The Inside Scoop on Grant Writing - DeaRonda Harrison

5:52PM Mar 22, 2022

Speakers:

Becky Endicott

Jonathan McCoy

DeaRonda Harrison

Keywords:

grant

nonprofit

funders

people

federal grant

funding

organization

priorities

grant writing

impact

pandemic

conversation

friends

podcast

community

writing

program

opportunities

application

world

Hey, I'm John. And I'm Becky.

And this is the we are for good podcast.

Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.

We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.

So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.

So let's get started. Hey, Becky.

Hi, everybody. I feel like we need to start with an apology. 100 Plus episodes in and we have not talked about grant writing, community friends, I'm sorry. But guess what? We are going to redeem ourselves because we brought in such an amazing expert today who's going to fuel your grant writing mission and get you on fire to start writing.

And that was going to give you a hard time, Becky, because of all the writing that you know how to do this is some kind of writing that you don't know how

oh my gosh, I have been imposter syndrome and grant writing for several several years. And I can tell you, they do not love my adjectives. So I want to learn from somebody else. Let's get into it. Yeah, we're

so excited. Friends. We have got Dr. Rhonda Harrison on the podcast today. She's the founder and principal consultant behind June 1 firm. And they do grant writing, and she has had incredible success. She's been in the sector a long time and has seen a really diverse array of different funders coming to the table. She's closed more than $25 million. That's a lot of grants. My friends, she also just loves pouring into her local community. She has been the Georgia chapter president for two years at the grant Professionals Association. And let's just throw this on here. She has her MBA from Ashford University, and her bachelor's from the amazing Tuskegee University. I mean, what a pedigree, welcome to the show. We're so glad you're here.

Hi, guys. I am so happy to be here. So so happy to be here.

Well, we're we're delighted to have this conversation today. So we want to get to know you though. Tell us your story. Where did you grow up and kind of catch us up to where you are today?

So yeah, I started on my grant writing journey, not knowing that that's what I was. So began in the federal government and working with businesses. We manage a lot of federal contracts and basically made sure businesses must take that federal contract, which they were awarded, they were following all the rules and regs and everything like that, make sure that we don't send them any naughty notes. Basically. While I was doing that full time, this was like my early 20s, that just my first real career was still voluntary, with nonprofits on the side and assisting them with like marketing and strategies. But individuals and cogs will walk up to me with like, Hey, can you help us with grant writing? Hey, can you help us get grants? And I'm just looking at them? Like, what the heck are you talking about? Why are you even approaching me about this? So I started looking into it. Apparently, these people see something in me that I didn't see myself. So I started going to like local grant writing training sessions and just took note and absorb information and learned all that that could be our first grant was a 21st century big federal grant. So you know, if anybody's in the grant world, they would know that's like, oh, they just threw you into the deep end. So yeah, that was my experience. That was my experience. I'm into grants. And she literally kind of trained me or coached me on that one grant. And then after that, I was kind of like, all in, I eventually ended up resigning from the federal government to do it full time and work with nonprofits in all different fields, health care, housing, a lot of Human Services, workforce development, and ended up to where we are now. And I've been able to be successful in Win multi million dollars in grant up to today.

Okay, we talked about growth mindset, a lot on the podcast, you know, and we've already talked about imposter syndrome. I love that your story you just leading into that. You didn't know something. So you just started learning and growing. And it's like, if we're all honest, that's what all of our journeys look like. So I just thank you for breaking it down that way.

Yeah. And I would also say, I feel like great writers are the Faberge eggs of the nonprofit world. Like they're so rare and beautiful that we like, handle them with kick gloves, because we're always looking for a grant writer. But I want to know, like, what is the state of grant writing today in the nonprofit sector, we would love for you to just kind of set the tone for, you know, what opportunities are out there and how can people kind of dip their toe into this just a little bit.

At this time, there are more opportunities than ever before. There's a lane specifically for smaller nonprofits on those that have like annual budgets of $500,000 or less. They are funders, grant funders are saying explicitly, that's the eligibility required requirement you must be 500,000 your annual organizational operating budget has to be less than 500,000. So there doors that opened as never been before. These are smaller nonprofits that may have been shut down in the past. funders are like targeting them, they want to give to them. They're doing great work. And they want to like prop them up to go after these opportunities. And also organizations that are minority led, black executive directors, Hispanic executive directors female lead. Also another eligibility criteria I've seen 100 specifically said we want to find bipoc lead programs, and specifically bipoc, senior leadership organizations, that may have been a sideline in the past. So there's opportunities more present than ever before, is a great time that really dab your feet into grant writing, especially for smaller nonprofits.

How about you know, when you're just starting, I mean, give us you know, kind of the first steps for doing the research phase, obviously, figuring out who you want to connect with, and, and that piece is a good place to start, where do you go to begin your research,

I'm a bit nosy. And I just tell people to be nosy. So definitely check out like, if you're the local Community Food Bank in your region, check out the Atlanta Community Food Bank, who funding them go on their website and look at their sponsors, their corporate sponsors, they have all the information on the annual report, they have all their donors listed like it's there. And I've used that information to check out who's given to organizations similar to mine are similar to those that I'm working with, and start there and you see a funder, like Coca Cola in Atlanta, everybody knows about coconut Atlanta, they give a lot of money out here in this region, and also other like foundations go to their 990s public information is their tax form and see what they funded whose organizations are similar to theirs. And more than likely you are funded a nonprofit that's similar to yours. See, if you know somebody there, pick up the phone and make a call, start a conversation. And even if it's an foundation that you don't know, anybody, you don't know anybody on the trust, you don't know anybody on the board. I tell people just pick up the phone and call them. I mean, what are they gonna say to you introduce them to your nonprofit, no one can speak better to the things that you're doing that you can't yourself and just tell them about the impact that you're making. And she would love to partner with them. And that's how it starts and just start there. And then you just continue to build from there, keep your list and just go from there.

I love that, because it's so much of a mind set work. I feel like like the only thing holding us back is, you know, scarcity. And if we can just fuel and just kind of channel all of that bravery mindset. Again, what's the worst thing that could ever happen in nonprofits? Somebody could tell us No. And I'm like, Okay, thanks for your time. Next, you know, and it's really like that. And so here's where I step into my confessional time. So I've you know, I've been in nonprofit about 20 years and writer by trade. And the federal grants scare the absolute bejesus out of me and I have written many, many foundation grants, but I would love for you to kind of take the scary out of it. Or just be honest, maybe there is some reason that I have scarcity when applying for those federal grants. But talk to people who are really going after those federal grants, where's a good place to start? How do you pace yourself? What are strategies that you employ when you're going into trying to get a big federal grant,

I've been doing this for years. I started in federal grants. So I would say that's my strength in grant writing, and, but I do not do them alone. If you've ever seen an RFP, they just go on and on. It's like they never even even as a solo grant writer, whenever I go up after a federal grant, I always list reach out to colleagues, see if they have the capacity to help me with that before I submit, submit a proposal and tell someone that I can do it. I'm like, Hey, let me check to see if I can work with the colleague on this because you got to have at least four eyes looking at our proposal looking at looking at the RFP. So starting there, and then collecting all the information, understanding the criteria, the eligibility, and then making sure that you share with nonprofits what, what you're just saying, Becky, what is required, but they will have to report out on it. They have to do monthly reports, quarterly reports, I've been seeing more and more monthly reports, which can be a lot of time and resources. So yes, you're going to get this money. But is it worth your time when you have to hire someone just to manage this grant. So it's so many different things to consider. But just to take the fright out of it. Don't do it by yourself. Also bring in your program team. They're part of this grant project as well. It's not just the grant writers, they have all to say they're telling you how the programs run. They're the ones are going to tell you how to talk about it. And then of course, it's your job to write in beautifully.

Well, we have the same brain and I want to Jing Xu because I was just about to say I think the grant game and the thing that people miss a lot, especially if you're a fundraiser in your writing you if you do it alone, it's it's going to create some friction in your organization because there's a lot of endpoints. And that will be impacted in the organization programs absolutely bring in programs, I would say even bring in somebody from your operations, I made this mistake once. I think I brought it up on the podcast before that, we move forward with a major gift to a private foundation and didn't pull in our operations team who was going to have to actually do all the reporting on it. And when they found out how intense it was, that was like a lot of Starbucks, I had to bring in the course. With you, yes. And I and I never did that again. And so learn from my mistakes and bring in a team have a group conversation about this, if you have an ability to bring in donor relations, specifically if this is for a private grant or a family foundation, because we really want to steward that gift well, and we want them to be seen. So you know, one of the themes of our community is that we really like working smarter, not harder. And so I would love for you to kind of break down some of what I would call like your secret sauce, what are some hacks that you have figured out that can help you move through grants more quickly? What's something we don't need to be spending so much time on? What are some tips that you have for kind of elevating a grant anything that you could give would be great for our community?

Absolutely. I would say my secret sauce to winning the number of grants that happen. One is simply the pitch. The secret sauce is the pitch long before you put pen to paper or finger to keyboard you have already introduced your nonprofit to grant funders, there has been a minimum of at least one conversation, hopefully two, whether that's an email or phone call and Zoom meeting, pre pandemic, you know, coffee in person hanging out your application is to should not be the first time that the organization is heard about you. The key is the pitch. You can be the best writer, you can have the best compelling narratives, you can highlight impact outcomes and have a strong evaluation metrics for your program, which is what funders like. But it's important to build relationships. They're people, people want to hear from people and they want to know who you are and what you have going on. And I believe that true is the reason to my success. By the time I start writing a grant that both conversations have already happened. If you can help it do not send any code applications and that's it. That's that's been the key.

Okay. I love you so much for saying that I need to, I need to create a hard stop and talk about this for a second. Because this to me is it seems basic like but I don't think people are doing this. And y'all heroism Oklahoma, y'all we are hard wired to understand and development that it's all about cultivation. I mean, it's 80% cultivation all the time, that grant is no different. It has got to be warmed. And I love we've had to Dulari Ghandi on from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. And she has brought up this notion of, you have to co build with your program officer or with the actual grant giver. And so I think you know, if you're coming in, and warming up, and I love that you're saying that as an introvert that you have to go in and actually start to get to know each other. And I got to put in a little plug for marketing here. Because if you're putting in a grant, I can assure you if they're looking through your grant, they're probably looking through your website to understand who you are, what is your website look like? What are your social channels look like? They want to know that you are backing up what you're saying in this document. So I have to think that the website is just as critical as the grant itself. So thank you for talking about cultivation. Love You Forever for that comment alone.

Hey, friends, we've got to pause the podcast for a minute and we have some really exciting news to share.

Yeah, we're partnering up with our friends at virtuous to co host this year's free responsive nonprofit summit on April 20, and 21st. And we want to see you there.

So come and join 1000s of like minded forward thinking nonprofit leaders for two days of fresh insights, helpful workshops, and genuine conversations as we gather virtually from wherever you find yourself in the world.

We're curating some amazing panels to help you build better systems and strategies to help you grow your impact. You may even recognize some of our past podcast guests and favorite thought leaders too.

Okay, so can we count you in to join us at the responsive nonprofit Summit? Is it virtuous.org/good and register for free? Hey, friends, after meeting some of the most visionary leaders and world changers in the nonprofit sector today, we realized they all have one thing in common. They invest in themselves and their teams so they can stay relevant to what's working now to succeed and scale their missions. You know us we believe education for all And that's when we created we're for good pro Pro is reimagining nonprofit professional development, giving you access to incredible live coaching events with some of the best thought leaders like Shanna Palmer, Lynn Wester and more. Imagine being able to work through your challenges in real time. That's the power of pro. Every week, we host a new workshop, giving you the playbook and tools to take immediate action, build your confidence and grow your impact. Be the Pro and get started today with a 14 day free trial head over to we're for good pro.com/free. Okay, let's get back to this amazing conversation. Well, hey, you said something early in the conversation that I want to kind of circle back to that there's just a lot of new opportunities, maybe more so than ever what you're feeling anecdotally, as you're seeing across the sector? What is some like low hanging fruit for organizations that maybe have never stepped into this? Would you say get involved right now? I mean, what is your advice to the small nonprofit that feels intimidated? Should they jump in?

Yeah, absolutely. Time to jump in. I would say now, I'm a non profit, you're not a nonprofit is a business. That's what it is, um, don't fail. Look at the Panama City paperwork, Scholastic grant, what are you doing to bring in revenue, you have to bring in revenue for your organization for it to last. So grants is like an extra stream, if you will, it's coupon. This past year at the National Conference, one of the presenters, she called a grant a coupon, instead of you applying funds that you were already going to use to pay for programs and services, you're going to get this coupon to help you discount some of that, because that's essentially what a grant is. And look, it is the end all be all. But again, just going back to your question, just like how to do this, going back to pitching, you're talking about your nonprofit, you want to pitch confidently don't say, Oh, we just serve 30 Girls during the summer. No, we directly serve 30 preteen, ladies ages 10 to 15. We educate them on stand, which is science, technology, engineering, math, and they take like robotics program, they do math competitions, leader like fields that are traditionally male dominated, but we're telling our girls that do well in these fields, you can do that you can succeed and excel and you can just share your impact. We've already seen ladies that have increased their confidence, improve their academic outcomes when they return to school, we just open them up to new possibilities. So explicitly state what you're doing the color to it describe the population specifically. So when you mentioned it, I can see these people in my head, I can see these young ladies in my head. So it's all about the pitch and being confident and talking about your organization.

I got to talk I want to ask you a question as I'm starting to picture these girls in my head because I think storytelling is such a powerful component to what we do. And I think the reason that I have felt somewhat distanced from specifically federal grants is I don't feel like there's a lot of room to bring the story in. And I want you to either dispel that for me. And then I want you to talk about where's the opportunity to bring in a story is that in the pitch is that in, I think of like cover letters that I've put on proposals before where I wanted someone to get to know somebody in my community who's been benefited and changed by our mission, or who could be impacted by this. Talk about how you thread storytelling into your grants.

Yeah, that's a good one. And I'm about to put you up on some more game. One of the secrets that we do in our federal application is, it's like a blurb before they even start reading your your proposal. It's this statement from like, maybe the Washington Post, or some the mayor, we have this statement, we paint this picture of people in our community and what it looks like and why we're facing these challenges. And then we go into discussing the problem and the need statement with all the data and statistics and things. So you're like, where do you put in a story? Where can you even do that? So before they even like start reading the proposal, which is pages and pages and pages long. The first thing they see is a story. Short is impactful is probably no more than four sentences. But it says directly, directly to the point it gives you an opportunity to paint a picture of who you're talking about.

Well, I think, you know, I love to kind of go back and let's talk about this government funding because so much is changing at the federal level. And I think that's why it's so intimidating. At least it would be for me. Do you see in insights into just the nuance of how the political changing landscape is affecting federal funding right now?

Yes, do I. So it's so based on who's in the White House, who are presidents are is based on their priorities, and that's when funding priorities are shift or change. So I'll never forget in 2017 around like March or April that you, me and a colleague spent hours putting together a federal grant application to the Health and Human Services Department. It was a program to provide career pathways for refugees. And if you remember 2017, I believe that was President Trump's first year in office and spent time putting together this application, reviewing the priorities, the data, studying the RFP, drafting the narrative, drafting the budget, and we submitted on time, it was so proud of our work. And weeks later, we get a message that this program is no longer being funded, and that they're not even reviewing applications. And as someone who's received rejections or declined, this probably was more painful, because you can't get any feedback. Nobody's even looking at your proposal, even if you decline it, like, tell me what we did wrong, what how can we make it better, they're just not looking at it at all. And that's just something that I'll never forget. But of course, that was under President Obama. That was his focus priority. And then President Trump, he had different priorities. So those funds essentially went away and are no longer in the budget. So it's important to understand who's in the administration, what their priorities are, you have to shift and adjust to that you have to be a chameleon in this in this in this grant world, so to speak. So just understanding priorities, not neither one better or worse than, than the other, I let people other people argue about that. But it just is what it isn't. Now, President Biden in a lot of his focus is pandemic raising his prevention and things like that. So it's knowing it's important to know what the political focus is on knowing the high level priority, you don't have to read the entire budget that comes out of the White House, but just knowing those high level points of priority is critical for this industry. So yeah,

gosh, that's so interesting. And it makes so much sense when you say it out loud. And in it, I also think it gives efficacy to if you need some help with a federal grant, go get an expert like duranta out there, because not her first rodeo, I just do think it can accelerate the process a little bit more if this is not your jam. And just having somebody to be in lockstep with as you walk through this process is comforting. But I have to say this, and I would love for you to respond to it. Because one thing that we're noticing as people are coming, I don't want to say we're coming out of the pandemic, but we're actually starting to adjust to life that the pandemic has created. And we're seeing so many small nonprofits, and honestly, even mid sized nonprofits, who have put all of their eggs in the grant basket. And they are struggling as for what you said, for many reasons as funding sort of froze during pandemic or priority shifted. And we talked so much on this podcast about the importance of diversifying your revenue. So, yes, we want you to chase grants, but we don't want you to chase only grants, there's so much offering today in the way that people can give like through mobile, and through digital and hybrid events, there's so many different avenues. And I would love for you to even just respond to that if you've seen that issue with any of your clients as well,

just external factors that potentially impact funding going back to COVID. One critical factor that we've seen over this last one going into two years, and this is the pandemic and I've seen funders response to it right when it happened March 2020, April 2020, may 2020, they released a lot of COVID. Response green, right. And I would like to say I applied for more than those that I'm willing to admit. But there was just so many that were released, it was numerous COVID response grants. And for those funders that had already funded your programs for that year, when that happened, they just responded. I mean, they just responded so well, they were like, Please redirect these funds to where you see fit. You don't have to use them specifically what you know, we stated initially, they were just really want to organizations to keep their head above water. When so many refer lines are I'm having to lay off staff. So just really being intentional with their funding arm. I think funders did a great job in responding. When those things happened. It was very inspiring to see on external factors that could affect funding is the biggest one that we're dealing with right now, especially since I've been in this in this world.

I mean, you're getting so much good tactical advice. You know, all this points back to partnering with visionary ideas, people moving money philanthropically into the sector. I know we're big believers in it. I know you believe in the power of philanthropy. Is there a story or a moment that it's really philanthropy has really touched you and your life that you'd be willing to share today?

Yes, um, one thing that stood out to me was probably one of my largest on contracts, if you will. I work for one of the largest housing providers in Atlanta in the region, and I don't know they may have 80 staff members, maybe not as many but their first donors or their their core donors or individual donors is their staff. And I just thought that that really spoke volumes to me that was meaningful and impactful and shows how they felt about the organization that they work for. And it was just inspiring to see.

You're absolutely right. The the power of what that says without them saying anything, is something that is culture impact and community impacting. And I will just say like a little pro tip for everybody out there, don't just assume that your people are going to give. And if they do steward them, maybe as as well as you would your top donor, these are your people that are closest to you. Because we believe so much in the power of philanthropy, how it changes not only the beneficiary, but the giver. And I really think that if you can carve out some of your budget, if you have budget within your personal family, you know, do that for yourself, it's going to be life giving lean into it, it really will just awaken something very special inside you. So thank you for lifting that. We, you know, we in all of our conversations to Rhonda with a one good thing could be a habit a piece of advice. What do you want to offer up to our community today? Yeah,

say, one good thing is do your one good thing and do it well. And as a grant writer, I don't try to do graphic design. I don't try to build websites, I don't try to be a fitness instructor. That's just something I don't try to do. So whatever it is that you do, do your one good thing and do it well, even within the grant writing space, I focus on specific nonprofits health care, housing, workforce development in K 12 education, like, the one thing that I do will do that way, I will just say that to everyone. That's some just some things that I just kind of like, tell myself as my own daily affirmations, because you can get on social media and see all these different things that people making money doing this and doing that. But honing in and focusing on your good thing, your one good thing and just doing that well and doing it at a high level at a high effort.

This has been so fun and such a good conversation. Would you tell people how they can connect with you and everything happening at June 1?

Yeah, absolutely. Um, you can connect me June 1, firm, calm, I give our love ton free resources to nonprofits. If you go to my website and click on Services, you can drop in your information right there. And also, I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. So connect with me there, type in my name, and I'll come right on up and let me know you heard me on this wonderful we are for a good podcast. And I'd be happy to connect with you and talk to you.

Man, I just really thank you so much for this conversation. I feel my bravery is a little more emboldened, I might actually try to go wade into the federal grant area if we if I was still in a nonprofit. And I think it's just a really great conversation to encourage everybody out there that you can do this. You don't need to go it alone, find find the little team to put together but you can do this and it can have really great inroads and impact at the end. So thank you so much for coming into our community and we just wish you the best at Jim first.

Thank you so much. I enjoyed it. Thanks so much for your time.

Thanks for joining us. Today's episode was brought to you by our good friends at auth zero. Without zero your nonprofit can do more with a login box. Greet prospects and rabid fans of your mission with authenticity simply make it easier for your team to manage data. There's so much at AUC zero login experience can do is it auth zero.org For more info.

If you enjoyed this episode, we know you'll love being part of the we're for good community. It's like our own social network where you can find like minded friends, ask questions, share resources and find inspiration anytime. Sign up today we are for good.com backslash hello

thanks friends