Did you recently receive a grant?
Congratulations!
However, fundraising is a cycle that does not end even after a big success. Here are 7 steps you should take after receiving a grant.
Say Thank You
Thank the donor for the favorable response. By approving your proposal, the donor has shown that your work is valued. You need to respond in a way that shows that you value the donor’s commitment and support. You might take this for granted or even forget about this step, but saying thanks is important for building a sustainable relationship and acknowledging the donor’s support. Sending a thank-you letter, making a phone call, telling them in person, or even just sending an email expressing your thanks can make a difference. The more personalized the better!
Build a Partnership
For a project to be truly successful, it is important that the donor and grantee are equal partners. NGOs get funding from donors, but what do donors get back from NGOs? Make sure that you know what the donor is hoping to get from the relationship, and then provide it. If you have done your homework well, you will know what the donor is interested in. It may be information, it may be participation in conferences, it may just be the sharing of experiences. Different donors expect different things from grantee relationships, so make sure you understand what this donor specifically is looking for. And if you do not know, then ask. In this way, the donor-grantee relationship becomes a real partnership.
Stay in Touch
Keep communication open at all times. Be available for meetings with representatives of the donor. Be ready to answer questions, organize field trips, and/or explain details. Keep the donor up-to-date on what is going on in the project and/or the organization. This means sending regular reports and information that may be of use or interest to the donor. If you have done your homework properly, you should be able to personalize this process of keeping the donor up-to-date. For example: “As we know you are involved in supporting similar work in other developing countries, we thought you would be interested in this case study on our AIDS orphans project.”
Warn of Potential Problems
Never go silent on a donor. It is especially important to be in contact with donors when your project hits a snag or a major problem is imminent. Donors may not like bad news, but they definitely do not like bad news when it is too late to do anything about the problem. Warning donors in advance show that you are responsive and looking ahead as well as gives the donor a chance to manage their expectations and sometimes even help out.
Be Welcoming
Wherever possible, get donor representatives into the field where they can meet the people whom the donor contribution is actually helping. Sending invitations to the project shows that you want to be open and build a deeper relationship. Your donors will be glad for the invite, even if they are not able to attend. In those cases, do not pressure them, but make sure they feel welcome to visit anytime.
Report Back
Meet the reporting requirements your donors’ request. This means providing the right information (narrative and financial), in the right format, at the right time. As soon as you sign a contract with a donor, write up a schedule of when reports are due. Make a note in your diary for a month before the reports are due so that you have them ready on time. Set mechanisms in place for collecting the information that will be required. You will need a monitoring and evaluation system as well as a system to save and organize all relevant information. While reporting requirements can be strict, they are important. Donors are increasingly expected to be transparent in their work, which means their grantees also need to be transparent.
Ask for Follow-up Funding
Donors that provide you with funding once are more likely to provide you with funding twice. A good time to ask for funding is after your mid-term report is submitted before your current grant is completed. Ideally, your mid-term report will be a glowing review of your project and show all the great work that you do. Once your donor reads this, it might be an idea to ask if they have any thoughts about expanding the current program or providing a follow-up grant after this grant is completed.
Bonus Tip: Keep it Moving!
It is very crucial to remember that grant fundraising is a cycle, and cycles keeps on repeating. This one was a success, keep the follow going. Continue researching and networking year-round.Note that grant cycles can overlap, so just because you are currently implementing one project with the grant, does not mean you should stop applying for other projects.