Non Profit Funding for New Organizations

When you've been in the non-profit fundraising and marketing field long enough, and maybe have a few million dollars raised to your credit, you're often asked questions. It could be at a conference, after a meeting to being recognized in the grocery store.

I'm asked a number of wide-ranging questions. This is the number one question that I am asked -

Why is it so hard to get a grant from a major Foundation?

Many times I am asked this and this often relates to the organization not being ready to apply for a grant to major funders like the Gates Foundation, Johnson and Johnson, or other large groups. If you are a new non-profit that just received your 501©3 and haven’t held any programs, you most likely will want to try to obtain funding from other sources.

If you are an organization that has provided service for several years and have established programs with outcomes and proven results, apply to those bigger Foundations!

Fundraising Strategic Plan

Grants can be a good source of revenue, but not for new nonprofits. Most foundations want you to have three years of experience under your belt so you can prove your program is working before they invest in it. Even when you have the 3 years of program data, trying to fund your entire organization from grants is not a good idea. Most foundations don’t want to fund your program year after year, and even though there are thousands of foundations out there giving away money, there are only so many that are the right match for YOU. That means there’s only a small pool of foundation grants you are a match for and you’ll need other streams of income to cover the costs that grants don’t cover.

If you are a new nonprofit, what can you do instead? Take a look at 40 ways to get funding for your nonprofit.

Check out our Low Cost Course with online Support. Everything that you need to take you from “I’m not sure to - I know exactly what to do !!”

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