Grants

The Humana Foundation has selected three communities for its Humana Communities Benefit program. Nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations that aim to transform their communities by lowering barriers to health and well-being are encouraged to apply for the multi-year charitable grant totaling $350,000.

Does your organization receive government funding? Or are you at least considering it? The federal government is increasingly stepping away from providing human services like elder care, and instead it is calling for nonprofits to take up the services slack.

In the nonprofit fundraising world, here are some of the trends we’ll be watching for and responding to in 2015.

It is clear that foundation opportunities exist, but many FQHCs lack the grant sophistication to identify, target and secure these funds. To mitigate these barriers to funding, relying on grant professionals to prospect for key grantseeking priority areas, develop research-based programs, and submit competitive proposals will be critical to FQHCs' long-term grantseeking success in the post-ACA era.

Does staff size affect grantseeking activities and success? The short answer is "yes," but let's looks at some of the data that are available. Because all-volunteer organizations usually lack personnel dedicated to grantseeking, it becomes a less consistent, ad hoc affair, resulting in few awards. Moving an organization from all volunteer to having one to five employees increases the likelihood of grant funding; moving the organization to six to 10 employees increases that possibility even more.

Stopping a downward spiral is doable — but not without investing time and effort, and enduring some short-term pain.

Organizations require consistent, diverse funding streams to keep vital programming alive. However, many organizations lack comprehensive strategic plans that integrate philanthropic giving and grant seeking as an active component of resource development.

Asha Varghese, director of global health programs at the GE Foundation, discusses her foundation's grant process and shares keys for fundraisers seeking grants.

Look at the big picture and learn from every victory and defeat. And avoid budgeting a large grant when there is uncertainty as to the outcome of the request.

Take heart. The world needs us to be active, connecting with people while we cheerfully, aggressively promote our causes.