Six Grant Seeking Myths

Don't be myth-led.

Grants aren't magical but they are a sustainable way to responsibly support your mission.

“Let’s just write a grant for it!”

Six Grant Myths and What Success ACTUALLY Looks Like

Most nonprofit leaders have gotten phone calls from board members or other supporters with helpful suggestions like these:

________

“I was listening to NPR this morning and they are sponsored by the Pew Foundation. I bet they would fund our homeless shelter!”

_________

“I was thinking about that $65,000 we need to fix the leaking roof – let’s just write a grant for it!”

_________

“We need to raise an additional $125,000 in the next three months. I figure you can write about 10-20 grants and that will take care of it.”

______________

These well-meaning stakeholders have fallen victim to some overworked grant myths. Here are the six myths I hear most often – and how to debunk them.

Myth 1: Grants are “Easy Money”

The truth: Grants require significant upfront investment in time, influence, expertise, and money. In fact, the return on investment (ROI) of grants is estimated at $5-$10 in revenue for every $1 spent.

If your organization expects $1,000,000 in grants, it needs to budget $50K-$100K for grant seeking and post-award management. 

Myth 2: There are BILLIONS in grants just waiting for YOU!

The truth: There are far more requests for grants than there is money to fund them.

Some funders say they can only fund about 10% of the requests they get.

There ARE some grant funds that don’t get distributed – but that’s usually because the applicants can’t meet the grant requirements.

Myth 3: Grants can fill that budget shortfall FAST

The Truth: Grants can take 18-24 months to pay off and they only fund a small part of the total budget.

Overall, grants account for about 15-20% of a nonprofit’s revenue. If an organization has a shortfall, grants are unlikely to fill the pot.

On top of that, grants are slow money. The grants you have today are based on the work you did 18-24 months ago. Increasing your grant-seeking activity will not produce fruit by the end of the year.

Two additional facts bust this myth: 1) an organization running out of money is unlikely to get a grant; 2) grant responses take an AVERAGE of six months – you can write a million grants but you won’t even hear back from most of them before the end of the year.

Myth 4: Grants are FREE MONEY!!!

The truth: In addition to being expensive to secure and manage (see Myth 1) grants are usually RESTRICTED to certain programs and activities. You aren’t free to use the funds however you want.

A grant award is, in essence, a contract. You are receiving money for a specific purpose and timeframe. Your freedom to use that money is limited.

Myth 5: Chat GPT Can Write Your Grants!

The truth: AI and large language models like Chat GPT can be good tools for grant seeking but they cannot do it all.

In addition to a multitude of legal, ethical, and environmental concerns, these models often produce errors.

Furthermore, proposals written by AI are actually pretty easy for funders to spot. While that might not eliminate you from competition, it does mean the funder may be leery of your human ability to perform at the level the AI has promised.

An unintended consequence of using AI in grant writing is the flood of applications donors are receiving. This slows down their assessment and distribution of funding, while increasing competition for funds. [see blog post “Grants are Tougher Than Ever.”]

Myth 6: You can hire a grant professional on contingency – so you only pay if you get the grant.

The truth: You might find someone to write grants on contingency, but they will not be a grant professional.

Writing grants on contingency is considered unethical behavior for any professional grant seeker or fundraiser.

There are many reasons for this -- they all relate to fairness for the grant professional, the organization, and the funder.

So...What does ACTUAL grant success look like?

Grant success is long term and comes from a sustained and strategic commitment to:

• Organizational best practices that show the nonprofit can manage a grant;

• Programs that fill a specific need and have measurable impact on the community;

• Maintaining balanced funding sources that show the organization is stable;

• Dedication to seeking funders and building relationships with them;

• Excellent grant seeking practices that lead to success over time.

The best time to start your excellent grant-seeking strategy was 24 months ago.

The second-best time is today.