What is Grant Readiness Assessment – Overview
Small and new non-profit organizations are eager to apply for grants. However, securing those huge amounts of money requires significant effort and work.
The first step to ensure that your smaller non-profit organization is selected over other larger ones is to undertake a grant readiness assessment.
The grant application process is intensely competitive; however, with these proven tips, you can create an impactful and effective application to ensure your chances of winning the grant.
This article will explain grant readiness and give you a checklist for effective grant readiness assessment.
What is Grant Readiness
Grant readiness is being ready to strategically apply for grants. Grants offer substantial and meaningful donations to your cause.
For new organizations, the excitement of applying often results in overlooking core application techniques.
The first step to ensure your grant application gets accepted is to measure your organization’s grant readiness. Simply, grant readiness determines your non-profit organization’s ability to research, apply, win and manage grant applications effectively.
The odds of winning a grant can vary widely depending on the grant type, sector, competition, and application quality; no fixed percentage accurately represents all grant opportunities. The majority of applicant organizations are unable to win the grant amount.
The reason behind this is that such organizations normally practice episodic grant-seeking. These organizations search for grants infrequently.
To make sure that you are not wasting precious time and resources on grant applications, you should go through the grant readiness assessment checklist.
What is the Grant Readiness Assessment Checklist
What is Grant Readiness Assessment – What is Grant Readiness Assessment Check-List
This is a short but effective 5-step check-list to ensure that the grant readiness assessment of your non-profit organization:
1 – Eligibility
Most grants have specific eligibility requirements to vet organizations that apply. If your organization is already incorporated, the first thing you should do is secure its 501(c)3 tax-exempt letter. If you do not have one, you can request the IRS to mail one to you.
If your organization does not have a 501(c)3 status, you should consider collaborating with another organization that can serve as your financial sponsor.
Besides this, some of the documents you need to keep handy are:
- Employee identification number (EIN)
- Registration with grants.gov and sam.gov requires a DUNS number, not DNUS, for federal grants
Please read the Request For Proposal (RFP) or Request For Application (RFA) documents carefully to learn the specific eligibility criteria for the grant in focus.
2 – Purpose and Vision
Funding institutes look for unique organizations that offer specific services in a particular area of society. So, ensure that your non-profit organization’s mission statement clearly outlines your social work strategy for addressing different issues in your community.
This must highlight your organization’s uniqueness and what separates it from others. Your mission statement should be plausible, realistic, and clear.
3 – Reputation and Experience
Your organization should also have innovative programs, like your mission statement, that significantly impact the community it serves.
Every non-profit organization should regularly analyze its programs’ impact and the success of its staff through verifiable data.
In addition, you should ensure that your programs have a good reputation for service delivery and assisting those in need.
You can seek letters of recommendation from upstanding community members to highlight your organization’s commitment to social well-being.
4 – Resources and Infrastructure
Organizational resources and infrastructure include physical and non-tangible resources. Check to see if your non-profit organization has sufficient financial resources, transportation and adequate facilities to sustain operations and growth.
You can use donor management systems and software for financial tracking.
You should also ensure that your staff is supported with adequate resources to handle the current operations of your non-profit organization.
Check to ensure that there are sufficient operating systems in place and that your volunteer base consists of enthusiastic people.
5 – Finance management
Before seeking more funds, you should ensure that your current finances are stable and well-organized. You should have multiple revenue streams that can be tracked accurately throughout your organization’s various programs and services.
Regardless of the planned growth speed, ensuring that your organization has robust financial management systems is critical for grant readiness.
Conclusion
The world of grants can be intimidating and complex, yet incredibly exciting and impactful for your non-profit organization.
By an unbiased examination of your organization’s grant readiness through our grant readiness assessment checklist, you can ensure that your organization is in the best position to win the grant.
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