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Opportunity Knocking
Creative Resources and ResearchNovember 2010
In This Issue
Grant Planning Time
Upcoming Grants
SWOT Process
Grant Research
Messy Desk Photo Contest
New ebook coming for Thanksgiving!
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That's right, the Grant Goddess knows her way around a kitchen too!  This free eBook will be available soon. An announcement will be posted to our website!
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 101 Tips for Aspiring Grant WritersVeronica's Book

The Grant Goddess shares her 101 top grant writing tips.  Available now in the Creatve Resources and Research Online Store!
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12 Secrets of Successful Grant Writers

 Two people meetingGrant Planning Time

 

Fall is a perfect time to do some grant planning.  Programs are running and people have a slight lull before the holiday rush kicks in to meet and discuss upcoming opportunities.  Now is the time to convene your grant planning team, pull in those collaborative partners, and the key community stakeholders.

This issue of Opportunity Knocking is all about upcoming opportunities and grant research and planning.  We hope you'll find this information useful in preparing for the winter and spring grant writing seasons.
 Upcoming Grant Opportunities

It's important to stay on top of grants that fit your organization and mission.  Put a reminder in your calendar to visit websites each week where grants are announced.  Here are a few that we use to monitor grant announcements for our clients.

  1. http://grants.gov for Federal Grants
  2. http://samhsa.gov for more Federal grants on substance abuse and mental health
  3. http://www.ca.gov/Grants.html for California State Grants
  4. http://cde.ca.gov for California Education Grants
  5. http://foundationcenter.org for non profit grant announcements
  6. http://www.jvaconsulting.com  Consulting firm in Denver Colorado that posts some opportunities, of course these tend to favor Colorado
  7. http://philanthropy.com Online home of the Chronicle of Philanthropy where more grants are announced but often duplicative of the Foundation Center
  8. http://staff.lib.msu.edu/harris23/grants/percat2.htm  A great list of non profit resources including newsletters and services

That's enough to keep us all busy!  If you come across some other good ones we've not included, please post them on our new public Forum.

image of the swot spelled out. SWOT Process 
One of the common tools you'll want to have in your arsenal is the SWOT process.  Extracting input from large groups can be a challenge and the SWOT process provides a simple, yet effective, framework for accomplishing just that.

We've posted an article about how to run a SWOT analysis at our Your-Small-Business-Guide site.

Another valuable tool for collecting information in preparation for grant writing is a focus group interview.  We've posted a free webinar to teach the basics about how to conduct one!

Tablet on a computer. Grant Research
I hear time and again from people writing grants that they are so frustrated because they are constantly being rejected.  This is especially true in the non profit world and most often among less-experienced grant writers.  I usually find that it isn't the quality of the writing that is their shortcoming, it's their lack of adequate research.  Writing a grant takes a lot of time and effort but all of that can be wasted when writing to sources that are simply not going to consider making a grant in the first place.  It's very important to learn best practices for grant research and then put those practices into action.
 
Another complaint I hear from grant writers who work for an organization is that they get "bullied" into writing grants to unlikely sources by their boss.  This can be a hard thing to resist because if a grant writer is new anyway, they aren't likely to argue with their boss.  This scenario makes good research even more vital so when a grant writer takes a stand against writing to an unlikely source, they can make their case with some level of authority. 

Consider reading our white paper on grant research or watching our two webinars on the topic - Effective Grant Research and Drilling Down!. Another great resource is the Foundation Center that offers excellent training on using their database for grant research.

Messy Desk Photo Contest!

 

This photo contest is open until November 30, 2010.  Just email your entry to derek@grantgoddess.com and include your name.  The top three messy desks will be featured in December and visitors will get to vote on which one is the messiest.  Don't miss out on the fun, you know someone with a messy desk, just snap the photo and send it along in jpg or gif format.  Do not include any people in the photo please as we don't want to get into model releases.  Sending a photo in to CRR confers royalty-free use of the photo.  So don't send in a masterpiece you intend to sell later!

messy desk 2

 

Need Grant Writing Assistance?
The consultants at Creative Resources and Research have written grants that have secured over $155 million dollars for our clients.  We offer a full spectrum of grant services including grant research, grant writing, and grant reviews.  We also offer professionally developed grant outlines and grant samples for research.  Our goal is to help you achieve your mission!  Call us today!  530-669-3600

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