The Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation has published a comprehensive guide answering common questions about donor advised funds, including: What are DAFs, why are they increasingly popular, and what should you consider if you’re looking into one?
Grant Writing Tips
A Social Psychologist On Five Elements Of Good Writing
grantmakers become more isolated from most grantseekers, and most grantseekers become less visible to grantmakers, the art of writing becomes more and more critical to relationship-building success. There are a thousand good articles on good grant writing. Joachim Kreuger, a social psychologist from Brown University, offers these universal writing good elements:
- Relevance: A good text conveys the information that matters, although a few exceptions can spice things up without much distraction.
- Economy: Wordiness debases writing by diluting it. I began this post with the sentence “Good writing is hard,” when I could have written, “It has long been recognized that writers must overcome many difficult challenges before they can deliver an appealing and comprehensible body of text.” Look out for boilerplate and run-on sentences! Even if a sentence is sound, most adverbs and adjectives can be stricken without loss of information. Strong action verbs communicate better than noun-heavy phrases.
- Vividness: Good writing evokes images in the reader’s mind. It is perceptual and hallucinatory. A poor text allows readers to hear the words in their minds without evoking images. Again, action verbs help.
- Coherence: The text must hang together, tell a story, and follow a narrative arc. Lists don’t do this, and this post is playing with fire. Each part of the text has its own mission. Section headers can help, but an elegant text won’t always need them. When the writing is good, readers know where they are in the story.
- Humor: A good text is entertaining, and humor is a spice that keeps boredom at bay. Good humor is subtle and not thigh-slapping. Good humor lets the reader in on a joke without being condescending or obscure.
What’s in Font?
The Washington Post has a couple of tests you can take to determine which font is right for you, your organization and your prospective donors. It’s probably not what you think.
Grant Writing 101: Know Your Impact
Grants consultant, Barbara Stratton, recently did a piece for the Chronicle of Philanthropy that critiques “faulty” grant requests to illustrate “How to Write Grant Proposals That Get Results“
Small Family Foundation Workshop Materials
Fundraisers aren’t afraid to ask, it’s because*:
- They know success is dependent on putting the donor in charge of the pace and the donor is in no rush.
- There’s no real urgency they can point to.
- They don’t feel like they have the right project to put in front of the donor.
- They don’t want to blow a bigger opportunity
- The donor has asked for something that the organization hasn’t provided.
- Something about the project doesn’t seem quite right (e.g. they don’t feel the organization can deliver on the promises being made.)
- The donor is asking for more that the organization can deliver on.
- The donor’s cognitive or physical health is questionable.
- They sense the donor needs more time, information, or interaction with project leaders.
- They know the donor is distracted by some other life event.
- They just can’t tell where the donor is, but the vibe isn’t one of great interest.
- The donor has brought a new person into the equation (a spouse, child, financial advisor, etc.)
- Some pre-existing issue the donor had with the organization hasn’t been worked out.
- The donor has expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership of the organization.
- (*First published on Linkedin by Langley Innovations, commented on by Council for Advancement and Support of Education : https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7073992379359252480?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios)
7 red flags for funders in your grant proposal
From Candid
Here’s the list. Read More online for details on each
1. Not reading the directions
2. The numbers don’t add up
3. Outcomes are not clear—or are confused with activities or outputs
4. Proposal is not personalized to the funder
5. Not being clear about who is going to do the work
6. Your proposal is unrealistic
7. Not checking spelling, grammar, and formatting
New Terms: 2023
Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 04:13 pm
- Social Impact Infrastructure Organizations (SIIOs) Propel Philanthropy uses the term to identify groups they call “the indispensable backbone for the philanthropic, nonprofit, and civil society sectors”. They are resource builders, conveners, networks, platforms, trainers, educators, researchers, media outlets, and advocates.
- Race Equity Glossary: Maintained by MN Education Equity Partnership, used by several national organizations, coalitions and higher education groups.
- Definitions of Empowerment Language Borealis Philanthropy has published their Glossary Definitions.
- This guide from Disability: walks through the general dos and don’ts when interacting with individuals who identify as disabled
- Racial Equity Tools Glossary SOURCE: Project Change’s “The Power of Words.” Originally produced for Project Change Lessons Learned II, also included in A Community Builder’s Toolkit – both produced by Project Change and The Center for Assessment and Policy Development with some modification by RacialEquityTools.org.
- Meanwhile spaces: Disused sites leased or loaned for a certain period of time by the public sector or developers to local community groups, art organizations, start-ups, and charities. These sites may be vacant or under-used shops, buildings, open spaces, or land. Temporary contracts allow community groups, small businesses, or individuals to pursue economic activity at below-market rates to generate social value for the neighborhood and its inhabitants
- Diversity Dishonesty: hiring a ton of diverse people, putting diverse people on company photographs and advertising assets, but not valuing them in the organization, and then gaslighting when the issue is raised (from According to stylist.co.uk)
- Houseless, unhoused, unsheltered:People are turning away from the most common term, “homeless,” in favor of alternatives. Each one has a slightly different meaning.
- Generosity Experience: your new term for the online solicitation process, as in How to Design a Magical one on Your Nonprofit’s Website
- The Communications Network (the association of grant maker communications people) has a dedicated website directed at how foundation and nonprofit communicators can improve racial equity through their work. The site includes tools to craft relevant messaging that centers diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the results of the 2019 survey of DEI experts. Some of the findings:
- The terms “race” and “racism” rarely appear in organizational DEI definitions, even for organizations focused on justice and equity.
- Respondents rated their organizations’ staffs as more diverse than their boards, and their boards as more diverse than their senior leadership.
- Less than half (42%) of respondents said they had a strong understanding of DEI concepts.
- Over half (57%) saw the impacts of implicit bias present in social good communications.
- Almost half (46%) recognized unintentional reinforcement of stereotypes and an overall lack of understanding of what language should be used in racial equity messaging.
- About one-fifth (21%) of respondents said there was a lack of support for DEI initiatives within the organization.
- BIMPOC – Black, Indigenous, Multiracial, People of Color. This more inclusive term is becoming more popular in philanthropy trade journals
- Third Places – Read the Walton Family Foundation’s opinion piece on funding “third places,” including non-work and non-home places, commercial and public indoor places like bars, restaurants, cafés, barber shops, beauty salons, museums, and libraries, as well as outdoor places like trails and bike paths.
- Latine – There’s a growing debate about the use of “Latinx” as an all-inclusive term for people of all the folks who used to be included in “Hispanics” and “Latinx”. We each get to choose our own names.
- Canopy Gap and Tree Grief – The Star Tribune recently had a piece on how poor neighborhoods have so many fewer trees and shrubbery than wealthy neighborhoods. Evidently, there are some very serious problems when we don’t have enough trees which we call “canopy gaps” or “tree grief”.
- Virtue Signaling – Another old term that’s resurfaced – Mostly intended for corporations or powerful people, “virtue signaling” implies actions taken only to improve their moral reputation. In the early 1990s, it was overused by folks who were pointing out politicos or businesses who did something that looked great that was also hugely visible. It’s back and for good reason.
- Revisiting Capacity Building and Strategic Philanthropy – Sara EchoHawk wrote a nice piece for Nonprofit Quarterly in 2019 on “capacity building” and how many funders use “strategic philanthropy” as code for “overly prescriptive grantmaking”. Both capacity building and strategic philanthropy are back in style. Maybe it’s good to think what each term really means.
- Narrative Change – We debated whether to put this item here, in the Toolbox section or the Survey Says area. Narrative change is a becoming more popular as a distinct and successful tool for advocates and human service people alike. Critical Race Theory and Climate Change stories are two key examples of narrative change. This report, Funding Narrative Change, defines terms, delineates benefits (e.g., funders want to learn), and provides “how to” examples. An important read for people who need to open minds.
12 Ways to Attract New Donors
From Network for Good
Here’s the list. Read More online for details on each
1. Relationship mapping
2. Research, research, research
3. Be where they are
4. Leverage your volunteers
5. Turn your board into advocates
6. Launch a peer-to-peer campaign
7. Host an event
8. Build partnerships
9. Get out in the community
10. Host cultivation parties
11. Cultivate the next generation
12. Maximize corporate partnerships
Best tool ever for fundraising for children and youth orgs
From Anne E Casey Foundation
Theses are Foundation’s signature resources tracking the well-being of children over time and across states in order to provide high-quality, unbiased information and encourage action on behalf of kids and families.
From the Website:
The KIDS COUNT Data Center is an online resource that provides data on child well-being over time from the most trusted national sources and from more than 53 state- and territory-based organizations. The KIDS COUNT Data Center houses hundreds of key child and family well-being indicators and more than four million data points at the national and local levels.
The KIDS COUNT Data Book provides a detailed picture of how children are faring in the United States, ranking states on overall child well-being and domains. The Data Book also contains key indicators covering economic well-being, education, health and family and community. Each year, the release of the Data Book generates significant media attention and a unique opportunity to discuss ways of improving the lives of children and families.