(photo from DepositPhotos)
By Laine Seaton
You need to celebrate wins when it comes to grants. What that means is to not only look at how much money you raised, but to evaluate the many other indicators of progress that can often be overlooked.
In the grant world, it’s easy to just look at the bottom line, asking yourself “How much money did we raise from grants this year?” But there is so much more to your grants story if you look a little closer. Here are 5 ways to assess the growth of your grants program that might result in a more telling story.
- Start At The Beginning
You do want to calculate the amount of revenue raised, but it is useful to tally the total number of grants submitted, awarded, declined, and pending, to arrive at an overall “win” rate. But just like with individual donors, not all grant funders are the same.
Take a good look at your entire funder list. Note not only how many are listed in total but how many are new, renewed, or lapsed and ascribe percentages to these. Chances are that a grant list with 80% repeat funders will reflect a strong and established grants program. By contrast, 80% of new funders will require time to build those relationships. This exercise will reveal a true starting point and guide growth in each segment.
- Recognize Repeaters
Unless you’re just starting out, hopefully your organization will have a few years’ (or more) history of grant performance to examine. Tally how many renewed grants you’ve received and the total amount. Moreover, look for any upgraded renewed grants from the previous year. These are all additional ‘wins’ for your grants program. The higher percentage of renewed grants each year, the better.
- Reactivate Lapses
While renewing your current grant funders is a must, examining your lapsed funders is also vitally important. Just as with individual donors, it’s much easier to bring back a previous funder than to start fresh with a new prospect is unfamiliar with your organization. In your grants examination, note how many lapsed funders were converted to current funder status. This is another win and key element for strengthening your grants program.
- Identify New Grants
Even the strongest grants program needs potential funders in the pipeline. Review your grants list and tally the new funders you have approached for the first time, identifying the number of new awards and the total amount. Each win is an extra reason to celebrate as present funders tend to become repeat funders if you steward them right.
- Calculate, Calculate, Calculate
For each of these segments (renewals/lapsed/new), calculate how many grant proposals were submitted, how many were awarded, how many were declined, and how many are pending. This data will give you insight into your ‘win’ and conversion rates. With this information, you can track your growth each year.
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Laine Seaton is the founder and principal of GreaterGrants of Glendale, Arizona.
