June 9, 2025 • 38 mins
Curious about how grants can support your nonprofit or small business? In this episode, expert Melissa Pond breaks down the must-know facts about grant writing and securing funding in today’s competitive environment.Here’s what you’ll learn:
Where to find Melissa Pond
Facebook: @melissajpondllc/
Instagram: @melissajpond
Website: melissajpond.journoportfolio.com
Where to find Misty
Websites:
- The basics of grants: what they are, why organizations give them, and key misconceptions.
- How to position your business or nonprofit to stand out and succeed in the grant application process.
- The differences between nonprofit and small business grants, including where to find the best opportunities.
- Smart strategies for avoiding common application pitfalls and “mission creep.”
- The importance of collaboration, storytelling, and having a clear mission when seeking funding.
Where to find Melissa Pond
Facebook: @melissajpondllc/
Instagram: @melissajpond
Website: melissajpond.journoportfolio.com
Where to find Misty
Websites:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Demus Defying Money podcast, where each week
you will hear unforgettable conversations with expert guests about success, money, business,
and small steps you can take to elevate your life
and wealth. Now here's your host, Misty Lynch.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hi, everybody, thank you so much for joining us for
this episode of Demistifying Money. Today we're going to talk
about grant opportunities. I know this is something that people
might not know too too much about unless they've actually
been directly involved in it, but it is a very interesting,
interesting opportunity, especially financially, if you're looking to raise funds
or to complete a project or anything.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
That you're looking to do.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
To get creative about funding is sometimes a really really
valuable skill to learn. So I'm here with Melissa J.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Pond.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
She's the founder of Melissa J. Pond, LLC, and she's
an expert in current writing and strategic planning when it
comes to raising money in the nonprofit money the nonprofit space.
She's an Abbington, Massachusetts, she's the local girl. So thank
you listen so much for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Absolutely, thank you so much for having.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Me this episode of Demystifying Money with Misty Lynch is
proudly sponsored by Soundview Financial Advisors. Visit www dot Soundview
Financial Advisors dot com to learn more.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Tell me about your experience getting to, you know, founding
your company. Did you have experience in the nonpropuit, what
kind of appealed to you about that? And describe maybe
the career path for somebody who might be listening and
curious about, you know, how.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
To get into that.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
Absolutely, it's been an interesting journey. So I came down
to Massachusetts I'm originally from Maine to go to Eastern
Nazarene College and I was studying business management. I got
an internship with the municipality and in their community Development office,
so I was managing federal grants on behalf of them,
(01:56):
like millions of dollars in US Department of Housing and
Everyone Development funding And I did that for fifteen years.
And while there, I also got my master's degree from
Northeastern University and nonprofit management. And the reason I got
in a nonprofit management move was because I was working
with nonprofit organizations who do public services in our community.
(02:17):
So that was where the grant money that I was
focused on in particular was going, was to these nonprofits.
And I really enjoyed working with them, and I really
wanted to figure out how to help build their capacity
and also increase community impact with what they were doing.
And so I got really excited about capacity building and
how that works.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
So that's that strategy component.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
And then when I started when I left that job
and I started networking and throwing my skills out there,
I just branded myself as my name. I had Liz
Threes to do my logo, my brand kit, and was
just I'm just going to introduce myself with Mollestay pod
Lsy my business card.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I still have it.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
It has like all of the different skills, and I
was just like just putting myself out there. And like
everyone was saying they want grant writing, so whether it
was you know, a government agency that they knew of.
So I got to do a great project right here
in Abington for the town right off the bat in
twenty twenty three, I helped them raise money for a bridge.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
And then.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
Working with you know, the women's entrepreneur groups, that's one
of my favorite things to do. Working in Boston business
women and helping them with grants for small businesses has
been really fun as well. And then you know, circling
back to the nonprofits, there is this is a really
interesting space, particularly right now, and it's really exciting to
(03:48):
be working with the nonprofits and helping them pivot, basically
pivot and find new solutions to problems. We can't keep
doing things the way they were doing them in the
eighties and nineties and even early two thousand and so
we have to find new ways of doing things, being creative,
really telling our story well, and going after different types
(04:09):
of grants. So it's not just government grants. It's there's
foundation grants, there's government grants, there's state, municipal so really
and even corporate grants.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
So so when you when you talk about you say,
I think this could be something to start with, because
I think there's a lot of confusion about like what
what grants are and why is someone giving grant money away,
say like a corporation, Like people someone understand the federal
side of it, but it is in the news lately
and it's something people are seeing a lot more of
and there might be some confusion. So in the most
(04:43):
basic terms, what is a grant? Why would why would
an end to the offer a grant? So people who
are thinking about ways to potentially get grants really understand
the other side of the coin.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
So organizations giving grants they that way they help solve
a problem they can't do themselves. So they're partnering and
collaborating with another organization that can solve that problem that's
closer to the people on the ground who need that solution.
And so when I talk to organizations about their grant writing,
I also kind of back up and say, like, well,
(05:16):
what problem are you trying to solve? Every organization exists
to solve a problem. Whether you're business or nonprofit, you
exist to solve a problem. And so if you're in
that nonprofit space specifically, are you bringing all the right
people to the table to have that conversation? And because
funders are going to look at that, they're going to
(05:36):
look at who's involved in your process, who's on your board,
who are you serving so of like, have you brought
the right stakeholder group together? So that's really important and
the other pieces are you really clear about how you're
solving that problem. So one of the other key pieces
of grant writing that I help a client when I'm
(05:57):
onboarding them is with their logic model, which means the
resources they have, what resources do they have, what resources
are they looking for? How does that translate into activities, outputs,
outcomes and ultimately community impacts.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Okay, so that's that's definitely helpful for people to understand
that it is basically like you have to you can't.
You have to have a lot of clarity around what
you do, how you solve this problem, what the plan is,
because this is not this is a very competitive space
because when it comes to you know, two grants, I
(06:34):
think that it is very you know, I think some
of us might think of it back to when we
were getting student loans and like some people were like, oh,
why bother, I'm not going to apply for these grants
because it's going to be a little bit of effort
or work. But what are some of the things that
you know these you mentioned the bridge in Abbington. So
for some of these nonprofits, grant money is basically it's
(06:56):
going to keep them alive, right, I mean if they're
operating that way. So how often you know, when you
talk with your clients, you know, do you help them
figure out where they should go or where they should
look to apply for these grants and where they are
because if they might not know exactly where to find it.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Yeah, I think every organization is in a completely different place,
and so that's what I try to figure out as
soon as I'm on the phone with them. But I
found that everyone sort of consistently can fall into this
package that I created. I call it the Grant Success
launch Pad, and I'll do exactly what I was just
talking about earlier, the stakeholder mapping, the logic model piece.
(07:33):
I also revisit like what's their mission and their vision
specifically focusing on what problem are you're trying to solve,
So getting that foundational language done for them, even organizations
that have been around a long time, like still need
to go back and revisit that. That's kind of the
strategy piece too, Like you should constantly be visiting your
strategy like every three years. Like you don't want to
(07:55):
do it, like you want to be revisiting your strategy
every year, but you need time to like see how
that strategy is playing out. So three years is a
really good amount of time to look at your strategy
and see what's going on. So that's why that package
like works well for organizations that have been around a
long time and organizations that are just starting out, because
you always need to be revisiting your strategy, thinking about
(08:16):
what problem you're solving and how you're doing that, and
do you have the right people at the table.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
The other piece is.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
With the with the business ones, it's the same thing,
like I'm also doing that for them, so they don't
need to do the logic model, they don't need to
do the stakeholder mapping as much. It's pretty much straight
it's more straightforward. It's just like it's just like the
difference between setting up an LLC and a nonprofit. LLC
(08:52):
is a lot easier than managing a nonprofit, and the
same is true when you're doing the grants. Managing small
business grants are easier than managing nonprofit grants, and so
that process is a lot more simple.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
And right now, what I'm finding.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
For the small business grants is there's a lot of
corporations who are who are creating marketing programs as a
small business grant program, which is really fun and interesting
and it's a win win, right because they're getting in
front of grant small business grant seekers and they're getting
in front of the audience of that small business so
(09:26):
once that winner is announced, now they have the audience
of that small small business granty as well, So that's
really exciting. And then where do I look for the
nonprofit grants? I have a database called Instrumental, and I
absolutely love it. I found out about it last year.
Before that, I was using some other databases. Instrumental is
(09:48):
like the cream of the crop, and it's expensive. It's
there's there's definitely a cost to it, but I find
that it is like the most effective and efficient one
to search for these. It's a great database, and so
normally I'm just looking for the top three to five
for a client. But I had a client come back
to me earlier this week and I went through and
(10:10):
I was like, Okay, I'm gonna find every single thing
I can for this client, Like let's see what's in
this database, Like let's really dig in and see because
we had already done that three to five package.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
So I was like, what else is in here? And
so I combed through.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Over like it had produced about two hundred grants and
then you kind of have to filter through at that
point and see what's in there. And so started filtering
through and narrowed it down to like thirty that are
like a good start, and then from there you still
have to like dig in even further. So you can't
just rely on the database.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
You have to like go in.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
And dig around, find out more information, find out how
much they actually give, to see if it's worth applying for.
I don't like to apply for nonprofits. I don't like
to go after grants that are anything less than ten
thousand because the work you're putting in, it's really not
worth anything less than that. You know, the admin you
(10:59):
put in and the kind of work you put in,
the collaborations you need to seek out to do this
grant work, Like, you really don't want to go after
anything less than ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Who would those grants be appropriate for those smaller ones
or are those mostly you know just you know, do
they have an audience that might make sense for them.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
So it's really hard to get grants if you're just
starting out. So I always tell clients to really focus
on getting a really good board in place, and you know,
so those are the types that could go after those
smaller grants. To answer your question, but it's this is
a good place to interject this as well. Is that
(11:42):
I like to tell them to get a really strong
board in place, and not just people who are going
to rubber stamp they what this executive director wants to do.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
These board members really need to be.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Engaged in a way that they're willing to give their
own funds to the organization and also go ask their
friends for money too, so that way they're building an
initial budget and then they're able to show an organization
what they what they've done with the money they have,
that there are people invested, that this is a proven concept,
(12:13):
and then investors are willing to say, Okay, I like
what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I want to help you scale.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
I help I want to help you, you know, have
a bigger community impact. I think one of the one
of the myths out there and why, like the name
of your show, demystifying money, I think there's a huge
myth out there that like, once you create a five
O one C three a nonprofit organization, money is just
going to fall from the sky and into your lap
and and help you accomplish these community impact goals that
(12:39):
you want to do just because you are now a
five OHO and C three, And that just isn't true.
It takes a tremendous amount of work from you and
from your board and from your volunteers to create an
environment that shows a proven concept. And in that way,
it's very much similar to a small business. You have
to prove your concept right before people are even willing to,
(13:00):
you know, buy what you're selling or invest in your
in your business.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Yeah no.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And I think another myth that I, you know, that
people might think is that these grants, you know, have
no obligations, that it's just kind of free money. It's
given to you, and you like, maybe you don't have
to pay it back like a loan. But what are
some of the things that grant you know, that grants
expect to see? What is what are some of the
things that people can expect if they want to go
down this fundraising path.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
So federal, though, this is like going to be completely
different conversation in the next couple of years. Federal traditionally
has had the most strings attached because they have to
answer to Congress, they have to answer to the American public.
So government grants usually have the most strings involved. And
then foundations, some of them are really listening to people,
(13:46):
and I really appreciate the act of listening they're doing
to the constituents that they're trying to serve, and they're
making changes to how much paperwork is involved. But I
think at the same end, like you need to be
able to prove what you're doing with the money, right,
you need to be able to show that if and
I always like, as a grant reviewer, like I look
at their website and what their web presence is and
(14:08):
is that matching what they're showing on a grant application,
Like is this really what they're trying to accomplish. I
think there is this element out there where people it's
called mission creep, where people see a grant opportunity and
they just sort of like, oh, we could do that,
but it has like absolutely nothing to do with their
organization exists to do and that's very problematic, and so
(14:30):
funders usually can see through that. And so going back
to like paperwork and strings attached, that all kind of
come full circle, right, Like there's goals attached.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
To this funding.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
Typically, you know, there's not just this pool of money
that exists to go to a five oh one c three.
There's different pools of money that are created for different purposes,
and so they have an obligation to their board members
and their trustees that this money is going to what
they wanted it to go to. So there there often
(15:01):
are reporting elements and things like that, specifically in the
nonprofit sector. For the small business grants, this always looks different,
you know, every I think every small business grant will
look different. Most of them, I think don't require a lot.
There was one that one of my clients wanted twenty
five thousand dollars grant and that was specifically for capacity buildings.
(15:24):
So I'm sure, you know, I wasn't involved in the
implementation of that, but I'm sure there was some kind
of paperwork that was involved to show where that money
went that it did go to, you know, capacity building
within our organization.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
But that's a substantial amount of money. So I think
this can be really you know, for especially the small businesses.
I know a lot of people listening are small business owners.
You know, that's substantial. So what are some of the
other things that people might not know that they could
apply for grants for to help them do in their
business that maybe they have a lot of different things
that they'd like to do, but they just don't know
how to make it work.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
Financially, I think that marketing piece is like one of
the biggest ones. And I have a lot of like
creative marketing colleagues who send me their clients because they're
just all that marketing has a cost right, and it's
all really important and hopefully it will pay for itself.
But at the end of the day, it's like there's
you know, there's a website, and there's a networking fee,
(16:16):
and there's you know, not to mention your insurance and
your phone and all the things that you need just
to run your business. And so I think that marketing
component is a great one when you know there's grants
available for that.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
A lot of them are just.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Very generic, like a lot of them don't say like
what you have to do with the money. It's just
a matter of we all know running small businesses is
a lot of work and takes a lot of money
to run them, and and everybody wants these small businesses
to succeed. I think, like you know, and so I
(16:50):
think it's amazing that a lot of corporations are putting
money out there to help support these small businesses.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
You mentioned before about Mission Creep, and I want to
go back to that do you help businesses because maybe
you know, most probably have a strong idea of what
they do, but for some that maybe have experienced that
that feel like, oh, we can go for this, we
could do this because I I think I've I've seen
that you know, kind of mentality before because it's like,
(17:18):
oh my gosh, this is a big grant. How do
we make it work?
Speaker 3 (17:22):
You know?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
And so how do you help people kind of identify
or kind of make sure that they have those clear
those clear objectives if it has gotten a little muddy
with everything that they've done.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Yeah, So when I revisit their vision emission statements, I
have a formula that I use to like calm through that,
and it's really just different parts of speech, right, verb,
like who are you helping? Like really kind of like
working that out and being really clear. Some organizations when
they write their mission and vision statements, they they're like
they're trying to write a speech, right, And that's not
(17:52):
what a mission and vision statement is. It doesn't need
to be a speech that you post to your website.
It's it can be it needs to be like really
really simple so that even your board members know what
that is right off the top.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Of their heat.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
And I think the formula really helps too, because if
somebody can remember the formula that I give them, they
can also be like, and what did we say about
our business? Or they could even like change it out,
they could like swap it out they're talking about it,
and they still can clearly articulate what their organization is.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Trying to do.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
And I think when when I'm calling through grants, I
saw like to be really clear about like what this
organization is doing and how what this grant, how this
grant will help them. So so that's that's how I
help them, is like both with really getting clear about
what their mission is and then finding the right grants
(18:41):
for them. If they're finding them on their own, I
like to just kind of walk them through. I have
like a mission creep mapping tool and it's just like
it follows the formula, so it says, like, you know,
are you like does this grant meet this part of
your mission? Does the grant meet this part of your
mission and this part of your mission?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
If yes, move forward.
Speaker 5 (19:03):
If no, really take a step back and think about
that before you move forward with this.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, I think that's it's smart that you're going through that.
I think that's a smart exercise for a lot of
business owners, you know, especially you know, even self employed
people who are like I can help this person, I
can help this person. And then it's kind of like, well,
who do you help when someone asks for clarity and
it's like everybody, or if I was to say anybody
with financial issue, like that is the world, you know,
and some people who I help women, which is half
(19:29):
the population.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Like getting really.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Clear on like who you're very very good at at
helping or what you're trying to do. I think it
makes it easier, Like I think about it from the
other side of getting them to approve this.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Grant for you.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
The clearer you are, the more organized you are, the
easier it is for them to be like, yes, like
this this one makes sense instead of trying to back
into it. Are there some pitfalls or things that people
can avoid when it comes to making mistakes with this process,
you know, as far as the applications, because I feel
(20:05):
like if you do what they want and they're clear,
you might have a chance. But there's got to be
a lot of ways that this could go sideways.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Yeah, it's definitely a competitive process and you never know
who's reading rating the grant application behind the scenes. So
I serve on a grant allocations committee for the United
Way in our local area, and I love it and
I'm we're in the process of it right now, so
I can't name names by any means, but I would
say from last year one of the biggest pitfalls I
saw people make was the way that they wrote up
(20:35):
their budget. People were not organizations were not clear about
like making their revenue and their expenses equal, and that's
like really important. So we had one that submitted that
they looked like they didn't even need the money. They
were asking for an increase of the allocation they received
(20:56):
from the year before, but then their balance was showing
that they had twenty thousand dollars more than they needed,
and so I pointed that out them, like this is
incredibly important, Like make sure you have somebody who understands
a financial document like a p and L. Look at
this before you're submitting it with a grant, because then
with the reviewers, we're looking at it going they don't
need our money. They have they have twenty thousand dollars
(21:18):
they don't know what to do with. But they're telling
us there's this need and they're telling us that this
money is there. The other thing I see. The other
problem I see is that in the nonprofit space, it's
really really hard to redict.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
How much money is going to come in.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Right, So there's a line item where they're saying, you know,
we're going to get this much in grants and donations,
and then it's like, but how are you getting that?
You know, like, are you sure you're going to get
those grants? Are you sure those donations are going to
come through? So that can be incredibly tricky, But I
think if you're really clear about why and how, so
(21:52):
we we for example, we're looking at that and saying, okay,
so your year over year budget, you're saying, this year
you're going to get a lot more in grants and donations.
Why is that? And they had a great explanation for it,
and I was like, that's awesome, Okay, okay, I hear that.
And other times. One of the other big pitfalls is
(22:13):
people hire a grant writer, but they don't work together
with that grant writer. So my preferred work style is collaboration.
I want to work with my client and make sure
we're completely on the same page. In some organizations they
just want to they just want to hire a grant writer,
like to delegate everything to like you go get this
(22:33):
done for me, and it really doesn't work like that.
The grant writer needs to be more integrated into the
organization on the marketing level to make sure that the
web presence matches what you're doing with the grant writing.
On the strategic level, to make sure your strategy matches
what you're doing. And so that's incredibly important. And so
one of the things I've seen in grant allocation review
(22:56):
committees is an organization hired a grant writer to write
it for them, and we're reviewing it and then we
show up to the site visit and we're talking to
them and like something's not quite lining up here. And
then we're like we ask about like, oh, well, our
grant writer wrote this, Okay, does your grant writer know
about your organization? Well, our grant writer lives in Florida,
and like they have never been here, they don't know,
(23:19):
they don't really know. That's well enough, and then it's
like did they work on your budget? Like is it
like is it clear about like your budget? Like so
then that was like I mean that throws up like
a huge red flag to a grant review committee too.
It's like if you just hired a grant writer to
delegate it to and get it done for you, but
you never even like reviewed it. You never really reviewed
it to see if it actually is what you wanted
(23:40):
to say before you're submitting it. I think a lot
of I think a lot of funders can see right
through that too.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
No, And I think I've said it before in the podcast.
A confused mind will say no. And so if it
is confusing to the person who's saying this doesn't look
right or when I looked at your website, none of this,
I mean that is definitely even if they're not exactly
sure what's wrong, Like you said, something seemed off, something
seems that is not going to be where they feel
safe putting their their funds. It's just not. So I
(24:11):
think that's important. Are you able to work with clients
that are not geographically near you if you get the
right information or is it something that it is more
of a local type.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
Absolutely, I'm very comfortable working with organizations all across the country,
and that's because I have a method of you know,
right from the beginning, I'm saying, like we need to
collaborate together on this, Like I'm not you can't just
ask me to just get this done for you, Like
there needs to be conversations. I want to be comfortable
(24:42):
submitting this on your behalf because my name's on it,
you know. And then there's those other pieces of like
wanting to make sure that that grant gets submitted from
the organization and not from my Gmail account, right like
or my Melissa jpond dot com email.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Address, Like that's not going to look good for the funder.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
And so oftentimes if it is something where they want
to hire me to help submit it, like I asked
to get integrated into the organization, so ask for a
branded email account and being part of their team and
having like you know, at least bi weekly check in
meetings with the team to know what's going on and
be like fully integrated into what's going on. That's incredibly important.
(25:23):
So so for example, like I was just working with
an organization down in Florida, and so you know, we
had the check in meeting with the board. We you know,
we were able to I created that what I call
my grant success lunch pad, the three to five grants.
We had that ready, and it's such a great starting
point because then it's like then you have the conversations
I can you know, use that then create a clear
(25:44):
checklist and say, okay, like here's all the things we
need to do to get these submitted, and then have
that conversation with the organization either the staff and or
the board and say like, how are we moving these
things forward? Do you want me to do X, do
you want me to do hy?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Who's doing that?
Speaker 5 (26:00):
And like be able to kind of move through that
implementation piece.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
So you're sort of project managing this whole process for
them because you're making sure like even just by defining
those first three to five versus whatever is out there,
you know, like having it be this or this kind
of well, we're just going to go for everything, like
having that be kind of cleared. But you mentioned with
checklists and talking with the boards and all of those things,
it really does seem to solve that that, you know,
(26:28):
the confusion or that stress of who's going to do
what and making sure that it's actually done. So I
think that is it's such a helpful thing because, like
you said, some of these nonprofits, like they you know,
they're working really hard, they have all these different things
that they need to do, and so I think having
that really not just be seen as just the grant writer,
but like the grant manager is very very It's just
(26:51):
a different way to look at it that I think
is really successful. Are there any times any experiences you've
had with some clients that you've felt really really good
about how you've been able to have an impact on
their business.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Absolutely. They're one of the organizations I worked with.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
They won a six hundred and twenty five thousand dollars
grant over five years, and this was a federal one.
So unfortunately, I'm not sure what's going on with that
and how that's going to play out over the next
five years, which is incredibly sad. But that was definitely
my biggest win in my business so far, was working
with them and getting and helping them get that done.
I was incredibly confident that they had it. Like this
(27:26):
is the thing is that you can't just hire grant
writer and expect that now you're going to get the money.
Like your organization needs to be prepared for these opportunities too. So,
like I said, like having a board, having your budgets,
your your budget set up, and like a really clear,
a really clear plan for what your organization does, you know.
(27:48):
And this organization was incredibly positioned. They had been it
had been their goal to get this grant, you know.
So I'm not trying to pat myself on the back
too much for this. Like the organization had prepared themselves
in the collaboration.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, Like that's a team effort to get that kind
of funding, exactly, definitely a whole exactly.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
And that's the point I want to drive home that
this is about collaboration. Like I don't want people to
listen to the podcast and be like, every Molsta can
get me a six hundred and twenty five thousand dollars grant,
Like that's not what I'm saying, and that's not what
I want people to hear.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I want people to hear that it does take collaboration.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
And that you know, the value that I added to
that was I had done. I had a fifteen year
career in federal grant management, so I knew what some
of the things that they needed to like look at
and be clear about and how to write in a
really clear way, right, and like that grant writing piece
does come into play. You know, how do we tell
(28:47):
our story really well? How do we draw out the
things that like we want the grant reviewer to see
and make sure they're seeing really clear? And also that
logic model, making sure that that even if a funder
doesn't ask for a logic model, making sure that that
shines through throughout the narrative is incredibly important. Like can
(29:09):
the reader really understand how the resources you have, combined
with the resources they're giving you are gonna clearly make an.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Impact based on the activities and outputs you're doing.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, that's I mean, that's outstanding, but it is important.
But it does. It just shows that it's possible if
you have the right team in place, if your bored
is if everyone is committed, you know, like if this
was a big you know, if this is a big
goal of yours to get you know, big funding, it
can happen if you you know, if you get everything
(29:42):
in place. Are you starting to see because I'm guessing
you know, even talking to people who are like wanting
to apply for college scholarships thinking like, oh, I just
you know, put in chat GPT and send it out
to the rest of the world. They're catching on to this, right, Like,
this is where I feel like having that strong writing
skills will help the humans will still Yes.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
Yeah, right, absolutely. I think it's incredibly important. I play
with those tools a lot to see what they're producing
and like see what's going on and how to use
them effectively in my own business. But at the end
of the day, you need to know how to write,
and you need to know how to produce a good paper.
You know, talking about you know, the college scholarships piece.
(30:22):
I've taught higher.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Education, and.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
We want we want our college students to be able
to know how to write a sentence, right, write a
proper sentence, write a proper paragraph. Chat GPT is like
not going to do that. Well, it's just regurgitating information
that I can find online and spitting it out. And
it can be used as an incredible tool. Like I said,
I I do use it in my business, but I
(30:48):
use it as a tool. I don't have it just
produce something for me. And I think that's a dangerous
avenue to go down with grants as well, because just
like I said, if you're hiring a grant writer in
Florida who does don't really know your organization and they're
just producing something without even collaborating with you. That's the
same result you're gonna get from chat GPT. You're putting
(31:09):
stuff in and it's not gonna spit out exactly what
you need. It's gonna it's it's gonna be haphazard.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
It's gonna be very generic.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yeah, no, I agree. It's just curious being with that.
If I I have a question for you, which I'm
not sure, but I know that there's a lot of
us who you know, want to help raise money for
different charities. And maybe it's not a grand but I
feel like there's a ton of people listening who probably
have a huge aversion to asking anybody for money or
(31:39):
for help. I know, I'm on the board for like
Wallpole Youth Basketball, and to me, I get what we do,
and I think it's really cool and important and it's
pretty easy for me to ask somebody to help us
out with it.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
But I talk about money all the time. Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
What are some things that you think can help people
who maybe have some fears about either going for grants
or asking anybody for help or money period. What are
some things that can help make that a little bit easier.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
That's to me, that's such an easy question. It's truly
believing in your mission and your cause. If you truly
believe in your mission and your cause and you know
that it's going to make a huge difference for people.
Why wouldn't you ask your neighbor, Why wouldn't you ask
everyone you know to contribute? Why wouldn't you tap every
resource you can possibly find and ask for help with
that mission? If you truly believe that what you're doing,
(32:32):
how you're doing it, what problem you're solving, is truly
gonna make a difference, it's a no brainer. You're gonna
be asking everyone you know for money. I think what
comes into play, especially for new board members, for example,
is if they're not integrated into the organization enough and
they're just you know, they were just asked because somebody
(32:54):
knew somebody and they got asked to sit on the board,
and they're not that comfortable because they haven't really gotten
to know what the organization does yet, you know, or
they or they're not clear on how to talk about it,
how to talk about the mission and vision of the organization,
and how to resonate that with someone. So and it's
also a lot about relationship building too, Like if when
(33:14):
you're asking for money, you don't want to just walk
up to somebody and ask them for money, like and
even if you already know them, you don't want to
just like blankly just be like just point blank like, hey,
I need money for my organization or it's going to
fall apart. Like that's one of the worst things to
say is that the need is that your organization won't
exist without it, Because the need is the problem in
(33:38):
society or the problem whatever problem you're trying to solve.
It's not that your money. Your organization doesn't have any money.
So that's one of the biggest pitfalls I see people make,
is like, well I really need money or my organization's
going to fall apart. It's like the first thing I
think of personally or even as like thinking of it
as a funder, is like, what, your organization probably doesn't
have the capacity to be existing, So why would I
(34:01):
give you my money?
Speaker 3 (34:02):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (34:03):
And so to keep the doors open another couple of months.
That that to me doesn't sound like exciting.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
No, the need should never be the you should never
be about the needs of your organization. Then you should
always be about what problem you're solving in the community.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
No, that's so it's so smart, and I think, yeah,
I think you're right. And if you're someone out there
and you're like, but that is what I need money for,
Like maybe you do need to do some work on
those values and missions and things like that to start
to breathe, because it is stressful to run a bit.
It's it's very you know, there are a lot of
things that you know, a lot of small businesses, a
lot of nonprofits. I mean, we need we need money.
(34:42):
It's like oxygen for a business. And so I think
that there is that. However, I think how you go
out into the world, you know, obviously if you have
that you know, that core, you know component, that mission
that you really truly believe in, that is such a
different approach than like I need my a bank, get alone,
you know like that. It's just different when you're looking
(35:04):
for somebody to you know, to give you a grant.
And so definitely such a valuable skill, you know, and
tool for people to either learn with you or start
to collaborate on. So thank you so much for joining
me today. This was super interesting and I and I
know it's kind of a it might be a scary
space in the nonprofit for a lot of people who
(35:24):
maybe have been relying on federal grants and things like that.
So I think it is definitely worthwhile, you know, to
reach out to you to get what else is out there.
Maybe there could be other things that you could be
looking at that you might not be exposed to to
help keep your nonprofit running. So how can people reach you,
Melissa if they want to learn more about you or
follow your tips and find.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
Out Absolutely the best way to connect with me is
to go to my website Melissa Jpond dot com and
there's a great big button that's a schedule a free
discovery call with me. Click on that, it goes to
my calendly and we can set up a quick fifteen
minute call.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Thank you so much for.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Getting a business started and having a business card that
tells everybody everything you do exactly, because I think it's
so helpful. I think people just want to know, how
do you help other people? How can you help me
solve a problem, And so it's just great to see
businesses like yours out there because this is this is
a big space and this is a big need and
I think you're gonna be able to help a lot
of people do a lot of amazing things. So thank
(36:21):
you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
To save me and Missy.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
I love what you're doing and talking about money, especially
for women. I was just at a conference on Friday.
It was a summit, and one of the speakers said,
you know, women go to parties and we don't talk
about important things.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
We talk about who knows what.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
Right, like white lotus or the latest drama. Who knows
what we're talking about. And she's like, and if I
do talk about the important stuff, She's like, I get
kicked out. And I was like, I was like, that's
so profound, because like, honestly, I think I've gotten kicked
out of social circles because I'm wanting to talk about
important things and not like drama. You know, but those
are the circles I want to sit in personally, And
(36:59):
so I I love what you're doing, and I love
listening to what you're what you're doing, and just so excited.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Can't wait to see you again.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
Hopefully there's another Boston Business Women Summer Bash.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
We can see each other at True yeah, no.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
And I agree. I feel like, yeah, our table would
probably be a lot more interesting than others. But I've
been definitely at places where people were talking about like, oh,
I'm getting divorced, and I was like, all right, let's
talk and I'm like going straight to that, like let's
talk about the stuff that's like really bug And it's
like it's amazing how people could finally sometimes be like
I needed to talk about that. This has been on
my mind, but I feel like I can't say it.
(37:35):
I can't bring it up because it's not proper or polite.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
So I love it. Let's talk about money.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
We'll talk about business and talk about all the things
that are keeping people holling people back. Yes see if
we can help out.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
So thank you again for joining.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Head over to your website, Melissa Japond dot com and
you're also on social media right Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn Perfect, Well,
thank you again. And if you're listening and you're thinking
that you might want us to to, you know, think
about ways that you could raise money for the nonprofity,
either that you care about or if you are somebody
who is charitably inclined and you want to figure out
ways that you can help more people head over to
(38:10):
missing lunch dot com. We could definitely take a look
at your financial planning and some of your big goals
and see how we could start making our money work
better for us. So thank you again for joining and
we'll talk again next week. Thank you for joining us
on another insightful episode of demonst Buying Money.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and leave
a review. Stay tuned for more engaging conversations on our
next episode, and remember knowledge is the key to financial empowerment.
Welcome to the Demus Defying Money podcast, where each week
you will hear unforgettable conversations with expert guests about success, money, business,
and small steps you can take to elevate your life
and wealth. Now here's your host, Misty Lynch.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hi, everybody, thank you so much for joining us for
this episode of Demistifying Money. Today we're going to talk
about grant opportunities. I know this is something that people
might not know too too much about unless they've actually
been directly involved in it, but it is a very interesting,
interesting opportunity, especially financially, if you're looking to raise funds
or to complete a project or anything.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
That you're looking to do.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
To get creative about funding is sometimes a really really
valuable skill to learn. So I'm here with Melissa J.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Pond.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
She's the founder of Melissa J. Pond, LLC, and she's
an expert in current writing and strategic planning when it
comes to raising money in the nonprofit money the nonprofit space.
She's an Abbington, Massachusetts, she's the local girl. So thank
you listen so much for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Absolutely, thank you so much for having.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Me this episode of Demystifying Money with Misty Lynch is
proudly sponsored by Soundview Financial Advisors. Visit www dot Soundview
Financial Advisors dot com to learn more.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Tell me about your experience getting to, you know, founding
your company. Did you have experience in the nonpropuit, what
kind of appealed to you about that? And describe maybe
the career path for somebody who might be listening and
curious about, you know, how.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
To get into that.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
Absolutely, it's been an interesting journey. So I came down
to Massachusetts I'm originally from Maine to go to Eastern
Nazarene College and I was studying business management. I got
an internship with the municipality and in their community Development office,
so I was managing federal grants on behalf of them,
(01:56):
like millions of dollars in US Department of Housing and
Everyone Development funding And I did that for fifteen years.
And while there, I also got my master's degree from
Northeastern University and nonprofit management. And the reason I got
in a nonprofit management move was because I was working
with nonprofit organizations who do public services in our community.
(02:17):
So that was where the grant money that I was
focused on in particular was going, was to these nonprofits.
And I really enjoyed working with them, and I really
wanted to figure out how to help build their capacity
and also increase community impact with what they were doing.
And so I got really excited about capacity building and
how that works.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
So that's that strategy component.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
And then when I started when I left that job
and I started networking and throwing my skills out there,
I just branded myself as my name. I had Liz
Threes to do my logo, my brand kit, and was
just I'm just going to introduce myself with Mollestay pod
Lsy my business card.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I still have it.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
It has like all of the different skills, and I
was just like just putting myself out there. And like
everyone was saying they want grant writing, so whether it
was you know, a government agency that they knew of.
So I got to do a great project right here
in Abington for the town right off the bat in
twenty twenty three, I helped them raise money for a bridge.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
And then.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
Working with you know, the women's entrepreneur groups, that's one
of my favorite things to do. Working in Boston business
women and helping them with grants for small businesses has
been really fun as well. And then you know, circling
back to the nonprofits, there is this is a really
interesting space, particularly right now, and it's really exciting to
(03:48):
be working with the nonprofits and helping them pivot, basically
pivot and find new solutions to problems. We can't keep
doing things the way they were doing them in the
eighties and nineties and even early two thousand and so
we have to find new ways of doing things, being creative,
really telling our story well, and going after different types
(04:09):
of grants. So it's not just government grants. It's there's
foundation grants, there's government grants, there's state, municipal so really
and even corporate grants.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
So so when you when you talk about you say,
I think this could be something to start with, because
I think there's a lot of confusion about like what
what grants are and why is someone giving grant money away,
say like a corporation, Like people someone understand the federal
side of it, but it is in the news lately
and it's something people are seeing a lot more of
and there might be some confusion. So in the most
(04:43):
basic terms, what is a grant? Why would why would
an end to the offer a grant? So people who
are thinking about ways to potentially get grants really understand
the other side of the coin.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
So organizations giving grants they that way they help solve
a problem they can't do themselves. So they're partnering and
collaborating with another organization that can solve that problem that's
closer to the people on the ground who need that solution.
And so when I talk to organizations about their grant writing,
I also kind of back up and say, like, well,
(05:16):
what problem are you trying to solve? Every organization exists
to solve a problem. Whether you're business or nonprofit, you
exist to solve a problem. And so if you're in
that nonprofit space specifically, are you bringing all the right
people to the table to have that conversation? And because
funders are going to look at that, they're going to
(05:36):
look at who's involved in your process, who's on your board,
who are you serving so of like, have you brought
the right stakeholder group together? So that's really important and
the other pieces are you really clear about how you're
solving that problem. So one of the other key pieces
of grant writing that I help a client when I'm
(05:57):
onboarding them is with their logic model, which means the
resources they have, what resources do they have, what resources
are they looking for? How does that translate into activities, outputs,
outcomes and ultimately community impacts.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Okay, so that's that's definitely helpful for people to understand
that it is basically like you have to you can't.
You have to have a lot of clarity around what
you do, how you solve this problem, what the plan is,
because this is not this is a very competitive space
because when it comes to you know, two grants, I
(06:34):
think that it is very you know, I think some
of us might think of it back to when we
were getting student loans and like some people were like, oh,
why bother, I'm not going to apply for these grants
because it's going to be a little bit of effort
or work. But what are some of the things that
you know these you mentioned the bridge in Abbington. So
for some of these nonprofits, grant money is basically it's
(06:56):
going to keep them alive, right, I mean if they're
operating that way. So how often you know, when you
talk with your clients, you know, do you help them
figure out where they should go or where they should
look to apply for these grants and where they are
because if they might not know exactly where to find it.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Yeah, I think every organization is in a completely different place,
and so that's what I try to figure out as
soon as I'm on the phone with them. But I
found that everyone sort of consistently can fall into this
package that I created. I call it the Grant Success
launch Pad, and I'll do exactly what I was just
talking about earlier, the stakeholder mapping, the logic model piece.
(07:33):
I also revisit like what's their mission and their vision
specifically focusing on what problem are you're trying to solve,
So getting that foundational language done for them, even organizations
that have been around a long time, like still need
to go back and revisit that. That's kind of the
strategy piece too, Like you should constantly be visiting your
strategy like every three years. Like you don't want to
(07:55):
do it, like you want to be revisiting your strategy
every year, but you need time to like see how
that strategy is playing out. So three years is a
really good amount of time to look at your strategy
and see what's going on. So that's why that package
like works well for organizations that have been around a
long time and organizations that are just starting out, because
you always need to be revisiting your strategy, thinking about
(08:16):
what problem you're solving and how you're doing that, and
do you have the right people at the table.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
The other piece is.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
With the with the business ones, it's the same thing,
like I'm also doing that for them, so they don't
need to do the logic model, they don't need to
do the stakeholder mapping as much. It's pretty much straight
it's more straightforward. It's just like it's just like the
difference between setting up an LLC and a nonprofit. LLC
(08:52):
is a lot easier than managing a nonprofit, and the
same is true when you're doing the grants. Managing small
business grants are easier than managing nonprofit grants, and so
that process is a lot more simple.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
And right now, what I'm finding.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
For the small business grants is there's a lot of
corporations who are who are creating marketing programs as a
small business grant program, which is really fun and interesting
and it's a win win, right because they're getting in
front of grant small business grant seekers and they're getting
in front of the audience of that small business so
(09:26):
once that winner is announced, now they have the audience
of that small small business granty as well, So that's
really exciting. And then where do I look for the
nonprofit grants? I have a database called Instrumental, and I
absolutely love it. I found out about it last year.
Before that, I was using some other databases. Instrumental is
(09:48):
like the cream of the crop, and it's expensive. It's
there's there's definitely a cost to it, but I find
that it is like the most effective and efficient one
to search for these. It's a great database, and so
normally I'm just looking for the top three to five
for a client. But I had a client come back
to me earlier this week and I went through and
(10:10):
I was like, Okay, I'm gonna find every single thing
I can for this client, Like let's see what's in
this database, Like let's really dig in and see because
we had already done that three to five package.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
So I was like, what else is in here? And
so I combed through.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Over like it had produced about two hundred grants and
then you kind of have to filter through at that
point and see what's in there. And so started filtering
through and narrowed it down to like thirty that are
like a good start, and then from there you still
have to like dig in even further. So you can't
just rely on the database.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
You have to like go in.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
And dig around, find out more information, find out how
much they actually give, to see if it's worth applying for.
I don't like to apply for nonprofits. I don't like
to go after grants that are anything less than ten
thousand because the work you're putting in, it's really not
worth anything less than that. You know, the admin you
(10:59):
put in and the kind of work you put in,
the collaborations you need to seek out to do this
grant work, Like, you really don't want to go after
anything less than ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Who would those grants be appropriate for those smaller ones
or are those mostly you know just you know, do
they have an audience that might make sense for them.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
So it's really hard to get grants if you're just
starting out. So I always tell clients to really focus
on getting a really good board in place, and you know,
so those are the types that could go after those
smaller grants. To answer your question, but it's this is
a good place to interject this as well. Is that
(11:42):
I like to tell them to get a really strong
board in place, and not just people who are going
to rubber stamp they what this executive director wants to do.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
These board members really need to be.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Engaged in a way that they're willing to give their
own funds to the organization and also go ask their
friends for money too, so that way they're building an
initial budget and then they're able to show an organization
what they what they've done with the money they have,
that there are people invested, that this is a proven concept,
(12:13):
and then investors are willing to say, Okay, I like
what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I want to help you scale.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
I help I want to help you, you know, have
a bigger community impact. I think one of the one
of the myths out there and why, like the name
of your show, demystifying money, I think there's a huge
myth out there that like, once you create a five
O one C three a nonprofit organization, money is just
going to fall from the sky and into your lap
and and help you accomplish these community impact goals that
(12:39):
you want to do just because you are now a
five OHO and C three, And that just isn't true.
It takes a tremendous amount of work from you and
from your board and from your volunteers to create an
environment that shows a proven concept. And in that way,
it's very much similar to a small business. You have
to prove your concept right before people are even willing to,
(13:00):
you know, buy what you're selling or invest in your
in your business.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Yeah no.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And I think another myth that I, you know, that
people might think is that these grants, you know, have
no obligations, that it's just kind of free money. It's
given to you, and you like, maybe you don't have
to pay it back like a loan. But what are
some of the things that grant you know, that grants
expect to see? What is what are some of the
things that people can expect if they want to go
down this fundraising path.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
So federal, though, this is like going to be completely
different conversation in the next couple of years. Federal traditionally
has had the most strings attached because they have to
answer to Congress, they have to answer to the American public.
So government grants usually have the most strings involved. And
then foundations, some of them are really listening to people,
(13:46):
and I really appreciate the act of listening they're doing
to the constituents that they're trying to serve, and they're
making changes to how much paperwork is involved. But I
think at the same end, like you need to be
able to prove what you're doing with the money, right,
you need to be able to show that if and
I always like, as a grant reviewer, like I look
at their website and what their web presence is and
(14:08):
is that matching what they're showing on a grant application,
Like is this really what they're trying to accomplish. I
think there is this element out there where people it's
called mission creep, where people see a grant opportunity and
they just sort of like, oh, we could do that,
but it has like absolutely nothing to do with their
organization exists to do and that's very problematic, and so
(14:30):
funders usually can see through that. And so going back
to like paperwork and strings attached, that all kind of
come full circle, right, Like there's goals attached.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
To this funding.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
Typically, you know, there's not just this pool of money
that exists to go to a five oh one c three.
There's different pools of money that are created for different purposes,
and so they have an obligation to their board members
and their trustees that this money is going to what
they wanted it to go to. So there there often
(15:01):
are reporting elements and things like that, specifically in the
nonprofit sector. For the small business grants, this always looks different,
you know, every I think every small business grant will
look different. Most of them, I think don't require a lot.
There was one that one of my clients wanted twenty
five thousand dollars grant and that was specifically for capacity buildings.
(15:24):
So I'm sure, you know, I wasn't involved in the
implementation of that, but I'm sure there was some kind
of paperwork that was involved to show where that money
went that it did go to, you know, capacity building
within our organization.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
But that's a substantial amount of money. So I think
this can be really you know, for especially the small businesses.
I know a lot of people listening are small business owners.
You know, that's substantial. So what are some of the
other things that people might not know that they could
apply for grants for to help them do in their
business that maybe they have a lot of different things
that they'd like to do, but they just don't know
how to make it work.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
Financially, I think that marketing piece is like one of
the biggest ones. And I have a lot of like
creative marketing colleagues who send me their clients because they're
just all that marketing has a cost right, and it's
all really important and hopefully it will pay for itself.
But at the end of the day, it's like there's
you know, there's a website, and there's a networking fee,
(16:16):
and there's you know, not to mention your insurance and
your phone and all the things that you need just
to run your business. And so I think that marketing
component is a great one when you know there's grants
available for that.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
A lot of them are just.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Very generic, like a lot of them don't say like
what you have to do with the money. It's just
a matter of we all know running small businesses is
a lot of work and takes a lot of money
to run them, and and everybody wants these small businesses
to succeed. I think, like you know, and so I
(16:50):
think it's amazing that a lot of corporations are putting
money out there to help support these small businesses.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
You mentioned before about Mission Creep, and I want to
go back to that do you help businesses because maybe
you know, most probably have a strong idea of what
they do, but for some that maybe have experienced that
that feel like, oh, we can go for this, we
could do this because I I think I've I've seen
that you know, kind of mentality before because it's like,
(17:18):
oh my gosh, this is a big grant. How do
we make it work?
Speaker 3 (17:22):
You know?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
And so how do you help people kind of identify
or kind of make sure that they have those clear
those clear objectives if it has gotten a little muddy
with everything that they've done.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Yeah, So when I revisit their vision emission statements, I
have a formula that I use to like calm through that,
and it's really just different parts of speech, right, verb,
like who are you helping? Like really kind of like
working that out and being really clear. Some organizations when
they write their mission and vision statements, they they're like
they're trying to write a speech, right, And that's not
(17:52):
what a mission and vision statement is. It doesn't need
to be a speech that you post to your website.
It's it can be it needs to be like really
really simple so that even your board members know what
that is right off the top.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Of their heat.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
And I think the formula really helps too, because if
somebody can remember the formula that I give them, they
can also be like, and what did we say about
our business? Or they could even like change it out,
they could like swap it out they're talking about it,
and they still can clearly articulate what their organization is.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Trying to do.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
And I think when when I'm calling through grants, I
saw like to be really clear about like what this
organization is doing and how what this grant, how this
grant will help them. So so that's that's how I
help them, is like both with really getting clear about
what their mission is and then finding the right grants
(18:41):
for them. If they're finding them on their own, I
like to just kind of walk them through. I have
like a mission creep mapping tool and it's just like
it follows the formula, so it says, like, you know,
are you like does this grant meet this part of
your mission? Does the grant meet this part of your
mission and this part of your mission?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
If yes, move forward.
Speaker 5 (19:03):
If no, really take a step back and think about
that before you move forward with this.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, I think that's it's smart that you're going through that.
I think that's a smart exercise for a lot of
business owners, you know, especially you know, even self employed
people who are like I can help this person, I
can help this person. And then it's kind of like, well,
who do you help when someone asks for clarity and
it's like everybody, or if I was to say anybody
with financial issue, like that is the world, you know,
and some people who I help women, which is half
(19:29):
the population.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Like getting really.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Clear on like who you're very very good at at
helping or what you're trying to do. I think it
makes it easier, Like I think about it from the
other side of getting them to approve this.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Grant for you.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
The clearer you are, the more organized you are, the
easier it is for them to be like, yes, like
this this one makes sense instead of trying to back
into it. Are there some pitfalls or things that people
can avoid when it comes to making mistakes with this process,
you know, as far as the applications, because I feel
(20:05):
like if you do what they want and they're clear,
you might have a chance. But there's got to be
a lot of ways that this could go sideways.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Yeah, it's definitely a competitive process and you never know
who's reading rating the grant application behind the scenes. So
I serve on a grant allocations committee for the United
Way in our local area, and I love it and
I'm we're in the process of it right now, so
I can't name names by any means, but I would
say from last year one of the biggest pitfalls I
saw people make was the way that they wrote up
(20:35):
their budget. People were not organizations were not clear about
like making their revenue and their expenses equal, and that's
like really important. So we had one that submitted that
they looked like they didn't even need the money. They
were asking for an increase of the allocation they received
(20:56):
from the year before, but then their balance was showing
that they had twenty thousand dollars more than they needed,
and so I pointed that out them, like this is
incredibly important, Like make sure you have somebody who understands
a financial document like a p and L. Look at
this before you're submitting it with a grant, because then
with the reviewers, we're looking at it going they don't
need our money. They have they have twenty thousand dollars
(21:18):
they don't know what to do with. But they're telling
us there's this need and they're telling us that this
money is there. The other thing I see. The other
problem I see is that in the nonprofit space, it's
really really hard to redict.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
How much money is going to come in.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Right, So there's a line item where they're saying, you know,
we're going to get this much in grants and donations,
and then it's like, but how are you getting that?
You know, like, are you sure you're going to get
those grants? Are you sure those donations are going to
come through? So that can be incredibly tricky, But I
think if you're really clear about why and how, so
(21:52):
we we for example, we're looking at that and saying, okay,
so your year over year budget, you're saying, this year
you're going to get a lot more in grants and donations.
Why is that? And they had a great explanation for it,
and I was like, that's awesome, Okay, okay, I hear that.
And other times. One of the other big pitfalls is
(22:13):
people hire a grant writer, but they don't work together
with that grant writer. So my preferred work style is collaboration.
I want to work with my client and make sure
we're completely on the same page. In some organizations they
just want to they just want to hire a grant writer,
like to delegate everything to like you go get this
(22:33):
done for me, and it really doesn't work like that.
The grant writer needs to be more integrated into the
organization on the marketing level to make sure that the
web presence matches what you're doing with the grant writing.
On the strategic level, to make sure your strategy matches
what you're doing. And so that's incredibly important. And so
one of the things I've seen in grant allocation review
(22:56):
committees is an organization hired a grant writer to write
it for them, and we're reviewing it and then we
show up to the site visit and we're talking to
them and like something's not quite lining up here. And
then we're like we ask about like, oh, well, our
grant writer wrote this, Okay, does your grant writer know
about your organization? Well, our grant writer lives in Florida,
and like they have never been here, they don't know,
(23:19):
they don't really know. That's well enough, and then it's
like did they work on your budget? Like is it
like is it clear about like your budget? Like so
then that was like I mean that throws up like
a huge red flag to a grant review committee too.
It's like if you just hired a grant writer to
delegate it to and get it done for you, but
you never even like reviewed it. You never really reviewed
it to see if it actually is what you wanted
(23:40):
to say before you're submitting it. I think a lot
of I think a lot of funders can see right
through that too.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
No, And I think I've said it before in the podcast.
A confused mind will say no. And so if it
is confusing to the person who's saying this doesn't look
right or when I looked at your website, none of this,
I mean that is definitely even if they're not exactly
sure what's wrong, Like you said, something seemed off, something
seems that is not going to be where they feel
safe putting their their funds. It's just not. So I
(24:11):
think that's important. Are you able to work with clients
that are not geographically near you if you get the
right information or is it something that it is more
of a local type.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
Absolutely, I'm very comfortable working with organizations all across the country,
and that's because I have a method of you know,
right from the beginning, I'm saying, like we need to
collaborate together on this, Like I'm not you can't just
ask me to just get this done for you, Like
there needs to be conversations. I want to be comfortable
(24:42):
submitting this on your behalf because my name's on it,
you know. And then there's those other pieces of like
wanting to make sure that that grant gets submitted from
the organization and not from my Gmail account, right like
or my Melissa jpond dot com email.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Address, Like that's not going to look good for the funder.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
And so oftentimes if it is something where they want
to hire me to help submit it, like I asked
to get integrated into the organization, so ask for a
branded email account and being part of their team and
having like you know, at least bi weekly check in
meetings with the team to know what's going on and
be like fully integrated into what's going on. That's incredibly important.
(25:23):
So so for example, like I was just working with
an organization down in Florida, and so you know, we
had the check in meeting with the board. We you know,
we were able to I created that what I call
my grant success lunch pad, the three to five grants.
We had that ready, and it's such a great starting
point because then it's like then you have the conversations
I can you know, use that then create a clear
(25:44):
checklist and say, okay, like here's all the things we
need to do to get these submitted, and then have
that conversation with the organization either the staff and or
the board and say like, how are we moving these
things forward? Do you want me to do X, do
you want me to do hy?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Who's doing that?
Speaker 5 (26:00):
And like be able to kind of move through that
implementation piece.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
So you're sort of project managing this whole process for
them because you're making sure like even just by defining
those first three to five versus whatever is out there,
you know, like having it be this or this kind
of well, we're just going to go for everything, like
having that be kind of cleared. But you mentioned with
checklists and talking with the boards and all of those things,
it really does seem to solve that that, you know,
(26:28):
the confusion or that stress of who's going to do
what and making sure that it's actually done. So I
think that is it's such a helpful thing because, like
you said, some of these nonprofits, like they you know,
they're working really hard, they have all these different things
that they need to do, and so I think having
that really not just be seen as just the grant writer,
but like the grant manager is very very It's just
(26:51):
a different way to look at it that I think
is really successful. Are there any times any experiences you've
had with some clients that you've felt really really good
about how you've been able to have an impact on
their business.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Absolutely. They're one of the organizations I worked with.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
They won a six hundred and twenty five thousand dollars
grant over five years, and this was a federal one.
So unfortunately, I'm not sure what's going on with that
and how that's going to play out over the next
five years, which is incredibly sad. But that was definitely
my biggest win in my business so far, was working
with them and getting and helping them get that done.
I was incredibly confident that they had it. Like this
(27:26):
is the thing is that you can't just hire grant
writer and expect that now you're going to get the money.
Like your organization needs to be prepared for these opportunities too. So,
like I said, like having a board, having your budgets,
your your budget set up, and like a really clear,
a really clear plan for what your organization does, you know.
(27:48):
And this organization was incredibly positioned. They had been it
had been their goal to get this grant, you know.
So I'm not trying to pat myself on the back
too much for this. Like the organization had prepared themselves
in the collaboration.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, Like that's a team effort to get that kind
of funding, exactly, definitely a whole exactly.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
And that's the point I want to drive home that
this is about collaboration. Like I don't want people to
listen to the podcast and be like, every Molsta can
get me a six hundred and twenty five thousand dollars grant,
Like that's not what I'm saying, and that's not what
I want people to hear.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I want people to hear that it does take collaboration.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
And that you know, the value that I added to
that was I had done. I had a fifteen year
career in federal grant management, so I knew what some
of the things that they needed to like look at
and be clear about and how to write in a
really clear way, right, and like that grant writing piece
does come into play. You know, how do we tell
(28:47):
our story really well? How do we draw out the
things that like we want the grant reviewer to see
and make sure they're seeing really clear? And also that
logic model, making sure that that even if a funder
doesn't ask for a logic model, making sure that that
shines through throughout the narrative is incredibly important. Like can
(29:09):
the reader really understand how the resources you have, combined
with the resources they're giving you are gonna clearly make an.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Impact based on the activities and outputs you're doing.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, that's I mean, that's outstanding, but it is important.
But it does. It just shows that it's possible if
you have the right team in place, if your bored
is if everyone is committed, you know, like if this
was a big you know, if this is a big
goal of yours to get you know, big funding, it
can happen if you you know, if you get everything
(29:42):
in place. Are you starting to see because I'm guessing
you know, even talking to people who are like wanting
to apply for college scholarships thinking like, oh, I just
you know, put in chat GPT and send it out
to the rest of the world. They're catching on to this, right, Like,
this is where I feel like having that strong writing
skills will help the humans will still Yes.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
Yeah, right, absolutely. I think it's incredibly important. I play
with those tools a lot to see what they're producing
and like see what's going on and how to use
them effectively in my own business. But at the end
of the day, you need to know how to write,
and you need to know how to produce a good paper.
You know, talking about you know, the college scholarships piece.
(30:22):
I've taught higher.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Education, and.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
We want we want our college students to be able
to know how to write a sentence, right, write a
proper sentence, write a proper paragraph. Chat GPT is like
not going to do that. Well, it's just regurgitating information
that I can find online and spitting it out. And
it can be used as an incredible tool. Like I said,
I I do use it in my business, but I
(30:48):
use it as a tool. I don't have it just
produce something for me. And I think that's a dangerous
avenue to go down with grants as well, because just
like I said, if you're hiring a grant writer in
Florida who does don't really know your organization and they're
just producing something without even collaborating with you. That's the
same result you're gonna get from chat GPT. You're putting
(31:09):
stuff in and it's not gonna spit out exactly what
you need. It's gonna it's it's gonna be haphazard.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
It's gonna be very generic.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yeah, no, I agree. It's just curious being with that.
If I I have a question for you, which I'm
not sure, but I know that there's a lot of
us who you know, want to help raise money for
different charities. And maybe it's not a grand but I
feel like there's a ton of people listening who probably
have a huge aversion to asking anybody for money or
(31:39):
for help. I know, I'm on the board for like
Wallpole Youth Basketball, and to me, I get what we do,
and I think it's really cool and important and it's
pretty easy for me to ask somebody to help us
out with it.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
But I talk about money all the time. Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
What are some things that you think can help people
who maybe have some fears about either going for grants
or asking anybody for help or money period. What are
some things that can help make that a little bit easier.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
That's to me, that's such an easy question. It's truly
believing in your mission and your cause. If you truly
believe in your mission and your cause and you know
that it's going to make a huge difference for people.
Why wouldn't you ask your neighbor, Why wouldn't you ask
everyone you know to contribute? Why wouldn't you tap every
resource you can possibly find and ask for help with
that mission? If you truly believe that what you're doing,
(32:32):
how you're doing it, what problem you're solving, is truly
gonna make a difference, it's a no brainer. You're gonna
be asking everyone you know for money. I think what
comes into play, especially for new board members, for example,
is if they're not integrated into the organization enough and
they're just you know, they were just asked because somebody
(32:54):
knew somebody and they got asked to sit on the board,
and they're not that comfortable because they haven't really gotten
to know what the organization does yet, you know, or
they or they're not clear on how to talk about it,
how to talk about the mission and vision of the organization,
and how to resonate that with someone. So and it's
also a lot about relationship building too, Like if when
(33:14):
you're asking for money, you don't want to just walk
up to somebody and ask them for money, like and
even if you already know them, you don't want to
just like blankly just be like just point blank like, hey,
I need money for my organization or it's going to
fall apart. Like that's one of the worst things to
say is that the need is that your organization won't
exist without it, Because the need is the problem in
(33:38):
society or the problem whatever problem you're trying to solve.
It's not that your money. Your organization doesn't have any money.
So that's one of the biggest pitfalls I see people make,
is like, well I really need money or my organization's
going to fall apart. It's like the first thing I
think of personally or even as like thinking of it
as a funder, is like, what, your organization probably doesn't
have the capacity to be existing, So why would I
(34:01):
give you my money?
Speaker 3 (34:02):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (34:03):
And so to keep the doors open another couple of months.
That that to me doesn't sound like exciting.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
No, the need should never be the you should never
be about the needs of your organization. Then you should
always be about what problem you're solving in the community.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
No, that's so it's so smart, and I think, yeah,
I think you're right. And if you're someone out there
and you're like, but that is what I need money for,
Like maybe you do need to do some work on
those values and missions and things like that to start
to breathe, because it is stressful to run a bit.
It's it's very you know, there are a lot of
things that you know, a lot of small businesses, a
lot of nonprofits. I mean, we need we need money.
(34:42):
It's like oxygen for a business. And so I think
that there is that. However, I think how you go
out into the world, you know, obviously if you have
that you know, that core, you know component, that mission
that you really truly believe in, that is such a
different approach than like I need my a bank, get alone,
you know like that. It's just different when you're looking
(35:04):
for somebody to you know, to give you a grant.
And so definitely such a valuable skill, you know, and
tool for people to either learn with you or start
to collaborate on. So thank you so much for joining
me today. This was super interesting and I and I
know it's kind of a it might be a scary
space in the nonprofit for a lot of people who
(35:24):
maybe have been relying on federal grants and things like that.
So I think it is definitely worthwhile, you know, to
reach out to you to get what else is out there.
Maybe there could be other things that you could be
looking at that you might not be exposed to to
help keep your nonprofit running. So how can people reach you,
Melissa if they want to learn more about you or
follow your tips and find.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
Out Absolutely the best way to connect with me is
to go to my website Melissa Jpond dot com and
there's a great big button that's a schedule a free
discovery call with me. Click on that, it goes to
my calendly and we can set up a quick fifteen
minute call.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Thank you so much for.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Getting a business started and having a business card that
tells everybody everything you do exactly, because I think it's
so helpful. I think people just want to know, how
do you help other people? How can you help me
solve a problem, And so it's just great to see
businesses like yours out there because this is this is
a big space and this is a big need and
I think you're gonna be able to help a lot
of people do a lot of amazing things. So thank
(36:21):
you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
To save me and Missy.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
I love what you're doing and talking about money, especially
for women. I was just at a conference on Friday.
It was a summit, and one of the speakers said,
you know, women go to parties and we don't talk
about important things.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
We talk about who knows what.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
Right, like white lotus or the latest drama. Who knows
what we're talking about. And she's like, and if I
do talk about the important stuff, She's like, I get
kicked out. And I was like, I was like, that's
so profound, because like, honestly, I think I've gotten kicked
out of social circles because I'm wanting to talk about
important things and not like drama. You know, but those
are the circles I want to sit in personally, And
(36:59):
so I I love what you're doing, and I love
listening to what you're what you're doing, and just so excited.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Can't wait to see you again.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
Hopefully there's another Boston Business Women Summer Bash.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
We can see each other at True yeah, no.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
And I agree. I feel like, yeah, our table would
probably be a lot more interesting than others. But I've
been definitely at places where people were talking about like, oh,
I'm getting divorced, and I was like, all right, let's
talk and I'm like going straight to that, like let's
talk about the stuff that's like really bug And it's
like it's amazing how people could finally sometimes be like
I needed to talk about that. This has been on
my mind, but I feel like I can't say it.
(37:35):
I can't bring it up because it's not proper or polite.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
So I love it. Let's talk about money.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
We'll talk about business and talk about all the things
that are keeping people holling people back. Yes see if
we can help out.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
So thank you again for joining.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Head over to your website, Melissa Japond dot com and
you're also on social media right Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn Perfect, Well,
thank you again. And if you're listening and you're thinking
that you might want us to to, you know, think
about ways that you could raise money for the nonprofity,
either that you care about or if you are somebody
who is charitably inclined and you want to figure out
ways that you can help more people head over to
(38:10):
missing lunch dot com. We could definitely take a look
at your financial planning and some of your big goals
and see how we could start making our money work
better for us. So thank you again for joining and
we'll talk again next week. Thank you for joining us
on another insightful episode of demonst Buying Money.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and leave
a review. Stay tuned for more engaging conversations on our
next episode, and remember knowledge is the key to financial empowerment.
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