Do Your Grants Have The Right Ingredients?

Melissa Rancour

I recently bought a candy thermometer at a vintage store, mainly because it was still in the original box from the 1950s. I’ve never been a candymaker, and certainly never made any sort of candy that necessitated a thermometer, but I figured I’d give it a whirl.

After a quick online search and a helpful tutorial video, I ventured into candy making with a recipe for peanut brittle. The two-minute video did not prepare me for the endless stirring as I waited for the mixture to reach the magical 300 degrees mark.

“It’ll be worth it in the end,” I kept telling myself.

Finally, the mixture reached 300 degrees! I immediately spread it out on the cookie sheet and after a sufficient cooling-off period, voila! I had peanut brittle.

The preparation, patience, and timing needed for candy making are very similar to grantseeking. Grantseeking takes finding the right recipe (the program to be funded), the right ingredients (grant application contents), and mixing them all together properly to create a sweet result (that furthers both your mission and the granting organization’s).

Is your organization currently seeking grants? Overwhelmed with how to get started? Is your grantseeking program stagnant? Are you being asked to show how your impact will create the right outcomes for the granting organization but aren’t sure how to do that?

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, we’d love to help!

Our class, Organizational Best Practices: Fundraising—Grants helps you get your grantseeking program in the sweet spot, where it needs to be. From self-assessment of your organization’s readiness, to finding the right grants for the right programs, to creating impactful talking points, this course can help you mix up some sweet grants.

Venture into grantseeking and bring your grants program out of its vintage box and into 2022.