Most nonprofit organizations I have worked with have not fully leveraged the benefits of in-kind support.
If you are the grant writer for an org that has a strong volunteer base or receives valuable tangible donations or services, encourage your Executive Director to properly and consistently calculate in-kind support. When the support is properly calculated and documented, it can strengthen a grant proposal in several ways.
Sponsored Content
Here are five ways I regularly use in-kind support to win more grant money:
- Matching Funds– If you are writing a grant that requires matching funds, in-kind donations and services can be used in most cases. For example, I applied for a $100,000 grant for a food pantry that required matching funds. The organization receives millions in food donations every year and that was applied as the match.
- Qualifying for Grants– If you want to apply for a grant that requires a higher organizational budget, make sure that in-kind support is added to the budget. Services, volunteer hours, and donations can all be counted.
- Volunteer Support– When appropriate, mention the strength and value of your volunteer base. Having a strong community buy-in builds confidence with funders.
- Community Support– Similarly to volunteer support, large donations or ongoing services from the community show strong local support, which is important to funders. For example, one of my clients has the use of boats available to them on an ongoing basis to provide services. A dollar amount is assigned to the use each time and added to the budget.
- Showcase Resourcefulness– When funders see in-kind support, they understand that their funding dollar will go further with your organization. Using community resources towards your mission demonstrates resourcefulness to funders.
What other ways do you leverage in-kind support? Hit reply and let me know.
Until next time,
Write Epic Grants
P.S. Are you new to Write Epic Grants? Don’t worry; all past emails are archived here. Head over there and don’t miss a thing.