At least once a week, a client will send me a potential grant opportunity they came across. I love this because it shows me that they are engaged and that we are working as a team.
Last week, my client sent me a link to a grant with a note letting me know that it is a national grant. At first glance, the grant appeared to be well-aligned and a great opportunity. But, I needed to dig a little deeper.
I headed over to Instrumentl and pulled up the funder’s 990 report. (If you are new to grant writing, the 990 is a public record form that non-profits must submit to the IRS.) Instrumentl provides a snapshot of the 990, but I usually pull up the complete pdf report.
For this specific grant, I had a few questions:
- Although they represent the funding as “national,” where do they most commonly fund?
- What is the average grant amount?
- What focus do they fund the most?
Thankfully, these questions can be answered quickly by looking at the 990.
Where do they fund?
Unless the funder is a large, nationally known company, I am always cautious when foundations advertise “national” grants. Typically, there is a regional concentration of grant awards. In this case, I noticed in Section XIV of the 990 that the large majority of grants during the previous year were awarded in Florida and Minnesota. Only 5% of the grants were awarded in other states. My client is located in Florida, so that makes me more likely to write this grant.
What is the average grant amount?
In the same section, I look at the average grant amount. At first glance, it seems that the average is around $5,000, but then I noticed that in many cases, they award multiple grants in one year. That could cause the average amount to be deflated. I also noticed that they give grants as high as $300,000. After learning all this, I am even more optimistic about this grant.
What focus do they fund the most?
In many cases, although the grant guidelines may be vague about a grant focus, I notice that funders usually favor specific causes. Looking through the previously funded non-profits will tell you whether your grant will have a good chance of being funded. For example, a foundation may say they fund “human services,” but when you look deeper, they mostly fund homelessness initiatives. In the case of this foundation, they fund a wide range of causes and have specifically funded non-profits with missions similar to my client’s mission.
I will 100% apply for this grant, and based on the gold nuggets I mined from the 990, we have a great chance of being awarded.
I use the info from a 990 to improve my grant writing in many ways. This is just one example of how a 990 helped me this week.
Until next time,
Write Epic Grants