4 Tips and Tricks for Your Next Grant Application
Take a look at these before your next application
Recently, I sent out the May grant list and I’m hoping you were able to begin looking at potential opportunities that align with your business! If you didn’t know, outside of my monthly grant list, I offer live sessions covering a large topic of ways to better your grant applications. Here are four quick tips to help you along your journey that I hope you can utilize!
1. Track your grant application via Excel sheet
If you are anything like me, when I sit down to apply for grants, I’m usually doing more than one at a time. You must take time to organize them and keep track of the ones you are applying to AND the outcome of them. This is excellent data to keep as when the next rollout comes, you’ll know if you were a recipient of it in the past and or if you should approach the application process differently.
2. Create a fact sheet
When applying for grants, they often will ask you similar, if not, the same questions. Make the process easier by having a quick document with pre-made responses. From there, you can alter them by question and customize your response. For example, your mission, vision, and values should always be consistent across applications, social AND web information. Make sure you take the time to organize all of this information!
3. Connect for feedback
Often because we think we know our businesses so well and are heads down in all the work, we begin to leave out important factors or achievements of our business. It’s important that when applying for grants you create a community that you trust that can help you provide feedback. Maybe how you see your business, is different to a consumer, and being able to hear that from others is very important. Who knows, the feedback may actually create a change in your target market, focus, or business model! Consider the following for feedback:
Current or Past Employees
Current Customers
Business Mentors
Family or Friends
4. Have these 5 Financial Documents Ready
There are five financial documents you need to have prepped and prepared for ALL grants, whether you need to submit them or not. To know your business is to have these: