Grant Getting, My 2¢ (page 2)

The partners (continued)

It's great when you sift through and eventually find a few good partners. You get projects, they get projects, you're in theirs, they're in yours; significant change takes place. The gamut of problems with partnerships evolve around payment and politics. The reason you need them is the project's guidelines, not necessarily to add value to the project. Once their 30% effort is complete, they leave and you're stuck holding the sustainability bag. If you have multiple projects that aren't sustained, that don't go anywhere beyond the project's funding period, you get a reputation for taking money over building programs. One thing I've found is there are some good partnerships made in rural and economically struggling areas, where money isn't as easy to come by and where people are used to working for what they have. For example, small schools and artistic communities, where what you accomplish results in a higher profile for your target audience and their community.

Reporting

I believe the key to reporting is the workplan. Reporting is stressful when you're winging it. When the numbers are there and directly relate to your workplan, reporting takes a couple of hours, no more. The most important thing is that you never run an event, meet with a group, etc. without first knowing what the reporting requirements are going to be. Then you have, on a piece of paper, what you're going to need whether that be headcount, age, ethnic group, etc. And you can support it with pix. If narratives are needed I take a tape recorder and talk with people who are having a good time. I say my name, their name, and ask maybe 2-3 questions. Reporting never needs long narratives from any one person, it's more about thick description, short format. Substance over length. Also, I can always put together something like a survey, although I don't encourage surveys, other adults at the event can talk to each other or kids, or kids can talk to kids and I have them write down a few sentences or a paragraph. They do it on my paper so that I can capture anything I need for the report such as age or any specific questions I'd like asked. If you just have them take a blank paper you get a lot of things back like, I had a good time, not exactly reporting criteria.

Corruption?

When we're in a country other than our own, we call it petty corruption. When we're in our own country, we call it management or efficiency issues. But really, they're often the same thing. They range from hiring relatives, to exaggerating report results, to touring family members not involved in the grant. The worst corruption is of all is of attitude. I remember a friend's project in Bosnia where a high profile grant resulted in a classroom of computers and a Brussel's holiday in Bosnia. The grant's results were no software, no books, no instructors, and no materials to implement anything with. The computers just sat there. In the end two of us gathered and sent a few hundred used and sample textbooks.

Bosnians are smart and with a their students, faculty, plus the books, they were able to get a learning center going. Corruption is rarely about someone taking a million dollars and sticking it in their pocket. It's pervasive in the little things people do, or in fact, the little things they don't do.

The best way to stay away from corruption/incompetence is with a good workplan, where people understand their part and agree to do it. Where you can keep them somehow accountable for 75%+ of what they say they will do. Because the underlying reason for these projects is building relationships and getting people to know one another as individuals and as communities.

Leveraging

In my opinion, leveraging is a priority. It's impossible to keep NGOs going if every project requires separate funding, separate sets of contributors, separate project teams, etc. I like to take purpose, overall vision, and divide them into a logical progression that follows the organization's vision in order to set up projects that leverage each other. In come cases they expand, in some cases they piggyback. There are RFPs that emphasize this, that don't want projects to start off from scratch. A good project will find expansion or piggyback money a little easier to get. Another type of leverage is to take something already in progress and re-align it for another target audience. A project doesn't make an organization. Focusing on the organizations purpose and vision allows you to weave grants, products, events, and the community together to make a significant contribution.

page 1 >>>

Written by Kelly Carey. © great25.com.