It’s the Season… Competitive Grant Requests

Does your non-profit organization have an impactful project or program you want to implement in the near future? Are you just itching to leverage a collaboration with one of your key partners to get it launched? How about a shot in the arm for your operations? 

If you are a 501(c)3 non-profit located in West Central Illinois or Northeast Missouri, your Community Foundation can help! Through our Competitive Grant program, we fund special projects or programs up to $7,500 and provide general support up to $2,500. ($1,000 minimum) I thought this might be a good opportunity to go over some of our requirements and some grant-writing best practices, because sometimes the application process can seem intimidating. 

It’s great to have the spark of an idea, but you are going to need a plan to make it a reality. Don’t worry. You can do it! First ask yourself where your organization’s strengths lie. How does your project fulfill your mission? If your project is unique or innovative, all the better! If you are serving an at-risk or underserved population, as many are in our region, then you may want to consider a request for general operating support too. Whichever direction you decide, ultimately your plan’s funding request will need to show how a grant will make a significant impact on the project’s overall success.

You are going to need to assemble some basic information about your organization in addition to the amount of your request. This is the easy stuff, like your mission and focus area, but also the geographic area that you serve. You should also have a good idea of the population demographic your project will impact… and what the need is in the community for your activity. Want to make a bigger impression? Focus more on your solutions to the problem and how you are uniquely qualified to carry them out.

Next the Harder Stuff…  

Put the details together of your project plan. You should include timing and collaborations with other organizations. It’s great to have help! Don’t forget to mention if you have partners in your back pocket! It will also be important to describe any goals that you have and how you will measure the results.

Assemble the budget you will follow for the project, your organizational budget, and financial statements you have to back it all up. Believe it or not, many applications contain math errors, so don’t forget to check your accuracy. After all, your budget needs to make sense to someone unfamiliar of your day-to-day operations.

We all have plenty of time in our day to spend reading lengthy documents and pontificating what it all means, right? No? Guess what! Grant reviewing committees don’t either, and too much information can make it difficult to remember what exactly it is your organization is trying to achieve. Keep it easy to read, concise, and lose unnecessary jargon, acronyms, and big words that can make your proposal difficult to understand. Don’t send any attachments that aren’t absolutely necessary for your purpose. 

In the long run, the best way to stand out in a crowd of applicants is to tell a great story. How has your organization made a meaningful difference in a person’s life? Beyond just asking for money, your story has the ability to evoke an emotional response from the reviewer (tugging the heartstrings). And that will make your proposal memorable.

We can help you avoid mistakes that could get your application disqualified! We are happy to help review your application before you submit it officially to maximize your chance of success. If you’d like us to review it, please send a request to grants@mycommunityfoundation.org before May 24, and I can help you out!

If you are still unsure about applying for a Community Foundation Competitive Grant, be sure to check out our webpage: https://www.mycommunityfoundation.org/competitive-grants. There are tons of links and resources to help you through the process, including Field of Interest fund descriptions to help you see what types of non-profit projects we have dedicated support for.

Don’t let funding short-falls stand in the way of your mission. With just a little legwork, your Community Foundation can help get your non-profit on track to a successful year! We are connecting people who care with causes that matter!

On a mission,

Kent A. Embree

Program Officer