Grants Planning in Uncertain Times

In this unpredictable year, your nonprofit’s plans matter more than ever.

Ironic, right?

Foundations and DAFs face potential new regulations. Government grants feel precarious. All this as many nonprofits recently shed pandemic relief funds. If planning sounds impossible right now, that’s a reasonable take.

Consider the alternative: If you wait for more certainty, staff feels adrift. Standards fall. Funders see a nonprofit joyride, on their dime.

Your grants plan begins at the organizational level. What follows are parameters to shape it.

Beyond the Short-Term

The fear of uncertainty can deter long-term thinking. Offer up a one-year goal to a foundation, and you deprive your nonprofit of the boldness of its conviction.

I recall a new client that was frustrated when its first award from a philanthropy was “just” $75,000. When I asked what they requested, they showed me a budget for a one-year, $100,000 initiative.

The next year, we built out a multi-year plan that created context for previous effort. The corresponding budget told a numeric story about the organization’s intentions. It allowed the relationship to deepen and award sizes to grow proportional to the plan.

Give your investors reason to take the full journey with you.

Toward the Destination

No matter how you devise your organizational plan, call the endpoint a destination. Despite the name, there’s nothing finite about it.

It’s like mapping out a road trip. Will you stay at your destination forever? No. Might you end up in Boston rather than Providence? Maybe, if the latter’s forecast calls for a deluge of rain, or if your college roommate offers you a spare riverside room.

If you change destinations, you will have good reason to do so, and you will communicate that to your fellow travelers.

Once foundations invest in your work, they become passengers on your organization’s journey. Together, you head toward your destination, until and unless there’s a compelling reason to change course.

Apart from the Vision

Your destination differs from the vision that’s discussed during a strategic planning process.

A nonprofit vision is usually scenario-based, meaning that it envisions a hunger-free world or region.

Your destination is time-bound. It aims to materialize within a set number of years. From there, its premise can vary:

• Quantitative. A mental health organization aims to reduce the statewide suicide rate by 25 percent within five years.

• Qualitative. A school plans individualized AI-infused lessons beginning in 2027.

• Geographic. A journalism outlet intends to add nine new counties to its coverage area, three annually.

• Desired state. A community development agency plans to become the largest regional housing provider within five years.

Given Time and Direction

All of the above are nothing without a timeframe and a plan.

I can imagine a foundation board reading that last example about becoming the leading housing provider. On its face, it would be met with a resounding, So what?

Take that declaration and pair it with a timeframe: We will become the region’s largest housing provider within five years. A foundation board in your subject area will know that you are currently a distant third. Your proclamation raises some interest. Now, members are asking, How?

This is your chance to sketch out the roadmap toward that destination. Goals plus timelines equal frameworks that help you create multi-year, investible opportunities.

Absent Certainty

How can you commit to anything three years from now, when it’s hard to know what next month might bring?

An unwavering part of every nonprofit’s planning must be its willingness to adapt to unexpected conditions.

Maybe your leadership has engaged in scenario planning, which accounts for variables. Maybe your executive team will review the plan quarterly and adjust. Ideally, both these things will happen.

Promise to inform your funder about the progress and any detours. This behavior demonstrates responsibility. It builds trust.

Foundations, too, exist in this uncertain world.

In the Driver’s Seat

Will you lose out on major grants without a bold, multi-year plan? Not necessarily.

What becomes more likely is that funders impose their ideas onto you.

No one wants a long-distance back seat driver, let alone a passenger who decides they prefer the mountains over the beach.

Map in hand, you have a mandate from your other fellow passengers: your chief executive, your board members, your colleagues, your other investors. That mandate is your destination.

Map in hand, foundation staff can help you puzzle over, and even appreciate, the inevitable surprises along the way. Those are the best travel partners.