Grant Writing Simplified Teresa Huff

Join me on the Fast Track to Grant Writer: www.teresahuff.com/vip
As a grant writer for about two decades and winning over $7M for my clients, I’ve learned that grant writing isn’t magic, but there is a formula to increase your chances of winning grant. Today I’m sharing my secret sauce with you in my TEDx Talk! You can read the abbreviated version below or watch the full presentation (complete with pictures!) on YouTube. 
Where NOT to Start with Grant Writing
Imagine you're at work when your boss walks by and says, "Hey, I need a favor. I’m supposed to help at the youth shelter fundraiser on Saturday and I can't make it. Can you step in for me?"
As a team player and fan of the youth program, you say, "You bet! Happy to."
Relieved, he says, “Thanks, you’re the best!” On the way out, he adds, "Oh, by the way, it's a marathon. Just get some good running shoes and you'll be fine."
Wait - what? A marathon?
I don’t know about you, but I’m sure not ready for a marathon on Saturday.
…Yet I hear the equivalent of this all the time in the nonprofit world.
People hear someone wants to start a nonprofit and say, "Oh, you should just get a grant for that!"
Or, "You need a new building? I've heard there's grant funding out there.”
Grants aren’t that simple. You don’t “just” get a grant. Like training for a marathon, grants require preparation, strategy, and hard work. Successful grant writing takes consistent effort, uncovering misconceptions, and willingness to approach strategy through a new lens. We must look at grants as part of a much bigger process.
Start with ROI In business, we know investors are looking for a Return on Investment, or ROI. We put money in and calculate, "How much profit will I get back?"
In the nonprofit world, ROI is more about creating a Return On Impact. You won’t get your investment of time, money, or resources back when you donate to a nonprofit. In the same way, grantmakers are looking forward. They want to know, "How much impact can we make through this work? How much of a ripple effect can we create by partnering together?"
Even better, by giving forward and investing in others, we do get a return back - by way of meaning, relationships, and fulfillment. That's why it's so important for us to band together to help nonprofits build this kind of ROI. A Return on Impact.
ROI Framework How do we go about showing Return on Impact? We do this through what I call the ROI Framework: Relevant, Optimize, and Interact. That’s how we get the results that lead to impact.
Rather than simply writing more grants, let’s move upstream to look at the bigger picture and see how each grant opportunity fits in as part of the whole puzzle. When we put grants into their proper context, that’s when we can effectively build the nonprofit’s ROI.
Relevant
Relevance is twofold in the context of building our ROI Framework:
Establish the relevance of our work to society.
Ensure our work’s relevance to the grantmaker’s mission.
First, we need contextual research to ensure the community need for this project:
What statistics and data support this mission? 
Why is this work so critical? 
Then we should consider the relevance to the grantmaker: 
Whose funding priorities best align with the nonprofit's mission?
What community gaps does the nonprofit fill? 
How can they partner to meet those needs?
When thinking through this Relevance, we should consider the logical proof of ROI.
To read today's full epsiode: The Real ROI of Grant Writing
 
Challenge Question: What can you do to increase your nonprofit’s ROI?
 
Connect with Teresa Huff:
Website: www.teresahuff.com
Watch the TEDx: The Real ROI of Grant Writing
Take the Quiz: Do you have what it takes ot be a grant writer?
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Join me on the Fast Track to Grant Writer: www.teresahuff.com/vip
The collective values and priorities of a society change with each generation. We express our values with our time and money, so those values then drive the economy through the demand for relevant products and services. With each economic shift, the value proposition and marketing methods adapt to the current priorities to provide the most perceived value.
As a nonprofit, you want to be on the peak of the value curve. During our discussion, Mark provided a journey of economic shifts through the history of America to help us understand where we are today and how nonprofits can take advantage of the current transformational economy to engage supporters.
Join us for a journey through history to discover how you can help your nonprofit grow using assets you already have on hand.

What is the Transformational Economy?
Civilizations start as tribes in the subsistence economy, where we get enough to meet our needs and live. The goal is to say, “I'm alive.”
As tribes settle, we move to the commodity economy where we harvest commodities such as crops, wood, and mining to buy and trade. The goal is to say, “I'm productive.”
As the value of commodities increases, people move into the product economy where we buy labor savings. So instead of making your own products, we buy products someone else made. The goal is to say, “I’m efficient.” In the United States, we shifted to the product economy during the Industrial Revolution.
As the need for products is met, we shift to the service economy where we free up time by paying for services we previously did on our own. 
Then we moved to the experience economy, where people wanted more than a service—they wanted a memorable service.
Now, we are living in a transformational economy, where people want more than interesting memories. They want authentic, meaningful experiences to make things better, whether it’s improving themselves, their workplace, their family, their community, or the world. 
This is what people are craving and paying for today, so rapidly growing companies are providing an opportunity for their customers to be better people through their products and services.
How the Transformational Economy Can Help a Nonprofit
The marketing efforts of nonprofits have operated on a service economy mindset, where we focus our recruitment messaging on the services we provide. But since we are in the business of transformation, it should feel natural to embrace the shift and showcase how a contributor makes the world a better place by supporting our cause.
However, amid this shift, nonprofit organizations face a larger struggle to be heard through the noise with minimal marketing dollars. So how does a nonprofit get and sustain supporters’ attention long enough to appeal to their sense of purpose?
The Power of Story to Embrace the Transformational Economy
The most powerful and entertaining way to showcase transformation is through storytelling. 
Mark explained, “You can't sell transformation with features, advantages, and benefits. A person will not understand until they have been through the experience. How we do that is by telling a story of somebody who has been through the transformation. You have to tell it as a hero's journey.”
To read today's full episode: What is a Transformational Economy, and How Can it Help a Nonprofit?
 
Challenge Question:
What is a recent initiative you can search for stories of transformation?


Connect with Teresa Huff: 
Website: www.teresahuff.com
Watch the TEDx: The Real ROI of Grant Writing
Take the Quiz: Do you have what it takes to be a grant writer?
Social:
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Join me on the Fast Track to Grant Writer: www.teresahuff.com/vip How to Shake Up the Status Quo and Raise Funds for Your Nonprofit I talk with a lot of nonprofits each week, and of course they all have one thing in common they need: more funding! That’s why I like to bring in experts in other types of fundraising too. We need to understand the bigger picture of how the strategies fit together. 
Today I’m talking with another nonprofit expert who is fantastic at what she does. Sherry Quam Taylor is good at shaking up the status quo and challenging people to think bigger, better, and with excellence to raise funds to serve your nonprofit fully.  
Listen as Sherry and I do some myth-busting about fundraising. We also discuss advice on scaling nonprofits. 
Transparency and the Gift of Asking, "Why?" Sherry and I discuss the importance of bringing creativity to work. Design and creativity not only help us take care of ourselves, but they also help our organizations grow and build. This can insulate us from becoming stagnant. 
The experience Sherry brought from the for-profit world to the nonprofit world helped her tremendously, and that transition helped her learn a lot by simply asking, “Why?” “Why can’t we say that?” Why can’t we spend that?” These questions challenged Sherry and the teams she worked with to look at “why” they were doing things a certain way, and build toward securing donors' best gifts.
Giving the Gift of Time in Nonprofit Relationship Building Relationships take time. Rushing relationships does not build strong foundations. As board members, development teams, or even grant writers, relationships are at our heart. 
Sherry also shares tools we can use to build those relationships, specifically with investment-level donors. First of all, we need to ask questions and listen with interest. Sherry suggests this gem, “How did you become so generous?”
As I share in my TEDx Talk, building relationships means being conversational and getting to know the person, not just the dollar. Slowing down and being relational with donors can lead them to their best gift. That process can take 12-24 months or more, and that's okay.
To read today's full episode: How Design, Creativity and Relationships Intersect With Budget Transparency 
 
Challenge Question:
What five people can you start building relationships with now? Make that list today. 
 
Connect with Teresa Huff: 
Website: www.teresahuff.com
Watch the TEDx: The Real ROI of Grant Writing
Take the Quiz: Do you have what it takes to be a grant writer?
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Join me on the Fast Track to Grant Writer: www.teresahuff.com/vip How Human Resources Systems and Accounting Enable Nonprofit Growth Today we’re continuing the conversation from my TEDx Talk by discussing strategies for grant writing and nonprofits. You might recognize Sean Hale from the Nonprofit Mythbusters Roundtable. Sean is a nonprofit accounting and HR expert.
As part of these nonprofit strategy conversations, we need to include nonprofit accounting and HR systems. However, I didn’t want you to snooze during the episode! That’s why I invited Sean, because he understands accounting and reporting without focusing solely on spreadsheets and numbers. He knows how to use the data to tell your nonprofit’s full story.
We talk about questions like:
How do accounting best practices apply to nonprofits? How can we track our books better? How can we have sound systems to support our work better? Sean has fascinating experience and stories about nonprofit work and the systems supporting nonprofits. He’s worked in nonprofits for over 20 years and loves helping get smooth-running administration so the organization shines, allowing them to focus on the work they do best.
Sean helps organizations reduce waste, produce more revenue, and boost morale and productivity while growing transparency and stability.
How Back Office Systems Help Prevent Burnout and Fraud Did you know that 93% of American adults have math anxiety? That’s 13 out of 14 people! And that’s why we need good systems that can translate math into easily readable graphs and data. This is even more important for nonprofits trying to convey the importance of their work.
Sean shares how a good graphic can spark the organization to have critical conversations around money and solvency.
We also discuss how Form 990s can be used for good and bad data points. We even discuss whether external audits are an effective fraud prevention and what steps can be taken to add additional fraud protection on top of audits.
Often when we have these financial discussions, it can feel personal. But if organizations are set up with the proper checks and balances from the beginning, the system works to protect everyone. No one gets singled out or picked on. 

While back office and systems conversations can be difficult, these small measures and systems help set our team up for stability and growth.
Challenge Question: What systems can be a benefit to your nonprofit or grant-writing business? What two steps will you take today to start those conversations?
Meet Sean Hale I've served nonprofits for more than twenty years. I love getting the administrative side running smoothly so the organization can truly focus and shine. Over my career, I have made improvements that reduced waste, generated new revenue, boosted staff productivity and morale, grew financial transparency, and shrank risk. I've also helped boards and management to navigate complex situations and consistently left the organizations stronger and ready for their next stage of growth. Today I get to lead a team of outstanding nonprofit accounting and finance professionals. Together, we provide temporary and ongoing services to small and mid-sized nonprofits so they can have the back office support they need for the whole organization to flourish.
Connect with Sean Hale: Sean Hale Consulting Philanthroforce Connect with Sean on LinkedIn Recommended Reading from Sean’s blog: 7% Board Engagement is Not Enough Data Visualization for Financial Reports Engages Leadership Be Frugal, Not Cheap, With Nonprofit Administration Southwest Airlines: A Cautionary Tale About Being Cheap with Administration Nonprofit Administrator Burnout: Warning Signs and Alternatives Audits Won't Protect Your Nonprofit From Fraud Loom video explaining how to document your processes Other Resources Mentioned: TEDx Talk: The Real ROI of Grant Writing Nonprofit Mythbusters #1: The Overhead Myth - Expert Roundtable Discussion Ep

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Nonprofit Spotlight: Catching Human Traffickers I enjoy hosting a variety of topics relating to nonprofits and the issues surrounding them. Occasionally, we’ll have a nonprofit spotlight episode. The issue of this episode is one I have wanted to highlight for a while, but the topic is a challenging one.
Today's nonprofit spotlight is DeliverFund and their efforts to stop human trafficking. Due to the subject matter, you may want to grab earbuds or headphones if you have little ones around.
Human Trafficking Myths, Politics, Technology, and Budgets. Get Involved Several years ago, a U.S. soldier on duty overseas was distraught when he saw the effects of human trafficking. He asked a superior what they could do to stop the selling of women and children. The response was, “Nothing. We don't have the budget.”
He decided to do something about it himself. Since that veteran, Nic McKinley, founded DeliverFund, this nonprofit has been developing technology and training law enforcement to attack trafficking networks to put an end to traffickers.
The founder realized his unique skills could be used to fill a significant need, and that vision is growing and restoring victims of this industry.
Learn the Benefits of Using Technology to Grow Your Nonprofit Today I’m talking with DeliverFund’s Director of Development, Christi Nabors. She has experience in the for-profit world and has brought that experience to her work in nonprofit spaces. All of that experience has helped her view technology as a helpful tool.
Christi helped build training programs and digital online products in the for-profit world. I loved discussing the learning curve of nonprofit language vs. for-profit work.
We discuss fears that can stall nonprofits' growth and the work of weaving nonprofit speak together to tell the compelling story of nonprofits.
Christi also takes the time to bust myths about human trafficking. I hope you find value in this conversation.
To learn more about how to support this nonprofit or get involved, visit deliverfund.org
Challenge Question: Did any of the human trafficking myths surprise you? What is one way can you be a part of the solution to human trafficking today? Meet Christi Nabors: Christi Nabors has been serving DeliverFund as Director of Development since January 2022. Her for-profit executive leadership and non-profit Executive and CEO experiences have set the foundation for her to be credited with three non-profit turnarounds. First, she increased programmatic impact and expansion; introduced program delivery into new ecosystems; and created new revenue-generating and sustainability pipelines.
Connect with DeliverFund: Linkedin DeliverFund Website Youtube Recommended Reading: Learn the signs of Human Trafficking Connect with Teresa Huff: 
Website: www.teresahuff.com
Watch the TEDx: The Real ROI of Grant Writing
Take the Quiz: Do you have what it takes to be a grant writer?
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Successful Strategy: Next Steps For Grant Writers & NonProfits
Today I’m excited to talk about grant writing strategy with you. I love helping grant writers and nonprofits think through their first steps and simplify the process. If you haven’t watched my TEDx talk, I recommend it as additional context for the conversation in this episode. 
Today's guest Silvia reached out with interest in grant writing. She has international volunteer experience and sees firsthand some of the dire needs in our world. I love what she is wanting to do through the power of grant writing. On this grant writer strategy call episode, Silvia asks some great questions and we talk about several ideas for how she can get started. 
As grant writers and nonprofits, it's important to ask hard questions and not wear rose colored glasses as we approach requests for grant funding. 
Silvia and I talk about questions like:
How do I start? How do I know if I am grant ready? How do I get past the fear of writing the first application? How to discuss helping nonprofits resolve needs? How important is it for nonprofits to have an online presence? I get it! New things are scary. I never thought I would do a TEDx Talk. Yet doing new things is how we continue to improve. Pushing ourselves is a way to help us learn to serve better. By learning and taking action, we help others fulfill their missions. 
Whatever you're working through, I hope today’s episode  gives you ideas and inspiration of how to move forward.
 
How Grants Build Generosity And Empower Volunteers
Whether you are a grant writer or a nonprofit, building relationships is the foundation. This builds the confidence of everyone within the area of impact. 
Grant writers have a lot of influence. We’re able to connect the generosity of those unable to travel or volunteer with those who are on the ground physically serving. We also connect these causes and missions with the funding they need to fulfill those missions. It becomes a powerful force for good.
 
Challenge Question:
What 2-3 action steps you can take this week to help you connect and build relationships with organizations around you? 

Meet Silvia Bonvini
Silvia is the mother of two young boys and wife to an American family doctor who is completing his Global Health Fellowship this year. His work has brought the family to Ethiopia, Kenya where they are now, and soon to Uganda.
The family plans on working in Africa long-term at a Catholic mission hospital starting next year. Silvia hopes that she will be able to help hospitals and NGOs there through grant writing, while also exploring her interests in regenerative agriculture as it relates to nutrition, livelihoods, environmental protection, and women's empowerment.
 
Connect with Teresa Huff: 
Website: www.teresahuff.com
Watch the TEDx: The Real ROI of Grant Writing
Take the Quiz: Do you have what it takes to be a grant writer?
Social:
LinkedIn Community LinkedIn Instagram Pinterest YouTube Get on the Fast Track to Grant Writer:
www.teresahuff.com/vip