It is important for all our clients to have a preliminary conversation with prospective funders before preparing to submit a proposal to them. For many, cold calling seems like a daunting task until they realize the benefits of calling and that they already know what to say. Here are some of our best pointers for calling funders.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t happen often, but a funder may take a combative approach with you during your conversation. One of our clients\u2013a national nonprofit with a long history of providing services through affiliate organizations\u2013was recently challenged by a funder who said, \u201cWhy should I give money to you to help other organizations help people when I can give directly to those organizations?\u201d Our client was caught off guard and failed to provide the answer that they, of course, knew: By working through affiliates, this nonprofit could ensure quality service and economies of scale to local nonprofits that would otherwise not have the resources for instituting state-of-the-art services.<\/p>\n
So think through your strengths in advance, but don\u2019t take anything personally. As one of my grant-writing colleagues and friends likes to say: You win some and lose a few. Nothing is personal. Keep your head high and heart engaged!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This may be obvious, but be sure to get your contact person\u2019s name. Then\u2014if they are a decision maker\u2014address your letter of inquiry or cover letter to them. If they are a staff member, refer to your conversation with them in your letter.<\/p>\n
If you decide that this funder is not the right one for you at this time, it\u2019s still a good idea to send a thank you note as follow-up. After all, you may want to return to them to ask for funds at a later date.<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is important for all our clients to have a preliminary conversation with prospective funders before preparing to submit a proposal to them. For many, cold calling seems like a daunting task until they realize the benefits of calling and that they already know what to say. Here are some of our best pointers for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,45,9,10,37,19],"class_list":["post-1727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-grantpro","tag-funder-relations","tag-grant-professional","tag-grant-professionals-association","tag-grant-strategy","tag-grant-writing-basics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1727"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1731,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions\/1731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}