My apologies for missing my morning email. I dropped my kiddo off at school and immediately jumped on a grant brainstorming call with one of my clients.
It is an unusual situation.
Typically, when I begin working with a new client, I apply to local grants and then expand outward until I eventually apply for national grants.
I took the opposite approach with this client.
When I first began grant managing for them, I immediately applied for local grants- private and community foundations. I even applied for a few community service group grants.
And I heard crickets.
If I did receive a response, it was a generic denial.
I switched gears and began writing national grants. We have an outstanding mission and a unique, scalable approach so I was hoping we would be successful.
We have now won 5 national grants. For the most recent national grant award, we were selected as one of 50 organizations.
The national awards tell us that our mission is strong, and the grant proposals are strong, so what could it be?
My client serves a large city, and local grants are very political. We began paying attention to which organizations were winning grants. We researched their executive directors and who supported them.
In this city, you have to know people to win at this game. My client began setting up meetings with local council members and other political figures. He shared our success with national grants. They immediately began sharing tips for winning grants and even shared a few low-profile grant opportunities. They also wrote letters of recommendation and assured him that it would make a difference.
It is interesting how I had to flip my usual process upside down to see grant funding roll in.
But, we are grant writers, and creative problem-solving is part of what we do.
Until next time,
Write Epic Grants
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