Is Your Organization Grant Ready?
Charities are often eager to start applying for grants, but securing those large dollar amounts comes with a good deal of time and prep work. One way to prepare for grant applications is to assess your organization’s “grant readiness”. Think of grant readiness as a measurement of your organization’s capacity to manage grants effectively, as well as your organization’s ability to accomplish the desired outcomes from your project.
There are three key grant readiness areas that funders examine when you apply for a grant: organizational, programmatic, and financial readiness. It is helpful to amass and/or create the documentation for each of these areas, in order to demonstrate your organization’s capability of managing their grant money and successfully fulfilling the project to a funder. Although this is not an exhaustive list, here is a breakdown of some of the items necessary for grant readiness:
Organizational - Funders want to ensure that you have been around for a while and have a demonstrated ability to carry out a project. Some of the items/documents that demonstrate this to a funder include: Your organization’s history and experience managing projects; clearly defined mission, vision, and values statements, a strategic plan, an arms-length and committed Board of Directors, the staffing required to carry out the project, and the number and demographics of volunteers that support the work that you do.
Programmatic - Sometimes organizations seek out grant opportunities ,then rush to develop programs to meet the specific requirements and priorities of that funder in order to secure funds. Unless the grant is seed funding, this approach is typically not a winning formula! In these instances organizations are left scrambling to pull together program details for a program that does not yet exist - and this approach can quickly lead to mission creep. Organizations that are grant ready have fully documented their programs by developing program or project descriptions, identifying the resources needed to carry out the work, and have done research and collected data that both shows the need for the program or project, and the resulting impact on the community. If you are creating new programs for a grant application, it is worth it to take the time to think these elements through and craft them carefully. As well, you will want to identify and cultivate any partnerships well in advance of applying for funding.
Financial - When applying for grants, funders want to know that they can trust you with their money. As a result, they are looking to your organization for a history of solid financial practices. An organization that is grant-ready will have established financial documents including annual detailed budgets, a record of past and present funders, audited financial statements, as well as a demonstrated ability to successfully manage previous grants (i.e. previous grant reports). These documents will give the funder evidence that you can manage your own finances, and confidence that you can manage theirs.
Achieving grant readiness is not always an easy task and takes time to determine any gaps. At YellowTree, we offer services throughout the entire grant cycle, including helping organizations to become grant ready. Our team can guide you through this process and identify areas that will improve your ability to secure funding.