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| Re: Presenting grant writer services
Posted by gerryr123   on 7/1/2009, 4:55 pm, in reply to "Re: Presenting grant writer services"
I think you might have misunderstood. Yes, they have been giving me feedback as to why they have not hired my services, but the answer has been usually the same: we cannot afford to hire your services at this time. I am mystified as to why someone would give such an answer to someone who is trying to get them money from private foundations, and especially since the cost to hire me to write them foundation proposals to fund their project is a small fraction of what they would spend to try to fund the project without grant writer’s services. ‘Folks, the service pays for itself!!’ so the answer might be. So it is not that I have not gotten feedback, but why is it that they are not seeing the obvious point that grant writing services more than pay for themselves if the grant is approved, and even if it is not approved, there is yet the alternative of resubmittal, finding another funder, etc. So in the end, why am I not getting my point through to them: they have a need for funding, and my services can get that funding for them?
Perhaps a couple of examples of my potential clients in the last month or so might help. In one case, a church had an idea that they wanted to start an inner city ministry for at-risk youth. The idea was to buy an old bar and convert it into a youth center for the kids to gather and get away from the drugs and such, and play games, here the Gospel and receive mentoring services and a structured atmosphere. I thought it was a great idea, and it would have been right in the worst part of the city as well. This was the inner part of the inner city, according to the pastor. At the time I speculated that there might be federal as well as private funders who might be happy to do this sort of thing, if we could get grants from both private foundations and public funding from the feds. At the time there were grant postings on grants.gov about start-up funds for private and public partnerships for youth center opportunities that could replicate themselves. So, my idea was to approach the city to get the federal grants, and that I would get the private funds from willing foundations to start this ministry to inner city youth. The church never called me afterward to follow up, so the idea simply died.
I do have a theory that they simply didn’t want to pay the grant writer’s fees, so they bailed out. They did mention at least twice that “we don’t have any money,” so I suspect that was the case.
The second case involved a nearby youth center leader who, when we met, proceeded to tell me that he had had a grant writer a few years ago that told him that “any grant writer who really is working for you will go on commissions, otherwise he will just take your money since he has no incentive to work hard to get the grant.” Believe you me, I nearly leaped forth in homicidal wrath when I heard such nonsense as you know. He was full of several more grant writer’s myths, which frankly he didn’t seem too inclined to get rid of, and so the opportunity never materialized for me to help with funding his ministry. What he needed, by the way, was to refurbish the gymnasium and get funding for a new furnace, and other upgrades that are badly needed to keep the ministry going. He did need some operating funds as well, but the main focus was on the upgrades. I did mention that operating funds are sometimes available, but are not easy to come by, and often unavailable for different reasons.
That he was full of nonsense about grants and the grant writing world did not bother me. What bothered me about his, and indeed both examples I mention here, is that my services didn’t seem to get through as something they would benefit from. They both figured that since they had to pay for the services rendered, they couldn’t afford the service. They really didn’t get the idea that they needed my services. That’s my opinion.
As to winding down my presentation, I don’t usually ask for commitment. I usually just tell them what I do and how the grant writing process works, and let them take it from there. Perhaps that is a flawed strategy, but that is usually how it works. Any suggestions would help.
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