10 Lessons I Learned Raising $10 Million

By Kirsten Hubbard

Last month, my company achieved a remarkable feat. Ghost Writer has now connected great nonprofits with over $10 million! From food insecurity to teen mental health to broadband equity to animal protections—there is so much important work we make possible, and our work allows those organizations to do what they do best—change the world! Here are 10 lessons I learned along the way, plus my #1 most important rule as a bonus!

1. Celebrate smaller grants and donations: Everyone loves a splashy headline: $ 2,534,000 grant awarded! While those large grants feel great, they often come with very stringent guidelines, reporting requirements, and a lot of rigid oversight. Celebrate smaller grants or donations that can be far more flexible and cost less in time to administer. Smaller donations add up, and your organization doesn’t become over-reliant on any one revenue stream. Community foundations are a great place to start. Click here to find a community foundation near you. Smaller grants also prepare the organization for the rigors of applying for larger grants, which brings us to our next step.

2. Build infrastructure: The process of preparing for a formal development program holds its own value, outside of the funding raised. Properly evaluating and preparing can include infrastructure items like ensuring registrations are in place and financials are current.

3. Create capacity: A robust development plan, including grants, direct mail, social media, donor database, press releases, sponsorships, cannot be simply absorbed by existing staff. Understand these are time-consuming tasks that take a tremendous amount of research, writing, editing, budgeting, technological savvy, and industry-specific knowledge—often on a very short deadline. Consider hiring specifically for the job or, for value and flexibility, try outsourcing. Doing so allows your staff to do what they do best—their mission.  

4. Do the research: I am a writer, so I wish I could claim we reached the $10 million mark because we write with Shakespearean beauty and genius. But, in truth, our success is largely owed to very thorough research. We rely on an in-house subscription to the premier grants database, as well as several other databases, and have relationships with local contributors in each community we serve. We read the guidelines—every word—to ensure we have a portfolio of funding opportunities that maximizes time and effort and gives the client the best possible return on investment.

5. Coordinate with a calendar: Knowing what grants are a good fit is vital information, but information that can be easily dropped if it is not organized into an annual calendar. Creating a calendar allows you to visualize application and reporting deadlines, understand revenue fluctuations, make the most of matching funds, coordinate messaging across your fundraising and marketing channels, and create a realistic and effective workflow for your team. We typically create calendars in a spreadsheet as a base for monthly evaluation and reporting, including calculation of our Return on Investments. Many of Ghost Writer’s clients see double digit returns on investments. What line item on your expense budget has a double digit return on investment?

6. Use project management software: While spreadsheets are great at giving a succinct overview, project management software is uniquely suited for the complexities of grants management. Project management software allows for the tracking of grant and report deadlines, storage of grant- or project-specific budgets, and recording why decisions were made about specific grants all in one place. This functionality saves tons of time on the back end, given that the funder may wait up to a year to make decisions about the grant.

7. Organization, know thyself: As stated earlier, the process of seeking grants has worth far beyond funding. Often conversations arise around priorities, policies, and budget that are prompted by a grant application, but have far deeper roots in the organization. What is your diversity policy? Is the board and staff aligned on direction? Is there tolerance for heavy reporting requirements? What is the vision for the future? What is your succession plan? These topics can be difficult, and it is important the organization and its leadership coalesce around shared values and ideas.

8. Winning the grant is just the beginning: There is real joy when a grant is approved. Not only is the money itself transformational, but the approval offers a feeling of validation to those who do the difficult work of living out the organization’s mission. But approval really is only the beginning. Ensuring programs and projects are completed with fidelity to the grant and that metrics are gathered in accordance with reporting requirements is foundational to preserving the relationship and seeking the next grant.

9. Complete reports: There is nothing more frustrating for a funder than spending time following up with an organization who doesn’t complete reporting! Be a good partner. Failing to complete reports on time can affect your ability to receive further grants, not only from that funder, but perhaps from others. Grantors talk to each other, and a reputation for not caring properly for funding may affect the organization for years.

10. Don’t chase the money: Be thoughtful in your ask. Put mission first. Grants should be an avenue to reaching strategic goals set and agreed upon by the board and staff. I have seen instances where large grants have been so outside of the mission that the organization was overwhelmed and weighed down, stifling their ability to carry out their actual mission.

And, as promised, here is my #1 most important rule to winning grants:

Funders do not give money because you need money! Funders each have their own mission and goals. Know the funders’ goals and tell them why your organization is best poised to meet those goals. Write from the vantage point of the funders’ goals, not yours.

One example I use is this: If my son asks me for $50 because he wants a video game, I am unlikely to give him that money. But, if he comes to me, knowing I would like to improve my flower bed, with a plan of work and budget for items, including labor of $100, I am likely to accept that. See how he shifted from his needs to mine?

A shift in writing to show how your organization meets a funders’ goals completely changes the tenure of an ask. Try it and see.

We would love to hear your thoughts, and invite you to connect via Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Whether you need to raise $100 or $100 Million, let's talk! Learn more about how Ghost Writer can help your organization build a foundation for the future. Call 866-GHOSTIE or email doingwhatmatters@ghostwriterquill.com.