Building a Grants Program Phase 1: Research and Ranking
The Covid-19 pandemic brought with it unprecedented challenges, deeply affecting schools in many different ways. In light of these challenges, a year into the pandemic, a growing number of public charter schools are seeking to diversify their revenue streams by launching and expanding grants programs. Given the disparities highlighted by the pandemic and the myriad humanitarian crises, foundations exponentially increased their grantmaking. Educational equity, specifically from the perspective of racial equity, is a funding priority of many foundations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) teams, creating several new opportunities that lend themselves to building a robust grants program. Grantmaking has also seen a shift away from conventional practices, and is evolving to include more equitable and community-led processes.
Candid and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy released data and analysis that points to a rise in giving to communities of color, and shared that $20 Billion went to COVID-19 Philanthropy in 2020, including $9.4 billion from corporate foundations, and underscored that funding from independent foundations almost doubled. 1
Do you want to build a grants program and improve your win rate with grants? In the upcoming months, we will be sharing strategies and resources on building a successful grants program in three phases!
Phase 1: Research and Ranking
Phase 2: Strategy Development and Cultivation
Phase 3: Proposal Writing and Stewardship
Here are some tips on how to get started with phase 1, research and ranking:
Begin with Research
Research is an essential stage in building a viable and sustainable grants program, and will inform your outreach for the duration of the fiscal year and beyond. Developing grant proposals takes cross-functional teamwork and requires a significant use of resources, which is why researching which funding opportunities are the right fit, is a critical first step.
Begin your research by asking, and answering, these questions:
What are the goals of your research?
Are you looking to fund a specific project, or for general operating support, and what is your specific fiscal goal? Follow this up by identifying a timeline for raising the funds, and executing the project.
What category does the project fall under?
For example, clearly define whether you are looking to fund specific programs, like facilities, arts, capacity building, or launch a new project.
Which are schools or organizations in your area that have aligned models and ideologies?
Once you have a list of charter schools and similar organizations in your area, review their publicly available IRS form 990, and research their funders to see if they would be a fit for your organization.
Who are your most supportive former funders?
Former funders, or lapsed donors, can be a great resource since they have already demonstrated their mission-alignment and trust in your work and methodology.
What is your programmatic focus/specialty and what makes you unique?
Defining your focus enables you to ensure alignment with funders and their giving priorities. Defining what makes your work unique enables you to stand out among large groups of applicants.
How do you define ethical funding sources?
List funders that you would not accept funding from for ethical reasons. For example, schools usually don’t accept funding from the tobacco and alcohol industries and environmental organizations don’t accept funding from oil and gas companies.
It is also important to research opportunities that align with your project timeline. To ensure that you are meeting your timeline goals, here are some additional questions you should be answering: When do you need the funding? What is the deadline for the application? When will the grant be reviewed and final decisions made? What is the time frame for spending the funds? All of these details will impact whether the grant opportunity will work for the project or program you wish to fund.
Check out our Additional Grant Funding Resources section below for more information on where you can find grant funding opportunities at the local, state, and national levels.
Rank and Prioritize Opportunities
Ranking is the next step and includes these three factors:
Affinity: alignment with your organization’s work and mission.
Affluence: ability to support your organization financially.
Access: your ability to connect with the prospective funder.
Review your list of prospects and then rank them in three tiers of high, medium, and low priority, based on affinity, affluence, and access. Those funders whom you have a relationship with should be at the top of your list.
Start with Local Grants
While it is tempting to pursue national grants, they are highly competitive and much more difficult to win. They usually have more complex requirements, such as showing a track record of grant-management, demonstrating impact with metrics, and rigorous reporting requirements. Therefore, they can be much more challenging to both win and administrate without sufficient grant management experience.
It is relatively easier to start out competing for local grants that enable you to build a track record, which many national grantmaking organizations look for as a prerequisite. These can be community and family foundations, corporate foundations, religious groups, such as churches, clubs, such as Rotary and Kiwanis, athletic groups, professional associations, and local businesses including cafes and restaurants, that play a role in effecting change in their local communities.
Map Relationships and Identify Connections
Having ranked your funding sources, it is time to begin building a funding pipeline, which is a process of projecting revenue that enables you to track progress toward a long-term goal, involving a series of discrete stages. In order to successfully begin building a pipeline of local grantmakers, begin by mapping relationships to build a picture of the school’s network and use it as a starting point to build targeted cultivation plans.
Corporate Sponsorships and Clubs
Locate funders who are mission-aligned and support charter schools, serving students in the community, with education as a funding priority, which often means they are a good fit in terms of affinity. Community and corporate foundations, such as the Target, Walmart, and Nike Foundations, and local offices of national corporations, such as the AllState Foundation and CenturyLink, are other avenues for pursuing funding that lead in the affluence category.
Community Partners and Network-building
Mobilize parent networks to gain introductions and cultivate connections with affiliated organizations, such as religious, social, and professional groups, building networks and growing access to prospects. Invite parents to host coffee meetings and small (5-8 person) gatherings, as a first step to meeting new prospective funders. Other school leaders and community partners can also be a great resource. Build relationships with them and explore the opportunity of co-writing grants, leveraging the strength of partnerships to earn an initial grant and become known to funders.
Leveraging Staff, Board, and Parents
The Board of Directors, parents, and staff are an underutilized resource in most mission-driven organizations, yet they are some of the best champions of your impact. Collaborate with them to list athletic groups, after school programs, and community partners, where they have connections and can make introductions, stewarding access to prospects. Finally, harness their connections to gain access to corporate grants, in-kind giving, and volunteering opportunities.
Additional Grant Funding Resources
For local and state grants, begin looking for funding opportunities within your current network. For example, School Districts and Charter School Associations often share local and state grant opportunities.
Check out your local government office and sign up for funding newsletters. For example, the DC Mayor’s Office shares weekly grant opportunities for DC organizations.
The 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program supports academic enrichment during non-school hours with focus on reaching high-poverty and low-performing schools.
Charter School Growth Fund supports public charter schools, funding their expansion, and aiding them with increasing their impact.
Use the Foundation Directory Online as a resource, which is free at local libraries and has limited free or unlimited paid online access.
Get Ed Funding is another resource that aggregates several national grants, and some DC grants, specifically for STEM schools.
Grantmakers for Education focuses on improving educational outcomes and increasing opportunities for all learners.
Grant Station is a resource with information on regional, national, and federal grants.
The National Charter School Resource Center is an excellent resource for national grants, although these are much more competitive.
As a starting point for federal grants, the US Department of Education is a great resource that shows prior winning grant proposals that can give you insights into how to make your proposal stronger.
Sign up for newsletters on community foundation websites, and set Google alerts to stay informed.
Reach out to our team (John@FundEDStrategies.com), if you have additional questions on improving your success rate with grant funding. Join us on Twitter and LinkedIn for more tips, strategies, and resources, and stay tuned for our article on Phase 2: Strategy Development and Cultivation, and a book on this subject ready later in 2021!
About John Campbell and FundEd Strategies
John Campbell is a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) who brings passion, energy, and innovative thinking from over 10 years of development and organizational management experience in the social sector.
John founded FundEd Strategies, LLC in 2018 to support schools, education nonprofits, and small to midsize organizations to start, scale, and sustain their fundraising programs. Prior to forming FundEd Strategies, John served as Director of Advancement for Eagle Academy Public Charter School. At Eagle Academy, John was responsible for the cultivation of over $5 million in strategic resources and partnerships which were designed to improve student success as well as organizational strategy. While at Eagle, John was instrumental in the formation of the Cassandra S. Pinkney Foundation, a private foundation formed after the passing of Eagle Academy’s founder with the mission of making space for opportunity. John served as the Foundation’s first Executive Director.
Previously, John held roles that include development director and executive director, where he was responsible for producing and implementing multimillion-dollar development and cultivation strategies.
John graduated from Lebanon Valley College with a Bachelor degree in Business Administration and Economics, and earned his Master in Business Administration from the Kogod School of Business at American University.
Connect with John on LinkedIn and Twitter!
About Peggy Downs and Granting Your Vision
Peggy Downs is on a mission. She wants to help 100 school leaders write successful grants in the next 5 years. In addition to writing grants for charter schools, she provides training and support for school leaders to learn how to write grants and develop grants programs.
Peggy Downs holds a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and a Colorado Principal License. With 20 years of experience in charter schools, she has served as a founding parent, teacher, director, and board member. She has supported state and national charter school associations, and has served on the Peer Review Team for Charter School Program (CSP) Grants. She has given presentations at state and national conferences, and was rated a Top 20 Presenter at #NCSC19.
Peggy Downs writes a weekly blog for school leaders called Granting Your Vision, and is the author of the series, Grant Writing for School Leaders. She is currently working on an online training series for school leaders called Get Results with Grants.
Learn more at www.peggydowns.com, and connect with Peggy on LinkedIn and Twitter!