Once upon a time there was a grantwriter who loved to write. She wrote and wrote and wrote. When she was younger, she would write beautiful stories and poems, but now she wrote only project descriptions and needs statements, descriptions of the target audience, the timeline, and the outcomes. She liked the work, and sometimes she got lost in a paragraph while searching to find just the right words to explain the life-changing effects of a scrappy community program. She savore

Fundraising is both an art and a science. It requires precision and creativity to craft a proposal that is grounded in reality, yet invites the reader to imagine a better world – one they feel compelled to fund. Philanthropy, too, is an art and a science. It takes both rigorous analysis and optimistic faith to identify and support work that can truly influence people, systems, and outcomes for the better. This blending of art and science is what makes the social sector the be

Most nonprofits focus significant time and energy on making the ask, but far fewer give the same attention to what happens after a donor says yes. It is in the space between the gift and the next interaction that relationships are either strengthened or quietly lost. The Challenge: Gratitude Fatigue in Small Nonprofits Most small nonprofits know that saying “thank you” matters, but too often acknowledgment becomes a task to check off a list rather than a tool for building las

Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Sound familiar? If you, like me, have ever balanced fundraising alongside parenting small children, sometimes those two worlds collide, and you find yourself applying cartoon quotes to your daily work. In my life as a grantwriter, the refrain of Disney’s Finding Nemo's beloved Dory, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming," really hits home. If you are not familiar with the Finding Nemo storyline: Dory is a fish who

How small nonprofits can move from hesitation to forward motion by reframing what makes a campaign possible.

Discover how to turn your message into meaningful connection and impact.

Travel back with us: it is 2010. President Obama is in his first term in office. The iPad and Instagram have just been released to the...