Chapter 1-
State Your Purpose and Prepare to Fulfill It

There are many resources available to support your efforts to address a problem, want or need. These resources are available because corporate, governmental and individual funders believe that it is mutually beneficial and efficient to work with specialty organizations to accomplish goals. Your understanding of this connection can help you to convey your value to funders. When you clearly and effectively express the worthiness of your purpose, you become just as necessary to your funders as they are to you.

Individuals and organizations are willing to give you funds to do the following types of things:

• assist local societies or international affairs
• serve others so that they receive necessary things such as healthcare and human services
• educate others or conduct research
• protect others
• conduct civic or religious activity
• preserve the environment
• provide cultural or artistic enrichment

As a grantseeker, two important aspects of receiving your funding are: 1) clearly expressing your purpose and 2) successfully preparing to execute your purpose. If a funder is interested in what you do it is not difficult to convince them to share their funds if you effectively inform them about your work. However, this sharing is contingent on whether or not you are fully capable of achieving your purpose. This is where due diligence in thorough research, planning and execution come into play.

Funders take a risk by investing in your purpose and, as with any investment choice, they want to make wise decisions. You can help funders choose you by giving them ample information about who you are and what you do. You can also help them to choose you by conveying and demonstrating that you are fully capable of accomplishing your purpose.

The key to providing effective information is fully gathering and organizing this information in advance so that you can use this information to comprise the content of your application and/or proposal.

Tip: The more details you are aware of and find the answers to, the more realistic your purpose is to achieve because you know exactly what it takes to make your solution real and sustainable.


Develop and Plan to Execute Your Business Plan and Budgets

Your business plan and its execution reside at the core of your efforts. All other efforts radiate out from the business plan because your plan provides you with many of the answers a grantmaker requires to make a sound decision about funding you. For example, your business plan states your purpose by prompting you to develop or refine your comprehensive vision, mission and goals. It also states your budgets and organizational structure. You can then use information from this plan to execute your actions and to articulate who you are on grant applications and proposals.

You can utilize resources such as library books about business to develop or improve your plan. You can also use websites such as the Small Business Administration (www.sba.gov) to identify components of any business. Locally, a Small Business Development Center (SBDC) may offer classes and materials you can refer to.

In addition to developing a business plan of action, you must do research to predict and determine what your realistic expenses will be. An absolutely crucial aspect of obtaining funding is knowing your operating budget. You simply cannot responsibly ask for funds unless you first know exactly how much funding you will need for your short-term projects and the long-term survival of your organization.

Treat your pursuit like an important business transaction---do not make a hasty grant application submission without verifying the soundness of your requested amount within your budget. Be as thorough as possible in defining the costs of the specific endeavors you seek funding for. Make phone calls, request informal price quotes or submit formal bids (if your organization requires this) to find out exact costs of products, services and facilities you need to accomplish your purpose. Visit web sites or request materials such as price sheets and brochures to gather cost information. Be sure to document all of the research you do so that you can refer to it when you state your expenses.