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Seven years ago, the Human Services Council  released a now-classic video imagining what it would look like if neighborhood pizza shops were funded the way human service nonprofits are. The satire was funny because it was painfully accurate—pizza shop owners forced to change their offerings to the funders preference, submit endless paperwork for reimbursement, and operate without enough cash on hand to keep the ovens on. Seven years later, the punchline still lands. In that t

“Why are we here if not for each other?” — Claudia Rankine Behind every strong grant application is a web of relationships. While proposals are often written by one person or one team, truly successful grant applications reflect collaborative practices that extend far beyond the page. Grants exist to support change, and meaningful change rarely happens in isolation. Funders want to see that organizations are deeply connected to the communities they serve, responsive to real n

When an organization is facing a budget deficit or struggling to resource its mission, it’s common for executive directors to wonder: Can a grant fix this?  It’s an understandable impulse—but it’s often the wrong starting point. Grants are often mistaken for a fundraising solution. They look appealing: a significant sum of money, sometimes even multi-year funding. But grants are not, at their core, a fundraising strategy. They are a program strategy . When you pursue a grant,

Seeking grant funding almost always requires us to describe a problem in vivid, compelling terms. Funders want to understand the situation that will be changed or improved through their investment, and applicants are expected to clearly articulate the need their work addresses. But without thinking carefully about the language we use to describe need, grant proposals can unintentionally perpetuate harmful stereotypes - particularly through the use of deficit-based language th