On the first day of Christmas,
My client sent to me,
A hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the second day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the third day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the fourth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the fifth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the sixth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the seventh day of Christmas my client sent to me,
A seven figure error,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the eighth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Eight readers reading,
A seven figure error,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the ninth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Nine new partners,
Eight readers reading,

A seven figure error,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the tenth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Ten phone call messages,
Nine new partners,
Eight readers reading,

A seven figure error,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the eleventh day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Eleven new objectives,
Ten phone call messages,
Nine new partners,
Eight readers reading,

A seven figure error,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the twelfth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
A Twelve page color graphic,
Eleven new objectives,
Ten phone call messages,
Nine new partners,
Eight readers reading,

A seven figure error,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee.

On the first day of Christmas,
My client sent to me,
A hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the second day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the third day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the fourth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the fifth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the sixth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the seventh day of Christmas my client sent to me,
A seven figure error,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the eighth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Eight readers reading,
A seven figure error,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the ninth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Nine new partners,
Eight readers reading,

A seven figure error,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the tenth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Ten phone call messages,
Nine new partners,
Eight readers reading,

A seven figure error,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the eleventh day of Christmas my client sent to me,
Eleven new objectives,
Ten phone call messages,
Nine new partners,
Eight readers reading,

A seven figure error,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee,

On the twelfth day of Christmas my client sent to me,
A Twelve page color graphic,
Eleven new objectives,
Ten phone call messages,
Nine new partners,
Eight readers reading,

A seven figure error,
Six project changes,
Five nervous Board members,
Four urgent emails,
Three grant amendments,
Two weak objectives,
And a hundred page RRR-F-Peeeeee.

We just published our latest eBook and it’s now available online!  We titled this one, “Non-Profit Grant Writing” and it’s a collection of essays on the topic!  Like our five other eBooks, it’s absolutely free to download so if you’re interested just Click Here and you can complete the form and download it instantly!

Our five other eBooks may also be downloaded by clicking the links below.

“The 12 Secrets of Successful Grant Writers”
“Freelance Grant Writing”
“Using Social Media to Improve Your Business”
“Selecting an Evaluator”
“Cooking Up Winning Grants with the Grant Goddess”

We just published our latest eBook and it’s now available online!  We titled this one, “Non-Profit Grant Writing” and it’s a collection of essays on the topic!  Like our five other eBooks, it’s absolutely free to download so if you’re interested just Click Here and you can complete the form and download it instantly!

Our five other eBooks may also be downloaded by clicking the links below.

“The 12 Secrets of Successful Grant Writers”
“Freelance Grant Writing”
“Using Social Media to Improve Your Business”
“Selecting an Evaluator”
“Cooking Up Winning Grants with the Grant Goddess”

There once was a grant writer with a big problem. No matter how much he wrote and wrote, none of his grants were getting funded. He was in despair and began to lose hope. In between grant applications, he began to submit employment applications for jobs in other fields.

One day, while delivering a resume for a job as a truck driver, the unhappy grant writer walked past a store with a sign in from on a pole that was leaning precariously as though it may fall over with the slightest breeze. The sign read, “Fortune Teller – Fortunes Told $5.”

He pulled his thin wallet from his pocket and opened it to find only four dollars inside. Thegrant writer sighed deeply and put his wallet away. He turned to walk away when the door of the shop opened and an ancient woman peered out at him and motioned at him to come in.

Quickly the grant writer looked behind him but seeing he was alone he knew she meant for him to come inside. He had second thoughts about the whole idea because he was broke and could ill-afford spending even four dollars on such a dubious adventure as having his fortune read.  The old woman again motioned for him to enter.

He was in desperate straits and willing to take any course to change his grant writing luck so he ambled up the walk and into the dim, cluttered shop where the old woman had positioned herself behind a small table draped with black cloth. In the center of the table was a large, shimmering crystal ball. The woman wore a black gown with a multi-colored sash around her shoulders. Her long, silky, white hair cascaded lightly about her shoulders. Her face was wrinkled and craggy, and her nose long and crooked.  She had an air of ancient mystery about her.

The old woman gazed intently at him, “Sit down,” she invited.  The grant writer meekly took the chair opposite her. “I knew you would come today,” she said in a low, even voice that had a metallic quality. “What is it you want to know?” she asked the grant writer. He was nervously peering into the crystal ball trying hard not to meet her glassy, black eyes. “I want to know if any of my grants will get funded,” he asked very seriously, “You see, I am a grant writer…” “I know what you do,” she interrupted.

“How do you know?,” he asked her. “I see all and I know all,” She told the grant writer. He merely gaped at her in wonder. “So…so, you can tell me if my grants will be funded or not?” “I can,” she asserted with confidence, “Sadly, none of your grants will be funded.”

The grant writer’s face fell and his eyes searched the crystal ball for answers. “Why, why won’t they get funded?” he pleaded with the old woman to tell him. “Because, you mislabeled the address on the envelopes and they’ve all been coming here to me,” she stated flatly as she plopped a stack of fat envelopes in front of the grant writer. “This is 501 Capitol Avenue and you should have written 501 Capital Avenue on these envelopes. The post office knows how to spell young man, if you’re going to be a successful grant writer, so must you,” advised the sage old woman.

So the grant writer took the old woman’s advice. He learned to use spell check, he read each narrative carefully, and he hired an hourly editor to review each grant. Soon, the grant writer was successful and nearly all of his grant applications were funded!

The moral to the story – The postman cannot read your mind.

There once was a grant writer with a big problem. No matter how much he wrote and wrote, none of his grants were getting funded. He was in despair and began to lose hope. In between grant applications, he began to submit employment applications for jobs in other fields.

One day, while delivering a resume for a job as a truck driver, the unhappy grant writer walked past a store with a sign in from on a pole that was leaning precariously as though it may fall over with the slightest breeze. The sign read, “Fortune Teller – Fortunes Told $5.”

He pulled his thin wallet from his pocket and opened it to find only four dollars inside. Thegrant writer sighed deeply and put his wallet away. He turned to walk away when the door of the shop opened and an ancient woman peered out at him and motioned at him to come in.

Quickly the grant writer looked behind him but seeing he was alone he knew she meant for him to come inside. He had second thoughts about the whole idea because he was broke and could ill-afford spending even four dollars on such a dubious adventure as having his fortune read.  The old woman again motioned for him to enter.

He was in desperate straits and willing to take any course to change his grant writing luck so he ambled up the walk and into the dim, cluttered shop where the old woman had positioned herself behind a small table draped with black cloth. In the center of the table was a large, shimmering crystal ball. The woman wore a black gown with a multi-colored sash around her shoulders. Her long, silky, white hair cascaded lightly about her shoulders. Her face was wrinkled and craggy, and her nose long and crooked.  She had an air of ancient mystery about her.

The old woman gazed intently at him, “Sit down,” she invited.  The grant writer meekly took the chair opposite her. “I knew you would come today,” she said in a low, even voice that had a metallic quality. “What is it you want to know?” she asked the grant writer. He was nervously peering into the crystal ball trying hard not to meet her glassy, black eyes. “I want to know if any of my grants will get funded,” he asked very seriously, “You see, I am a grant writer…” “I know what you do,” she interrupted.

“How do you know?,” he asked her. “I see all and I know all,” She told the grant writer. He merely gaped at her in wonder. “So…so, you can tell me if my grants will be funded or not?” “I can,” she asserted with confidence, “Sadly, none of your grants will be funded.”

The grant writer’s face fell and his eyes searched the crystal ball for answers. “Why, why won’t they get funded?” he pleaded with the old woman to tell him. “Because, you mislabeled the address on the envelopes and they’ve all been coming here to me,” she stated flatly as she plopped a stack of fat envelopes in front of the grant writer. “This is 501 Capitol Avenue and you should have written 501 Capital Avenue on these envelopes. The post office knows how to spell young man, if you’re going to be a successful grant writer, so must you,” advised the sage old woman.

So the grant writer took the old woman’s advice. He learned to use spell check, he read each narrative carefully, and he hired an hourly editor to review each grant. Soon, the grant writer was successful and nearly all of his grant applications were funded!

The moral to the story – The postman cannot read your mind.

I spoke to an artist over the weekend about how he markets his artwork online. He told me he recently closed down his web site because it was costing him too much money to make changes and updates.  He was completely dependent on his web designer to do all that for him.  I wasn’t surprised to hear his complaints.  As the Internet becomes less dependent on designers, fewer people should have to pay a lot of money for a web presence.

There’s nothing wrong with web designers, I’ve known some good ones. But I’ve found that while web designers are very interested in the “design” part, many are not so “into” the boring maintenance part. Lack of responsiveness can be a real problem for the owner of the site. Keeping a web site fresh and up-to-date is important for search engine rankings. If you don’t work at it and keep it current, visitors don’t come back and search engines rank the site progressively lower and nobody will ever find your site.

Here are some ideas for people who want an online presence but do not want to pay for it. These options are offered free on large sites that get high rankings so some search engine favoritism is built in making it easier to find you.  These are a few options that I use so I will direct you to the pages I’ve created there so you can see some basic layouts and how the content is presented on them.

Squidoo – On Squidoo you create what they call a Lens. You may create many of them which are actually content pages about whatever you want to write about. Mine is about Grant Writing Tips. I have Squidoo connected to Posterous so everything I post there goes to Squidoo as well.

Tumblr – This is a web site set up to act as a web site/blog.  Here is the tumblr staff blog so you can see a pretty nice example of what you can create here.
Posterous – This is an online service where you can set up a blog like mine here. Posterous is also nicely organized so you can enable reposting to your other sites such as Squidoo and Tumblr. Perhaps the nicest feature of Posterous is that it allows you to post via email. All you do is send your post by email to your personal account and it not only posts it to your Posterous blog, Posterous also posts it to every service you have connected. It’s pretty slick and a fast way to get your information out there around the web with one click.

Twitter – Twitter is so talked about it probably doesn’t need to be described here. I advise using it for two reasons. First, we know at our company that putting out tweets on a daily basis has a huge impact on our website traffic. Second, search results in Google are increasingly from Twitter posts (tweets), this tells me that Google thinks Twitter traffic is important. You can connect your Posterous blog to Twitter so a tweet will be issued whenever you email a blog post via Posterous.  You can also create custom twitter backgrounds like Veronica’s instead of using the stock ones that Twitter provides.
You may be reasonably asking why you would want to re-post the same content across several sites as I have advised here. The primary reason is that your audience is probably not all finding their information in the same place so you want to establish the broadest footprint on the web that you can in order not to miss anyone!

These are a few online marketing tools that can help you drive traffic back to your web site without spending a ton of money on design, Using these resources, you can build your own reputation as an expert and share information that is useful to improving the field of grant writing.  Free online services such as those above can help customers find you at a low cost.

I spoke to an artist over the weekend about how he markets his artwork online. He told me he recently closed down his web site because it was costing him too much money to make changes and updates.  He was completely dependent on his web designer to do all that for him.  I wasn’t surprised to hear his complaints.  As the Internet becomes less dependent on designers, fewer people should have to pay a lot of money for a web presence.

There’s nothing wrong with web designers, I’ve known some good ones. But I’ve found that while web designers are very interested in the “design” part, many are not so “into” the boring maintenance part. Lack of responsiveness can be a real problem for the owner of the site. Keeping a web site fresh and up-to-date is important for search engine rankings. If you don’t work at it and keep it current, visitors don’t come back and search engines rank the site progressively lower and nobody will ever find your site.

Here are some ideas for people who want an online presence but do not want to pay for it. These options are offered free on large sites that get high rankings so some search engine favoritism is built in making it easier to find you.  These are a few options that I use so I will direct you to the pages I’ve created there so you can see some basic layouts and how the content is presented on them.

Squidoo – On Squidoo you create what they call a Lens. You may create many of them which are actually content pages about whatever you want to write about. Mine is about Grant Writing Tips. I have Squidoo connected to Posterous so everything I post there goes to Squidoo as well.

Tumblr – This is a web site set up to act as a web site/blog.  Here is the tumblr staff blog so you can see a pretty nice example of what you can create here.
Posterous – This is an online service where you can set up a blog like mine here. Posterous is also nicely organized so you can enable reposting to your other sites such as Squidoo and Tumblr. Perhaps the nicest feature of Posterous is that it allows you to post via email. All you do is send your post by email to your personal account and it not only posts it to your Posterous blog, Posterous also posts it to every service you have connected. It’s pretty slick and a fast way to get your information out there around the web with one click.

Twitter – Twitter is so talked about it probably doesn’t need to be described here. I advise using it for two reasons. First, we know at our company that putting out tweets on a daily basis has a huge impact on our website traffic. Second, search results in Google are increasingly from Twitter posts (tweets), this tells me that Google thinks Twitter traffic is important. You can connect your Posterous blog to Twitter so a tweet will be issued whenever you email a blog post via Posterous.  You can also create custom twitter backgrounds like Veronica’s instead of using the stock ones that Twitter provides.
You may be reasonably asking why you would want to re-post the same content across several sites as I have advised here. The primary reason is that your audience is probably not all finding their information in the same place so you want to establish the broadest footprint on the web that you can in order not to miss anyone!

These are a few online marketing tools that can help you drive traffic back to your web site without spending a ton of money on design, Using these resources, you can build your own reputation as an expert and share information that is useful to improving the field of grant writing.  Free online services such as those above can help customers find you at a low cost.

Almost every week, I speak with someone who has just started a new non-profit organization. Many of these fine, well-intentioned folks call me because they want to find grant money to help them get started. I am not surprised when some of their expectations are a little out of alignment with reality because anyone who would go to the trouble and expense of starting a non profit organization is a bit of a dreamer and idealist to begin with. Sometimes people dive in on faith without checking the depth of the water and that can be a painful mistake.

The trouble is starting a non profit organization is an expensive undertaking, and dreams don’t always align well with reality of implementation. The legal paperwork, the tax deposit, and the time and effort to start a non profit all add up to a sizable sum of money. Many of the people I speak to are already “tapped out” by the up front expenses of becoming a legal entity. They’ve got the status, but not have no money to do what they wanted to do, so they call me about seeking grants. But grant seeking costs money too if you want someone else to do it for you, it’s a lot of work with no guarantees.

I know from first-hand experience that it’s a lot easier to start a non profit than to raise the money to keep it going. I learned this through direct experience serving ten years as a founding board member for a national non profit, starting my own non profit organization (which failed to thrive), and serving on the start-up Board for another non profit that did thrive (due to good leadership).

Here are ten things my experience tells me you should consider before paying the up front legal expenses to start a non profit organization. Attending to these things may help you avoid finding yourself in a financial hole before you even get started. I advise you to delay filing the legal paperwork until:

1. you have recruited a large enough Board with sufficient connections and resources to provide a base of local funding and support for a basic level of services;

2. you have completed a thorough assessment of the need for the services you want to provide including competing agencies and services;

3. you have surveyed potential participants on their need for the services and their preferences in terms of service delivery;

4. you have identified a sustainable entry level of service delivery;

5. you have at least explored finding a suitable and available location and/or facility to house your services;

6. you have developed at least a rudimentary fund raising plan that includes multiple funding streams and an identifiable donor pool (a fund-raising plan that may include grants, but is not dependent on grants);

7. you have recruited a Board member who is a CPA, or you have enlisted the assistance of a CPA firm willing to donate or discount their accounting services;

8. you have, or you have Board members with, credentials, experience, and connections in the area of service you want to provide;

9. you and your Board have written a mission statement that is meaningful to the community you’ll be raising funds within;

10. you have listened – really listened – to the “devil’s advocates” who can give you an alternative perspective on what you want to do (might be your wife!).

You can’t be afraid of examining your mission through the lens of the devil’s advocate. You must be courageous enough to listen to alternative points of view as you plan your non profit. If you don’t, you’re going to miss something important and you may just spend a lot of money starting a non profit that has a noble cause and no money to support it.

Funding is the life-blood that your heart-based operation must function on. Not all good ideas are fundable. Few brand new non profits are fortunate enough to identify a deep enough pocket to establish themselves. You can’t count on securing a huge grant to kick off your non profit! (In fact, as a start-up, you can probably count on not securing a huge grant) It’s probably going to take the shallow pockets of lots of people who believe in your mission to fund your project.  Take the time to test the waters before you dive in!

Almost every week, I speak with someone who has just started a new non-profit organization. Many of these fine, well-intentioned folks call me because they want to find grant money to help them get started. I am not surprised when some of their expectations are a little out of alignment with reality because anyone who would go to the trouble and expense of starting a non profit organization is a bit of a dreamer and idealist to begin with. Sometimes people dive in on faith without checking the depth of the water and that can be a painful mistake.

The trouble is starting a non profit organization is an expensive undertaking, and dreams don’t always align well with reality of implementation. The legal paperwork, the tax deposit, and the time and effort to start a non profit all add up to a sizable sum of money. Many of the people I speak to are already “tapped out” by the up front expenses of becoming a legal entity. They’ve got the status, but not have no money to do what they wanted to do, so they call me about seeking grants. But grant seeking costs money too if you want someone else to do it for you, it’s a lot of work with no guarantees.

I know from first-hand experience that it’s a lot easier to start a non profit than to raise the money to keep it going. I learned this through direct experience serving ten years as a founding board member for a national non profit, starting my own non profit organization (which failed to thrive), and serving on the start-up Board for another non profit that did thrive (due to good leadership).

Here are ten things my experience tells me you should consider before paying the up front legal expenses to start a non profit organization. Attending to these things may help you avoid finding yourself in a financial hole before you even get started. I advise you to delay filing the legal paperwork until:

1. you have recruited a large enough Board with sufficient connections and resources to provide a base of local funding and support for a basic level of services;

2. you have completed a thorough assessment of the need for the services you want to provide including competing agencies and services;

3. you have surveyed potential participants on their need for the services and their preferences in terms of service delivery;

4. you have identified a sustainable entry level of service delivery;

5. you have at least explored finding a suitable and available location and/or facility to house your services;

6. you have developed at least a rudimentary fund raising plan that includes multiple funding streams and an identifiable donor pool (a fund-raising plan that may include grants, but is not dependent on grants);

7. you have recruited a Board member who is a CPA, or you have enlisted the assistance of a CPA firm willing to donate or discount their accounting services;

8. you have, or you have Board members with, credentials, experience, and connections in the area of service you want to provide;

9. you and your Board have written a mission statement that is meaningful to the community you’ll be raising funds within;

10. you have listened – really listened – to the “devil’s advocates” who can give you an alternative perspective on what you want to do (might be your wife!).

You can’t be afraid of examining your mission through the lens of the devil’s advocate. You must be courageous enough to listen to alternative points of view as you plan your non profit. If you don’t, you’re going to miss something important and you may just spend a lot of money starting a non profit that has a noble cause and no money to support it.

Funding is the life-blood that your heart-based operation must function on. Not all good ideas are fundable. Few brand new non profits are fortunate enough to identify a deep enough pocket to establish themselves. You can’t count on securing a huge grant to kick off your non profit! (In fact, as a start-up, you can probably count on not securing a huge grant) It’s probably going to take the shallow pockets of lots of people who believe in your mission to fund your project.  Take the time to test the waters before you dive in!