Ask Jacquee: What is your grant writing success rate? [Video]

We are often asked, "What is your success rate?"

The reality is that our success rate is directly related to the strength of the organizations, programs, board of directors, finances, objectives, and accomplishments of our clients, and these factors are often outside of our influence as grant writers.

For example, it's not uncommon for a funder to request a fiscal year budget. Yet, some organizations, especially newer organizations, struggle to prepare an annual budget. Without this core attachment, we cannot submit the grant. Or, if we do, we are unlikely to receive the grant without appropriate attachments. 

Additionally, grant writing success rates are dependent on the organization's history with grants.

A grant writer applying for a combination of new and existing funders would likely have a success rate of 50% or more. For our most established clients, we see a 90% rate or higher. This is because they have established relationships within the community, a strong reputation with funders, and years of demonstrated impact to showcase. 

Whereas, a grant writer applying for new grants might have a success rate of 30-40%. This rate often means that the organization does not have strong or long-lasting funder relationships, and may not be established enough to provide clear and compelling historical or financial data.

At Bloom Grant Consulting, we work hard to apply for three times the amount of funding you want to raise. This ensures we are able to meet or exceed your organization's fundraising goal, year after year.

For every $1 our clients spend, we raise $12 for their mission.

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3 Tips to Maximize Your Partnership with a Grant Consultant

Establishing a clear budget, detailed program descriptions, and a long-term strategic plan will help maximize your partnership with a grant consultant. 

Partnering with a grant consultant is a strategic investment in your nonprofit organization’s future. You can maximize this investment by ensuring your grant consultant deeply understands your organization's needs and goals. In this blog post, I’ll review three tips for maximizing your partnership with a grant consultant. 

1. Develop a Clear Budget 

Have you accounted for your nonprofit's needs? A clear budget is a requirement of most grant submissions and is vital to a financially sustainable nonprofit organization. Developing a clear budget will help your organization reflect on its priorities and allocate resources appropriately. 

Your grant consultant will review your budget to deepen their understanding of your organization’s priorities and funding requirements. As a grant consultant, it’s our role to communicate what’s outlined in the budget in a concise needs statement that reflects the organization’s mission, vision, and programming priorities. 

Part of developing a clear budget is defining a grant revenue goal. A clear grant revenue goal will allow your grant consultant to develop an appropriate scope of work based on your organization’s funding needs. This goal will also allow you and your grant consultant to establish SMART goals that provide accountability to the budget. This encourages communication and collaboration between you and your consultant to reach the organization’s funding goals. 

In addition, a clear budget can help your grant consultant develop a grant strategy that reduces your organization's risk by diversifying funding sources and pivoting when funding falls through. 

2. Craft Detailed Program Descriptions 

Your mission and vision statements briefly describe your organization’s purpose. Crafting detailed program descriptions will help you communicate how your organization fulfills its mission. 

Your grant consultant will review your program descriptions to deepen their understanding of your organization’s programming and associated funding needs. Program descriptions will allow your grant consultant to tell the story of your organization’s impact and how the funding will be allocated to further the mission. 

As I covered in our previous blog, Data-Driven Reporting and Outcome Evaluation, funders are also interested in seeing the tangible impacts of your programming on the communities they serve. Therefore, it’s essential to develop clear metrics for your programming that can be used to demonstrate its impact to potential funders. Stories and data visualizations can help your grant consultant communicate your organization’s impact.

3. Create a Long-Term Strategic Plan

You likely have goals for your organization for the year ahead, but what about the next three to five years? Creating a long-term strategic plan will help your organization understand its future funding needs and plan for long-term funding success. 

Your grant consultant will review your long-term strategic plan to understand your organization’s vision and goals for the future. Your grant consultant will utilize your long-term strategic plan to develop a strategy to engage existing, past, and prospective funders to meet your goals and continue to fulfill your mission as your needs and programming evolve. 

In addition, a long-term strategic plan showcases your organization’s commitment to its future, inspiring confidence from funders. 

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In conclusion, establishing a clear budget, detailed program descriptions, and a long-term strategic plan will help maximize your partnership with a grant consultant by providing them with the information they need to achieve grant success. 

Interested in more tips to prepare your grant strategy? 

Our Interactive Grant Readiness Checklist will help you assess your grant readiness before investing in a grant consultant, including a comprehensive checklist, detailed assessment questions, and space to self-reflect and strategize. Use code “READY2024” to access the checklist for FREE through the end of the year.

Pitching a Grant Consultant to Nonprofit Leadership

Strategies for effectively presenting the case to hire a grant consultant to executive leadership.

You’ve defined your nonprofit's needs and identified a grant consultant as the key to unlocking financial sustainability and mission impact. Now, you need the support and approval from your executive leadership. In this blog post, we’ll share strategies for effectively presenting the case to hire a grant consultant to your nonprofit’s leadership. 

Position Hiring a Grant Consultant as a Strategic Investment 

A grant consultant can help your organization manage its grant program and approach funders confidently and consistently. This is a strategic investment in your organization’s future, providing financial sustainability through grant research, writing, and management.  

Take a holistic view of your organization, from mission and vision to strategic plan. Align your pitch with your organization’s strategic plan and showcase how a grant consultant can help your organization reach its goals. 

Highlight Your Nonprofit’s Grantseeking Challenges 

Ensure your executive leadership understands the internal challenges your organization faces. You are the expert in your organization's day-to-day challenges. Communicate these clearly and explain how they affect your organization’s ability to achieve mission impact and financial sustainability. Highlight the specific solutions a grant consultant can provide to address your organization's challenges.

Common challenges we see include time and capacity. These challenges can lead organizations to spend less time building relationships with funders, researching funding opportunities, and submitting funding requests. Deadlines may be missed, and crucial funding may be lost. These challenges can leave staff feeling overwhelmed and unsupported, which may cause staff turnover. 

Connect Your Challenges to Grant Consultant Solutions

When pitching a grant consultant, connect your specific challenges to the support a grant consultant provides. Remember, a grant consultant can do more than write grants for your organization. They can ensure staff have the tools and support to reach their full potential and strengthen their organization. 

Our comprehensive services ensure your organization has the tools, resources, and coaching to secure funding. Our services can save your organization time with efficient project management. We can increase your organization’s capacity by allowing staff to focus on executing mission-driven programming and services. We can help you identify new funding opportunities with access to cost-prohibitive prospect research tools. We can guide you on how to build relationships with funders. A grant consultant can address all of these challenges and more. 

Present the Cost of Hiring a Grant Consultant

Executive leadership is responsible for the organization's financial health. The cost of hiring a grant consultant will be a key concern of leadership. Root the cost of hiring a grant consultant in reality by obtaining proposals and vetting consultants.  

Depending on your position in the organization or relationship with executive leadership, you may require approval to begin conversations with grant consultants. These initial meetings are essential to build support from executive leadership throughout the discovery process by highlighting the true cost. Ask questions and gain perspective on what executive leadership would like to see from a grant consultant proposal and questions or concerns they may have. By understanding the priorities of executive leadership, you’ll be prepared to ask the right questions and identify the right consultant for your organization.

Learn the process of engaging a grant writer and find tips to prepare for each stage in our blog, Navigating the Process of Engaging a Grant Writer. 

Leadership will also benefit from understanding the consultant’s history of success. Request case studies, testimonials, and references to demonstrate the consultant’s effectiveness and the potential return on investment for your organization.  

For every $1 our clients spend, we raise $12 for their mission. 

A grant consultant can also be highly cost-effective for your organization, especially compared to the cost of hiring a grant writer as a full-time employee. This includes reduced overhead and benefit costs that can be a significant long-term investment. In addition, a consultant's flexibility allows your organization to respond quickly to funding needs and scale your contract up or down accordingly. 

Beyond the cost, establishing key performance indicators for the engagement will ensure leadership that you’ve considered success measures to ensure a fruitful partnership with clear goals.

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You recognize the impact a grant consultant can have on your organization’s financial future, advancing your grant program from research to submission. By following these steps, you can craft a compelling pitch that will resonate with your nonprofit leadership and clearly demonstrate the value of hiring a grant consultant. 

Showcase your understanding of the organization’s long-term goals and position a grant consultant as a strategic investment to help achieve them. Highlight the challenges your nonprofit currently faces and explain how a consultant can offer personalized solutions. Finally, present the cost and outline how you’ll measure the partnership's success to ensure the investment delivers tangible results.

With the approval of your nonprofit leadership, we’ll be excited to partner with you and help your organization Bloom. Contact us to learn how we can support your organization.