Nia: Let's go ahead and get into our event for today. Like I said, we're going to be hearing from a grant maker today. So, this is super exciting. You're going to see Dawn in just a second.
We're going to do our best to really equip you to craft a standout application like the title says. And this is a free grant workshop. It's one of our Instrumentl educational webinars. We focus on challenges grant writers are trying to solve while identifying tools and resources to support grant seekers along the way.
And for any of our first timers, Instrumentl is the most loved all-in-one grants platform for prospecting, tracking, and management. And we currently help 4,000 nonprofits and grant consultants save time in finding and applying for more grants. And my name is Nia. But I am not today's speaker. So, I'm not going to share too much about myself. I'm going to let Dawn introduce herself in a moment. I come from the nonprofit world. So prior to this, I worked in Rainforest Conservation Research. So, I absolutely love getting to spend time with all you nonprofit folks. This is absolutely the favorite part of my job.
And I'm going to turn it over to Dawn to introduce herself.
Dawn: Yeah. Thank you so much, Nia. And you're so good at your job. I so appreciate the opportunity to be here with you, Instrumentl, and our wonderful audience today. And, please, let me express my gratitude to the entire Instrumentl team. I'm a big admirer of the incredible work that you do. Not only helping nonprofits efficiently search for and manage their grants, but partnering with grant writers to craft those standout proposals that win. It's just an invaluable resource.
And I know aside from working at one cause, my side hustle, I do run a small nonprofit, a grassroots organization with my daughter. We've done that for about seven years. So to everyone in the audience, I know some of the things that you go through firsthand. And I hope I can speak from that perspective. So, Instrumentl is just valuable to a nonprofit of all sizes. So hopefully, you're taking advantage of that.
But let me introduce one cause for those who may not be familiar. We provide digital fundraising tools that help all of you connect with your donors. So auctions events, mobile bidding, run walks rides, online giving, text to give, text to donate, donate to vote. All those different tools. We have them under one umbrella. And hopefully, we have some OneCause customers in the audience. But a little bit more about OneCause, our culture is so rooted in being helpful.
Our CEO, Steve Johns, he leads with a very strong commitment to servant leadership and prioritizes helping nonprofits grow their impact. So, that philosophy inspires all of us. It inspires me. And I just feel incredibly fortunate to be in a role where I get to connect nonprofits with the OneCause brand, and all of the tools, resources and support that we provide. And, of course, that includes our corporate social responsibility initiatives and our grant program, which as Nia mentioned, we do have an active grant. It is an annual program. I believe applications do close December 9th. Early December. You can find that at onecause.com.
Our grant program isn't in kind grant for our fundraising software. We basically give you a stipend, and you can go loose and spend it on OneCause technology. We work with you for two years. We'll renew it after a 12-month period. We'll renew it for another 12 months. We layer on all the support and the consulting and professional services. So, we really roll out the red carpet. And the whole idea is to really help you grow your impact. So, we do hope to see some of your applications, this grant cycle. So, I think that's everything for me.
Nia, I'll turn it back to you to keep the program going today.
Nia: Thank you, Dawn.
And I just want to call out, we're having some mixed reviews in the chat. Some folks are having a little bit of trouble hearing you, and others are hearing you just fine. Jordan, that's a really good call out. There are closed captions so you can enable those. I'm not sure Dawn what the issue might be because it seems like kind of a split room. If you're having trouble hearing Dawn, I hate to say this, maybe raise your volume. I don't know how else to say this.
Dawn: I'll go off camera and just put in a different microphone while you continue on. I'll be back in just a second and maybe that'll help.
Nia: All right. That sounds good. But, yes, Jordan, thank you for the call out in the chat. You can turn on your subtitles. There are closed captions enabled. So, we'll have Dawn back in just a second. And in the meantime, I'll give you some quick FYIs about today's event. It will be about 60 minutes long. We're going to have a panel with Dawn. She'll answer questions at the end. So if you have questions as we're moving through this event, feel free to drop them in the chat. If it's relevant to the topic at hand, I'll bring it up to Dawn as she's going through the presentation. And if not, we'll get to it at the end.
You will get the recording of this event delivered to your inbox tomorrow. So no worries if you have to drop off. We totally understand. And you'll be able to catch up tomorrow with the recording. I want to make sure feel free to take care of your personal needs during this event. So if you have to grab a snack or step away for a quick break, you do you. We will be right here. But make sure you stick around till the end for a chance to win Coffee On Us.
If you're an Instrumentl events regular, you know we do this all the time. We love to raffle off coffee because there's no better fuel for a big grant writing session. And then at the end, we'll also get a chance to explore the OneCause grant in Instrumentl. So if you've never tried Instrumentl before, no pressure, but you can get a totally free no credit card required access to it today.
And with that, I want to talk quickly about where we're headed. Dawn is going to take us through tips and tricks on crafting a stellar proposal from the point of view of a grant maker. So, we'll get to look at some actual winning proposals from this exact same grant as well, which is so exciting. I think this is a very unique thing.
You don't often get to see what an actual winning proposal looked like, right? So, we'll get to see some examples of those. Like I said, we'll also get to explore the Instrumentl platform. And I'll show you how to find the OneCause grant on there, and then we'll wrap up with a Q&A with Dawn.
So on that note, I want you all to open up your workbook. If this is something you're going to be following along with throughout today's event, I'm going to put the link in the chat. This link is going to make a copy in your Google Drive. And if you prefer a PDF version, I'm pasting that link as well. Both of these are owned by you. I can't see it. I can never access it, and it's free for you to do with whatever you like. But I really encourage you to open that up and take notes because it's set up, specifically around what Dawn's going to be chatting about today.
And this is going to be a great resource to reference back, whether you're applying for the OneCause grant or just, you know, crafting your next grant application. Look back on those funder tips and tricks. And this is what that worksheets going to look like. So, there's going to be space for you to take your own notes and just follow along that way.
And on that note, I want to hand it over to Dawn now to walk us through some application tips and tricks from the perspective like we said of the funder. And as a quick disclaimer, this is, of course, from the point of view of OneCause and the OneCause grant program. Every funder is different. I'm sure you all know that better than I do. Every funder has varying priorities, varying criteria they evaluate for. That's probably the bane of many grant writers existences is that all funders are different.
That said, hopefully this is an insightful behind the scenes look at how funders, you know, decide who gets the grant, what really stands out to them. And also, if the one cause grant is of interest to you this is, of course, one of the most invaluable resources you can have, Dawn right here. So, Dawn, I'm going to hand it over to you. I know you've come prepared with a list of best practices. So, let's dive right in.
Dawn: Great. Thank you so much again.
And for those who had a hard time hearing for me, I hope this is better. Nia, does this sound okay to you? Thumbs up? Yes?
Nia: Everybody should definitely be able to hear you now.
Dawn: Okay. So, so sorry about that. I just plugged in a different mic. Oh, great. I'm seeing them much better. So, thumbs up.
All right. So, I have about 10 tips. I'm going to time it because I want you to have time with your worksheet and the case study examples, and all the Q&A, and all the good things that we have planned. So, let's get right into it. Some of them I'm going to breeze over a little bit faster. Nia and I kind of chatted yesterday what do we think are the most impactful. I'll pause on those. But, yeah, let's get busy.
So, it's pretty interesting and I appreciate what Nia said. This is just one perspective from one grant maker, right? So, we are all different. And, hopefully, some of this applies globally. But I want to start with just knowing your audience. I think before you do any grant writing, it's really important to just know who you're applying to. So, read up on their website. Check out their latest press releases. If their grant is longstanding, perhaps there's some information on past grantees. I think the more you can demonstrate a shared vision with your funder or grant maker, the more the grant maker might see you as a partner in their mission rather than just an applicant.
Surprisingly to me when I see some of the grant applications come in, they'll even come right out and say, "Gee. Well, we really don't know who OneCause is or what you do," but -- and I'm just so taken back by that. I think we do want you to know who we are, and want to be one in this process together. So, I would just align with your funder's priorities. That would be my first tip.
All right. Now, we're going to move into telling a compelling story. So, we're in the nonprofit profit space. That's what we do. We tell stories. Storytelling is the heartbeat of a nonprofit organization. So, why does it matter? Who does it help? How are you a change agent? What change will occur because of it? We want to cover all of those things.
But I do want to pause here and just underscore the fact that those that are reading your applications are humans. We're all humans. So please bring out the human element and don't forget to underscore it with data. Use data to back up your points.
If you say a really powerful point and then you put data behind that, it couldn't be more powerful. So, you want to connect with us and show the narratives that have real tangible impact. So, keep it structured, but keep it engaging. And just remember we're humans that are reading this. So, you really want to make sure that you have that connection. Okay?
Now, I'm going to ask you to go into the chat. I want to give you two scenarios. So, drop into the chat. We're going to talk about being clear and concise. And those word counts, right? You get a question and then it says, "You have a thousand characters or 500 words or 20," or whatever the case may be. So, put in the chat number one, if you think you should fill that out up, right? "Oop, they said 500 words. I need to get to 500 words." So, that'll be number one that you put in the chat.
Or number two, "No, no, I don't need to do that, Dawn. I don't need to do all the words. Let me go -- number two means, I'm just going to say my story concisely, clearly. And if I'm at half the word count, that's good. So, what are we all thinking? Is it a number one or a number two? I am so proud of you, guys. Yay! It's a number two. And that's right.
We put word counts, or at least at OneCause. We have a word count because we need to kind of control the hundreds of applications that we're reading. So, we're putting the word count just for that reason. If we have a 500 word count and you can say it in a 100 words, say it in a 100 words. I don't mean that you should leave anything out. Of course not. But don't feel that you need to have the flowery jog in or 300 words or just extra words or repeating yourself. So, you want to be clear, be concise, and don't worry about the word count. Throw that out. And, yes, according to OneCause, it's a number two. Don't feel that you have to fill up the entire word count. You do want to define problem and solution. Right?
I think when you're telling your story, create a vivid picture of the problem that your nonprofit is working to solve. Again, data is always more powerful to underscore anything that you're saying. Give us real world examples. Demonstrate the scale, the urgency, you know, really do a good job defining the problem and then how you're part of the solution. So, you want to talk about your goals, how you address the problem. Just be specific about the actions that you're taking and the required resources because ultimately that's what this grant is doing.
It's helping provide resources, whether it's cash, inkind, whether it's like our grant, a tech grant, we want to kind of see the outcome that you anticipate by being awarded the grant. So, how are we doing, Nia? Any questions that I should pause on or can I move to -- we actually covered five tips already. So, I'm on --
Nia: Yeah, we're doing great.
Dawn: Keep going? Okay.
Nia: Keep going. Keep going.
Dawn: Hopefully, this is helpful. Okay. So now, grant makers want to know that the support that they're giving, however that support is, is going to be make a difference. So, please, be specific here. I think in the nonprofit space, and I know with my own grassroots organization or my daughter's grassroots organization, if somebody were to ask me about neurodiversity, I would want to say, "Oh, and we write children's books and we do school assemblies, and we give out iPads, and we do this, and we do this, and we do this." And we get very caught up in that.
But I want you to think about not just -- we do this, we do that, but who we serve the individuals and how it ultimately affects the community. So, we aim to improve literacy rates. It's a good statement, but we will increase literacy rates among our participants by 20% over the next year is a better detail of impact. So, we would love to see the past, the present, and the future, which brings me to tip number six, provide a clear timeline and milestones. Let's talk about what you're going to do with this grant or with this funding. So, very clear timeline and milestones with this grant.
In the next year, we would like to fill in those blanks, right? Bring us into your goals. Let us be one with your solution. That's why we're make rating this grant or offering this grant to begin with. We want to impact communities. So be sure to be community centric. How are we building a better tomorrow for the community? And certainly, bring us in. Make us one with your goals and your ambitions or even be bold enough to stay, say, "Hey, if we don't get this grant, we might not be able to do this."
I think both work as long as you're bringing us into those bigger pitcher goals. We want to focus on who you serve and the community impact. Right? So as I mentioned, it is easy to get caught up in talking about your nonprofit. We're passionate people. Right? Your mission, your team, your programs. We want to hear all about that. But I believe grant makers want to see a little bit more than that. They want to understand how your work impacts the community, how you are a change agent, and the positive long-term change that you can affect if you were to get this grant. So, it's not just about what you do, but how your grant creates a better tomorrow.
So, frame your proposal around the community, align your work with broader goals, and tell the story of transformation. That should be part of your storytelling. Everyone good? You're with me? Nia, how are we doing? Any questions you want to tackle?
Nia: We've got a lot of questions. But I'm thinking maybe we save them till the end just for the -- in the interest of time because I know you still have some more best practices to go through.
Dawn: Yep. There's only a couple more, and I'm trying to keep this, you know, on time so that we could get to all your questions.
Nia: Yeah. So, folks, feel free to ask questions in the chat. And I'm taking notes on all of them. We'll get to them at the end.
Dawn: Thank you, Nia, and thanks for being such a fantastic audience.
I'm going to move to tip number eight, have someone read your proposal before you submit it. So, this is a great opportunity to enlist your board or your volunteers. Put out a call for, you know, a call for a reader, a reviewer. Make it clear that you're not asking them to write the grant proposal because I'm not so sure anyone want to do this. This is not fun work, right?
Trying to get into the mindset of a grant writer and, you know, trying to put that all down creatively and concisely. But here's an opportunity once you have your grant ready to go and ready to hit submit, ask your board or your volunteers, "Hey, you know, who's a really great communicator that would want to review this?"
One difficult thing that I see when I'm looking at these grant applications is looking at a response, that's a great response, but it didn't answer the question. So, you have to be mindful of that. Again, as nonprofits, I think we're just so passionate and we would just want to talk about how we're, you know, serving, you know, our clients. But when we get a question answered, and it might be the most beautiful answer ever. If it's not answering the question, we don't know what to do with that. And it's hard. It's really hard.
The Grant Review Committee at OneCause last year really had a hard time. In fact, we had to stop a few meetings, regroup, schedule another meeting. We had decision paralysis. It is not easy. You feel the weight of the world on your shoulders. We're offering two grants. We're awarding two grants out of hundreds of applications. So, it's important that you answer the question that's asked and not give the answer that you want to give. So, enlist your board members, enlist your volunteers and have somebody else read it to get a fresh perspective. Okay.
Are you all with me? We're going to move to tip number nine. And then I think we have some fun stuff and case studies and Q&A and all that good stuff. So, some dos and don'ts about communication. I think I saw one of the poll questions at the top of when we first convened about, if you have questions, what do you do?
So, I'm going to share some dos and don'ts when you're applying for grants. You want to navigate communication with the grant maker. But here's a do and don't. Don't write your own grant proposal and send it via email, which I'll tell you happens all the time. So, I believe one of the biggest mistakes you can make is sending a complete grant proposal unsolicited via email to the grant maker, especially if it hasn't been requested.
We're not so sure what to do with that. We have a process for a reason. It's to control the hundreds of applications that we get. And it respects the process and uses the process going off on your own and sending 17 paragraphs to the grant maker. I don't think it's helping you stand out in a good way. However, do express gratitude. In our grant process, we do advance people from applicants to semifinalist to finalist. There is an interview process. So, afterwards, I think very appropriate to reach out and send a thank you letter. We are in the business of gratitude. We are in the business of stewarding donors and thanking them for their generosity. So, you would want to do that with your grant maker.
If you advance, if they reach out to you, if they answer a question, it is very appropriate to send a thank you note that lets us know that you are in tune to stewarding your donors if you're practicing that in another area. So, those are some of the dos and don'ts. I've seen both. Good and bad, I've seen a complete rewrite of my proposal sent to me via email with links and charts and graphs. And I'm like, "Ayayay, I don't know what to do with this."
I've seen people where I've had an interview with them on Zoom, and I didn't receive a thank you note afterwards. So, there's some dunes and don'ts about communicating with grant makers. But we are approachable. We are human. So, you know, never fail to reach out and ask the questions. And then prepare for follow-up and feedback. I think that's the last tip here.
If we invite you to an interview or we ask any specific questions, especially if it's in the grant application, you want to prepare. Be on time. Have your team ready. Have your notes. I have gone into some interviews with grant makers and they'll be like, "Okay. Now, who are you again? Which one are you?" I don't know. I've applied to so many grants. You know, be prepared. It's just like any other job interview or anything else that you're applying for.
You want to do your homework before. You want to do your homework all the way through the process. Align yourself with that grant maker. They're going to take the time to get to know you and your mission and your goals and your milestones. Take the time to get to know them. We are one together. Right? We're putting out a grant offering because we want to help grow impact and we're just trying to identify what is the right nonprofit organization that's aligned with doing this together, building that better tomorrow together.
And the one that can do that concisely and is prepared is kind of the one that's going to stand out at the end because we're all not nonprofits. We all have programming. We're all helping people. How do you stand out hopefully these tips will help you stand out?
Now, I'm just going to take a couple of minutes for some pitfalls to be careful of. And I'm going to let Nia continue with the program today. Pitfalls, not doing your homework or knowing your grant maker's priorities. Super important. I see that all the time. I'm surprised all the time when I see that. So, I have to call that out. Please don't check the box. You want to provide impactful answers. We're not just, "Okay. Here's the question," boom, copy paste, copy paste, copy paste, boom, submit. Right?
We're taking the time to be very intentional about our communicating our priorities as well as asking the questions to elicit the responses that help us identify who's aligned with our priorities. So, you don't want to just check the box. You want to provide really impactful answers.
The third one, I think I touched on and probably belabored, but I'm going to say it again. Answer the question. Don't just give an answer. Right? Please read the question and make sure that you're answering the question that's asked. And, of course, not reading the grant material. I know that I spend hours looking at our landing pages, making sure the FAQs are right, the deadline date is right. Everything's right. I want to put it all out there so that we're transparent and you have the information that you need. But I get the questions all the time. I have big bold December 9th deadline date, and then I'll get 50 emails. What is the deadline day? So, please read the grant materials.
Nia, that's all I got. I think I just whipped through 15 tips in probably 17 minutes. But happy to take questions or move to the worksheet or the case studies or wherever you want from here.
Nia: I think -- I mean that was amazing. Yeah, you did go through a lot of tips right there. I hope all your worksheets are out. Yeah. Carmen says, "You are fabulous ditto." Ditto that. -Good. Thank you, Carmen. I think the best thing to do would be let's go into the case studies because I think some folks' questions might get answered as we move through those. And then I have, "Don't worry everybody. I've got all of your questions written down in this note.
And I will try to get through as many of them as we can before we wrap up.
Dawn: Let's do it.
Nia: So I'm going to hop back onto my screen and let's go through some of these case studies. So for folks who are following along on your worksheet, you have a special case study section at the bottom of your worksheet where you can actually take notes about the specific answers that we're going to look at right now.
Dawn, what I'm going to ask you to do as I share each of these is just give us a sentence or two about what worked in this situation because these are real applications that you've received for this specific grant, right? And so, this is going to be.
Dawn: It is. Yeah.
Nia: -super valuable information you all. So, just let us know, Dawn, what in this particular answer really resonated with you as, you know, the folks reviewing this grant.
So, this is the first one. And it's asking about an impact statement. So, basically detailing what you do and who you're serving. And so, I'm going to let everybody just read that for a couple seconds. I'm not going to read it out.
And then, Dawn, let us know what about this specific one really resonated with you all.
Dawn: It was very concise. But I think the words that they used really pulled us into the narrative. You know, traumatic backgrounds, complex, you know. So, we knew we were -- we had a diverse, you know, audience and the people that we were helping. And I think it just really impacted the severity of the situation here. So, it was concise, but it was impactful. It really spoke to our hearts here. And I want to say that there was a much higher word count than they used.
And I think it's important to mention that we are hiding the organization's name just for privacy reasons. So hopefully, this was helpful.
Nia: And here's the same question and here's a different organization. So, you'll see the backgrounds, blue and pink. That just means which organization it is. So, here's a second winning option for this exact question.
Dawn, can you walk us through what worked with this one?
Dawn: I think the last few words, you know, diversity is big for us and community- centric. I think I mentioned that in some of the tips, you know. It's not about the nonprofit. It's about who the nonprofit is serving and how it's impacting the community and the bigger picture. And I think that's what touched us there.
Nia: Amazing. And now, let's go into a different question. How do you define success? So, this is a big question, right? And you all give a under 500-word limit, but we see this one which is, you know, a winning answer right here, only 74 words.
Dawn: 74 words. Yes. So for those of you who put number two in the chat, you don't have to fill in, you know, that word count. But for sure, the statistics here backing up what they're saying, I think spoke to us. So, bringing in a narrative and then underscoring it with a statistic, I think, was awesome. And they also demonstrated their capacity here or their ability to have success. And we recently raised 4.8 million. Right? So we know they can do it.
And with our technology, we can just help them raise more and reach more. So, that really spoke to us.
Nia: All right. And let's see Organization B's answer to this one. They did even fewer words. Only 46.
Dawn: 46. 46 words out of 500. Yeah. So, I like the word here collective impact, opportunities to people living with disabilities and special needs. I think right there underscore collective impact. We're really looking to be one with the grantee and be part of their goals, which is something that I mentioned in some of the tips.
Nia: All right. And let's move into next question, which is about the use of funds. So, how will the software actually be used?
Dawn: So, I want to pause here for a moment because this is -- if you're applying for the OneCause grant, this is a pro tip. This is the most important question for our grant. We are going to invest two years with the grantee and we're going to pile on all the resources and support, professional services, consulting on top of the stipended. And there's a 24-month period. We're not checking off the box and saying, "Oh, we did social, you know, social responsibility here and just putting this out there to satisfy that part of you know our brand engagement.
We really want to be part of the goals and the missions of the organization. Right? So, this is the most important question. How will the software to be used? And I want to say I've gotten answers that have said, "Well, we really don't know what you do. But I'm sure we could use it." That would not be a good answer.
This is a good answer. They told us specifically how they're going to expand their giving opportunities. And that's what we wanted to see. It didn't matter if it was 24 words.
Nia: Yeah. And that's really interesting to me that this is perhaps of all the questions you ask one of the most important ones. And it can really be answered in just 24 words. It's just about, you know, demonstrating that you know what this grant is about and you need it, right?
Dawn: Exactly. Correct.
Nia: All right. Let's look at Organization B tackling the same question. They used some more words here.
Dawn: Yeah. They let us know in this answer that they knew what they were doing, right? They're calling out their CRM there. They have had to have done their homework and they know that OneCause data flows smoothly between, you know, Blackbaud products and OneCause. It's going to result in increased revenue and they underscored reporting which is super, super important data coming out of fundraising events and your reports are going to help you grow your event. So, they just happened to use words in their 60-word answer, and they did have 300 words.
But in their 60-word answer, they let us know that they knew what was going on here. And again, it is the most important question. And I think that's a good takeaway here for the audience. You never know what the most important question is. Right? We're asking questions for a reason. They are very intentional and you just don't know.
So, you want to make sure you are answering the question because this happens to be now all of you know what our most important question is. This happens to be our most important question.
Nia: And we actually have a question that I'll take right now instead of saving it till the end. Heidi asks, the Pink Grant Writer. So this one seems a little vague at the 10,000 foot level in their answers, except maybe in this final one. Heidi had asked this question before we unveiled this final answer. But their previous answers were maybe a little bit more broad or high level. And she was wondering if you can speak to that style of grant writing versus -- in this one they are a little bit more specific.
So maybe it's about striking that balance between, you know, how you answer one question versus the other. Can you speak to that a little bit, Dawn?
Dawn: Yeah. I think in this format in this webinar when you're looking at a single slide you might think that, yeah, it was just a little bit versus, you know, high level. But we do have a series of questions, and it's the collective answers together, plus, the interview. So, this being our most important question, how will the OneCause software be used is the question that we ask in our live interview. So, they were able, one way or the other, to express that.
I would say out of the two, this is probably the better of the two answers. I would get a little bit more specific. I mean, here integration, reporting, you know. They let us know that they knew what they were doing. But it is hard sometimes to see on a single slide what the collective answers were and what the interview looked like. So, hopefully, that makes a little more help there.
Nia: Yeah, 100%. I just want to call out as well. We've selected just some of the questions from this application. This isn't by any means the entire application. So, take it with a grain of salt. We just wanted to show you some case studies here. But obviously, we can't cover the entire application in the time we have. So with that, I want to get into our workshop. We're going to have just about 10 minutes here.
So, I know a lot of you are new to Instrumentl. This is the perfect opportunity to get to dive in. No strings attached. No credit card required. It's a workshop class. So, you'll be able to go right into Instrumentl, play with the platform. If this is something you're totally uninterested in, just hang tight. We'll get right back to Dawn's Q&A in under 10 minutes.
But if you've never used Instrumentl before and you're a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit, I really encourage you to take the next five to seven minutes and jump into the platform with us because we'll find the OneCause grant. So, you'll be able to see things like the eligibility requirements, their priorities, the deadlines. That's very important. And then on top of that, you'll actually get to make your own tailored list of good fit funders from our database of 21,000 plus active funding sources.
So, OneCause is one of those grants that's on there. But we have 21,000 others. If you -Is that all?
Dawn: Yeah, that's all.
Nia: 21,000. We have -- actually, we have a very human, very stellar content team manually adding about 150 grants every week. So, it's very uniquely comprehensive and up-to-date.
If you've used an Instrumentl trial before, you can use this link that to request a trial restart. And somebody from our team will get in touch with you. Not during this event unfortunately, but we'll follow up afterwards.
And then for everybody else, you can use this link that I'm going to paste in the chat to get started. Please make sure you use this link and not the one on the website because, like I said, this is a workshop link. So, it lets you go right into the platform without having to do any of, you know, the sales things, all of that stuff.
Dawn: This is awesome, Nia. I mean, really, what a -- it's so valuable. I've never seen it from this end. I'm excited.
Nia: Yeah. Well, here you go, Dawn. Get ready. Buckle up.
You're going to get to this page where you just put in your name, email address, some organization information. And then once you've done that, you're going to have the option to set up a call with a grant advisor. These are really fantastic knowledgeable people who can help you make the most of your two weeks on Instrumentl. Because we want you to get into the platform right now, you have an option at the bottom right there. It says "skip" so you can skip this call.
I really encourage you after you've had a chance to play with it a bit to come back and schedule this call, anyway, because talking to one of our grant advisers can actually revolutionize your Instrumentl experience. They'll tell you about all the different features, all that stuff. So, I encourage you to come back. For now, just click "skip." And I'm going to wait just a couple seconds here to make sure everybody's had a chance to catch up. Let me know in the chat.
Give me a thumbs up or let me know with a yes, if you've made it to this screen, if you've gone through that initial sign-up form. And I'm actually going to walk you through how to set up your account. This is going to take about two to three minutes. And as soon as you're done setting up your account, you'll actually immediately have several hundred funding opportunities that the platform has custom matched you with. And then we'll go ahead and find the OneCause grant.
Heidi's got a thumbs up. Carmen says they're at a trial page. Is it this kickoff call trial page that you're at, Carmen? If this is what you're seeing, you can click skip. And I'm going to go ahead and show you all how to set up a project. This is very simple.
It's like filling out a little form about your organization. It's going to look like this. We're going to start by picking our location. And this is just to make sure that we know where you are so you're not getting grants for, you know, Kings County, California, if you're actually located in Oklahoma, for example. And then it's also going to show you things that are national in scope. You want to pick your fiscal year.
And then once you've done that, you're going to name your project. And this is specific to an actual project at your organization. So, not your organization as a whole but one of your ongoing projects. So for the purpose of my grant, I'm going to do a history education program. And then you're going to select the type of applicant you are. So, I'm a nonprofit.
But let's say I'm partnering with a school and a museum for the purpose of this project, I'll indicate that. I can specify if I'm a faith-based organization. I'm not. But that's where you would select if you are. Again, we'll just reiterate the location. Again, I'm picking LA County because that's where I'm located. You'll do wherever you're based and then you can also indicate that you want to see opportunities that are national in scope.
Our fields of work is really the backbone of the Instrumentl system. This is where you select the thematic areas of your work so you can search based on keywords that you know your work touches on. For me, it's arts, museums, history.
You can also just scroll through all of those fields of work and identify two to five that you feel are relevant to you. So, I'm looking at education and you'll just select what makes sense. You can come back and update these later if you're seeing too many grant opportunities or too few. You'll specify how big you want the funding to be. So, if you're not interested in anything under 10k, you'll specify that. You'll say what you're going to use the funds for just so we can make sure everything that you're seeing you're eligible for. And then you'll indicate the types of funders you want to see.
So if you don't want federal grants, you leave those unchecked. If you have colleagues you want to invite, this is the time to do so. And then once you've done this, it took us, you know, under three minutes, we're going to get matched with those grants. So, it's found 316 grants for me in my history education program. Hopefully, you all are seeing something similar in yours. And I know some folks are having problems accessing the link. I will get in touch with you right after this event, or stick around when we're wrapped up, and I'll make sure to work with you all so you can get in there.
But once you've done that, I just want to show you. I’m going to pause right here. And I want to give you all a mission or show you if you haven't been able to access the platform. I'm seeing that some of you are missing the link. Let me paste the link in here again.
So once you've done that, here's the mission is I want you to find the OneCause grant on Instrumentl. I want you to take a minute to review the eligibility criteria and the thematic alignment and then I want you to save the grant to your tracker. And when you save something to your tracker on Instrumentl that means you're going to get automatic reminders about it. It means you're also going to get automatic updates.
So if something like a deadline changes, you'll get that directly to your inbox. And, yes, Dr. Sandy, the link that you have to use for the workshop is the same as a free trial. It just lets you go directly into the platform. So, that is the correct link. Yep. I'm going to show you what this mission looks like in action on Instrumentl.
And then after this event, you can do it on your own time because you'll have Instrumentl to play with for two weeks. At the top of your screen, there's going to be a search bar. In the search bar, you can just go ahead and type in OneCause and it'll pop up as an active opportunity.
Right here, you see that OneCause cares corporate grants program. You'll go ahead and click on that. And then you can save it. You can add a note about it. The save button looks like this. And once you've saved it, it'll actually be in your tracker. So when we set up a project, we got matches. The other side of that is the tracker. So, that's kind of our library of active opportunities that we're monitoring.
So when you go into your tracker, it'll look a little like this. You can see I have the OneCause grant right here at the top of my tracker. And the beauty of Instrumentl is besides just finding grants, you can actually track them and manage them all within the platform. So, this is what my tracker looks like after I've actually set it up a little bit. You can see I have the deadline right here, and that's automatically populated by Instrumentl. We pull that information from the funder.
So if the funder changes the deadline, it'll change in your tracker. You don't have to do any of that. I've changed the status to "Planned." So, I've already researched it and I decided I'm going to apply. It shows me the amount and then I can actually make a to-do list based on this specific grant opportunity. I can assign it to somebody, so.
NG, that's me. I've assigned it to myself to review eligibility. And you can leave in notes as well. So if you're collaborating with folks on Instrumentl, you can actually, you know, leave notes for each other to review. And that's that's all. That's how you use the Instrumentl tracker.
I'm seeing some folks are still having issues. I will connect with all of you right after this webinar so we can make sure we get you set up with a trial. If you've already used an Instrumentl trial before, it will not let you sign up for another trial. That's the trial restart request. But I will connect with you right after and we can get you all sorted. The tracker, Heidi, is at the top of your screen. So, it'll say matches.
Let me actually go back a couple slides.
At the top of your screen, it should say matches and then you'll see these other columns. And if you click the tracker, yours is going to be empty unless you've saved something in there. And with that, I want to go back to Dawn's Q&A because I know that's what everybody's waiting for. I'll stick around after this webinar to answer some Instrumentl questions if anybody is stuck anywhere.
But for now, let's dive back into our Q&A.
Dawn: Such a great tool, Nia. Really, really. It's such a great tool, especially if coming from a small grassroots nonprofit just helps us catapult, you know, our grant management. So, kudos to Instrumentl.
If you don't mind, I'm going to jump ahead.
Nia: Yeah.
Dawn: There's a question about AI that I'm dying to ask and answer. I think F Smith asked it. Do you mind if I jump in?
Nia: It's on my list to ask you. So you go for it, Dawn.
Dawn: So glad. So glad. Yes, use AI. Absolutely.
But I wouldn't copy and paste. This is where it's so important to do that research about your grant maker and about your funder. Know who they are. Align with them, understand what their goals and their missions are. Read their tone in their application process or some of the questions. It's all going to be in the prompt, right?
So if you're using, let's say ChatGPT, for example, tell them, "ChatGPT, I am applying for this grant with the company OneCause. They are asking me this question. Please reply. Please give me a response and a community-centric answer that demonstrates the impact that my nonprofit has today and the next five years. Be elaborate in your prompt with ChatGPT.
But before you can do that, you need to know your grant maker and your funder. So, make sure you have a really, really, really good prompt. And you'll have that by doing your homework. And then give them your answer in the raw form and then let them refine it and finesse it for you so that you have a really good answer. Let them know word counts, let them know, "I'd like to do this in 300 words, or, you know, give them all of the tools to give you that great answer.
And then with that, you'll get a great answer that you'll just have to tweak. But I encourage you to use AI absolutely to help you speed up those responses. I was dying to answer that. I hope that's helpful.
Nia: Yeah. And I actually have follow-up. We had another question. I think this was from Arnold, he asked, he's seen that grant reviewers and grant makers see if AI is used, do they reject it? You sort of answered that already.
The other question that's related here is Sheila asked, "Are grant makers starting to use AI to assist with reviewing applications?" And if so, is there anything we should consider as we, you know, prepare our applications and submit them.
Dawn: I can't speak for all grant makers and funders. We do not. We have a committee here that reviews them. It's all done by humans. So, I cannot help with what that process looks like when AI is part of the review team. So, I would imagine though that they're probably looking for some keywords in that case. That's just my guess. But we don't deploy. We're 100% human review. And I think that's a super helpful answer too is to know that, you know, it's not all AI everywhere.
We have a question about ways that you as the grant maker have been made to feel involved in the project, the goals, and the mission.
Nia: I think for sure when the narrative is written in a way that it is able to connect with us. Again, keep in mind, we're all in this particular case. We humans reviewing the, you know, the applications. So, when it connects with us and then is backed by data, you know, for that social proof. So, I think that's the, you know, the one to punch. You want to give us the narrative that's human centric, community centric. And then I would say maybe the trifecta there would be the future, the milestones.
This is what we're doing now, but this is what we can do. This is what it can look like. This is what it can be. "With your help, Dawn." So you've drawn me into to the narrative. You've backed it up by data and then you're saying and with your help I can do this. That's the trifecta right there.
Dawn: I actually have one that's in a similar vein. Mary asked, "How do you balance saying that the program won't go forward without this grant? How do you balance that with a funder's desire to see long-term sustainability?
Nia: One more time on that? So, how do we balance --
Dawn: So how do you balance saying something like, you know, "This program won't go forward if we don't receive this grant"? Because something you had mentioned in your earlier answer was, you know, "Be frank and honest. Let them know like this is something that we can't do if we don't receive this funding." How do you balance that sort of transparency with, you know, a grant maker's very valid desire to see long-term sustainability for your organization?
That's a hard balance when you -- and so I would encourage you to maybe deploy that approach. When we hear something won't happen, we stop at we had a very hard time as a Review Committee. I would say for the 2024 cycle. The committee had to stop meetings, take a step back, regroup.
We had more meetings than we anticipated. We had to go back and review some interviews. So, when you tell us something cannot happen, it's super hard to balance. And we've been known to add a third grant in our history of our grant offering because, how could we, as a company, allow that to happen? So, it's hard to balance.
Nia: Yeah. Absolutely. We have a question from Kelly. She says, "Do you need to explicitly say we know this about you." You, as in the grant maker. Or is it enough to incorporate examples throughout the application that demonstrate we closely align?
Dawn: Yeah. The latter. For sure. You don't need to say, "We know this about you." I wouldn't go there. And if I gave that impression, I'm glad, Kelly, that you asked. Just not being so off base, really, I think is what's important here. And we get applications that are really off base that just are not aligned with our mission or know who we are. I think just those examples throughout your responses are fined.
Nia: Absolutely. We have a -- I'll try to do, like, two more questions here. I know we're coming up on time. We have a question about -- actually, this is a really quick one. Do you like bullet point answers? Is that something your application even supports?
Dawn: Totally. 100%. I think I answered that in the chat while you were going through the trial, the Instrumentl trial. Sure. But I wouldn't go solely bullet points. I wouldn't get a question and just bullet it out. We still want to remember that we're not AI behind our particular grant. We are human. So you do want to make sure that somewhere in your application you're making that connection. But both bullet points are 100% fine.
Nia: Awesome.
That's good news for all, you bullet point lovers I'm one of you. Is it appropriate to send an invitation to potential funders or partners to invite them to an event?
Dawn: Sure. Yeah.
I mean, if we can make it we'll be there. Yeah. I don't know that it's helping your grant application one way or the other. But, you know, I think we love invitations. If we can make it, we'll be there. So, it's not inappropriate.
Nia: Awesome. Okay. Let's go through this one last question. This might be kind of a long one. Let's see. I hope I'm not setting you up to go over here.
But Gina asked, "I have a client who works on behalf of a specific healthcare profession that has a huge positive impact. But the people that are ultimately impacted are a step or two away from our work. How can we best make a case to funders that care about real people impact in a situation like this one?
Dawn: So, why is it -- why can't it be in -- I think I'm unclear as to why it can't be included in the narrative. Why don't you read that one more time, Nia? Maybe I missed something.
Nia: I have a client who works on behalf of a specific health care profession that has a huge positive impact. But the people that are ultimately impacted are a step or two away from our work. So, it sounds like what Gina's fundraiser for doesn't necessarily have to do with the people, but maybe the work they're doing enables that good work to happen that does impact people.
Dawn: Yeah, show the ladder. Yeah, show -- be transparent about it. We fund-raise primarily for this, which impacts that, which further impacts this. It carry it all the way out through the community through the better tomorrow. Right?
If your fundraising isn't, I think, maybe what I'm hearing it's not direct to the person, right, it's not direct to the individual, we totally get it. There's plenty of nonprofits that are in that same space, but demonstrate that. That's why we give you the extra word count, like, you know, demonstrate that for sure. And bring it all the way through the better tomorrow.
So from what you're doing, to who that serves, to the individuals, to the community, to the better tomorrow. You can paint that picture without a problem. And that's not a negative for our particular grant at all.
Nia: Onecause.com. You can find out all about the grant. You'll see the deadline. December 9th, by the way. You can check your eligibility. Dawn, anything else you want to shout out about the grant?
Dawn: Just thank you, Nia. Thank you, Instrumentl. And good luck to all of you. End of year, giving Tuesday, and the OneCause grant. Hope to see some of your applications in my inbox.
Nia: Thank you, Dawn.
And the final thing I want to shout out is huge round of applause to Dawn. This has been a really fun webinar. I love when we get to have special guests like this who, you know, provide insights that really no one else can give us. It's amazing to have a grant maker here. I'm so excited that all of you got to join us.
Thank you, Allan. Thank you, Ursula. Thanks everyone for coming. And a huge thank you to Dawn for, you know, sharing all of these best practices being so generous with that knowledge. It's really -- it's very special when you can see that the funder is really interested in just helping people win the funding that they have available, right? So, we really appreciate you, Dawn. Thank you for taking the time to be here.
It's been lovely to have you here this Tuesday. And I hope to see you at our event on Thursday.
.svg)
%201.png)
