Grant Professionals of Lower Hudson
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:
Impact100 Westchester is kicking off their 10th 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Currently there are many different NYS grants management and tracking systems with outdated processes and idiosyncratic required documents, different for each NYS agency.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
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:
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:
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
Impact100 Westchester is kicking off their Seventh Grant Cycle with their annual Nonprofit Information Session.
At this session, you will learn about their Grant Application process and important changes for this year. Registration required.
WHAT: Nonprofit Information Session
WHEN: Thursday, November 7, 2019, 10 am - noon
WHERE: Westchester County Center, 198 Central Avenue, White Plains, NY. (You will receive a complimentary parking pass a few days in advance of the event.)
Learn more about Impact100 Westchester and their grant program here
Note: Impact100 Westchester will also hold optional Project Pitch Days on December 3rd and 9th for your organization to receive feedback before submitting your initial proposal.
Association of Development Officers and Grant Professionals of Lower Hudson Present “Meet the Funders Panel Discussion.”
We have assembled a group of esteemed grant makers from the region who will voice their opinions about philanthropy, grant making, relationship building, evaluations, and more.
Topics to include:
Panelists include:
Dr. DaMia Harris-Madden: Executive Director, Westchester County Youth Bureau
Patti Horvath: Program Manager, Field Hall Foundation
Panel Moderator:
Alison Paul: Program Chair, Grant Professionals of Lower Hudson; Principal, Alison Paul Grantwriting and Consulting
Register here.
About Our Panelists
Dr. DaMia Harris-Madden, Executive Director of the Westchester County Youth Bureau
Dr. DaMia Harris-Madden is the Executive Director of the Westchester County Youth Bureau, the youth division under County Executive Latimer’s Office. The Westchester County Youth Bureau oversees 140+ programs and services to benefit children, youth and families throughout the County. In her first year of appointment, she secured a federal grant- the first for the department.
Prior to this, Dr. Harris-Madden served as the Executive Director of the City of Mount Vernon Youth Bureau. During her tenure, she assisted the city in securing close to 30 million in grant monies aimed to provide support to various programs, which expanded after-school, crime-prevention, workforce development, occupational skill academies and other social and emotional programs aimed to advance the City’s youth.
Dr. Harris-Madden has served as a federal and local grant reviewer, and an Evaluator for a state funded 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant. As the current President of the Hudson Valley Association of Youth Bureaus, she assists Youth Bureaus from Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester Counties, creating a larger presence for and understanding of how the Bureaus can help residents.
Patti Lavan Horvath, Program Manager, Field Hall Foundation
Ms. Horvath is the Program Officer for Field Hall Foundation, whose mission is to improve the health and lives of older adults and their caregivers. Prior, she was the Director of Corporate Compliance and Community Outreach for Fieldhome, a healthcare organization, and also worked in educational publishing. She is a board member of the Northern Westchester Geriatric Committee and a member of the Rotary Club of Yorktown.
Kathryn Luria, SVP, Community Affairs, Director of Philanthropy, Webster Bank
Kathy Luria serves as Senior Vice President of Community Affairs and Director of Philanthropy at the corporate headquarters of Webster Bank in Waterbury, CT. Previously, Kathy served the State of Connecticut as the Director of Continuing Education and Community Services, and then Director of Marketing at Naugatuck Valley Community College. With almost 20 years of employment with the College, and now over 12 years serving as Webster’s ambassador to the community, Luria remains a strong advocate and resource throughout the state and the region. Kathy currently serves as a Director and Assistant Vice President of the Harold Webster Smith Foundation. She is board chair of the CT Council for Philanthropy; sits on the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, CT Working Cities Challenge Advisory Council; serves United Way of Greater Waterbury as a voting member; and is a United Way of Central and NE CT Women United Member.
Deena Schaffer: Program Officer, The Taft Foundation
Deena Schaffer is a Program Officer at The Taft Foundation, a $200M private foundation with a mission to improve the quality of life of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities as well as children with serious medical conditions in the New York metropolitan area and South Florida. The Foundation’s portfolio includes 60+ grantees totaling $10M+ in active grants each year. Prior to joining The Taft Foundation, Deena worked in institutional advancement for PENCIL and The Posse Foundation, two youth development nonprofits working to improve access to college and career opportunities. She earned her MPA in Nonprofit Management and Finance from NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, as well as her BA in Sociology and Hispanic Studies from Brandeis University.
Marcy Syms: Sy Syms Foundation
Marcy Syms is founding trustee and President of the Sy Syms Foundation, and since 2012, President of TPD Group LLC., a multi-generational succession planning company. She is the former Chair and CEO of SYMS, one of the first companies to offer designer and brand-name clothing at “off-price” rather than “regular price.” In 1983, when taking SYMS public, Marcy became the youngest female president of a New York Stock Exchange company. In 2009, SYMS acquired Filene's Basement and operated 50 stores under both names.
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914-487-3450
P.O. Box 1142
Ossining, NY 10562
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