Don’t Sleep on Your Loyal Funders
How INCIGHT’s Mindset Turned a One-Year Grant into a Multi-Year Grant
I said this in another post, I feel so grateful to be getting texts like these from Guide on the Side’s clients.
For context, one of our services is helping social impact organizations write grants.
The above text was from the nonprofit INCIGHT, which helps people with disabilities unlock their full potential.
Often times, people feel bad for people with disabilities, when in reality they have so much to offer.
Not only that, INCIGHT’s Executive Director Scott Hatley says to expect great things from people with disabilities.
INCIGHT applied for a grant to continue to develop a program that helps employers do just that.
We applied for a $30K grant for INCIGHT’s important work over 1 year. But the foundation committed $40K over 2 years.
Giving a nonprofit a multi-year grant signals to the nonprofit that the funder trusts your organization, which is why I want to point out something:
Even though INCIGHT had received funding from this foundation before, Scott did not use this as a reason to put minimal effort into the grant application.
I remember going line by line of the grant application with Scott.
Any chance there was an opportunity to write about the impact INCIGHT was doing, Scott recommended we do.
Any chance there was an opportunity to expand on an answer and paint the vision of INCIGHT, we did.
“I don’t want us to take their funding for granted and assume that we are going to get this grant again. We have to earn it every year.”
🔥 🔥 🔥
This mindset pushed us to go above and beyond in the grant application. Instead of having to a grant application, we were delighted to.
The mindset was that INCIGHT was owed nothing.
I think this is a very important mindset to have with any grant application your organization might be applying to, especially the ones where they have funded you before.
Because how often do we get comfortable with the relationships we have?
Don’t sleep on the foundations and people who believed in you first. Commit to going above and beyond for them.
If we learned anything from this grant, it’s that when you go the extra mile for your partners, they just might go the extra mile for you.
What does this ultimately mean?
The relationship as a whole advances. All boats rise together. Birds of a feather flock together, or however these sayings go.
Don’t sleep on the foundations and people who believed in you first. Commit to earning their trust and respect year after year.