ŸPrepare a clear concise attractive development proposal of between 8 to 12 pages. While many large nonprofit organization tailor make a proposal for each program or project they’re marketing to get specific grantor, this can be a very time consuming process if your organization is small or mid-sized, without staff and support that many large agencies have. Thus it’s better to prepare a standard proposal covering your capital, program, and operating needs. Then target it with a well-prepared submission cover letter.

ŸEven in those cases where a grantor does have specific proposal requirements. You’ll find still that most of what you’ve already prepared can be incorporate into your custom proposal quite easily. Allowing you to prepare custom proposals in those situations where it’s needed. This is especially true when seeking federal funding, where your proposal must be targeted to requirements of federal grantor.

ŸKeep in mind fact that easiest kinds of grant to obtain are grants for capital needs items. And grants for unique, exciting, and innovative programs and projects. Whereas hardest items to get grant for are operating cost items. So you should use grantors primarily for capital and program funding objectives. And secure private gifts from individuals to raise most of your operating cost funds.

ŸSet aside a block of time each week, even if it’s only three or four hours. During which time you or a designated staff member will devote to three key areas of effective grant solicitation. Namely, researching funding sources, preparing, and submitting proposals. Doing this will keep you up to date on who’s doing what, improve proposal preparation skills, and keep those grants coming in regularly.

Yes, you can get grant funds you need to effectively operate your nonprofit organization. And help all those people who need help that you provide them. But you must go about getting grants you need in an organized systematic fashion. And refuse to take “no” for an answer, because cost of doing otherwise is much too great for so very many.

Berwyn J. Kemp is a development consultant who helps nonprofit organizations obtain funding. For a free subscription to his offline newsletter Nonprofit Funding Solutions call (419)243-8373 or email bkemp100@yahoo.com. © 2005 Berwyn J. Kemp

There is an easy way to figure out both debits and credits in accounting terms and that is to figure out following: what did you receive and where did it come from. The debit is what you received, and credit is where you received it from, in accounting terms. So for demonstration sake, let’s say you bought a CD with cash you borrowed with a Payday Loan. The CD is what you got, so it will be a debit in accounting world, and credit will be applied to liability you carry on your bank account for exact same amount.

 The bank can easily confuse people learning about credits and debits in accounting sense of words, especially when discussing liability. For instance, when you put money in bank, bank’s liability to you increases, and since liabilities are credits, they are crediting your account (in accounting terms). And when bank lowers their liability to us (by us taking money out of bank) banks are debiting liability account, from an accounting perspective.

Basically it comes down to being able to figure out what you got and where exactly it came from; if you can figure these out for every transaction, then you’ve got accounting terms of credit and debit down pat.

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