135: TEDx Talk: The Real ROI of Grant Writing - by Teresa Huff

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As a grant writer for about two decades and winning over $7M for my clients, I’ve learned that grant writing isn’t magic, but there is a formula to increase your chances of winning grant. Today I’m sharing my secret sauce with you in my TEDx Talk! You can read the abbreviated version below or watch the full presentation (complete with pictures!) on YouTube. 

Where NOT to Start with Grant Writing

Imagine you're at work when your boss walks by and says, "Hey, I need a favor. I’m supposed to help at the youth shelter fundraiser on Saturday and I can't make it. Can you step in for me?"

As a team player and fan of the youth program, you say, "You bet! Happy to."

Relieved, he says, “Thanks, you’re the best!” On the way out, he adds, "Oh, by the way, it's a marathon. Just get some good running shoes and you'll be fine."

Wait - what? A marathon?

I don’t know about you, but I’m sure not ready for a marathon on Saturday.

…Yet I hear the equivalent of this all the time in the nonprofit world.

People hear someone wants to start a nonprofit and say, "Oh, you should just get a grant for that!"

Or, "You need a new building? I've heard there's grant funding out there.”

Grants aren’t that simple. You don’t “just” get a grant. Like training for a marathon, grants require preparation, strategy, and hard work. Successful grant writing takes consistent effort, uncovering misconceptions, and willingness to approach strategy through a new lens. We must look at grants as part of a much bigger process.

Start with ROI

In business, we know investors are looking for a Return on Investment, or ROI. We put money in and calculate, "How much profit will I get back?"

In the nonprofit world, ROI is more about creating a Return On Impact. You won’t get your investment of time, money, or resources back when you donate to a nonprofit. In the same way, grantmakers are looking forward. They want to know, "How much impact can we make through this work? How much of a ripple effect can we create by partnering together?"

Even better, by giving forward and investing in others, we do get a return back - by way of meaning, relationships, and fulfillment. That's why it's so important for us to band together to help nonprofits build this kind of ROI. A Return on Impact.

ROI Framework

How do we go about showing Return on Impact? We do this through what I call the ROI Framework: Relevant, Optimize, and Interact. That’s how we get the results that lead to impact.

Rather than simply writing more grants, let’s move upstream to look at the bigger picture and see how each grant opportunity fits in as part of the whole puzzle. When we put grants into their proper context, that’s when we can effectively build the nonprofit’s ROI.

Relevant

Relevance is twofold in the context of building our ROI Framework:

1. Establish the relevance of our work to society.

2. Ensure our work’s relevance to the grantmaker’s mission.

First, we need contextual research to ensure the community need for this project:

• What statistics and data support this mission? 

• Why is this work