An Executive Summary must be compelling and persuasive, as it introduces your narrative and provides a roadmap for reviewers. If it isn’t, reviewers will likely not pay much attention to the rest of your proposal. Writers of good Executive Summaries avoid four common mistakes: #1: Poorly written Executive Summaries very often begin with some flowery …
Finance/
Financing & Loans
Previously, we looked at some of the important considerations for a nonprofit in deciding if it wants to enroll in the CFC for the 2012 solicitation season. For local charities, however, the application deadlines vary among the more than 200 regional CFCs, with charities in the Washington, DC metro area having the earliest deadline of …
Consider a DBA This is especially important for national and international charities, where if you are a small national or international non-profit, everyone may not recognize your name. The national and international lists are rigidly alphabetical; if your official name is “The Best Charity” you will be listed in the “T”s for “The” not in …
Some time ago, I spoke to a community service club and gave my fifteen-minute “This-Is-What-Fundraising-Is-Really-All-About” speech, and a majority of the subsequent questions revolved around the concept/complaint of having to go to the same people for contributions every time the club wanted/needed to raise money. The “fear” I most often hear expressed by members of …
The Combined Federal Campaign for the 2012 solicitation season begins on September 1, 2012, and runs through December 15, 2012. For national and international charities, regardless of whether they are members of a federation or an independent charity, the deadline for all application materials is Tuesday, January 17, 2012, by 5 p.m. (EST), and applications …
A reader wrote: “I know of an organization where the donor gave restricted funds, i.e., funds specified for a certain program, that the nonprofit agreed to. “The nonprofit has been giving regular reports to the donor, along with achieved outcomes, but the donor suddenly insists that she wants all of her money back. “I’ve never …
How You Mail Your Proposals Can Make a Big Difference The United States Postal Service is reliable, usually, almost all the time… But what about when they do lose a letter, or more important, your grant proposal? It can happen, and it just did for one of my clients. I was expecting grant notification about …