantreadiness on your posts and updates on social media.

Did you miss the launch of the 30 Day Grant Readiness Challenge? It isn’t too late for you to start! It’s free to participate in, and you can sign up at any point and it will start you back on Day 1!