The Magical Money Tree

My father frequently muttered something about money not growing in trees. He was right. Not even grant awards, which some people refer to as free money fall from the trees.

As a grant development professional, I would like to be able to wish up on a star, or plant a magic seed in order to help bring in the funding my clients need. It just does not happen that way.

Far too often, I receive emails or telephone calls from people who work with non-profit organizations and are in dire need of money to help them stay in a positive cash-flow situation. They want me to write a few quick grants to help solve their problems. Grants are not the answer. The process takes too long and is not inteded to take the place of other fundraising opportunites, or be a debt reduction strategy.

According to an article in the Charity Navigator, " Americans gave over $260 billion in 2005. Individual giving is always the largest single source of donations. It rose by 6.4 percent to an estimated $199.07 billion. It accounts for 76.5 percent of all estimated giving in 2005." Corporate and foundation giving totaled a little over $40 billion.

Based on these facts, a good rule of thumb that I like to use is that grant funding from corporations and foundations should make up about 20% of your organizations revenue. The other 80% should come from individuals through varied tactics such as events, annual appeals, and good old fashioned relationship building.

Don't count on grants to meet all of your organizations needs. However, grant awards can help you start new projects or improve projects you already have.