Give Your Nonprofit this Competitive Edge

Grant seekers love to ridicule funders’ questions about sustainability: “If foundations offered annual, flexible grants, they might not need to ask about our longevity!”

Sarcasm aside, the topic has fresh relevance.

It’s tempting to downplay your nonprofit’s viability in this era of uncertainty. Even when finances seem tenuous, it’s better to tell your story than let others write it. As federal grantees flock to foundations, stand out by standing up a narrative on sustainability.

Address It

Assume your major grant makers think about applicants’ long-term outlook whether or not they ask about it. Of course they care about outcomes and plans. But, if an organization or initiative is teetering, the incentives to invest diminish.

You can infuse financial context into funding documents, budgets, and conversations. Aim to fill gaps not evident in the numbers. When the fiscal situation is uncertain or bleak, acknowledge your team’s core strategies that address your reality.

Even if you think your program officer knows your organization well, consider your other audience: the foundation board. Your fate often rests with trustees who study your organization just once a year. Give them enough information to prevent them from stirring up their own take on your nonprofit’s longevity.

It’s okay if you don’t know exactly where you’ll find that next tranche of funds.

Redefine It

When you can’t guarantee an endless stream of gifts and grants, convey a range of relevant financial resources:

• Diversity of funding sources

• Reserve funds

• In-kind goods and services

• Social enterprise and earned income

• Unrestricted or multi-year revenue streams

• Donor/funder longevity

Discuss your organization’s trends related to these topics. Add the extent to which staff has engaged in scenario planning, cash flow mapping, or other analyses that demonstrate financial diligence.

If funding feels shaky right now, highlight how past support has created lasting operational value and, therefore, more sustainable results. These fundamentals have long tails, meaning that their impact offers benefits that outlast the grant period:

• Progress toward a bold, multi-year goal

• Program delivery models

• Partnership efficiencies

• Innovation

• Infrastructure investments

• Data-driven decision making

• Technology

• Quality controls

And, while it can’t stand alone, leadership and culture reveal your organization’s ability to endure tumultuous times:

• A learning orientation

• A professional, cohesive workforce

• Community support

• Organizational adaptability

• Succession planning

• Strong governance structures

• Board engagement

Major grants themselves demonstrate sustainability, since they show a history of outside parties who have vetted and invested in your organization. That makes your funder list another tool in making your case. Some foundations ask for that data in the form of your largest fiscal year supporters. When they don’t, proactively reference those with name recognition or unusual commitment to your work.

Weave some mix of these lists into funder communications, and you’ve got a sustainability story that builds credibility.

Frame It

Don’t let your funders think their investments end with the proposed grant period. Show how the requested 12-month award fits within your organization’s three-year plan, demonstrating both short-term impact and future aspirations. Better yet, make a case for two- or three-year funding that relies on a multi-year goal.

Frame each grant request within an extended period. Specify whether it will serve as an investible:

• Seed for innovation or expansion

• Catalyst for systems change

• Research project with broad impact

• Pilot for an earned income model

• Challenge grant or lead, designed to leverage other investments

It’s powerful to widen the sustainability conversation to one with an organizational or industry-wide lens. Since most grant makers are generalists, it’s your job to put the scope of the problem—and your nonprofit’s solution—into context.

Nudge It

If your leadership is frustrated that an unfunded staff position or tech tool stands to shore up your organization, press the case with your most loyal funders. Bold ideas are the only things that will get us through this era, even when they are in fact old ideas that foundations haven’t previously embraced.

Implore the program officers you know best to take a risk. Consider a new level of candor, since your contact understands your organization like few others. I’ve heard many creative ideas recently. Some are making surprising progress within typically risk-averse foundations.

Amplify It

Make sustainability visible. The topic can heighten trust via your social media and website. As more philanthropies lean into proactive giving over solicited applications, your public-facing digital platforms might be all they see.

While you can’t guarantee how an initiative, let alone your nonprofit, will come through these unpredictable times, you will stand out when you show your nonprofit’s willingness to address its future. Funders seek grantees working toward that extended journey, even when the latter can’t guarantee how they will get there.