Richard Steiner - Doing Good With Other Peoples Money: The Essential Guide to Winning Grants and Contracts

Doing Good with Other Peoples Money

Text copyright 2018 Rick Steiner, Ph.D.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data is available upon request.

ISBN: 978-1-57826-738-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Cover and Interior Design by Carolyn Kasper

Printed in the United States

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Chapter 1

Doing Good with Other Peoples Money

D oing Good with Other Peoples Money (DGWOPM) is about the Doers. The millions of nonprofits, faith-based organizations, schools, colleges, universities, philanthropists, foundations, corporations, state and local governments of every type and stripe who see the world as it should and could be, not as it is. Those wanting to make Planet Earth a better, safer, fairer, healthier, and more hospitable place for all, regardless of wealth, position, race, or gender. Those who want to be part of the solution, not the problem by successfully navigating the highly competitive and oftentimes complex and confusing world of identifying, applying for and winning grants and contracts from government, foundations, and corporations.

Now retired, after working in University for some 40 years as a senior university official, active grant writer, project director and trainer, I was awarded some $500 million in grants and contracts from government, corporations, and foundations. Some of those projects are still operating and being funded today, some twenty years later. Its time for me to pass on what I have learned to the next generation of those wanting to Do Good with Other Peoples Money.

Doing Good with Other Peoples Money walks you through the entire grant- and contract-seeking process by providing the knowledge, tactics, strategies, and insights necessary for building financially self-sustaining grant- and contract-centric enterprises

Competing for and winning grants and contracts isnt about bragging rights, or we won and you lost. Its not even about the money. It is about what the money will do. Whether you are a novice or a seasoned grant-getting warrior, there is always more to learn, because funding priorities are always changing, grant and contract processes constantly evolving, new competitors always arriving, and catastrophic events always happening. The information provided in the book will dramatically increase your chances for funding success by helping grant seekers avoid the common pitfalls so many novices stumble over in their initial grant-seeking efforts. So, lets get down to businessthe business of Doing Good with Other Peoples Money.

What This Book is About

Its About Donors: The many governments, foundations, corporations, and philanthropists with deep pockets who fund all this Good-Deed-Doing and who want to make the world a better place for all.

Its About Doers: The millions of nonprofits, faith-based organizations, schools, and colleges that work to do good. Its about the Mother Teresas, the everyday heroes joining in common cause to make the world a better place.

Its About Disruptors: The truth-tellers who arent afraid to say, The king has no clothes on. The sorts of people who arent content to stand on the sidelines and take what comes; they recognize the issues in the world around them, call them out, and work towards a solution.

Its About the Distressed: Those who dont know where their next meal is coming from, those whove been left by the side of lifes road, who no longer have the will or capacity to make life better for themselves.

Its About making the world a better place for all.

Its About you and me, as well as our families, friends, neighbors, and communities, working together to secure the future for the next generation, making sure they inherit our accomplishments and not our problems.

Its About the haves and the have nots, and giving people a hand-up instead of a handout. Its about creating vibrant, safe, caring and healthy communities and about affordable housing.

Its About every childs right, regardless of their familys financial circumstances, to attend quality schools and have access to a college education.

Its About ending intergenerational poverty and children having children. Its about job security and job opportunities for all, with equal access to the training needed to get and keep jobs.

Its About having access to quality medical care, regardless of where we live or how much money we have. Its about ending dependency on government handouts by teaching self-sufficiency and accepting personal responsibility for shaping our own futures.

Its About equality of opportunity, not outcomes, and teaching people how to succeed. Its about helping those who went down the wrong roads to find the right ones and about leaving no one behind.

More importantly, its about handing the baton to the next generations of those wanting to do good with other peoples money.

DGWOPM will teach you how to:

Establish the legal, administrative, and infrastructure for making your nonprofit, faith-based organization, school, college, or university contract- and/or grant-eligible

Build the requisite programmatic infrastructure necessary to deliver effective services in your chosen area(s) of endeavor

Identify critical pathways and decision points to funding success

Evaluate and select best-fit grant-getting strategies and approaches consistent with your organizations culture, capability, and mission

Diversify your base of financial and programmatic support through strategic alliances

Create a positive track record and reputation

Successfully re-invent yourselves when funding priorities change

Establish positive sponsor relationships by attending meetings and familiarizing yourselves with their funding priorities, interests, and strategies

Play by sponsors rules, not yours

Decipher the protocols sponsors use to review, score, and select winning proposals and how to use that knowledge to your advantage

Administer and manage your grant and contact portfolio consistent with sponsor requirements

Identify critical pathways and decision points to funding success by evaluating best-fit grant-getting strategies

Diversify your base of financial and programmatic support through strategic alliances

Above all, how to write winning proposals

Chapter 2

How Grant Giving and Getting Began

M ost of us want to do good, seeking to make the world a better place for ourselves, for our families, our children, for our communities, and for the world at large. We do this through everyday kindness, by donating to worthy causes, by engaging in collective endeavors, or by volunteering our time to a myriad of purposes and causes. While some have more to give than others, be it money or of themselves, our worth should not be judged or measured by how much money and things we have.

Some are fortunate enough to become the next generation of philanthropists and financial supporters of good deeds. Others pursue the helping professions or work in government, striving to make a difference in the lives of others. Still others share their joy, knowledge, and wise counsel to make our world a better place for all by holding a personal vision of the world as it should be and not as it is.