The IMA Foundation is a funding prospect new to the local scene in the last year, and GPLH is pleased to feature and engage them with our members.

For over 50 years, the IMA Foundation has been providing financial support to organizations and initiatives that primarily focus on advancing youth, with five key areas identified: education, mental health, arts & culture, food insecurity, and homelessness. Awarding millions of dollars across the US annually, the IMA Foundation operates out of 3 regional offices.

The IMA Foundation is the grantmaking, charitable arm of IMA Corporation, a large independent insurance broker with over 2,500 employees across the country. Originally named IMA Financial and based out of Denver, Colorado, IMA Corp has 47 offices across the country.

Thanks to a recent corporate partnership with York International, IMA Corp and the IMA Foundation now have a New York, NY-based office – which creates the opportunity to award grant funds to youth-serving non-profits across the Northeastern region for the first time.

Their first open grant application period was in the Spring of 2024 and the Fall grant application period just closed, with a total of 39 new applicants from our area, including 13 through GPLH alone!

IMA is very pleased to engage with GPLH as a funding prospect for non-profits and also welcomes conversations from organizations seeking advice specific to employee benefits programs. IMA’s Desiree O’Neil, GPLH’s contact representative says, “We are excited to help support organizations making an impact on the lives of those they touch.”

For more information, contact Desiree O’Neil at desiree.oneil@imacorp.com or 914-457-1251, and read IMA Foundation’s 2023 Purpose Report: https://imacorp.com/community.

Will AI leave grant writers out of work?

The consensus is . . . not yet. AI can make some parts of your job easier (it’s good at summaries and helping create outlines), but writing a compelling narrative is still part of the human skillset.

AI lacks empathy, according to experienced grant writers and funders. It cannot convey the emotional connections that make grantors want to write you a check. An AI bot also cannot sustain relationships that only come with a deeper understanding of what funders care about. As of now, AI is more of a helper than a competitor.

Read more:

• If you write medical grants, check out this story that advises caution when it comes to scientific text.
• If your clients use Salesforce, the company says a new generative AI tool in the Nonprofit Cloud platform can help uncover more funding sources and personalize donor engagements and LOIs. And in seconds, AI can create summaries of program success and grants. Read an article about this.
• And if you’re a funder, please seek middle ground. Don’t ask grant writers to rewrite basic information with each new application. Read more here.

If an organization needs a grant writer but can’t afford to hire one, what can they do? This perennial question recently arose when a member asked how to help a prospective client with no grant writing budget to hire her.

Members of the GPLH community responded with a number of suggestions useful to many in this position:

• Organization leadership can ask a major donor (or donors) for a gift for this specific purpose.
• Unrestricted funds, like those from an event or fundraiser (online or otherwise) could be applied to this purpose.
• Many local community foundations and/or government agencies offer capacity building grants that can be used to fund grant writers or general fund raising.
• County and state legislators can be asked for capacity building funds – “member grants” in the case of state legislators.
• Look for funders who give capacity building grants, especially family foundations.
• Unrestricted funds from earned income could be a resource.
• Ask board members to pay for the first year (or other period of time) of grant writing services, as a pilot to bring in more revenue in which a consultant would be self-sustaining. Ultimately, this is an investment in long-term sustainability.
• It is recommended that at least $10,000 be raised initially, with the understanding that grants can take anywhere between 3 months and one year to be awarded.

Impact100 Westchester is kicking off their 10^th Grant Cycle with their annual Nonprofit Info Session.

At this session, you will learn about their Grant Application process and important changes for this year.

Registration required.

WHAT: Nonprofit Info Session

WHEN: Wednesday, November 9, 2022, 10 - 11:30 am

WHERE: Via ZOOM. Link will be sent in advance of the meeting

Register online here.

Learn more about Impact100 Westchester and their grant program.

As grant writers, an important part of our grant prospect research often includes reviewing an organization’s 990. Lately, finding current 990s has been more difficult because the pandemic has had a negative impact on the entire process.

Staff shortages, IRS backlogs and requests from nonprofits for filing extensions are some of the reasons there are now time lags of up to three years before the most recent 990s are posted. Read this article on Candid to learn more about the problem and how Candid is addressing it.

The problem has not gone unnoticed. IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig is hoping to push forward to clear up some of the backlog by the end of 2022. Learn more about that here.

In the spring of 2023, the NYS Grants Gateway will transition grant making activities to the New York Statewide Financial System (SFS.) At that time, the Grants Gateway will be retired. Organizations will be directed to SFS, and all activities will go through SFS. The tentative date for the transition is April 1.

Reasons for the change

Currently there are many different NYS grants management and tracking systems with outdated processes and idiosyncratic required documents, different for each NYS agency. The aim of the planned transition is to consolidate and streamline processes and make it easier to apply to different state agencies, as well as centralizing all grant opportunities, contracts and payments in a single system.

What to expect going forward

• Paperless registration
• Enhanced prequalification interface
• Expanded application question sets, which will include lists and multiple choice
• Streamlined multiyear contracts
• Easier to manage claims for payments

What you can do to prepare

Login to your Grants Gateway account. Review who is listed as an active user for your organization and what their roles are. Make sure all details are correct and that contact info is up-to-date. Remove users that are no longer valid.

If you are registered in the Grants Gateway, then you are also registered with SFS.  Look for your SFS login credentials. Make sure that all of your active Grants Gateway users are activated as users in your SFS account.

Where you can find more information and updates

The New York State Grants Management Team has a webpage devoted to the planned Transition to SFS. The page provides details and will be updated as new information becomes available. Click here to learn more.

The Not-for-Profit Contracting Advisory Committee is holding meetings to provide info, details and updates. Check their website periodically to learn about upcoming meetings.

Nonprofit Westchester held an information session about the transition to SFS on 6/22/22. To view the ZOOM recording, click here. To view the slide deck, click here.

In May 2022, the Westchester Community Foundation launched Westchester Index, a Community Indicator Project for Regional Action.

This abundant data collection drills down on 65 individual indicators grouped into 6 topic areas: Children & Youth; Community; Demographics; Economic Security; Education; and Health. It includes data for Westchester County, municipalities and school districts inside the county, three surrounding counties (Putnam, Rockland, and Nassau), the state of New York and the nation.

Westchester Index is rich with data, with indicators provided in both text and graphic format. Detailed information, trends and maps are also available. Users can create a dashboard to make specific comparisons, filtering for geographic location and specific data indicators (such as children receiving subsidized child care, people without health insurance, race/ethnicity, etc.)

This equity-focused project not only provides data, but also seeks to examine and suggest explanations for racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities by pointing towards root causes and systemic structures.

Visit the Westchester Index website.

By Deborah Brown, Deborah Brown Consulting, LLC - GPLH Treasurer

For those of us who have wanted the freedom to schedule our own time and work with multiple organizations, or for those in career transition, starting our own grant professional shop can be a momentous step. An unexpected and welcome surprise is the discovery that our government provides free resources to help us switch from non-profit to for-profit entrepreneurship, and gives a serious boost to Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs).

For starters, your local New York Small Business Development Center (SBDC) provides free expert help for start-ups. Guidance on basics (from business budgeting, to formation of corporations, LLCs and other protective structures) is available, along with other aspects of planning and launching a new business. The SBDCs are funded by the federal Small Business Administration and are somewhat hidden gems for nervous, newly minted grantsmanship entrepreneurs.

The experts at the SBDCs provide some of the same services that attorneys and accountants do, but for free. This important and little-known fact can save you time and significant sums of money as you prepare to launch your venture. Learn more at these links: New York Small Business Development Center and Westchester County Economic Development-MWEB Program-Starting Your Own Business.

Another potential edge is the boost toward equity provided by the Minority and/or Women Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) designation overseen by the federal Minority Business Development Agency. The idea behind this designation is to help minority and women-owned businesses compete more effectively for federal, state, local government and commercial contracts. This happens when state governments set goals for a percentage of awarded contracts to be given to MWBEs.

New York State’s Office of General Services has a goal that 30% of all contract work above certain minimum levels must go to certified MWBEs. State agencies are adhering to that goal, and New York City government has also set a 30% goal. In fiscal year 2021, the city awarded $1.1 billion in prime and subcontractor awards, and the State awarded $3.1 billion to MWBEs. For grant professionals, this can mean opportunities to develop or run grant programs for city or state agencies, to write RFPs, to participate in economic development opportunities and more.

You need not pay someone to guide you through the MWBE process – there is plenty of excellent free guidance and information available. The process of becoming an MWBE starts after having been in business for one year and has discrete steps. There are strict definitions of what makes a business minority or woman-owned (at least 51% active, decision-maker ownership, for instance).

Information on what constitutes an MWBE and how to attain the designation can be found at the following links:

●     The Empire State Development Corporation

●     The New York State Comptroller’s Office

●     The Women’s Enterprise Development Center

●     Upcoming webinars on M/WBE certification

 There are good reasons to obtain the MWBE certification:

1. New York State has a certified MWBE directory where state agencies and vendors looking for contractors can find you.
2. Less competition -- you won’t be subject to the state’s competitive bidding requirement for procurements under $500,000.
3. Agencies and vendors are actively looking to meet their MWBE participation goals.
4. Even if your business is too new or too small to bid on big projects, vendors who can bid on those are still looking for MWBEs to fulfill the MWBE requirements their contracts are subject to.
5. More MWBEs are needed by vendors and agencies to help them meet that 30% goal.

If we’ve whetted your appetite to find out more about how you can get free government resources for starting your own grants-related business, here are some more resources to explore:

• Your local Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) can help you with locating contracts - for FREE.
  
• Women’s Business Centers
•  Minority Business Development Agency
• Register and find M/WBE businesses in Westchester County.

 The team at GPLH wish you the best of luck, and hope you let us know how it goes!

Each year the Grant Professionals Association (GPA) holds International Grant Professionals Day. It is an annual celebration to recognize and show appreciation to all grant professionals. GPLH is happy to share this news and pay tribute to our hardworking and dedicated members. 

This year, the seventh annual International Grant Professionals Day will take place on Friday, March 12. The goal is to increase international awareness of the work grant professionals perform, while celebrating the work of grant professionals who serve as administrators, consultants, managers, grant-makers and writers.

Events planned for this day encourage grant professionals and their organizations to celebrate themselves, the profession and highlight important issues faced by grant professionals. Learn more about International Grant Professionals Day here.

One of the events planned for this year is the #LearnGrants Online Summit, a free learning opportunity for grants professionals, hosted by DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services, Grant Professionals Association (GPA), and Foundant Technologies. Learn more and register here.

Every day, grant professionals work diligently, usually behind the scenes, to seek grant opportunities, administer projects and implement important programs for the benefit of society’s disadvantaged and underserved people. These talented professionals are dedicated to providing the highest standard of ethics, quality program development, thoughtful project implementation and wise financial stewardship. Often, those standards extend beyond the financial to include capacity support, long term solutions to challenges, fundraising assistance, expert project management, sustainable programming, and more.

Grant Professionals Association is an international membership association for everyone in the grants industry. GPA and its affiliates work to advance the profession, certify professionals and fund professionalism. Learn more about the Grant Professionals Association (GPA) here. 

Many thanks to the Heller Fundraising Group for giving us permission to repost this article from their website, written by Betsy Steward. You can read the original article here on the Heller Fundraising Group’s website, which also has some free fundraising tools you may want to check out.

4 Helpful Tips for Fundraising During a Recession

By Betsy Steward, Heller Fundraising Group

I’ve been reading a lot of articles and hearing a lot of discussions that predict a recession in the near future. I’m also aware that many experts talk and write about the current strength of our economy. No one knows for sure what will happen this year. I sincerely hope we don’t experience a repeat of 2008-2009. Not only was my fundraising job extremely stressful, but my husband got laid off in October 2008 as well. So, yeah, I’m not excited about doing THAT again.

That said, I thought this might be a good time to share my experience of raising funds during that awful time known as “The Great Recession.” I certainly don’t claim to have a magic formula, but the small nonprofit where I worked, unlike many other organizations nearby, experienced a steady increase in donated funds instead of a decrease during that time. I’ve been thinking about how that happened.

The Background: Before my current job as a fundraising consultant, I had been hired in 2007 as the nonprofit’s Development Officer. I worked there for ten years, eventually becoming the Director of Development. Early on in my tenure, I made a couple of changes to the existing fundraising strategy. All of my changes had to do with building and strengthening relationships with our donors. The changes paid off, and the results started showing almost immediately.

Tip #1: First, I set a policy of never, ever sending another letter that starts, “Dear Friend.” It is not a good way to build a relationship, and there’s really no excuse for it in the 21st century. All databases are capable of personalizing a salutation field, even if you’re using Excel as your database and Word as your letter-generator. If you don’t know how to make your system produce a letter that starts, “Dear Joan,” or “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” then find someone to help you figure it out. It’s not that hard, and it will be worth your time.

Tip #2: Second, I set an ambitious policy for acknowledging donations. Upon receipt of a donation, we would call or send a handwritten note to the donor within three days, and our official acknowledgement letter on our letterhead with official tax language would be sent within two weeks. This policy applied to every single donation, regardless of the size. I wrote notes to EVERYONE, even people who sent us $10. I must admit that we didn’t always manage to keep up with my 3-day deadline, but we came close enough that donors felt they were thanked immediately, which is critically important. A note sent when a donor can’t even remember writing the check is almost as bad as no note at all—maybe worse, since it makes your nonprofit look so careless and disorganized.

Tip #3: Another action I took wasn’t a change to the fundraising strategy, but rather a continuation of it. Following the rule of “rain or shine, keep your friends close,” I continued to reach out to our major donors. Some development professionals take the approach of “OMG, it’s a recession, I better not bother my donors!” That’s a mistake that comes from thinking about your donors as your financiers instead of your partners. Your donors believe in your mission, and it matters to them if you’re successful or not in making the changes to the world that they want to see. If you leave them out of the conversation during hard times—especially when they are well aware you’re facing a major challenge beyond your control—how does that build the relationship? If anything, a recession offers an excuse to engage donors even further, especially when you remember that they’re donating because they, too, believe passionately in your mission and want you to succeed.

Tip #4: I did something else that I think is worth mentioning: I ignored the recession. That’s right, I ignored it. Instead of wringing my hands and worrying about what if, what if, WHAT IF…., I kept my mind on my job and made sure I did everything I was supposed to do as a development professional. Many of my colleagues (including, and maybe especially, my board members) were quite nervous about fundraising in such a bleak economy, spending a lot of their time and energy talking about how awful it was for fundraising. I made every effort to avoid doing that. If someone started complaining about the economy, I would change the subject or find some reason to leave the discussion without being rude. When it was just too distracting, I pushed myself to refocus on the task at hand—sometimes more successfully than others.

Of course I wasn’t oblivious to it—believe me, it was challenging for my whole family when my husband lost his job, and I can’t claim that I didn’t worry at all about raising funds in such an environment. But I worked at being disciplined about keeping my attention on my job. As a result, I was able to keep up with my rigorous acknowledgement policy and all the other tasks that one-person-development-office professionals have before them.

I mean, that’s all you can do, isn’t it? Keeping your nose to the grindstone usually pays off. Worrying and complaining about things beyond your control just makes you miserable, and you STILL have to do your job.

Here’s a glimpse of my organization’s donations from individuals during that time:

So if we are indeed headed for a recession—or even if we’re not!—try some of these things. Maybe your organization is well beyond sending “Dear Friend” letters, but I still receive them, so somebody out there hasn’t upped their game yet! And what is your acknowledgement policy? Could it be better? I recommend you take a look at all of your processes to make sure you’re doing everything you can to build successful relationships with your donors.

Recessions come and go, but relationships are what we fundraisers and our nonprofits depend on. That doesn’t change, whether the economy is thriving or diving.

Betsy Steward is Senior Consultant at the Heller Fundraising Group and advises clients on capital campaigns as well as major donor cultivation, solicitation and stewardship. betsy@hellerfundraisinggroup.com