Grant Writing & Funding

Holly Rustick: 00:00

Welcome to this podcast that is all about funding. From grants to crowdfunding, we will be talking with nonprofits, foundation representatives, federal consultants, passionate community members, and so forth from every angle of the funding community to see how they got funded, how they can get funded, what their challenges are, and what questions they have on securing funding. I will be answering questions and providing tips and advice on how to best move forward in securing funding for your nonprofit, profit, your research, or your business. My name is Holly Rustic and I am creator of WeGo Consulting. That's writing, editing, grants, and organizational development.

Holly Rustick: 00:36

You can find me at www.wegogrants.com. As a grant writer for more than a decade, having managed grants for various organizations around the world for years, and being a federal reviewer, I have seen every side of the coin for funding. I'm excited to share information and try my best to answer any questions that you may have so you can increase your funding and your organization can impact your community and the world at large. So let's get started because money can be groovy. Hi, everyone.

Holly Rustick: 01:09

Holly Rustic here and with V Go Consulting. Today, we are going to talk about the different types of grants. So we're gonna look at federal grants, at state grants, and at foundation grants. So if you don't really know what to apply for you kind of think oh there's just grants out there, so many thousands of grants out there. Well you are right but what kind actually makes sense for your organization?

Holly Rustick: 01:33

When looking at federal grants mainly looking at two different types and those are discretionary or formula grants. So if you're looking at formula grants just like the word it's based on a formula And that's basically where the feds get together and they allocate their budget and they decide where the monies are going to go. And even within this, they know that there's a certain amount of money that they want to have, say, go towards Medicaid. So if your state gets that grant they're actually going to be spending those monies on that specific purpose. So there's already a formula to it and there's no competition in that arena for it.

Holly Rustick: 02:09

And you know you still might get some of these formula grants because the state might need you as a subrecipient to carry out some of the activities that are mandated by the Fed. See it's kind of this pass through of funding then that way you can but that's usually when people are, know, they're more asking you to apply, there are certain types that you can get as a subrecipient but Mainly what you're going to be looking at is discretionary and just like the word discretionary that people are more of using your discretion. Using your discretion means you can actually compete for these grants they are competitive. So that's the basic two big types of federal grants. Yes, there's a couple other ones out there but those are mainly the ones that you're going to be looking at.

Holly Rustick: 02:51

And even in that grant, so say a discretionary grant, you can have a regular grant and that's just what it sounds like kind of being a regular thing or you can have a cooperative agreement and a cooperative agreement is more sometimes that can be like a research grant and or just any other type of grants and that's when the federal government is really working side by side with you. Think So about that's cooperative. So you're cooperating together and they may even have to approve your budget first, they may have to approve all your key personnel that you're gonna hire. So they're really involved in the process. You may have a lot of webinars that you have to take through the federal government, you might have monthly conference calls with other grantees and with your program manager at the federal level just to kind of make sure you're on the right track and to make sure that you're reporting.

Holly Rustick: 03:40

So there's a lot it's a lot of work to do a cooperative agreement but at the same time you do get a lot of training. So if you're a new organization, this might be something that you'd be interested in having. But at the same time, you're gonna wanna get if this is a good grant, regardless or not if it's regular or cooperative, you're gonna wanna go after it if it really fits your project. Yeah, so those are the different types and you can definitely see those on grants.gov. So I'm just going to keep this really brief but that's basically the main types of federal grants.

Holly Rustick: 04:08

State grants, you can once again formula discretionary, those are the two different types as well. But one thing to note is that there's also state contracts and that's great. You can also get federal contracts but you'll see maybe some more state contracts coming out and they're still competitive to apply for And basically the difference between a contract and a grant well there's many differences but the main one is that a contract is actually a legal binding document where a grant isn't. So say if the grant doesn't go through as you thought it was going to go through with your objectives and everything, you may have to pay back money. You may get blacklisted from, you know, like if you don't spend your money properly and all of that, you may have some things.

Holly Rustick: 04:51

I mean you definitely want to watch what you're doing But at the same time, if you don't follow through on a contract, can go to jail. So it's a different type. I mean, saying that, don't run scared screaming away from contracts because contracts are, in some ways, many levels, way easier to manage than grants for the reporting side. But on the other hand, they are legally binding. So when you're looking at different types of funding, just be aware what they entail.

Holly Rustick: 05:17

And once again, going back to the mindset behind grants on a different podcast that I did, you have to think of this as a partnership. Now it's just not free money that you're gonna get and spend no matter what. You actually have different types of partnerships with different types of grants or contracts. K. Now going to foundations.

Holly Rustick: 05:35

Foundations they're pretty awesome. Talk about like program reporting and all that it's a lot less than a federal grant and it usually isn't as thorough either as a federal grant to write so federal grants can easily be 150 pages with attachments and budgets and logic models and the whole thing whereas foundations sometimes they just want a two page letter of inquiry. You know, maybe they have four page limitations so it can be in some ways easier to write but on the other hand, they can be more competitive and they're a little bit more, I wouldn't say more selective, but it is very interesting to see the different types of foundations. So you have private foundations and public charities. So you just want to look at public or sorry, private foundations.

Holly Rustick: 06:22

Public charities are when they're asking the public for money to do their thing. It's almost like a hybrid nonprofit and think of your local radio stations and these kind of things where you're going be going after private foundation monies. And that's like the insurance companies in your area or think of the Ford Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Think of these larger foundations and even smaller ones. Now the large foundations, I will say, yes, they have a lot of money.

Holly Rustick: 06:52

They are very selective about what they fund and they have a lot of people applying. So sometimes they don't even take unsolicited offers or, you know, proposals or anything like that. So you really need to look at that as well when you're applying for foundations. One thing I'll say is, yeah, definitely go out into your community and apply for foundations if your project makes sense for what they fund. So say if they fund conservation programs and you have a project you're trying to do for homeless people, now that might not make sense.

Holly Rustick: 07:23

So you have to really look at, you know, what they actually fund. But on the other hand, if you know some of the board members and you know that they're passionate about what you do as well, I mean, it's worth a talk or conversation to see if that would be something you could apply for or if they're gonna have a funding cycle that has anything to do with what your priorities are. So once again, foundations can be a lot of fun because it is. You need to see if you know people on the board or if you need to know where the location do they give in your community. Now foundations can be very picky and very precise with what locations they're actually giving.

Holly Rustick: 07:59

They might just give in a certain county or, you know, so you really want to look at that instead of thinking, Oh, I'm going to apply. I mean, even the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, they only accept very specific priority areas. If you go on their website, it's very clear that they usually only give to people that they already know. You know, and that's just, it's up to them because it's their money. It's usually private donors or corporations that fund these foundations.

Holly Rustick: 08:26

But what you can do is you can always send people your information. You know, just like even if you're having an event coming up, send them some tickets to your event. Don't just ask, ask, ask for money. Okay? This is a relationship.

Holly Rustick: 08:38

So going back to that, it's a partnership. It's a relationship. So you really find some foundations in your area. Instead of just approaching them for money, you know, just you you just don't do that. That's like kinda saying, will you marry me when you first meet somebody?

Holly Rustick: 08:52

Don't do that. Alright. You wanna go ahead and start forming relationship. Go out on some dates. Invite them to things.

Holly Rustick: 08:59

Send them pictures of what you're doing. Have them really personalized. Get this information personalized so it's more friendly to them. And, you know, they might not be funding what you're doing, but they may know somebody on another board that is funding different priority areas like yours, and they might recommend you if they have that personal relationship with you or if they've just seen your stuff a few times and they've been invited to things that you're doing. So you wanna go ahead and, you know, and look at see who else they're funding.

Holly Rustick: 09:30

Look at the other organizations. So if other organizations are getting grants from them, definitely look at what the organizations are doing differently than you. Do they know people too? Are they doing different prior or is their priority area similar to yours? So you can definitely look at these different things and find out what other organizations they're funding, find out what they're giving.

Holly Rustick: 09:51

So they might say they give for something, but when you start looking, actually, they're giving to they're giving, you know, different things to different people. So another thing you can do is go on guidestar.com, and you can look at all the foundations there by putting in their name, and you can look through their nine nineties that they filed. So that is public information, and that's a free service, free website to use. And you can go through, and you can actually see who they've to over the years, for what, and for how much. So that's a really good way of just researching your foundations to really see, are they doing something?

Holly Rustick: 10:29

Are they giving to similar things that, you know, you might be doing? So you really wanna find out what their mission and vision is and see if your project even aligns with them. It may not. You may think it does, but when you start doing some research, you find out, well, you know what? That really doesn't click.

Holly Rustick: 10:45

But I see they're giving to these other organizations, and then you go on to those organization websites and see where they're getting all of their funding from. You know, they might have that listed, and then you can kinda find some new ideas and new new sources. Does this take time? Yes. But will you have a better match than sending out a 100 applications to a 100 different places that are all the exact same application?

Holly Rustick: 11:09

You're gonna waste your time doing that. I'm gonna tell you right now. Don't do that. Don't do the one shot bull's eye thinking that you're being productive because you're not. Take the time to do the research and to really look at the different types of grants that you wanna apply for.

Holly Rustick: 11:22

So whether that be a federal grant, so if you're looking at a discretionary grant, you come across a regular grant or discret or a cooperative agreement and you really wanna apply, do a little digging into the actual funding opportunity announcement and see if you're a really good match for if your project is a really good match. You don't wanna spend two hundred hours of preparing this grant application, you know, among all your team and and then all of a sudden realize that you're not even eligible for it. So you really wanna make sure that you know what kinds of grants there are, what they what they actually prioritize, and then make sure that you're in a place to be competitive in that process. Really do the research. So federal grants, discretionary formula, and you want to go after the regular grants or the cooperative agreements.

Holly Rustick: 12:11

So for state grants, can go after either one as well and look at contracts too. Really look at what's going on in your state. And then of course for foundations, you want to go after private foundation funds, not public charities, and really do the research. Do they fund in your location? Do they fund for the priority areas that you're looking at?

Holly Rustick: 12:31

Do you know anybody on their board? Do you know anyone in their organization? Do you have anything coming up where you can start sending them and just making that relationship, making, here's some tickets to this event, here's this going on, this is what we do, hey I just want to let you know. That's the way that you can really be more competitive in your funding and those are the different types of grants. So if you have any more questions on this, please give me an email hollywego@gmail.com.

Holly Rustick: 12:56

That's h o l l y w e g o, like we go somewhere, at gmail dot com. Alright. I'll see you next time.