What Funders Wish You Knew (But Won’t Tell You): Red Flags that Prevent Your Proposal from Getting Read
There are always more grants than there is money. Because Funders have to reject usually 80% of applications. They don't tell you what's wrong with your proposal. They look for red flags to help reduce the number of proposals they have to read. Learn the reasons why your proposal may not be getting reviewed.
Episode 154 | What Funders Wish You Knew (But Won’t Tell You): Red Flags that Prevent Your Proposal from Getting Read
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🔦 NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT 🙌🏿
A Step to Freedom Pt. 2
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You've been writing proposals, submitting applications, and hoping for yeses, but something's not landing. In this episode, I'll spill the tea on what funders really want to see and what makes them say no immediately.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn. We, nonprofit leaders learn to fuse passion and commitment with proven business strategies to create long-term funding impact and sustainability. And now here's your host and resident, Philanthrepreneur, Amber Wynn.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Hey, you're on air with Amber Wynn, and today we're talking about what funders wish you knew but won't tell you. I know that sounds a little wonky, but I'm going to explain, right? Let's start off with passion is not enough. Sometimes people think when they're writing these grants and submitting proposals after proposal, it's about passion. It is not. A funder is regulated just like a nonprofit is, and so you have to provide them with certain information in order for them to even consider you. But guess what? They're not going to do? They're not going to tell you that. And people say to me, why is that, Amber? And I'm going to tell you why it is because there are more applications than there is money. And so funders look for legal ways to eliminate applicants so that they can keep down the work. Listen, in order for a funder to give out money, they have to have people who are going to read the applications.
(01:39):
Having been a reviewer, I can tell you it's a lot of work. We've got scoring criteria, we've got rules and regulations, and everybody has to be within five to ten points of the same conclusion. So it takes a lot of work to make sure that those applications are scored professionally, making sure that there's no impropriety, especially on the federal level. So what a funder really wants you to know is that you have to follow the guidelines, right? So when you are submitting your materials and it's not in alignment with what it is the funder has asked you to do, they're legally able to decline you and kind of sort of that's what they want. When we come back from this break, I'm going to dive deeper into funder math and what that is when we come back. A nonprofit is a business governed by agencies on the local, state, and federal levels authorized to revoke a nonprofit's tax exempt status for noncompliance.
(02:45):
Don't put your funding in jeopardy. Get the nonprofit compliance checklist to make sure you don't forget to file required forms to the agencies that can derail your operations for months. Compliance is 50% of a nonprofit's funding strategy. Getting the grant is half the work, but keeping it and getting it renewed is the other half. Don't spend hours writing grants only to have them rejected because your tax exempt status has been revoked. Keep your organization active and in good standing. Order your copy today. Welcome back. You're on air with Amber, and we're talking about what funders wish you knew but won't tell you. And I know it sounds a little bit weird because well, Amber, if they wish I knew it, then why won't they tell me as I shared before we went to the break? The reason why is because there's more applicants than there is money, but the reality is funders want you to follow the guidelines, right?
(03:40):
If I'm saying to you, I can only serve a certain geographic area, that's what I'm telling the IRS I'm funding. If you say, well, you serve youth, I serve youth, you should be able to fund me. I serve youth in California, but I only fund youth in New York. I'm not going to fund you, and I wish you knew that because then it would eliminate me having to go through the process of even looking at your application. But on the flip side, as a funder, because you don't qualify, I get to put you in the no pile. So it helps me as a funder to be able to eliminate some of the applications. Today I want to talk to you a little bit about funder math. What is funder math? It's not actually fair, but it is a quick way for me to determine my return on the investment.
(04:34):
Let's just say I've got five applicants and all five of those applicants serve youth. I'm going to look at your budget. I'm going to divide it by the number of youth you say you're going to serve within a specific period of time, and that's going to allow me to see what my per cost per participant is. It's not fair and it's not accurate because let's just say you do mental health and awareness. Maybe you have a certified clinician that's serving these youth well, their hourly rate is going to be more than if you're doing afterschool tutorial program. You have someone who's working with them, they're only making $15 an hour, so that per participant cost is going to be different, but that's how we quickly eyeball and determine if we're going to get a return on our investment. Now, I will say, generally speaking, if it's mental health, then the funder is going to do a call an RFP for all mental health.
(05:37):
So it typically won't be tutoring versus mental health, but I just wanted to give you insight as to how funders determine whether or not they get a return on their investment, and most of us, we just do a quick division of the number of participants you serve into your total budget. It's something you want to consider, right? All right, so the other thing we're going to talk about is the biggest red flags in proposals. Now, I'm going to let you know as a funder, we look for things that suggest that the work that you're doing isn't quite what you're saying, or we're looking for things that will help us to eliminate your application because as I said before, there's always more money than there is applications. What are some of the red flags? This is going to sound silly, but when you have so many nonprofit applications competing against each other, we got to look for things, right?
(06:37):
Think about it. When you are doing an interview, you're looking at resumes, all things considered, the people might have the same skills. So what do you look for? You look for typos in the resume. You look for cover letters to other organizations. That's not mine. I've had that all the time. Dear Mr. Johnson, my name is Ms. Wynn, so that is a reason for me to say no funders do the same thing, right? You may send out a blanket proposal and to whom it may concern, no, I'm your program officer. You didn't have the wherewithal to do the research to even look up the program officer. I'm on the website. That is a reason for me to reject your proposal, right? Because it shows that you are just sending out blanket proposals. You're not conforming it to each one of the RFPs. What's another one? If you don't have a physical address, you are a public charity.
(07:37):
You should not be running your nonprofit from your house. How does the public access it? So I'm going to look for a physical address. What about your email? People are like, are you serious, Amber? All things considered, if I have to find a reason, right? My last $150,000, it's between two organizations. That could be the reason why would I give my $150,000 to hot mama at Gmail versus Bright Horizons, right? It says, you are professional. It says you a hot mama. That's not what I'm looking for when I'm trying to fund my nonprofit. So I'm looking at red flags. I'm also looking at your budget. We talked about this in a previous episode. Your budget tells me what your priorities are.
(08:30):
If you are underpaying your staff, that could be a red flag for a funder. Why? Because that could mean that your organization is going to experience a high level of turnover. I'm not trying to invest my money in an organization that's going to continuously lose staff. What's another red flag for Amber? When I was a funder, I'm also looking at the amount that you're paying your people, right? And this is personal. Every funder has their own red flags. As a matter of fact, what I'm going to do is I'm going to drop a link in the bio with funders pet peeves, and the reason why I'm giving you the funders pet peeves is so you know what not to do when you're submitting your proposals because those pet peeves are some of the reasons why your applications get rejected. Another red flag is not answering the questions.
(09:22):
If you can't answer the questions my love, that means that you're not qualified. You just putting words in the space isn't going to help you. We score them and we score them looking for specific answers. So if I say to you, answer this question and you don't, or you answer it with the wrong thing, you get a zero. The other part of that, if it's a two part question, give me a two part answer. Don't just answer that first part thinking. I'm not going to see that you didn't answer the second part. I will, because that question is probably worth 10 points. The first point is worth five points, and the second part is worth five points. So answer the question completely. There are a ton of red flags that funders look for, but I want you to know that we look for them, right?
(10:09):
This is how we make our determination on whether or not we're going to fund you. When we come back, we're going to pause for a break. When we come back, I'm going to talk about what we look for in terms of a vague grant answers to our questions when we come back from this commercial. If your grants aren't getting funded, it could be because the funder can't see how your programs are making an impact in your community. Get the How to Demonstrate Impact Workbook to quantify the work you're doing in your community in a way that a funder can see a potential return on your investment. Funders need proof that your organization will use their grant dollars to improve your community. That proof is called impact, and impact is quantified through measurable outcomes. Leverage my 30 years of program development experience to help increase your chance of securing funding.
(11:00):
Order your copy today. Welcome back. You're on air with Amber Wynn, and today we're talking about what funders wish you knew, but won't tell you. We want you to come with your A game, right? Because it's a lot of work for us to decipher what it is that you're trying to say. What do I mean by that? We're trying to decode your vague answers to some of our questions. Be specific. If I say, explain the background of your key personnel, don't go talking about your organization specifically answer the question. Each question typically is scored because we want to keep it objective. So if you don't answer the question or if you think that we won't pay attention to the fact that you didn't answer the question, you're absolutely wrong. You will either get a low score or no score. So don't provide us with vague answers.
(11:59):
Be specific when you're answering your question. The other thing I want to emphasize when we talk about what funders want you to know is that funders are human beings. We're not just robots and sitting there writing check after check. I'm going to encourage you before you even start to write your grants to try and establish relationships with your program officer. People tell me all the time, what am I supposed to say? You're supposed to say something. Here's the reason why as a program officer, it is their job to manage the portfolio of grants in the community. They need to know who's in the community, what the issues are. So try and get to know your program officer. How do you do that? Send them. Send them your newsletters. Typically, you will find the program officer's information on their website. Invite them to your programs, not just your events, but your programs.
(12:58):
When people invite a program officer to an event, we know you're looking for us to give you money, right? That's when people get on the stage and they hold up their certificates. But you really want your program officer to understand the work that you do. So invite them out for a site visit. Let them see you in action. Let them talk to your participants and get a feel for what it is that you do in your organization. That's what you really want to do. Alright, so now it is time for you to ask me your pressing questions. I can talk all day long. I've been in the game for 30 years plus, but I want to make sure that this podcast is meeting the needs of my community. I have a portion of my episode called Ask Amber, and today we have a question from Gina. Gina, go ahead. Ask me your question.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Hi there, Amber. My name is Gina. I have been running and self-funding my nonprofit for about four years. I am exhausted and underpaid. I know I'm filling a need because my community consistently show up for services, but how do I keep going?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Well, Gina, I'm sorry to hear that you're exhausted and underpaid, but here's the thing. Most nonprofit leaders think that's the way it's supposed to be. Oh, I know I'm going to to be exhausted and underpaid at some point, I'm going to start getting this grant money. It doesn't happen. Hope is not a strategy. I say that all the time, and you are going to be exhausted if you don't set up your organization the right way. Your question is, how do you keep going? I'm going to tell you to stop going the way that you're going. I'm going to tell you to stop putting out all of your money and your energy. Yes, your community needs you. Yes, there are needs, but I'm going to ask you to pause and I'm going to ask to go back and set up your organization in a way that you can start generating revenue.
(14:57):
You need to get paid so that you can start hiring individuals so that you can delegate some of this work off to people. As an executive director, you're not even supposed to be doing the direct services. You're responsible for oversight. You're responsible for managing your coordinators or managing your managers or managing your directors. An executive director's role is to be out in the community networking, putting things in the pipeline for future funding. If you are doing the day-to-day, you're going to be exhausted. The other thing I'm going to encourage you to do is to recruit seasoned board members. I know that you don't have them. Why? Because you're exhausted. You wouldn't be exhausted if you had seasoned board members because it is your board members' responsibility to help fundraise. So what should you do?
(15:52):
Okay, this is a shameless plug, but I don't know what else to tell you except for the truth. You need to go check out the Nonprofit Mastery Academy because it is going to walk you through how to set up your nonprofit in a way so that you can start generating revenue quickly. And when I say quickly, I'm saying my results have been 30, 60 days after completing the course, my nonprofit leaders are generating revenue. Why? Because they've set up their infrastructure. Why? Because they know how to recruit season board members. Why? Because now they have a funder ready budget, and they can go out there and they can produce proposals that a funder loves to see. So Gina, I need you to take care of you. And even if you don't, go check out the Nonprofit Mastery Academy. Go to Nonprofit Ready. They have free courses for nonprofit leaders.
(16:43):
I don't know if they'll be able to get you to the place that my course will get you, but you will get some information on how to run a profitable nonprofit. So thank you for the work that you're doing, but we don't want you to be exhausted. Okay? All right. As we move on, well, before we move on, if you have a question for me, hit me up on any of my socials, I am happy to answer your question. I want to make sure that the information that I'm providing you is information that you want to hear. So hit me up on my socials and ask me your question. Now we get to move on to the nonprofit spotlight. We are on part two of my conversation with Kenya Croom, A Step to Freedom, and she's talking to us about the work that she's doing in the community. Let's go ahead and listen to the rest of my interview with Kenya Croom. From A Step to Freedom,
Speaker 4 (17:48):
We provide interim housing as our core service, our core program through interim housing, we provide full wraparound services, which includes a standalone workforce development program, as well as substance use programming and mental health linkages. We are also expanding into enhanced care management.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
What's enhanced care management?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
That is basically linkages to support for individuals that's being funded by their managed care plans, so their LA Care or Anthems and those. Got it. Got it. Yeah. And Family Reunification is our other program that we are very passionate about because helping those families reunite with their children is always is aligned with our original vision, our founding story.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
And we're back. I love my interviews with my nonprofit leaders. I work with nonprofit leaders day to day. It is what I do. It is my purpose, and I think it's important for the rest of the world to see the amazing work that's happening in our communities. If you're interested in being interviewed and you want to be Spotlight, hit me up on any of my socials. I'd be excited to interview you so that not only the community knows about the services that you're providing in your community, but my thunders,whoop de whoop, also get to see the work that you're doing and they can write you a big fat check. That is the goal, right? Alright, so thank you so much for joining me this week. If you enjoyed anything that you've seen, be sure to subscribe and share with other nonprofit leaders in the community. Or how about this? How about you forward it to a funder? I like that one. All right, so these are the things that funders wish you knew, but they wouldn't tell you. I'm going to tell you everything. I want you to be successful. You are my purpose for being here. You are my reason. Be sure to join me next week, and I'm going to tell you, like I tell every week. Take care of yourself, like you take care of your community. See you next time.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Head over to www.amberwynn.net/podcast for the links and resources mentioned in today's podcast. See you next time.
