Connecting with Potential Funders

Ever wonder if a certain grant is right for your organization? Are you uncertain about how to answer the questions in a grant application?  One way to avoid confusion in grant-writing is to always touch base with the funder about your project before you even begin grant writing. Reaching out to a funder provides you with a number of benefits: 

• Emailing or calling a funder (if their number is available) is a great way for them to meet and get to know you and this gives you an opportunity to build a relationship with the funder before you have even applied.  The person that you make contact with is usually a program officer or sometimes the Executive Director of a foundation. That person now knows your name, the organization you work for, and has an idea of what kind of a project you will be undertaking. While these are not usually the individuals who make the funding decisions, they can often provide input to those that do. 

• Making contact with a funder also allows you to get clear on the funder’s priorities. Knowing this kind of detail about what a funder is looking to support will often allow you to write better grant applications, as now you can show exactly how your project fits with their funding interests. 

• Reaching out to a funder in advance is also a great time saver – ensuring that you don’t spend your precious time writing a grant application that is really not aligned with your programming or your organization – so that you can move on to applications that are a better fit.