143: Formula for Nonprofit Success: Balancing Heart, Grit, and Brains: Interview with Derik Timmerman, Sparrow Nonprofit Solutions

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The Truth About Grant Readiness

If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you know I’m a big advocate for grant readiness, because the more prepared you are before you start, the better chance you have of winning a grant. But I’m also a big believer in taking action. The truth is, grant readiness is a lot like parenting. You need a certain amount of stability, but you’re never really 100% ready. At some point, you have to just start and then learn as you go.

My friend Derik Timmerman founded Sparrow Nonprofit Solutions to help nonprofits succeed in their fundraising. In this episode of Grant Writing Simplified, Derik tells the story of how Sparrow Nonprofit Solutions started when he realized he had to get a little rowdy, and how you can energize your board members while you get the critical grant readiness pieces in place.

Balancing Heart, Grit, and Brains

Most nonprofits are full of passion for their cause and determination to stick with it, but they struggle with the business mindset in one of two ways. Either they lack the business knowledge needed to run a nonprofit, or they don’t realize the impact they can have when they think outside the box. 

It takes more than heart and grit to run a nonprofit. It requires a combination and a balance of heart, grit, and brains to see the mission truly take off. You need all three in tandem.

Derik explains further about the importance of business elements in nonprofits and the core elements of grant readiness. Your nonprofit needs just four elements in place before you can win grants through EasyGrant.

1. Why do we exist? Forming your mission.
2. What is a win? Creating a vision.
3. Who are when when we're winning? Defining values.
4. How do we win? Developing a strategy.

If you can’t answer these four questions, Derik can help through a board retreat called BoardSpark. BoardSpark is especially helpful for languishing boards, if the board is in a transition, or if it’s been a long time since the board evaluated the organizational mission, vision, values, and key habits. Derik has seen many struggling nonprofit board members leave re-energized in their work.

While passion and persistence are necessary ingredients for impact in the nonprofit world, we need to mix them with equal parts business acumen and daring creativity. Consider how you can take your next step today.

To read today's full episode: Formula for Nonprofit Success: Balancing Heart, Grit, and Brains
To watch and share my TEDx Talk, The Real ROI of Grant Writing.  

Challenge Question: 
When you consider your nonprofit, do you know why you exist, what is a win, who are you when you are winning, and how do you win? I’d love to hear about your organization, so shoot me an email!

Meet Derik Timmerman
Derik Timmerman is the Founder of Sparrow Nonprofit Solutions, a nationwide consulting firm helping nonprofits maximize their world-changing impact. In addition to coaching nonprofit professionals at all levels, Derik is a nationally-recognized speaker and author on a variety of nonprofit subjects including fundraising, grant research/writing, and board development. 

Prior to founding Sparrow, Derik was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and a US Army Intelligence Officer with two combat deployments to Iraq. Derik earned a Bachelor's in Computer